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The Hobbit (2011) More at IMDbPro »

Peter Jackson has signed on as an executive producer (the same role that, comparatively, George Lucas served on Episodes 5 and 6 of Star Wars); Guillermo Del Toro will be directing the two Hobbit films. The main reasoning appears to be timetable conflicts with other directing commitments Jackson already has or has made (The Lovely Bones, Tintin).

Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens who all wrote the previous Rings Trilogy will write the screenplay for The Hobbit Parts 1 and 2.

No. Guillermo del Toro was announced on April 24th, 2008, as the director of The Hobbit films. At a conference attended by executive producers Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, New Line president Toby Emmerich, and Mary Parent, chief of MGMs Worldwide Motion Picture Group.

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Del Toro, whose credits include "Pan's Labyrinth" and "Blade II," will move to New Zealand for the next four years to work on both "Hobbit" films with executive producer Peter Jackson, who directed all three "The Lord of the Rings" movies, according to New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios.

The studios have said that filming will begin in 2009, with tentative release dates set of 2010 for the first film and 2011 for the sequel.

The plans call for Guillermo del Toro to work back-to-back on "The Hobbit" and its sequel, which will deal with the 60-year period between that story and "The Fellowship of the Ring," the first of "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, the studios said.

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Source: Reuters

There is much unused narrative material from both the Appendices of Return of the King and select scenes revisited in other, lesser known works of J.R.R. Tolkien's (such as Unfinished Tales from the History of Middle-earth series) that deal with stories not occuring in either The Hobbit or LotR proper but happen either in the span of time between the two or concurrently. Examples would be the travels of Aragorn (both by himself in strange lands and with Gandalf in the search and capture of Gollum), the meeting of the White Council (including Elrond, Gandalf and Saruman), and the subsequent attack on Sauron's first stronghold of Dol Guldur in Mirkwood. It is highly likely that this is where the story for the "sequel" to the Hobbit/"prequel" to the LotR will come from, though if any parts are based on unfinished material of the author it is unknown how said plots would be finished.



The sequel has been alleged to be an original, untold story, not directly adapted from any of Tolkien's novels:

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The plans call for Guillermo del Toro to work back-to-back on "The Hobbit" and its sequel, which will deal with the 60-year period between that story and "The Fellowship of the Ring," the first of "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, the studios said.

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Source: Reuters

del Toro has, however, implied that it will the second half of the story.

When you lay out the [...] the story beats contained within the book (before even considering any apendix [sic] material) the work is enormous and encompasses more than one film. That's why we are thinking of the TWO INSTALLMENTS as parts of a single NARRATIVE. That's why I keep putting down the use of a "bridge" film (posited initially). I think the concept as such is not relevant anymore. I believe that the narrative and characters are rich enough to fit in TWO films. - A post by Del Toro on TheOneRing.net[34]