And The New Front Runner To Direct THE HOBBIT Is ...

Hellboy and Pan's Labyrinth director Guillermo Del Toro. Rumblings had been that the job would go to Sam Raimi but with Raimi hard at work on his new low budget horror film Drag Me To Hell and producers anxious to get going on these just as soon as the writer's strike ends, allowing them to get the scripts into shape, The Hollywood Reporter is now reporting that New Line and MGM are in talks with Guillermo Del Toro to shoot the two Hobbit films back to back. Which would be an excellent move, though I'm still not at all clear on what the second film is actually supposed to be ...