Unless you've been living under a rock for the past four days, you've probably heard that Guillermo del Toro, long rumored to be helming the two-film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's classic novel The Hobbit, has been officially announced as Director by New Line Cinema. 

TheOneRing.net, Moste Ancient and Magisterial of All LOTR News Sites, also posted an interview with Del Toro concerning his plans for the films.  Particularly interesting are Del Toro's comments regarding the second film, which is intended to cover the events that occur between The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring:

Fans are all abuzz about 'The Second Film', can you tell some of your plans for it?

GDT: You know, I traveled to New Zealand just a little while ago, and one of the main reasons for going was to sit down and talk about the second film. 'The Hobbit', the book, is really one self-contained film, so for the second movie we sat down and worked it out. When we did this we got really excited because this second film is not a 'tag on', it's not 'filler', it's an integral part of telling the story of those 50 years of history lost in the narrative. There will be certain things that we will see from the first movie but from a different point of view, but it will feel like a volume, in the 5 volumes of the entire story. It will not feel like a bridge, I've been hearing it called 'a bridge film', it's not, it's an integral chapter of the story, and I think we're all on the same page.