Jackson and Rings writers to pen Hobbit films with del Toro

The writing team behind the hit Lord of the Rings film trilogy is set to reunite in Middle Earth and add Guillermo del Toro to its ranks for the upcoming pair of Hobbit films.

Peter Jackson directed the three Rings films, which featured scripts he, Phillipa Boyens and his wife Fran Walsh adapted from J.R.R. Tolkien's classic stories.

Jackson, who is executive producer on the upcoming films, confirmed this week that he's reversed his earlier decision to leave the writing up to someone else and that he, Boyens and Walsh will collaborate with director del Toro to pen the plot of The Hobbit.

According to industry trade paper Hollywood Reporter, producers had conducted an eight-month search for writers, but Jackson and del Toro said their respective schedules had opened up in the past few months, allowing them to take on the daunting task of screenwriting.

Also, the two filmmakers said discussions about the movies rekindled their fondness for Tolkien's material and that, with time running out for the massive production, having writers already well-versed in Tolkien's fantasy world was necessary.

The British author wrote The Hobbit as a story for his children years before he continued the tale in his Lord of the Rings trilogy.

The Hobbit follows a young Bilbo Baggins and the great wizard Gandalf on a wild adventure and quest for dragon's gold, during which he discovers a powerful and ultimately evil ring of invisibility.

Jackson has said that the first film would be largely based on the book, while the second would help span the six decades between The Hobbit and the trilogy's first tale, The Fellowship of the Ring.

As with Jackson's film trilogy, the two Hobbit movies will be filmed back-to-back, with production slated to begin in late 2009. The movies are expected to hit theatres in 2011 and 2012.