Peter Jackson searched and searched for the perfect writer to pen The Hobbit – but guess what? The best writer(s) for the job was right under his nose. Peter Jackson and The Hobbit director, Guillermo del Toro, have decided they’ll take on the task, adapting J.R.R. Tolkien’s Hobbit prequel into two films.

Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro won’t go it alone – getting help from Lord of the Rings Best Screenplay winners, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens.

While Guillermo del Toro is moving to New Zealand for five years to shoot the Hobbit movies back-to-back, LOTR fans still have quite a wait ahead of them – the first Hobbit movie won’t hit theaters until 2011 and the sequel will land in 2012.