The following YouTube video confirms that Guillermo Del Toro will be directing ‘The Hobbit’ films. UPDATE An inside source has sent us an update. [Click Here]
See below for the video – The important part starts around :40
UPDATE Please note, in this video, you will see the Director of ‘The Orphanage’, Juan Antonio Bayona is on the left – to his right is the star of the movie, Belen Rueda – and Guillermo Del Toro is standing next to her.
Female Translator: Today it is our pleasure to announce something that everyone was hoping for, Guillermo will direct ‘The Hobbit’
(Clapping)
Female Translator: And he will give a small role to (the Spanish translator)
There is a lot of buzz in the Tolkien community with the news yesterday that Del Toro was in ‘talks’ to direct the two ‘Hobbit’ films. Unfortunately a majority of the buzz is a case of bad reporting – as many have taken the title from the Hollywood Reporter article (‘Del Toro doubles up for ‘Hobbit”) as an official announcement. However, read the first sentence and we see he is not confirmed, only in ‘talks.’ Now another rumor has surfaced that Del Toro has verbally confirmed he will be directing both films during a screening of his new movie ‘The Orphanage.’ This news has surfaced on a French Tolkien website, which may be another case of lost in translation! So is it Del Toro or What? We don’t know – but we’re working hard to find out. If anything has been officially said by Del Toro we probably can expect announcement pretty soon! [
Today is Elijah Wood’s birthday! Elijah Jordan Wood was born on January 28, 1981, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. That makes him 27 years old today! Happy Birthday Elijah and we hope you get all your wishes this year – including a part in the new ‘Hobbit’ films!
I know there are a lot of different opinions in the LOTR community about who (if not PJ) should direct ‘The Hobbit’ films, but this reporter is hoping Guillermo Del Toro is on the short list! A new Hollywood Reporter article states:
Kristin Thompson writes: New Line 
grammaboodawg sends in this detailed look at Elijah Wood’s latest, “9”: Elijah Wood is lending his voice to an animated film called 9 (simply the number nine). The story is about a post-apocalyptic nightmare in which all of humanity is threatened. [imdb quote] Other cast members voicing along with Elijah are Jennifer Connelly, John C. Reilly, Crispin Glover (Back to the Future/Willard), Christopher Plummer and Martin Landau. One of the producers is Tim Burton, along with Timur Bekmambetov, Dana Ginsburg, Jim Lemley, and Marci Levine.