Shire Squires

As Empire Magazine gets ready to celebrate its 20th birthday Guillermo del Toro and Peter Jackson spoke exclusively to the Chris Hewitt about "The Hobbit," and its sequel.

Up until now the plans were for a direct adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's novel first, while the second one would be a bridging film between that and "The Lord of the Rings film trilogy " .

The duo now say that they will instead adapt "The Hobbit" over the two films.

Jackson: "We decided it would be a mistake to try to cram everything into one movie. The essential brief was to do The Hobbit and it allows us to make The Hobbit in a little more style, if you like, of the [Lotr] trilogy"

Del Toro: "We've decided to have The Hobbit span the two movies, including the White Council and the comings and goings of Gandalf to Dol Guldur."

The pair of films will be released in December 2011 and 2012.

Meantime--The Digital Bits says the Blu-ray discs of "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy-theatrical versions are set to hit the stores later this year.

The extended versions will be saved though for an 'Ultimate Box Set' closer to the release of "The Hobbit" films.

Wow! Waiting a full 2 and a half years for my preferred version of the film saga to hit Blu...Wow...