Director Guillermo del Toro spoke yesterday during the press junket for Hellboy II: The Golden Army a bit about the state of his and producer Peter Jackson’s planned adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic The Hobbit and its proposed sequel.

According to Del Toro, no work has been done on the script for The Hobbit at this point, with Del Toro finishing his commitment to Hellboy II, and Jackson finishing his work on The Lovely Bones. However, with Del Toro now finished on his project and Jackson wrapping up Lovely Bones in the next few weeks, they plan to start work on the script.

The plan is still to have two movies, with the first one adapting The Hobbit, and the second one filling in the story between the end of the Hobbit and the start of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. When asked if he would be making a faithful adaptation, Del Toro said that the only faithful adaptation would be for him to film someone turning the pages of the book. He also said that he had agreed with the choices that Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens made in adapting the Lord of the Rings.

While none of the cast for Hellboy II has been asked to be in The Hobbit as yet, everyone would be more than happy to have any part in the film, if only to work with Del Toro again. When asked if Hellboy star Ron Perlman would have a part in the film, Del Toro mentioned that while he would love to have him, it would have to work within the script. Actor Doug Jones (Abe Sapian in Hellboy) said that he was pretty sure there was a role for him somewhere, telling that Del Toro had said, “If I direct a hemorrhoid commercial, it would star Doug Jones.”

All the Hellboy actors said they had complete faith in the ability of Del Toro to bring a great vision of the book to the screen, and with Jackson’s involvement things are looking good for another great Tolkien film.