BRACE yourself, LOTR fans.

Director Guillermo del Toro, who was handpicked by franchise director Peter Jackson to takeover the reigns for The Hobbit, has indeterminately pulled out of presiding over the two-part prequel. Ongoing trouble at the two studios behind the Lord of the Rings films, MGM and New Line, has has been blamed for del Toro’s departure.

“In light of ongoing delays in the setting of a start date for filming The Hobbit, I am faced with the hardest decision of my life,” del Toro announced Sunday on TheOneRing.net fansite. “After nearly two years of living, breathing and designing a world as rich as Tolkien’s Middle Earth, I must, with great regret, take leave from helming these wonderful pictures.”

Shame!

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