'Hobbit' director may be booked through 2017

The two looming epic "Hobbit" films are only the tip of Guillermo del Toro's scheduling iceberg.

According to Variety, the acclaimed filmmaker has actually lined up his production slate through 2017, setting up a slew of adaptations and remakes for Universal.

Del Toro signed a three-year, first-look deal with Universal in June of 2007 and the studio has attached the "Pan's Labyrinth" director to adaptations of "Frankenstein," "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" and "Slaughterhouse-Five." All three of those books have been previously adapted, the first two in multiple forms.

The "Hellboy" filmmaker will also get to take first crack at "Drood," a Dan Simmons novel that won't be published until February 2009. That book takes a fanciful look at the circumstances surrounding Charles Dickens' final novel, "The Mystery of Edwin Drood."

That's a lot of attachments for a director who will probably be spending the next five years in pre-production, shooting and post-production on "The Hobbit" and its sequel for New Line and MGM.

While Variety speculates that del Toro would probably set "Drood" as his first post-"Hobbit" venture, that doesn't leave much room for the director's long-time passion projects, including H.P. Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness," nor for a possible lower budget Spanish-language film in the vein of "Labyrinth" or "The Devil's Backbone." It also wouldn't leave room for another sequel to the successful-but-hardly-blockbuster "Hellboy" franchise.

Stay tuned...