As has long been expected, Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens have officially signed on to work on the script for "The Hobbit" and its sequel.

The Oscar-winning team behind the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy will work on the "Hobbit" screenplays with Guillermo del Toro, who formally signed on to direct the films back in April. The two industry trade papers are pleased with the official nature of this announcement, given that Jackson, Walsh and Boyens' writing involvement had already been considered highly likely, if not inevitable.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, del Toro had actually been search for other scribes when it appeared that the "Rings" team might be too busy to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard). Only when their schedules opened up and when it became clear that they encyclopedic knowledge of J.R.R. Tolkien's world might help speed the writing process did the deal get signed.

Production on the New Line and MGM co-production will tentatively begin next year with release dates hovering in 2011 and 2012.

"The Hobbit" was first published in 1937 and introduced readers to the Baggins clan (particularly Bilbo), plus wizard Gandalf and an assortment of dwarves and elves and other Middle Earth denizens. The sequel is expected to deal with the 60-year-old gap between "The Hobbit" and "Fellowship of the Ring."

The next collaboration for Jackson, Walsh and Boyens is an adaptation of Alice Sebold's "The Lovely Bones," schedule for release in October 2009.