Peter Jackson has agreed to direct The Hobbit!

In a surprising but not altogether shocking development, Deadline is reporting that Peter Jackson has agreed to direct the two HOBBIT films and that he’s finalizing his deal right now with Warner Bros., New Line and MGM. While the obvious fingers were pointed at Jackson after Guillermo del Toro somewhat abruptly left the film, Jackson didn’t look like he’d have the contractual wiggle room to make it happen. Whatever deals he had with other studios though, he was able to get out of and return to the world of Tolkein.

Jackson will direct both of the HOBBIT films back-to-back. He’ll be flying to London over the July 4th weekend to meet with actors and then back to Los Angeles shortly thereafter to view audition tapes for the film. It all sounds like, even despite MGM’s financial woes, that THE HOBBIT could wind up happening sooner rather than later.

I guess this almost certainly means that we won’t see Jackson’s contribution to the TINTIN films as was originally planned. (Spielberg directed his portion already and Jackson was to film a sequel somewhere down the line.) It’s possible this could still happen but I’d imagine that Jackson will be booked at least until late-2012.

This might be a no-brainer of a question to ask, but what do you think? Honestly, as a non-fan of the LOTR franchise, I think it works out best for everyone. del Toro continues to be able to make his passion projects and Jackson returns to the franchise that made him a directorial A-lister.