This is good news, as far as I can see. "Pan's Labyrinth" was a great film, but Del Toro is the wrong director for "The Hobbit"--his sense of fantasy is too strange for "The Hobbit"--it should look and feel more familiar and earthy, like LOTR, not like "Pan's" or "Hellboy." He also has a slapstick sense of humor, and the Hobbit needs a much more Brit sense of understatement.