New Line Cinema announced Thursday that Guillermo del Toro would direct both “The Hobbit” and its sequel, with Peter Jackson as producer.

Mexican-born filmmaker Guillermo del Toro has been officially announced as the director of the upcoming “Hobbit” prequels.

Peter Jackson, who gloriously directed the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy and the production team behind the films chose del Toro to helm “The Hobbit” and “The Hobbit 2,” reports the Los Angeles Times.

“We have long admired Guillermo’s work and cannot think of a more inspired filmmaker to take the journey back to Middle-earth,” Fran Walsh and Jackson, who will act as executive producers of the films, said in a statement. “We are delighted ‘The Hobbit’ is in such trustworthy hands.”

Jackson and Walsh called del Toro “a cinematic magician who has never lost his childlike sense of wonder.”

The first film will be based on J. R. R. Tolkien’s book of the same name. the sequel will focus on the 60-year period between “The Hobbit” and “The Fellowship of the Ring,” the first book in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.

As part of the deal, del Toro will move to New Zealand for four years to make the films back-to-back.

“I am indeed blessed to become a part of the filmmaking community that Peter, Fran and their extraordinary team of collaborators have created in New Zealand,” del Toro said in a statement. “Contributing to the ‘Lord of the Rings’ legacy is an absolute dream come true.”

Del Toro wrote and directed the fantasy film “Pan’s Labyrinth,” which earned six Academy Award nominations in 2006 and won three awards. He is also the director of the upcoming sequel “Hellboy II: The Golden Army,” slated for a July release.