Theonering.net has an interesting interview with Del Toro.

I really love most of his ideas so far. I love that the pallet is gonna be more "golden" for the Hobbit film, and progressively get to a darker pallet as we move toward Jackson's LotR.

Absolutely thrilled that Ian McKellen is nearly confirmed to reprise his role as Gandalf. It would have been major suckage if he wasn't gonna be in it.

I'm interested to see what he does with the 2nd film cause from the interview, it sounds like the 2nd film is gonna have a complete narrative of it's own rather than just being a filler or bridge movie.

I thought Pan's Labyrinth was one of the best films released in recent years, so I'm so excited to see Del Toro on board with this project. I think I'm even more excited to have Del Toro direct than I would have been if Peter Jackson had been directing. I want to know their production schedule so I can make sure to plan a New Zealand vacation around the time that they're gonna be shooting on location. Yay, hobbits!