Back in December 2007, JoBlo reported that Guillermo del Toro had set up a film based on David Moody’s novel Hater with Universal.

Now Variety confirms that while he’s still very involved with the project, the prolific GDT has decided that he won’t tackle the film himself, but oversee it as a producer. So someone else will be bringing the tale of an outbreak of random violence across the world to the screen.

Guillermo, meanwhile, is busy with a little project called The Hobbit, which will apparently span two films and has some connection with Lord Of The Rings. Anyone heard of it? Okay we kid – a frame has yet to be shot and we’re already so excited it’s all we can do not to jump up and down like sugar-snorting toddlers.

And lurking within the depths of the new Variety story is mention that Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh are already hard at work on the scripts, while del Toro has already reached out to Viggo Mortensen to reprise his Aragorn role, alongside the previously reported Ian McKellen and Andy Serkis.