""The Lord of the Rings" screenwriting team of Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens are officially set to join director Guillermo del Toro to write the screenplays for the two planned movies based on "The Hobbit".

Writing has begun in earnest according to del Toro and The One Ring and shooting is expected to start at the earliest in Fall 2009 in New Zealand.

Meanwhile Bloomberg reports that is raising as much as $600 million to produce some of its biggest upcoming films with a big portion of that bank to be used on "The Hobbit".