We couldn't spend an hour in Guillermo del Toro's company - as part of our Dinner and the Movies interview series - without talking The Hobbit, and the visionary director spilled plenty of secrets to RT about his upcoming adaptation.

"[The Hobbit is] a very different book than the trilogy," he explained. "It's a book that's written from a start of innocence and an ending of disappointment. The ending is quite bittersweet and melancholic. The Hobbit as a self-contained movie will have its own personality."

"When Tolkien wrote the book he was not making a prequel ... and if there are gaps in the logic of the use or the powers of the ring between the first film and the trilogy, they will be the same gaps that Tolkien had writing the book. We'll try to deal with it, but I'm not going to betray the spirit of the book in order to fit the cinematic incarnation."

Speaking of the appeal of the connection for him, del Toro told us, "it's all seen from a really humble, honest, little guy point of view. I'm not saying Bilbo is a child, but he is a very sheltered character and I love the journey. The dynamic of the hobbit with the dwarves is a great interaction. You have the proper guy and these foul, adorable creatures around him."

Fans' biggest concern about Peter Jackson and del Toro's adaptation of The Hobbit has been the announced "bridge" film which will continue the story from The Hobbit as it leads into The Fellowship of the Ring, separate from any published work. But, he assured us, the shape is still very much up in the air.

"I'll only do it if it works and if it feels like it's going to work on paper," del Toro told RT. "I don't think any of us is going to do it just to do it. There's no outside pressure. We're coming to the idea of the second film with glee and with the desire to utilise something that expands rather than bridges."

There's plenty more Hobbit goodness as part of the 4th, 5th and 6th parts of our mammoth Dinner and the Movies interview with del Toro, which you can watch over here.