Hellboy's del Toro signs major four-picture deal

Mexican director Guillermo del Toro has inked a giant four-picture deal with Universal studios that will keep him busy for more than 10 years.

Del Toro said he saw the agreement as "the renewal of my marital vows with Universal."

The director is likely to start work first on the Charles Dickens-inspired novel, Drood, according to Variety.

Written by Dan Simmons and due to be published 2009, the novel offers a fictional interpretation of the life of Charles Dickens as he prepared to write his final novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

Prior to that, however, del Toro is alreadyset to direct two films based on The Hobbit and other J.R.R. Tolkien works.

The 43-year-old helmer could spend about four years on those movies and will devote himself exclusively to Universal after that.

Del Toro whose current movie Hellboy II: The Golden Army is still on screens is slated to remake Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Frankenstein and Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five.

"Guillermo is in the most prolific time of his life," said Donna Langley, Universal's president of production.

"We came out the other side of some tough conversations with a stronger bond and sense of long-term commitment."

Slaughterhouse Five, in which a prisoner in a German POW camp during World War II travels through time and space, was previously filmed in 1972.

Del Toro's previously acclaimed films include The Devil's Backbone and 2006's Pan's Labyrinth, which captured three Academy Awards including best art direction and cinematography.