Head of Weta Digital Richard Taylor made the press rounds this week to discuss the upcoming Blu-ray release Lord of the Rings: Motion Picture Trilogy, which will hit store shelves on April 6th in a brand new 9-disc collection. In a recent interview with MTV, Taylor revealed that he is in the midst of creating new armor for the upcoming Guillermo del Toro prequel The Hobbit.

About the film, which he is not allowed to divulge too much on, Taylor said:

The lovely thing about The Hobbit is that the race of the dwarves comes to the forefront in the story, and [we'll depict] the uniqueness of the collection of the dwarves. Gimli had an incredible presence, of course. But he was only one character. And it's fantastic to think that we're going to be able to develop the dwarves to such a higher degree. The richness of their culture. The fact that through so many different dwarfs, you'll get to appreciate their cultural differences, where they come from, them as a people. We haven't actually started fully on pre-production yet - we're still in the design phase - but it's a wonderful opportunity to work with a unique director in [director] Guillermo [del Toro] and continue to work with Peter [Jackson] as the producer, who is so heavily involved.

You can read more with Richard Taylor on our site when our full interview with him goes live in the DVD section this week.