Peter Jackson reassures the public that GDT's designs for "The Hobbit" are history

I was extremely pleased when Guillermo Del Toro felt compelled to walk out on "The Hobbit". The fact was though that he'd done a lot of design work for the film before taking his hike and there was always the possibility that the upcoming films might be saddled with some of his designs. Happily Peter Jackson (in an interview with i09) has stated that almost all the prep work Del Toro did for The Hobbit was scrapped once he (Jackson) took over the director's role.

Here's highlights of Jackson's interview:

I looked at his designs when he took over and a lot of his designs are very Guillermo . . . it was very much stuff that you would recognize from Pan's Labyrinth or Hellboy... I looked at his designs and I said the only person who can make a Guillermo Del Toro movie is Guillermo... So really I redesigned the film pretty much.