XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: steuard@slimy.com   
      
   In thinking about /The Hobbit/ the past couple of days, I've hit upon   
   a guess as to the proximate reason that Jackson decided he wanted   
   three films. (The /studio's/ reason is clearly "more money".) I think   
   it may be significant that nobody has ever said a word about where   
   Jackson planned to split the story into two films. My guess is that   
   after watching a rough cut of most of what he's filmed, Jackson   
   couldn't find any good place to make that split... but with a bit more   
   work, he he could see a good way to split it in three.   
      
   My guess is that film 1 will run from the start of /The Hobbit/ to the   
   final escape from the Misty Mountains: an intense sequence fighting   
   with goblins and wargs and a rescue by the eagles. Film 2 will be a   
   lot like Jackson's /The Two Towers/: those on the primary quest will   
   travel slowly toward their isolated mountain destination until   
   everyone but a single hobbit is locked up, while a secondary thread   
   will split off and wind up occupying most of the movie's runtime with   
   a single battle scene blown wildly out of proportion beyond the   
   attention Tolkien actually gave it (the White Council driving Sauron   
   from Dol Guldur, in this case). Film 3 will center on the escape to   
   Lake Town and the various confrontations with Smaug, and will wrap up   
   with the (overemphasized) Battle of Five Armies (and "too many   
   endings" again). (All three films will pull in substantial chunks of   
   historical or auxiliary content from the LotR appendices.)   
      
   Plausible?   
   						Steuard Jensen   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)