XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: mr@sandman.net   
      
   In article ,   
    Steuard Jensen  wrote:   
      
   > 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?   
      
   Indeed. Beorn as well, of course. I'm guessing he needs to be   
   introduced in the first and return for the third.   
      
   And the battle of the five armies is short than a chapter in the book,   
   but that's because Bilbo isn't awake for it :)   
      
   J.R.R was really crappy at writing excitingly about battles, or maybe   
   just unwilling to. There are lots of confrontations in LotR and Hobbit   
   that are underwhelming litterature-wise according to me. The battle of   
   the five armies is one of them. Surely you wouldn't actually want it   
   told on the screen as it was in the book? :) Well, maybe you do :)   
      
      
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