Peter Jackson to make "The Hobbit"

[Critical]

We saw it a few weeks ago and loved it. I'm a big LOTR and Tolkien fan, and I couldn't be happier with the movie. I can see how the beginning might've dragged for some people, but I felt like it was a welcome home, how have you been?

I read somewhere, and I'm too lazy to go looking for it now, that the third movie was what happens between the Hobbit and the Fellowship of the Ring. So the whole Smaug adventure is concluded in movie two. I hope this is the case. Because I really don't see how it can be stretched out over two more movies. They're there.

I think the Battle of the Five Armies may happen in the third movie as well. I'll bet Jackson expands on the journey home, since it's pretty glossed-over in the book.

I'm planning on re-reading the appendices at the end of The Return of the King as a refresher. It's been years since I read them. There's a LOT of stuff there that Jackson is said to be using in the movies.

[spockwhat]

I just read them too, Critical, I wanted to refresh my memory of all things Tolkien, so I just read through the Silmarillion as well. I'm looking forward to all the additions to the third movie from the appendices.

Has anyone read the Tolkien histories? (Books 1-10) Are they worth it?

[Florimel]

I'm sad to say that I've never read the Silmarillion. I've heard it's a difficult read, but I've loved reading The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy and wonder if I'll enjoy the Silmarillion as much. Any recommendations?.

[Critical]

How do you feel about reading Greek mythology? The Silmarillion isn't so much a story as a history. It gives you good background on Middle Earth, but it's not really a narrative and it's pretty dry. I'm glad I read it, but it's not something I'm likely to read again.

I haven't read the histories. Since Christopher wrote them, I'm not as interested. Bought The Children of Hurin a while back, but haven't gotten to it yet. I've read Tolkien's other non-Middle Earth books and enjoyed them.

In news about the movies, the release date for the third film has been pushed back to December 17, 2014 (from June 18, 2014):
'The Hobbit: There and Back Again' release date pushed back | Inside Movies | EW.com

I'm disappointed, but not surprised.

[razorbacker]

I was able to make it through the first movie of the first trilogy & that was it. To long to dull way to much of the same thing over & over again. I thought the thing would never end, so as long as Peter Jackson is at the helm I'll be passing.

[Florimel]

Critical, I actually enjoy Greek mythology. Back in my high school days, we were required to take both advanced English and at least one classical and one modern language. I took French, Latin, and ancient Greek and read at least some of the myths in Greek. I'll probably make my way through the The Silmarillian as time permits.

[Bearcata]

Saw part 2 yesterday. It's a bit long at 2 hour and 40 minutes and while I loved seeing the elves underground city and the elf king is intense, I do wonder if this movie really needs to be in three parts and I have to wait another year to see the ending. In one sense yes, else you will never know the characters of all 13 dwarves. Still when the movie ended the entire audience groaned because we were all set up to see more.

[Lucynda]

I read The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings as a teenager so when I saw the first movie I was actually shocked at how dark Peter Jackson had painted the world as in my imagination it looked a lot different, even so i really enjoyed the trilogy
The first Hobbit movie I liked as well but I went and saw the 2nd one last night, totally expected the cliff hanger ending as we all know their is a 3rd movie but I think that Peter Jackson is now in the situation that he knows the film will be a success so he has taken a lot of liberties with this one, some of the scenes were very over the top and others were too long. Overall it was fine but I agree they could have done the whole thing in two movies. Regardless I will be so happy when the next movie comes out and sad that it will be the last

[Bearcata]

I read The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings as a teenager so when I saw the first movie I was actually shocked at how dark Peter Jackson had painted the world as in my imagination it looked a lot different, even so i really enjoyed the trilogy
The first Hobbit movie I liked as well but I went and saw the 2nd one last night, totally expected the cliff hanger ending as we all know their is a 3rd movie but I think that Peter Jackson is now in the situation that he knows the film will be a success so he has taken a lot of liberties with this one, some of the scenes were very over the top and others were too long. Overall it was fine but I agree they could have done the whole thing in two movies. Regardless I will be so happy when the next movie comes out and sad that it will be the last

I too read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings as a teen and luv'ed The Hobbit as it was so light and fun while I had to slog through The Lord of the Rings being very long and dark. I must admit the movie trilogy of The Lord of the Rings really does help explain a lot.

[Florimel]

I've also read all the books and I do like the films as well, but I agree that The Hobbit series might have been better served as two movies rather than three. I don't mind long films, which Lord of the Rings movies, especially the extended editions, definitely were, so I'd have preferred an extra hour added onto to each Hobbit movie to make room for the extra material. As it is, we won't get a dvd release of Smaug until March, 2014 or There and Back Again until 2015, assuming the Earth is still spinning by then.