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The Hobbit to become a trilogy?

The Hobbit to become a trilogy?

The Hobbit to become a trilogy?

Once the rabid excitement of the summer blockbusters has died down, we can start to truly look forward to Peter Jackson's return to middle earth in December. As you're probably aware, he's taken The Hobbit and split it into two epic instalments.

While purists were a little taken aback by the decision to stretch it into two movies, there's now word that Jackson might be aiming for three instead.

Recently at Comic-Con he stated that there was a lot of extra footage which he was trying to find a home for and now rumours suggest he might try to edit it together and create a new trilogy.

Although it might seem like a cash-grab (it echoes the decisions to split up the final parts of The Hunger Games, Harry Potter and Twilight), Jackson has claimed that the Hobbit movies won't just be a straight adaptation of the Tolkien novel.

They've also taken 125 pages of notes that Tolkien included in Return of the King and expanded on what he wanted to include in the original book.

"Tolkien himself was planning the rewrite The Hobbit after The Lord of the Rings, to make it speak to the story of The Lord of the Rings much more," Jackson told Deadline. "We haven’t just adapted The Hobbit; we’ve adapted that book plus great chunks of his appendices and woven it all together. The movie explains where Gandalf goes; the book never does."

The decision about transforming two films into three hasn't yet been made but given the extra profit that New Line/Warner would make, it's highly probable.

What do you think?

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is released on December 14th

[via Deadline]

(Image: All Star)