What I'm mostly getting from these "added stuff and expanded to 3 movies" stories is that he's including content from the supporting books of the Middle Earth saga, like the Silmarilian and the History of Middle Earth series, and Unfinished Tales. Assuming that's correct, I fully approve.
While I have no problem with adding stuff from other sources to flesh things out, I am curious about how it's all going to go together without feeling ADD. One of the things I like about The Hobbit is that it's one relatively straight-forward adventure story. It seems like it would be tough to go from Bilbo and the gang to the White Council to flashbacks of Thrain and Smaug, to the battle with the Necromancer, etc. without it seeming hopelessly unfocused. Then again, if they're gonna take 3 LotR-length movies to get there, maybe there's time for it all.
That's a decent concern. It may end up feeling more like prequel trilogy LotRs more than a movie adaptation of the Hobbit. I'll watch regardless but its a fair concern.
Kinda hoping most of the actual stuff from the Hobbit goes into parts one and two (with maybe a couple "oh, here's what some other people are doing"s thrown in), and then part three is almost completely outside of the Hobbit's main storyline.
The only extra narrative is Gandalf and the stuff he does while he's away from Bilbo & Co.; given the number of people PJ juggled in LotR, I'm not all that concerned. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the first movie opened with Gandalf receiving the map from Thrain in Dol Guldur to kick off both stories.
returning to the matter of the hobbit movies my prediction is the first movie will entail everything from when Bilbo leaves the shire and up to before they enter mirkwood. obviously from the trailers the battle of riddles will happen w/ gollum, and by proceeding to right before they enter mirkwood brings up the fact that gandalf leaves their group for a while. this means movie 2 would be something like following gandalf around trying to get rid of the "necromancer" while bilbo and co. go through their mirkwood adventures. obviously the last movie would deal w/ smaug and the big climatic battle- thats my prediction.
I think they should change the subtitle, but aside from that I'm optimistic. I liked Eccelston in Dr. Who, but I don't know anything else he's been in.
Unexpected Journey: Primarily follows Bilbo's story, with some peppering of side characters to make you aware of them for the next films. Ends soon after they escape from the Goblins with the help of the Eagles. Beorn might be the closer, with Gandalf leaving for the White Council as the final scene.
Film 2(I'd call The Road Goes Ever On) : May start with Beorn. Mirkwood shenanigans and Gandalf's rallying of the troops. Also bring back secondary characters from first movie. Battle of Dol Guldur and first look at Smaug as the end.
There and Back Again: Picks up with Smaug and Battle of Five Armies. Aftermath and setup The One Ring for the LOTR.
That's how I would divide it up, and I think PJ has enough material to make it into a satisfying trilogy.
That'll be an...interesting one. Kelly was already a big role from the original film, so they'll probably have to take the continuity flip-flopping from First Class and crank that shit up to 11
the big role everyone is missing is that Eccleston was the 9th Doctor on the the British sci-fi series Doctor Who although he was on for only for 1 season, he was picked as the actor to take up this role to jump start a series that basically had not been on television for like 50 years (except for a movie in the mid 90's)
Meant that as a +cool, that would be a great subtitle for movie two. I agree with how you broke it up, except I think escaping Goblin Town will be the end of Unexpected Journey and escaping the goblins/wargs that night will open movie two.
What is the world coming to when you can't buy dinner without people trying to turn it into a political statement? I hate chick-fil-a, not for their politics, about which I give not a fuck, but for not keeping it to themselves. I just want a chicken sandwich, dammit! *weeps quietly* </non-sequitur>
