The Hobbit 3 Announced

The Unexpected Journey just got a bit longer!
We already knew that J.R.R Tolkien's classic Lord Of The Rings fantasy prequel novel The Hobbit was to be split by Peter Jackson for his upcoming motion picture adaptation, but today it has been confirmed that the said split is even wider than we had originally anticipated! The Hobbit will now be sliced into three, not two movies for release in the near future. This will mean the overall piece may follow a similar structure to the LOTR trilogy, although the transition will be interesting to follow as that series consisted of three books to adapt whereas this one has just a single, shorter book. This won't be all of the content, though- Jackson and his writing team will be digging out of the appendices in Rings and The Similarrion which tease many more further events occuring within the prequel chronology, so as to expand our understanding of the events that led to the finding of the Ring and the beginning of the story of the Fellowship. To tell you the full story, I'll use Jackson's own words, so here we go...

"It is only at the end of the shoot that you finally get the chance to sit down and have a look at the film you have made. Recently Fran, Phil and I did just this when we watched for the first time an early cut of the first film- and a large chunk of the second. We were really pleased with the way the story was coming together, in particular, the strength of the characters and the cast who have brought them to life. All of which gave rise to a simple question: do we take this chance to tell more of the tale? And our answer from the perspective of the filmmakers, the fans, was an unreserved 'yes'.

We know how much of the story of Bilbo Baggins, the Wizard Gandalf, the Dwarves Of Erebor, the rise of the Necromancer, and the battle of Dol Guldur will remain untold if we do not take this chance. The richness of the story of The Hobbit, as well as some of the related material in the appendices of The Lord Of The Rings, allows us to tell the full story of the adventures of Bilbo Baggins and the part he played in the sometimes dangerous, but at all times exciting history of Middle-Earth.

So without further ado and on behalf of New Line Cinema, Warner Brothers Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer, Wingnut Films and the entire cast and crew of the Hobbit films, I'd like to announce that two films will become three."

It's a very exciting move, in my opinion, and one that could well transform the production from a simple kids' novel adaptation into something far darker and greater. The second film may get its name There And Back Again taken and given a new name along with whatever the third's title turns out to be, though. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey lands on December 14th, 2013.