Now the Peter Jackson and New Line Cinemas have kissed and made up Jackson is set to begin working on the Hobbit and the sequel. ‘What?’ you say, “A sequel to the Hobbit? JRR Tolkien never wrote a sequel to the Hobbit.” You would be correct but that isn’t going to stop them though. The Hobbit and its yet to be named sequel will be filmed simultaneously starting in 2009, the same way the three Lord of the Rings movies were filmed.

At first many fans wondered if they just intended to break the story of the Hobbit up into two parts. That would have been disappointing. It seems that The Hobbit will contain the full story from the book. The sequel will cover the 60 years between the end of the Hobbit and the beginning of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. While Tolkien never wrote a book covering this period a number of his other stories cover bits and pieces of what happened during this period. In addition, Jackson has access to Tolkien’s unpublished notes and papers which may contain other information

Hard core fans of Tolkien’s work are concerned about this. Most of the stories from this period have nothing to do with Hobbits. They are also concerned that because these stories only show little snippets of what happened during this period it may be difficult to string these together into a coherent plotline. As a result Tolkien fans biggest concern is that Jackson will end up fabricating a totally new story altogether.

While the purist fans of Tolkien’s Middleearth may bitch and moan, I’m really looking forward to both of these movies. I was very pleased with how Jackson covered the Lord of the Rings. He is also a fan of Tolkien’s work so I believe that he will stay true to the spirit of Tolkien’s world if not the letter of Tolkien’s writing. I really don’t have a problem with him developing new material about Middleearth either if as I said he stays true to the spirit of Tolkien’s works. Of course in the end, I and everyone else, die hard Tolkien fan or not, will end up going to see both films. So, it will probably be another coupe and another cash cow for New Line Cinema and Peter Jackson.

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