Eh, I love the LOTR movies, but don't make this a trilogy...trust me, Mr. Jackson...I WILL buy these Extended Editions also.

Harry Potter dragged also with it's two parter also.  But this is Jackson so it could be better.

Well, the Appendices really are a book unto themselves. So I can sorta see this becoming a trilogy and being okay with that. So long as the last two movies are released no more than six months apart. I really don't have the patience to sit through another three year wait to see events unfold to their fullest in Middle Earth.

With each movie previous clocking in over 3 hours, are we talking 3 - 3 hour movies or 3 - 2 hour movies? Make it 3... I'll pay, I'll watch over and over again... I have faith in Peter Jackson.

Umm, am I missing something here? Doesn't that quote from Jackson simply say that they utilised the notes from the LOTR appendices to expand a one-book story into two films? Where does Jackson say a third film is a possibility?

"there are 125 pages of notes published at the back of Return of the King in one of the later editions. It was called The Appendices, and they are essentially his expanded Hobbit notes. So we had the rights to those as well and were allowed to use them.” Said Jackson: “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. We’ve explained it using Tolkien’s own notes."

Sounds like he's talking about something he's already doing i.e. a second film, not a third one.

Seems weird that this comes out when this weekend the last video blog of The Hobbit came out where they finished principal photography...if they just want to add a 3rd one just from 125 pages...wouldn't that mean they would need to re-write the first 2 parts to make sure it all fits in 3 movies?

Seems a bad idea to me...sure it's a great fantasy world and we just want more but...to turn it into a marketing thing becomes too much of a money grabber.

No sir...not liking this idea at all.

 Jedi - I agree completely. I am already worried about the padding they have done already. The Hobbit is like one sixth the length of LOTR and now they want to make it 3 movies? Bad idea, really bad.

But isn't it saying that Jackson used those 125 pages to pad it out to two movies?? Seems that a comment about what to do with all the deleted scenes, and this comment about the Appendices have become confused into a story that Jackson is going to make a third movie?  I'm going to call shennanigans on Deadline...

I think people are worried as usual that this is simply a cash grab.  An insider said that the decision is "strongly driven by the filmmakers' desire to tell more of the story."  So this doesn't sound like the producers forcing his hand. It sounds like Jackson went to them because he genuinly wants leave less on the cutting room floor. 

You've got to realize that principal photography only recently ended so Jackson is only now in the process of ediiting film one.  He has probably realized just how much great footage he has that he doesn't want to lose and figures if he shoots just a bit more that they might have left out of the script, it would be enough for a trilogy.  I'm completely on board with that.  I'd rather see three amazing films in the theater than have to wait a few years for 2 extended cuts to be released.  It's obvious from the LOTR extended cuts that those are Jackson's true visions for the films.  I want to see those right off the bat rather than wait.  I hope this does happen.

I can understand people wondering how he can make one book into three films when he did the entirety of LOTR in 3 films.  But if you've read those books you know just how much he cut out of them, even from the extended versions. ROTK extended was over 4 hours alone.  He easily could have split that into two films  especially if he had included the burning of the shire.  Taking all that into consideration, it's easy to see why Jackson might want to make a third film. 

So basically I'm just saying lets give PJ the benefit of the doubt and let him give us his vision of this story.  He hasn't let us down with these films yet so why would he start now?

Well in the trailer we see Gandalf going thru what look like a ruined castle, that may be his investigation of the Necromancer aka Sauron, also the movie was split into two because they wanted to expand beyong the Hobbit book as to include LOTR material, so i dont understand why a third film. I hope they reconsider and bring out a extended edition instead.