Beyond that, I'm all for an HBO Miniseries for The Silmarillion produced by Jackson. Would that not be uber-cool?
I'd be for that as well. I'd love to see them take a shot at pulling a narative out of those stories. It could be done, but it would be tricky. I tried to read it too, but to this point have not been able to finish it.
As far as the Hobbit, I'd rather almost see Jackson Executive Produce it rather then direct. I'd like to see him give someone who helped on LotR a shot at directing. I would like to see all those actors return, but I just feel that a Hobbit needs a different perspective behind the lense since the story is not nearly as weighty as the LotR. I'd hate to take a chance of Jackson taking a heavy handed, uber-serious approach to the movie like he did with King Kong. The Hobbit is much a lighter story, though with plenty of serious moments that could use Jackson's guidance. I'd want the world to look and feel the same - The Shire, Rivendale, The Goblins, Golem. They better not leave out Beorn as they did with Tom Bombadill!!! If they do it smart they could add a nice little forshadowing type of scene when Gandalf tells the story of having to deal with the "Necromancer!" They could show a short scene of clips with them doing whatever they did to get "rid" of him. They don't need to get ery creative with the script either, as far as drastic changes like they did with LotR. The Hobbit is much more straight forward. Obviously there would likely need to be a theatrical cut, and then an extended cut like LotR.
One other thing I thought would be neat, but I made need to be corrected on this, but aren't the elves that trap the dwarves after the spider attack the Mirkwood elves, and isn't their king Legolis' (sp?) father? I don't know why I'm thinking this, but I think that's how I heard it once. Well, it would make a neat cameo appearance during the scene where the Elven king is interigating the Dwarves to see Legolis standing behind, or near, the king. He would have no dialog as none is needed, nor is he even mentioned in the book, I just think it would be neat to see Orlando Bloom for a few seconds in the Hobbit. After all, he is an Elf, and the age thing shouldn't be a problem, right?
*Dream Over*