TheBoost said:

L.P. Hovercraft said:

lotrjw said:

doubleofive said:

Peter Jackson on the two-film edit:

The split was going to occur where Bard [Luke Evans] appears on the river bank as a silhouetted figure with a bow. So the whole barrel sequence was going to be the climax.

Just in case someone wants to re-create the alternate universe two-movie edit.

that would be cool along with cutting some bits out that weren't in ether the Hobbit or Lord of the Rings books, it might make for two roughly 3 hour films!

The old 90 minute Rankin/Bass Hobbit moved along at a pretty brisk pace without leaving TOO much out or adding lots of extra padding so still remains my favorite adaptation so far, but I still think Del Toro (or PJ) could have made one or even two REALLY amazing movies from this story on par with the LOTR films IF the focus actually remained on the title character of Bilbo instead of on Alfrid, Legolas, Kili/Tauriel, the white Orc, the White Council, etc.

As it is, splitting this story into three bloated films has really killed this version as far as I'm concerned--a lot of the extra stuff in the films could have been added back in for the extended editions but should probably not have been left in for the more streamlined theatrical versions.

I'm really looking forward to watching a shorter one or two movie edit and think it will do wonders for my prequelesque feelings of mehness about the current PJ versions.

I'm contemplating doing a edit that matches as best I can the pacing and events of the cartoon version. I might even make it full-screen.

Nice--looking forward to checking it out if you do. I think if PJ even stuck to the cartoon's script and just added a few bits and bobs here and there to flesh it out to a single epic 2 & 1/2 or 3 hour film, The Hobbit really could have been a new fantasy classic.

By the by, looks like someone has already chopped the 3 films down into one 4 & 1/2 hour version (which is still pretty long to sit through in one sitting if you ask me!):