Well, I've been following the progress of The Hobbit and the sequel. It looks like New Line finally has all their ducks in a row. Peter Jackson will be producing (they say he doesn't have the time to direct or whatever) and Guillermo del Toro will direct. Right now the new guy is claiming how he wants to be true to Peter Jackson's movies and maintain continuity. We'll see how things really go. The Hobbit will apparently be stylistically like LOTR only "brighter" since the dark times haven't yet fallen. What are they going to put in the sequel anyway? Pull things from the appendices? Something like
Born of Hope or
The Hunt for Gollum? Right now they have Ian McKellan back as Gandalf (thank goodness) and Andy Serkis back as Gollum (again, thank goodness). There's no telling how this will turn out though. Other thoughts, I wonder if Legolas will have a cameo or a role. Bilbo does travel to Mirkwood and Legolas is the Prince of Mirkwood. He would have been around. Will Galadriel make an appearance during the White Council? Same for Saruman and Elrond. Will we finally see the sons of Elrond? Does this movie have a big enough budget to get all these stars back? Aragorn was involved in a lot of events during this time. While Frodo wasn't living with Bilbo in The Hobbit, he could turn up in the second movie at the end or something. I really hope that this is at least half as good as the original trilogy. And I hope Fran and Philipa write the scripts, especially that second one. It's going to need a lot of help.
Until then, Ian McKellen teaches you how to act.