[Sauron the White]

Perhaps I am just a bit slower than others here or just do not have the experience that some others do with film since I have only been following it for five decades..... however, common sense seems to say that nobody can really know if a second film will be the greatest film in the history of the cinema or the worst thing since FREDDIE GOT FINGERED or GIGLI. Great movies have been made from holiday greeting cards. Anything is possible.

Some of this here is really spooky in fanatic sort of way. Some will concede that HOBBIT may be a good film since they have the book to go on. But there is no other book (for the second film) other than some shorthand version of events as jotted down by JRRT. So the conclusion is drawn that it is the book itself which will make or break the film.

An existing book written by JRRT = good movie.
Some ideas far short of a whole book from JRRT = bad movie.

First of all, somebody already made a TV film from HOBBIT and it certainly did not even come close to writing a new chapter in cinematic excellence. Second, really crappy books have been turned into good movies. FOREST GUMP comes to mind.
So why don't we wait and see before we start making announcements as if they came from the hieghts of Mt. Olympus?