Peter Jackson Claims 'The Hobbit' Could Become A Trilogy

Here's an intriguing thought for the Comments section below: would a three-movie split better director Peter Jackson's vision for "The Hobbit?"

The Academy Award-winning New Zealand director of New Line Cinema's "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy greeted throngs of J.R.R. Tolkien enthusiasts Saturday at the 2012 annual San Diego Comic-Con in the San Diego Convention Center's prestigious Hall H.

There, Jackson addressed the completion of both films - with "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" slated to hit theaters Dec. 14 - but also presented HitFix.com with an intriguing proposition.

He's petitioned New Line, MGM, et al to split the concluding half "The Hobbit: There and Back Again" - currently penciled for a Dec. 13, 2013 release - into two films.

"We've been certainly talking to the studio about some of the material we can't film," Jackson explained. "And we've been asking them if we can do a bit more filming next year. Which I don't know what would come of that, whether that would be extended editions or not. But those discussions are ongoing . . . I'd like to shoot a bunch more material that we can't shoot. There's so much good stuff in the appendices that we haven't been able to squeeze into these movies. That's a discussion that we're having, yeah."

Before Jackson graced fans with his presence alongside cast members Martin Freeman, Ian McKellan, Elijah Wood and Andy Serkis, fans viewed production diaries that unveiled the bombing of Lake Town, Stephen Fry as Lake Town's master, Orlando Bloom's return as Legolas, Freeman as Bilbo Baggins and other footage. They also glimpsed 12 1/2 minutes of footage directly from "An Unexpected Journey."

"We write the scripts as we're shooting," Jackson said. "We're not good at making short movies, unfortunately."

This isn't a cake that needed icing. But come, now: do any of you really suppose that Serkis was showing up without him being begged for a little "Gollum?"

And do you really suppose he wouldn't oblige?

"For f**k's sake, do I have to?!" the iconic character actor growled in-character.