Be cynical if you like but I actually think this is a great idea, it worked so well with The Lord of the Rings, and for 3 exciting year we had 3 excellent films, and I truly believe that Jackson can do the same again.
On that more cynical note, each of the Rings films took close to or over a billion dollars in box office grosses, and over the years created a massive buzz that probably drove merchandising sales through the roof, as well as creating DVD sales in standard forem and extended form.
You can see why it makes sense to turn this into a trilogy, New Line Cinema (and all other studios involved) have probably just made themselves another couple of billion dollars in revenue, as I'm sure, unless the first film is an absolute turkey, that these films will make over a billion at the box office each, and thats before you consider everything else. With no release date or title the details are still sketchy, but at the moment lets presume that this will take The Hobbit into 2014, thats this December, December 2013 and then December 2014 for the next film.
The good news in all this is that we should get to see the entire book turned into a film and any un-filmed stuff from the Middle Earth universe that has so far been untouched. Roll on this December when we find out if the wait has been worth it.
