Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro just announced that their upcoming adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” will span two films.  It was previously thought that the film adaptation of Tolkien’s book would comprise one film, and a second film would be made that would span the 60 years or so that separated the end of “The Hobbit” with the beginning of “The Fellowship of the Ring”, the first book in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.

Jackson, who is producing the films, and del Toro, who is directing, decided that one film simply would not provide enough time to tell the whole story as they wanted it:

“We’ve decided to have The Hobbit span the two movies, including the White Council and the comings and goings of Gandalf to Dol Guldur,” says Del Toro.

“We decided it would be a mistake to try to cram everything into one movie,” adds Jackson. “The essential brief was to do The Hobbit, and it allows us to make The Hobbit in a little more style, if you like, of the [LOTR] trilogy.”