Sweet! I'm honestly more excited for this one than I was for the LOTR Trilogy since I read the book and loved the Rankin Bass animated version when I was a kid, while I never read the LOTR before the movies came out.

Question though: are they padding these two films with some extra stuff, because I remember both the book (and obviously the cartoon) being somewhat short when I was a kid, obviously not the length of each book in the LOTR trilogy, so how do they plan on stretching this out over 2 movies? I'd much rather one 3 hour movie than two 1.5-2 hour movies. I hope to god they don't draw these movies out the way they did with the LOTR films with all the slow-motion dramatic bullshit that just wastes time. There's a reason why so many people refer to those movies as the "Bored of the Rings" trilogy.

What?Are you just estimating,or is that number based on a source?Even so,I think that would be the budget for both I & II parts.

yes its both parts but they are being filmed back to back

I disagree. The LotR movies are perhaps my favourite movies of all time. I love all of the extra stuff they included, and the extended editions are heavenly. But in these, they're not only doing the Hobbit, but also stuff like what Gandalf was up to during the Hobbit (when you didn't read about him), and I believe it is continuing beyond the Hobbit and leading into the Fellowship of the Ring.

^ could not agree more, the extended LorR's are the best movies ever! the 4 hour Return of the King is just epic!

The Dwarves were partially comical in the original book, which itself was more light-hearted than LotR (which i would argue was a positive quality). Seems to be on-point to me.

Yes, the White Council and Dol Guldur will feature in one or both movies in more than one scene. Peter Jackson even showed us an exclusive photo of the White Council planning the attack on Dol Guldur.

It doesn't matter how much it is now,it definitely won't be the same December next year.It will most likely be more expensive.