Dividing the Hobbit "trilogy"

[Finarvyn]

I remember reading an interview with Peter Jackson a while ago when the Hobbit was to be split into two movies, and he made some statement about it being "clear" where one should divide the story in half.

I never could quite see what was so obvious to PJ, but had a couple of guesses.
(1) The encounter with Gollum and Riddles in the Dark?
(2) Maybe reaching the river in the middle of Mirkwood?

Anyway, with the movie being split into three movies I thought it would be fun to speculate on where they will divide up. Of course, we don't know exactly which LotR Appendix stuff will be in there, or snippits from Unfinished Tales, so it's hard to guess exactly how much added material will be added, and where...

So ... how do you divide the Hobbit "trilogy"?

[blackbarn]

You mean it isn't clear where it should be divided into three?

Actually, with all PJ must be adding, I have no idea what to even guess. I'm also not sure if the book will be spread out over three movies, or if most of it will end up in one or two films with a lot added.

I'm glad it's not up to me to divide it, as I see no good places, clear or otherwise.

[Stormcrow]

It's pretty clear that the first of the three movies will end after being rescued from the goblins and wargs by the eagles.

There is less data on the second split, but it seems that Thorin and company will be trying to get into the Lonely Mountain and the Necromancer will be driven from Dol Guldur by the end of the second movie.

[geoffrey]

If I had to divide The Hobbit into three parts, I'd put the two divisions here:

1. The last shot of the first film would be the eagles carrying the company to safety after almost getting burned by the goblins and wolves.

2. The last shot of the second film would be the 13 dwarves and Bilbo in boats leaving Lake-town to go to the Lonely Mountain.

[Falconer]

I imagine they’ll try to sort of parallel LotR, especially in the sense of the second movie being focused on a diversion: a major battle (Dol Guldur/Helm’s Deep) between the secondary heroes (not Bilbo/Frodo) and a secondary villain (Saruman/Necromancer).