10 Worst Changes Peter Jackson Made To The Hobbit

10. Trying To Stretch The Story Into Three Parts

Way back when Guillermo del Toro was scheduled to direct The Hobbit, it was originally intended to be a two-part movie. During these early stages, del Toro worked closely with the design teams, creating a world, wholly different to what we'd seen before. Like the original book, the story was intended to have a more "fairy-tale" like quality, in comparison to The Lord of the Rings.

The first film would depict a more fantastical world, and the second would see a subtle transitioning into a more gritty realm, inline with Jackson's original trilogy. The two-movie format also seemed to make sense in terms of the book's structuring. There are several fairly obvious places to divide the story. With two parts, you could adequately, but concisely tell the tale, while giving fans that cliffhanger moment. This seemed to be the direction del Toro was going in.

But he was forced to leave the project; the details of why are still somewhat mysterious. After a scramble for a new director, Peter Jackson agreed to step in.

A year of a half of pre-production was thrown out, and Jackson was given mere months to prep. He had none of the planning time of Lord of the Rings, and essentially started shooting without a finished script. He shot the story as a two-part movie, but a late decision was taken to create a third film. This third film was essentially cobbled together with excess footage and a number of reshoots and CGI sequences - could you tell?