5. Peter Jackson To Direct The Silmarillion
Announcement: "After the moderate success of The Hobbit Trilogy, Peter Jackson held meetings with the Tolkien estate in order to secure the rights to the final piece of Middle Earth lore untouched by adaptation. Which culminated in this week's announcement that The Silmarillion will be a trilogy in and of itself. Jackson stated that, 'While The Hobbit was made into a trilogy in order to integrate Tolkien's appendices from the Lord of the Rings saga, The Simarillion is so densely written that it needs a trilogy in and of itself'. Part I should be out in time for Christmas 2018."
Why It Would Break The Internet: Lord of the Rings was one of the first Internet driven film/fandom projects when it hit back in 2001. Every little bit of information was scrutinized, disseminated, and ultimately accepted or rejected in the early days of Net driven film promotion. As time went on, and The Hobbit reared its head, this process had grown exponentially from the first time this had occurred, and by time this hypothetical project would hit, it'd be an even faster process. The fandom is so passionate about the franchise that the slightest push either way will set it off, particularly since they're already wary about the fact that The Hobbit was pushed to three, instead of two, films.
Sample Comment of Snark: "I guess Peter Jackson has been rendered unable to make anything that requires he leave New Zealand and write something original. What hath we geeks wrought?! Give us back the Peter Jackson that made Meet The Feebles, Dead Alive, and Bad Taste!"