Good characters leap off the page and screen; great characters stay with you long after the experience is over and become friends that you want to revisit. In the Lord of the Rings, then, J.R.R. Tolkien created many great characters, all of which I've been friends since I was a teenager, and many of which were reborn in film form. I haven't read The Hobbit since I was a kid, but when I heard it was giving rise to three movies, I was dubious and thought the whole idea reeked of blatant commercialism and box office manipulation. I am happy to say that, so far, I was mistaken; Peter Jackson is creating another epic trilogy with a wealth of talented actors, realistic production design, and amazing special effects. I loved Bilbo - who doesn't? - and Martin Freeman brings warmth, honor and realism to the character. The second film is coming out soon, and I've been getting reacquainted with my old friends from the Lord of the Rings films; I know many of them wouldn't have been born when Bilbo was off on his Hobbit adventure, but it would have been fun to see a few familiar faces. Legolas was fine, with a great supporting cast around him, but I wish they'd created reasons to bring back characters with a stronger screen presence and more compelling personalities/back stories. Knowing this is padding the story/not in the original book, and will be poison to all the Tolkien purists, I present the 10 cameos I would have preferred to see over Legolas in the new film...