with a second film due out December 2012 ! I read that MGM has expressed interest in another film set between The Hobbit and TLOTR.

A quote from Jackson "... one of the drawbacks of The Hobbit is it's relatively lightweight compared to Lord of the Rings... There [are] a lot of sections in which a character like Gandalf disappears for a while. ... I think he references going off to meet with the White Council, who are actually characters like Galadriel and Saruman and people that we see in Lord of the Rings. He mysteriously vanishes for a while and then comes back, but we don't really know what goes on."

Del Toro confirmed the sequel would be about "trying to reconcile the facts of the first movie with a slightly different point of view. You would be able to see events that were not witnessed in the first." The second film's story will depend on how many actors can reprise their roles. Christopher Lee said he would like to show how Saruman was corrupted by Sauron, but was not eager to fly to New Zealand.