By now you will have heard the bizarre news that Peter Jackson has decided to stretch his adaptation of The Hobbit into a trilogy. The plot will be derived from JRR Tolkien’s relatively short novel with some additions pulled from the author’s appendices to The Lord of the Rings.

“Do we take this chance to tell more of the tale?” Jackson pondered. “And the answer from our perspective as the film-makers, and as fans, was an unreserved ‘yes’.” This could go on forever.