The idea, as I understand it, is that the first film would be a relatively straightforward adaptation of The Hobbit. “There and Back Again,” basically.

Film two would be about the Hunt for the Ring — Gandalf talks a bit about that in Fellowship to Frodo, how he and Aragorn tracked down Gollum — and the moves the White Council made against Sauron and his stronghold of Dol Guldur. (Interestingly, this is what the video game Lord of the Rings: The White Council was going to be about — a struggle against Sauron in the pre-Fellowship time period.) We’d also probably have the rise of Denethor and the rise of Mordor.

Film two intrigues me. It would have to be largely complete on its own — I actually don’t see much need or call for Hobbits in it — and it would have to end on some sort of emotionally satisfying note. The destruction of Dol Guldur would be too early in the chronology for that to be a suitable climax. The recovery of Osgiliath would be almost too late (and wouldn’t really segue into Fellowship).

I know what I’d want the final shot of the film to be, though. Bilbo sitting in Bag End, the Ring in his hand. I think that the Ring could be the plot macguffin — the powers think the Ring has been found (which is has, but they don’t know its in the Shire), and at the end of the film they come to the conclusion that the Ring hasn’t been found, that it’s still lost or, as Saruman believes in the books, that it’s been swept out to sea. So the film could end with Gandalf and Elrond believing that the Ring is no more, that Sauron’s power will eventually wane, and then, the final shot, of Bilbo and the Ring.

Yes, I do like that.

I am curious if there would be a novelization of Film Two. I can’t imagine it not being novelized — supposedly, Houghton Mifflin thought seriously of novelizing Jackson’s films — and I know I’d buy a Film Two novelization.