With 'The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies', Peter Jackson has completed a second trilogy of films based on J.R.R. Tolkien's classic novels 'The Hobbit' and 'The Lord Of The Rings'. But fans are wondering if he might have one more trilogy up his sleeve, as Tolkien wrote plenty more material about Middle Earth, including the novel 'The Silmarillion', short stories and more appendices and indices.

Martin Freeman stars in 'The Hobbit'
Martin Freeman stars as The Hobbit in 'The Hobbit' trilogy. 

Jackson has already expanded 'The Hobbit' from a meandering little road trip into a massive battle trilogy using some of Tolkien's extra material, but the issue going forward is that the Tolkien estate owns everything that isn't contained in the 'Hobbit' or 'Rings' books, and they're apparently not happy with what Jackson did with The Hobbit.

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Tolkien's last surviving son Christopher told Le Monde in 2012, "The chasm between the beauty and seriousness of the work and what it has become has overwhelmed me. The commercialisation has reduced the aesthetic and philosophical impact of the creation to nothing." He went on to complain about the way Jackson "eviscerated" 'The Hobbit' by making it "an action movie for young people aged 15 to 25".

Watch The Trailer For 'The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies'

In other words, it's unlikely that Christopher Tolkien will give Jackson the rights to any more of his father's writings. And the situation isn't helped by a series of lawsuits and countersuits between the Tolkien estate and film producers. Earlier this month, Jackson admitted that "without the cooperation of the Tolkien estate, there can't be more films".

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Although Jackson does have one more card up his sleeve: a three-hour version of 'The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies' is due out on video next year, adding another half hour to the trilogy's conclusion.

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