I'm REALLY looking forward to it later in the month, totally gonna see it in theater. Been itching to see this ever since I first heard it was confirmed.

Who else is wanting to see it?

And, here's a new preview video. Very, VERY recently found it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGF5ROpjRAU

Ah but its not the real hobbit is it

this is "JJ" hobbit

its got added "jokes" Lotr references
LEGOLAS

Cossack Dwarves

Added characters

probably got "romance" as well

omg... how many of those chicks do you thing he got horizontal with?

Am bored with the franchise, but les Miserables will save my holiday movie experience.

I'm going just to see the Trek-13 Preview.

The hardest part about prequels is you know how it ends. So a lot of the suspense is gone. But I will be watching it regardless as the Hobbit is one of my favorite books.

The flawed Gandalf the Grey was a much more interesting character than "perfect" Gandalf the White. I am eager to see his return, and see how PJ works out the "inconsistencies" of how Tolkein portrays Gandalf in the Hobbit vs. LOTRO's near godlike character.

I also wonder if we will see Saruman and his involvement in Dul Gulder and his transformation from head of the White council to the corrupted powermonger we saw in LOTRO. That would make it worth seeing if it can be pulled off.

The books was a bit meah, but the films should be great, especialy if on par with LOTR.

The Lord of the Rings books were pretty meh, too, at least in respect to the translation into film. Entire chapters of just walking or singing or discussing obscure history as if the reader was familiar with it (at least avoids the "As you know bob" trope, but still leaves good sized chunks of the books reserved for dedicated readers who've already finished the Silmarilion) cleverly edited pages out of Tolkin's elvish dictionary, false starts, and complete refusal to end.

The Hobbit actually has some solid storytelling in it. I'm not sure how they plan to stretch it into three movies, but the Hobbit was written first as a story. The Lord of the Rings and the Silmarilion were written as world crafting and linguistic projects first and stories second.

On the other hand, that could just draw a spotlight to changes made for the movie. Most people don't complaint about the liberties taken with Helm's Deep when the book glossed over it in a few pages, but the Hobbit didn't let a fight pass off screen if they could help it.

They're going to have LOTR characters in it even those who aren't in the Hobbit, so likely its going to be a lot of story telling or flashback sequences by Bilbo. But to make it another trilogy I hope they aren't going to drag it out.

As for the YouTube Video, that is just sad, it's almost as bad as listening to Shatner doing Rocket Man.

Sure way to cure insomnia ... Zzzzz