possibly noteworthy wrote:

Guillermo del Toro is directing "The Hobbit" and its sequel, New Line Cinema announced Thursday. The 43-year-old filmmaker will move to New Zealand for four years to make the films back-to-back with executive producer Peter Jackson.

Um, "sequel"?

Apparently that line was moved from the source article at the behest of New Line, but I heard about this too... that they were considering a movie that would cover the time between the Hobbit and Fellowship of the Ring.

This time period is mentioned only in passing in the book, but deals with emergence of what turns out to be Sauron in Mirkwood and a largely Elven and Wizard attempt to destroy him there.

It could be cool, but would involve essentially completely writing those stories, as only the broadest of outlines is provided by the canonical sources. My response to that was, and is, conflicted.