[The Saucepan Man]

I too would have loved to have seen the books brought to life in their full splendour.<P>But:<P>1. How feasible would it have been to have kept the cast and production team together long enough to make six 4 hour films? I suspect that it would have been nigh impossible, in which case there would inevitably have been cast changes and the whole thing might have ground to a halt.<P>2. Would the production company/investors have been prepared to devote sufficient resources to enable Jackson and co to make 6 (commercially untested) films in one sitting? I should imagine that they had a difficult enough time persuading the backers to go with the making of 3 films in one go. Of course, they needn't all have been made at once - but see my comments at 1. above for the possible consequences of that. <P>3. Would the mass film going public (the large number of non-Tolkien afficionados included) have been persuaded to sit through 6 four hour films that remained true to the books? It is quite likely that the backers would have had their doubts, in which case no films would have been made, or at the very least they would have lacked the SFX and wonderful visualisation that big budgets bring.<P>4. Even with the best will in the world, I doubt that Jackson would have satidsfied every Tolkien purist. These are films, not books, and, even had the books been followed to the letter, there would still be room for interpretation.<P>So, much as I would have loved to see the entire trilogy lovingly recreated on screen, I doubt that it could ever happen in reality. So, I am more than happy with what we've got - two (and hopefully three) great film <B>adaptations</B> of a masterful literary work.