[William Cloud Hicklin]

Well, it's an interesting idea to maunder about, although in real life we'll see squadrons of aerobatic swine first.

I can't see any arrangement which would satisfy the parties, in the first place because CRT has never tolerated anyone else playing on his father's patch; indeed not even himself (save that notorious gap-filler in The Silmarillion, which his older self now thinks was wrong), and certainly never remotely considered allowing Middle-earth novels by somebody else. It follows that Middle-earth screenplays by somebody else would be equally verboten.

In the second place, even if that essential barrier were to disappear, I couldn't imagine the Estate considering 'participation' unless they retained JRRT's 'absolute veto over objectionable material,' or Final Shooting Script Authority- and since Cash is no longer an issue, it's Art or nothing. No director or producer would ever tolerate any such thing, except in extremis (for instance Harry Potter, where the 'property' was too valuable not to let Jo have her say).

Participation would unavoidably imply endorsement, and I think an Officially Endorsed Tolkien Product which was to all intents and purposes authored by Philippa Boyens or Timothy Zahn or somebody is utterly out of the question. As far as the author's son is concerned, 'by Tolkien' means 'written by the late Professor JRRT.'- and there will never be any more of that (aside from some non-Middle-earth poems which have yet to be published).

It seems to me that if PJ wants to milk The Hobbit for two movies and doubled revenues, he could merely shoot the book without being forced by time constraints to make cuts. Given the quality of the 'original' material he added to the Rings trilogy, I can't see a prequel invented from whole cloth as avoiding the lameness of another Eragon.