Dear god, the Lord Of The Rings Gollum prequel is already getting longer

The Hunt For Gollum is on, and by the sounds of things, it's going be a long one. Following in the tradition of relatively short Lord Of The Rings prequels being unnecessarily stretched into multi-part epics, the recently announced Hunt For Gollum might already be a multi-part epic. Appearing after a pretty nasty fall while playing Falstaff two weeks ago, Ian McKellen (who we're happy to report has "healed very well") revealed that The Hunt For Gollum is longer than anticipated. "I'm told it's two films," McKellen told the hosts of ITV's This Morning yesterday. "I probably shouldn't be saying that, I know."

To be fair, McKellen did say he hadn't seen the script or agreed to be in the movie. He's just letting us know the last thing he heard, namely, that the film, like The Hobbit before it, is already too long. Directed by and starring Andy Serkis, The Hunt For Gollum is set, we assume, between the prologue of Return Of The King—you know, the one that features Déagol dragged by a big old fish—and Jackson's The Fellowship Of The Ring. That covers about 600 years.

In Tolkien's trilogy, the hunt for Gollum takes about 17 years. Following Bilbo's 111th birthday celebration, Gandalf spends nearly two decades looking for old Stinker and enlists Aragorn to aid his search. The quest is for naught because, by the time they catch up to him, Gollum has already given Sauron the name of the last known Ring-bearer ("Shire! Baggins!"). After interrogating Gollum, Gandalf puts him in the Elves of Mirkwood's custody, leaving Gollum to escape and catch up with the Fellowship of the Ring in the Mines of Moria.

This takes up just a few pages in the book—even shorter than the 300  or so pages of Hobbit that Jackson turned into a trilogy. Of course, in Jackson's original film, Bilbo's birthday and Frodo's departure are truncated into a few days. But the good news is that McKellen is open to returning to Middle-earth, even if the movie is a little too long for its good. Hey, a free trip. That McKellen, he's a thrifty one.