Oh...I´ve just had a thought, while discussing the late great Bergman on another site, particularly vis a vis the Virgin Spring...wouldn´t he have made a cracking CoH....sigh....

If by "cracking" you mean "completely bizarre", then probably. We would certainly finish the film with a very intimate understanding of the emotions of all the characters!

And what would Kurosawa have made of the Nirnaeth Arnoediad?

Well, for starters, he'd probably have been happy there were no letter 'L's in the name.

Not much, I imagine. Maybe you should drop some names of people who have a film in their oeuvre indicative of their being fit to tackle the material. Maybe Terry Gilliam, Ridley Scott, or Alfonso Cuaron? These filmmakers are capable of making mature, uncompromised works and (based on their prior work) might actually include the things we want to see: namely balrogs, dragons, Morgoth, Sauron, trolls, etc.

Ridley Scott already tried this genre. It was called LEGEND and was pretty bad.

Pah, Bergman wasn´t just "scenes from a marriage" you know, he could be incredibly austere.
Kurosawa, now there´s a thought....he could have done "aure enteluva" really well, for sure...

He wasn't just Scenes, true. Bergman was also Winter Light, Autumn Sonata, Cries and Whispers, The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, Through a Glass Darkly, Persona, The Silence, Hour of the Wolf, Fanny and Alexander, and many more that I haven't yet seen. Which of these would you say makes him seem like a good choice for Tolkien? Or maybe it's one that I did not list? Seriously, I'm wondering how we get from Bergman's themes of psychosis, split personality, the nature of death, the existence of God, etc., to the swords and dragons of fantasy, mature though it may be. Is it the troupe of dwarfs in Winter Light, perhaps?

I'd love to see Tolkien's material adapted in a serene, adult way as much as anyone, but Bergman? Kurosawa? Really, someone tell me why these, and not, say, Yasujiro Ozu? Or Andrei Tarkovsky? They've all got nothing to do with Tolkien or anything even similar.

Del Toro was actually a really good suggestion. There are also some other relatively young, quality filmmakers who have not yet branched into the genre but might be willing to, such as Jonathan Glazer, Christopher Nolan, Richard Linklater. No, they don't have much more in their portfolios to support them as candidates than those seasoned masters mentioned, but they are at least alive.

I specificly said which film, in my original post. The Virgin Spring. Set in mediaeval times, involves revenge, fate and an outlaw gang. I don´t think Bergman would be good for LotR or the Hobbit, but I do think he could have done something very interesting with CoH, which needs a more introspective touch, and less CGI.

Back to THE HOBBIT film for a moment .... looks like the MGM-New Line rights package may have a slight wrinkle.

this from The Financial Times

Although I have to believe that they could quickly raise the needed $150 million or so if the money was directly earmarked for a HOBBIT film and not a package of others included.