[The Saucepan Man]

Originally Posted by phantom

I disagree with this notion. I have never sat down to watch a movie and thought "There'd better be a love interest."

I'm not talking about what you, or I, or anyone else here expects from a film. I am talking about what the general film-going public expects from a film. Or, more accurately, what the film studios and financiers think the general film-going public expects from a film. But you would expect them to get it right, given the amount of money at stake and the resources that they have to gauge public opinion.

Like I asked before, did any of you, while reading Bilbo's tale, actually stop and notice that there was no love interest?

It was written primarily as a children's tale (albeit one which adults can enjoy too). As I said, if the film is made as a children's film, the question of love interest won't arise.

Personally, I would be quite glad if they did a film of The Hobbit without shoe-horning in a love interest, particularly as it is difficult to see where and how it would work. But I have my suspicions.

When you take a perfectly good story and try to add unnecessary things it just ruins it because the additions rarely mesh cleanly with the original ...

I don't disagree with this as a general proposition, although it can work. I thought that some of the additions in the LotR films worked very well.