[Mithalwen]

If I were filming the Hobbit, as a single film especially (and I appreciate this isn't what is going to happen since it will be same old same old with PJ ). I would ditch Beorn.

It doesn't really advance the plot, doesn't really fit into the wider story and has no major consequences. In a story designed to be read in installments to children it works as a reprise of the arrival of the dwarves at bag end, and if the Hobbit was to be done as a Sunday teatime serial (as theBBC did the Narnia stories when I was a child) I might well keep it- though t I am little fonder of Beorn than Bombadil whom I loathe.

However even if the Hobbit is done as a childrens film, I would lose it ... I think it would be visually rather dull and while it is necessary to have light interrupting the shade to stop it getting too scary for tinies, in this case the Eagle rescue serves the purpose. I would have the Eagles dump them (though maybe not Gandalf) at the edge of Mirkwood.

Beorn's role at the battle of five armies was hardly significant and I never understood why, having been an Elffriend by the Elvenking, and Gandalf as companion going through Mirkwood was avoided.... it is inconceivable that the Woodelves would not have given them hospitality and ensured their safe passage.