Anyway, I don't agree with what a lot of people (including Jackson) have said about "pruning" The Fellowship of the Ring. No Farmer Maggot? No Fatty Bolger? No Barrow Downs? No Gildor? No Glorfindel? What about the Hobbit rumors flying at the Green Dragon Inn? What about Old Man Willow? What about the Trollshaws? Will the Hobbits still complain about the midges?

The thing is, it's difficult to see how you could choose among these scenes for pruning. If Jackson thinks those scenes are just bulk, why doesn't he adopt the strategy Rankin & Bass used in their adaptation: Just adapt The Return of the King and compress all that bothersome exposition and character development from the first two volumes into a few flashbacks.