I'm still clinging to the hopes that Peter Jackson's lawsuit will be settled in time for him to take the helm. My wife's idea for how to address the different tones of the two movies (the LOTR being dark and adult and the Hobbit being more for kids) by having the entire movie be the tale as told by Bilbo. He would dismiss the dwarves as bumbling dolts that he constantly had to rescue without it conflicting with everyone seeing dwarves as solid combatants in the trilogy.

and George Lucas??? for real? if he had directed the LOTR trilogy we'd have a goofy and annoying Gollum/Jar-Jar character accidentally kick the One Ring into the volcano to save the day.