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NEW YORK – Some of the rougher reviews of “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” take director Peter Jackson to task for turning J.R.R. Tolkien’s rather slight children’s story into a groaning, overburdened trilogy that will eventually clock in at nearly nine hours in length.

 

Ian McKellen

In fact, during a press conference hosted by Warner Bros., one reporter even asked Jackson if this extensive padding of the classic book wasn’t a sell-out to the blockbuster gods.

And very quickly, Sir Ian McKellen, the great grey immanence who portrays the wily wizard Gandalf in the new trilogy and in “The Lord of the Rings” cycle, leaped to Jackson’s defense.