This month marks the beginning of a three-part movie adaptation of “The Hobbit,” J.R.R. Tolkien’s prequel novel to the epic “Lord of the Rings.”

After “The Lord of the Rings” movie trilogy ended in 2003, many fans were begging for the release of “The Hobbit” as a movie.

The waiting and anxiety continued until December 2007, when New Line Cinema and MGM announced that Peter Jackson, director of “The Lord of the Rings” triology, would be directing “The Hobbit” in two parts.

The concept of two movies for a single book caused concern among fans. Those who were once so loyal to Jackson had lost faith in him. They felt this was a gimmick for the film studios to get even richer. They also felt that the film studios would give Tolkien’s beloved novel a bad name.

But they came to terms with this idea, and once the first trailer was released, people were getting excited for Dec. 14, the release date of “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.” This was to be the first half of Jackson’s “Hobbit” series.

Then, on July 30, Jackson took the liberty of announcing on his Facebook page that he would be extending the “Hobbit” story into a trilogy, like “The Lord of the Rings.”

On top of Tolkien’s “The Hobbit,” Jackson said he will be using unwritten text from Tolkien’s appendices for a deeper storyline.

“I like ‘The Hobbit’ because of the mythological elements it has and the element of the classic hero’s journey,” said English teacher Ted Levey, who has his freshmen read the Tolkien novel. “I think it will make a great movie to watch because of the many visual effects and sceneries, as well as the many plot lines.”

Many fans believe Jackson will maintain his reputation with “The Hobbit” series.  Some are even happy about the use of extra text, too, because  it should add a certain sense of authenticity to the film. It will also make the series not feel so stretched out.

Cal High, Middle-Earth fans have different opinions on “The Hobbit” becoming a movie trilogy.

“Given how awesome a job Peter Jackson did with the ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy, I have faith that he will do ‘The Hobbit’ justice,” said junior Marnie Lowe. “I think it gives the movies the opportunity to flesh out all the beautiful details of the book, and overall, I can’t wait.”

But there are some students who don’t share Lowe’s enthusiasm.

“It’s frustrating, really. They’re getting greedy, in my opinion,” said sophomore Ben Howard, who is less optimistic about the success of the three “Hobbit” movies.

“The Hobbit,” Tolkein’s prequel to “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, is about hobbit Bilbo Baggins’ journey shared by a company of 13 dwarves to claim a treasure guarded by a dragon, Smaug.  The novel is shorter in length than any of the “Lord of the Rings” books, and isn’t nearly as complex. But it’s to be made into three long movies. If Jackson extended the series to three movies, it should be for trueness to Tolkien’s work.

“The Hobbit” trilogy is being shot with High Frame Rate (HFR) 3D cameras, which shoot double the number of frames per second. This contributes to both the massive budget of the film and heavy criticism.

“It looks like live television or hi-def video. And it didn’t look particularly good.” said Imagine Games Network  (IGN) reporter Jim Vejvoda.

But the trailers and soundtrack are promising. The fact that many of the same sets, actors and crew from “The Lord of the Rings” are going to be a part of “The Hobbit” trilogy is also reassuring.

“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will be the beginning of many Tolkein fans’ transition to a Middle-Earth state of mind. The next two installments of the trilogy will be released December 2013 and July 2014, according to IMDb and will be named “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” and “The Hobbit: There and Back Again.”