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It's not entirely Jackson's fault. As usual with Hollywood, you have to follow the money.
Jackson originally didn't want to direct The Hobbit. He had other projects he wanted to do, and wanted to produce, but have Guillermo Del Toro direct.
There were problems with Del Toro's schedule, and additional roadblocks tossed in because Jackson was suing New Line Cinema, claiming he didn't get what was owed him in the contract for the LoTR films. The issues were eventually resolved with Jackson agreeing to produce and direct.
The original plan was two films - The Hobbit itself, and a second covering the period between the end of The Hobbit and the beginning of LoTR. There was enough of the back story tucked away in the LoTR appendices to build a film around, though a lot would have to be interpolated.
Making three films seems to have been a New Line Cinema notion. They remember the LoTR films, where the first one brought in enough revenue to cover the costs of making all three plus a healthy profit, and the other two films were pure gravy. I think they had dreams of repeating that success.
When you are producing and directing for Hollywood, you are constrained by what the people putting up the money want. If the studio says "Thou Shalt Make Three Films" from this effort, you make three films.
With luck, we will not see an attempt to make a film of the Silmarillion.
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Dennis
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