In, adding to the groundswell of VFX volunteers.

Lorre's body of work has been refined through decades of impersonation.  Case in point: Ren, (of "and Stimpy" fame)

He made marketable and admirable movies out of LOTR, which was at best all-over-the-place as a novel.
The Hobbit has a pretty tight narrative with several well defined arcs. Which is to say: the guy who sowed the seeds for the most epic DIF extravaganza of our times...

...has gotten a better writer for his prequel trilogy.

Color me optimistic.

From that epoch of music history I'll take Floyd, Stones, Late-Beatles, Zep and maybe then The Who, in that order.

Stalag 17.
"For the Allied prisoners of Stalag 17, every escape attempt ends the same way: disaster. Cynical Sgt. Sefton (William Holden, in his Oscar-winning role) thinks they're all fools for trying -- but soon his hectoring starts raising suspicions that there's a German spy among them. Could that spy be him? Director Billy Wilder effortlessly mixes broad comedy and high-tension drama in this World War II classic."

Hogan's Heros is isn't, but it inhabits the same universe.

<hoof bump>

Thor's is my favorite day of the week.

There you go, man: an interesting slice of life, a young man's awakening and emergence from the protected bubble of childhood.

I have very similar memories of president Carter's hostage crisis, only I was more like 5 or 6. It dragged on in the news for so long it ended up making an impression on me in spite of my lack of interest or understanding. The US being "in" the middle east has been a fact of life for all but the eldest of us, I suppose!