Peter Jackson defends his decision to split JRR Tolkien's fantasy novel "The Hobbit" into three long movies after Warner Bros issued a statement denying allegations of nausea induced by high frame rate.

JRR Tolkien's fantasy novel "The Hobbit" was initially stated to be filmed in two parts when suddenly Peter Jackson and his team announced that there would be three parts instead of two. This attracted a lot of criticism. Speaking at a press conference in New York, Jackson defended his decision saying, "Once you start to develop the scenes ... you wanted to do a little bit more character development."

Critics claimed that the adding of one more movie after taking material from the other works of JRR Tolkien was done only for commercial gains.

Philippa Boyens, Jackson's screenwriter and co-producer supported Jackson's decision saying the star-studded caste required more material than "Tolkien's breezier approach on The Hobbit."

"Great actors come to you for the material and if you give them very slight material, you're just not going to get them. We wanted to write for these great actors," she said. Ian McKellen, who reprises his role as wizard Gandalf from the Lord of the Rings, said there was no commercial motive behind the approach. "Anyone who thinks Peter Jackson would fall for market forces, instead of artistic imperatives, just doesn't know him, doesn't know the body of his work," he said.

"We have been screening the full-length HFR [high frame rate] 3D presentation of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey extensively and feedback has been extremely positive, with none of thousands who have seen the film projected in this format expressing any of the issues described by two anonymous sources in media reports," the statement read. "We share the film-makers' belief that by offering filmgoers the additional choice of HFR 3D, alongside traditional viewing formats, they have an opportunity to be part of a groundbreaking advancement in the moviegoing experience and we look forward to having audiences everywhere share in this new way of storytelling."