[QUOTE="Dave-The-Rave, post: 5966220]Was he? Its been years since I read The Hobbit..I only really remember the main parts of it like the beginning, meeting Gollum in the cave and the end.
EDIT: I gave it a 7..really wanted to give it an 8, but its just not quite there. About a 7.8 or 7.9.[/QUOTE]
If it's a 7.9, then isn't that closer to an 8? lol
But as for Saruman (and Galadriel), no they're not in The Hobbit, but the meeting you see does occur at that time. It's just not mentioned in The Hobbit, because Tolkien only focused on Bilbo's story.
There's a very big sub-plot that Gandalf and The White Council were working on during the time of The Hobbit, which is why Gandalf always left the group and came back. Peter Jackson decided to include that sub-plot in these movies.