Peter Jackson's name is synonymous with the "Lord of the Rings" franchise, and it is hard to imagine anyone else at the helm of the project, but according to a new oral history, Harvey Weinstein threatened to have him replaced as director.
The Independent made the revelation while interviewing several people involved in the franchise, including Jackson’s manager Ken Kamins, and stars Elijah Wood, Orlando Bloom, and Ian McKellen, in celebration of the 20-year anniversary of "The Fellowship of the Ring."
At the time, "Lord of the Rings" was in development at Miramax, which was run by Bob and Harvey Weinstein. Issues with the budget caused tension between Jackson and Weinstein.
"Harvey would go from acting empathetically to turning on a dime into Mr. Hyde and would threaten Peter," Kamins said. "He’d threaten to get Quentin Tarantino to direct if Peter couldn’t do it in one film that was 2 1/2 hours — which was the exact opposite of what he initially told us he wanted."
In 2018, British film writer Ian Nathan revealed a similar story in his book, "Anything You Can Imagine: Peter Jackson & The Making of Middle-Earth."
According to IndieWire, Weinstein wanted Jackson to initially make a single adaption of the text of the "Lord of the Rings," and believed Jackson was wasting $12 million by developing the book into multiple movies. It was later reported that Weinstein expected Jackson to release two films and to edit out numerous set pieces from the book.
"Harvey was like, 'You’re either doing this or you’re not. You’re out. And I got Quentin ready to direct it,'" Kamins told Nathan, IndieWire noted. It was at that point that the team decided to shop, and successfully sell, the films to New Line.
"It was actually [New Line founder] Bob [Shaye’s] idea to do three films instead of two," Kamins told the Independent. "The original pitch was to do two films and Bob goes, 'There’s three books, why are you only making two films?'"
"And I’m kicking Peter under the table not believing what I’m hearing," Kamins added. "They said yes on Monday and were out of pocket $12 [million] by Wednesday. Harvey was absolutely stunned. He set us up to fail and expected us to fail. But he got his 5%."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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