It all started after working on “Heavenly creatures”when Jackson and Fran Walsh made a deal with Harvey Weinstein and started to study “Scarecrows” for Universal… Jackson later said that he regretted his decision, but the agreements had already been signed.
For the sake “Scarecrow” he had to make concessions to Weinstein, who was then working in Miramax – the producer believed that by temporarily letting the director go to Universal, he did him “a great service.”
In the process of creating a new tape, Jackson and Walsh began working on their fantasy, but constantly returned to the material. Tolkien…
As a result, Jackson asked Weinstein to find out who owned the rights to “The Lord of the Rings”, which the producer did. The latter continued to tell the director that they would create three films – The Hobbit and two films based on The Lord of the Rings, thus providing hundreds of jobs in the special effects studio WETA…
Weinstein struggled to get the rights to the material from the producer Sola Zaenzawith whom they previously worked on “The English Patient”, having parted not under the most pleasant circumstances. One of the difficulties was the attempt to exclude Zaenz from the production of future paintings.
In parallel, Universal, pleased with the “Scarecrows”, began to offer Jackson a remake King Kongthat he had long dreamed of. Still 20th Century Fox beckoned the author with her restart “Planets of the Apes”… But in the end, the director chose Kong.
In response, Weinstein went berserk with a clever deal that would co-produce the film and, somehow, own the script. “Shakespeare in love”… But Universal managed to get hold of Jackson again, although the latter promised Harvey to tackle The Lord of the Rings right after Kong.
And then “Scarecrows” failed at the box office. Universal in response to this instantly hacked to death “Kong” and curtailed all the developments on the project.
By this point, Jackson’s firm was busy producing the film, and they were simply “pulled” out of the process. As a result, the director had no choice – he returned to Weinstein, taking up The Lord of the Rings.
Initially, Jackson and Walsh tried to adapt the material in two films, mostly due to lack of choice. Weinstein was willing to spend only $ 75 million, and on both paintings together.
Later, a playwright from New Zealand joined the production. Stephen Sinclairwith which the authors have created two scripts – “The Fellowship of the Ring” and “War of the Ring”… The whole process took about 18 months, and in the end everyone agreed on one idea – they would never want to make these films with Harvey Weinstein.
Harvey and his brother Bean did not understand the original material and did not really believe in its success, considering all this only as a new project for Jackson, which could bring them money. In addition, they did not tell the author that the amount of 75 million appeared due to their agreement with Disney – the producers could not make a film for a lot of money.
As one of the methods of “escape” from the producer, the authors chose to “drain” the scripts in order to interest other studios.
Then the documents fell into the hands of the author of the original essay Polygon Drew McVeeneywho worked on the site at that time Ain’t it cool – Jackson had connections with this portal. The drain was organized in such a way that later all participants could leave without severe consequences. No one named sources, and the site was not asked to hide information.
According to McVeeney, the lyrics already contained the main points and themes of the trilogy (the importance Sam in the plot, etc.), but the general feeling when reading was as if the story was being told at a speed of one and a half. The plot did not have time for moments of calm, and the development of the characters was often lost for the sake of time. In particular, this concerned Gollum…
Some ideas existed in early form – initially the introduction for the story was read Frodo, but not Galadriel… And the first of the two films ended after Sam, Frodo and Gollum met with Nazguli… In addition, there were many songs and road ballads in the early versions.
In the end, Weinstein set a condition for the authors, which they refused to fulfill – to release one film instead of two with a timing of four hours.
After the refusal, Jackson was offered to find finances somewhere else, but on the condition that Weinstein will receive all the bonuses due to him for “the time spent.” Weinstein was enraged that Jackson and Walsh did not see him as their main boss and were considering other proposals. Overall, we can say that Harvey felt he was wronged.
According to the calculations of the studio WETA, the creation of two paintings should have taken at least $ 150 million. When McVeeney himself read the early scripts, he did not believe that these films could be made at all for any money. Not to mention $ 75 million.
But in the end, the road led Jackson and his co-authors to New line cinema, whose representatives decided to take a chance and give the screenwriters more creative freedom.
According to McVeeney, the attitude of local producers was completely different from Harvey – they appreciated the material and understood its potential. Moreover, they were delighted to expand this fantasy world.
In addition, during this period, the studio wanted to move to a new level in Hollywood – and the project just came in handy. Therefore, they approved the production of three films, the last of which especially helped in the development of Gollum. In addition, it was at this stage that they added Ents and Saruman, at the same time revealing in more detail many of the secondary characters.
According to McVeeney, if the adaptation had been released in its original form, it would have resembled a film adaptation “Golden Compass” – chaotic and soulless at the same time.
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