How Lord of the Rings Was Nearly Destroyed in Development 

It’s worth mentioning that Weinstein’s threat of hiring Quentin Tarantino was probably a sort of empty threat to try to get Peter to bow under his demands, as Weinstein also threatened to get John Madden to direct (Director of Shakespeare in Love), and it feels unlikely that Tarantino would be interested in a project like that. I think the real threat would’ve been Weinstein finding someone desperate enough to direct it that they would follow all his demands and make the single movie Lotr mess. Anyhow , maybe I’ll re-release it again some day and include that part haha

"It's three books isn't it? Shouldn't it be three movies" The greatest decision any human being has ever made.

“And where was Grohan when Rondor needed aid?!”

QT is a phenomenal director, but we all know that the One Ring would have ended up being a toe ring

It was truly lightning in a bottle. I still shudder to imagine how close we came to disaster had the Execs got their way.

Makes me so happy to know the Harvey Weinstein missed this opportunity of a lifetime and that Peter Jackson scored big. and that Bob Shay had the foresight to green light 3 films. Great to see how the appendices from the movies is still inspiring people too.

I still remember the battle between Harry Potter and LOTR for the Fantasy Box Office back in 01-03. Between the two I have to say Lord of the Rings was easily the superior series

The more I learn of the story of LOTRs creation, the more I appreciate just what a complete fluke it was. The optimism of the 90s gave rise to what was so perfectly captured in LOTR; had it been made even 5 years later (post 9/11) the tone would have been completely different, even in adapting that same source material. What a gift to the ages.

Ah yes, Théothor, my favourite character

"Kill one of the hobbits" and "combine rohan and gondor into one kingdom". I will never understand why movie studios pay money for IPs when they don't want the IP. Why recruit passionate fans if you plan on pissing them off?

"Is there any hope Peter, for Lord of the Rings?" "There never was much hope. Just a fools hope"

I remember my father telling the story how all Hollywood studio's wanted to make max two movies but that their was one guy who wanted to greenlight three. All hail Bob Shay, what a hero🎉

Something like LOTR will never happen again. What a time it was

I saw Peter Jackson on stage do a Q&A back in 2005 and he talked a bit about how insane the process was with Miramax. He said he still had a copy of the memo Harvey sent him that finally made them snap and take the movie elsewhere.

New Zealand is a absolutely beautiful place. The panoramic views in this movie are unforgettable. No VFX were needed to capture the landscape. Even the NZ Defence Forces were used for their organisational abilities. I go to the movies to be entertained, and Peter Jackson did that for millions of people.

Still think it's awesome that, essentially, without Freddy Krueger there would be no LOTR films.

There's no way in Hades I would ever believe Quintin Tarantino would agree to direct a Lord of the Rings film. It is just not his style. When Weinstein said that to Peter Jackson he must have been bluffing.

They should make a movie at this point about the making of the lord of the rings it’s a good story in itself.

When they said one of the hobbits had to be killed off, my eyes literally POPPED!

I had no idea we came so close to disaster. And to think, if not for these movies, there would be nowhere near the amount of interest in the fantasy genre as there is now. Other studios saw the success of LOTR and tried to catch that same lightning in the bottle, but in that pursuit to become the "next big fantasy trilogy", what came of it? - Narnia started well enough but petered out with the sequels - Percy Jackson stumbled and fell on it's face - Golden Compass was dead on arrival - Eragon was mangled beyond recognition Even today, we still have this derivative trend chasing, only now with the success of Game of Thrones. - Wheel of Time genuinely angered me with how badly it was vandalized by the scriptwriters at Amazon - And speaking of Amazon - Rings of Power I avoid like the plague

The first big hint that these are not good men was when they wanted to kill off one of the hobbits. CAN YOU IMAGINE IF MERRY OR PIP HAD DIED?

This video is a re-upload, as there were some things I wanted to fix from the original. As always hope you enjoy! Do you have any core memories surrounding Lord of the Rings? Also: I should do my due diligence, even though I despise everything Weinstein stood for, by saying that he did get Peter the rights to the trilogy, and he did give Peter a clear budget. Peter probably should've been more realistic with his budget expectations before agreeing to it. Nonetheless, I'm glad things turned out the way they did.

This was a fantastic tribute to a world class movie trilogy. Well done. This needs so many more views and likes.

This is the greatest trilogy ever made. As time goes on, I really feel like the 2000s were the golden age of digital cinema, and Lord of the Rings was right in the thick of it. It would be really awesome to get back to that, but I won’t hold my breath.

There were actually tears in my eyes during the 1812 overture - nice!

Although the actors and many crew members were kinda screwed over when receiving royalties/residuals after the trilogy, it is absolutely incredible to see how hard everyone worked and how essential each and every person’s unique talent was to accomplishing this project. They brought to life not just a story, but an entirely new world.

Still the greatest movie trilogy, even better than Star Wars episode 4-6. The Amazon show doesn't even come close in quality.

Great commentary, thank you. I was working on Featherston Street that day, which was just 450m, or a 2 minutes walk away for where the procession began. Sadly, my Grouch of a manager wouldn’t allow us to view the LOTR Premiere here in Wellington. Still gutted to this day.

I still cannot believe these movies were made with that amount of budget, they seem very expensive even for this day. the amazon series looks like a low budget, student attempt.

Well Miramax was under Disney at the time, and Tolkien hated Disney. So it would've broken his golden rule of not letting disney adapt his work.

“Arreirvederchi” echoing over Mordor was 👌🏻✨😂

Just imagine all the movies that would have been masterpieces without Hollywood interfering with the directors.

Amazing content! A lot better than those that get tons of views, like a LOT better. It’s well written, easy to follow, the sound design is soothing and well chosen, etc.

God i wish more projects were allowed to be shopped around. Also I wish more companies *committed* to marketing great films well.

to be fair: the hobbits being barefoot all the time sounds exactly like it's up tarantino's alley

Peter Jackson really beat Harvey Weinstein to the punch . I have to say lord of the rings is by far one of the best films ever made l I remember watching lord of the rings on vhs with my dad and we were amazed of the story and the characters. All hail Peter Jackson

I couldn't be more blessed to have Lord of the Rings released in cinemas worldwide at my teenage years. It made such a huge impact on my life to seek out Tolkien's work and even see how much he inspired culture as a whole in the earlier decades of the movie that twenty years later, its almost my mission to lay it out for the next generation. The Hobbit trilogy was also very good, and although not as clean, also provided with an extension of the Middle-Earth universe. Let's just not talk about the modern Netflix series now. Every family has a black sheep.

Born and bred in NZ. I read the Hobbit and LOTR in the 90s as a kid. Fast forward to earlys 2000s I would have never guessed this would have happened in my little country, it was a truly amazing time and those movies still hold up today.

Great video 👍. Surprised to see it only has 40k views, definitely deserves more.

Here's how you answer your question at 10:19. It's bc Peter Jackson respected the source material, stuck to the source material, and only made slight changes that made sense on print but not visually. He didn't input today's politics, he respected the fans, he respected Tolkien, he wasn't trying to convey a message, and most importantly he delivered what he and the people wanted: a faithful film adaptation of a trilogy. These movies are the reason why I got into Tolkien's world and if they were poorly made, I doubt I would have in the first place. This is why people hate modern adaptations bc the director's input their own beliefs instead of just simply sticking to the established lore.

A great tribute to the most profoundly epic trilogy of all time. The experience of watching these films at the cinema for the first time was out of this world. I don't think anything else will ever come close.

Is there any footage of the 30min LOTR what Jackson showed? Im curious to see it

This is a great piece of film essay writing, congratulations.

Using Tarantino, seems like such an empty threat. At this point I don’t think Harvey could have forced QT to do it and I don’t believe Tarantino would be interested in making this, especially with all the notes and interference

New Line Cinema, the house that Freddy Krueger build.

as we didn't need another reason to hate HW

Combining Rohan and Gondor into one kingdom and consequently cutting Helm's Deep seems relatively sane, if one has to bow to inevitable constraints. However cutting the Balrog, wtf. And I'm sure there would have been many more "issues".

"Island somewhere around Australia" for New Zealand is some of the most stereotypically 'Murican thing to say.

8:31 What the heck, that was EPIC, i had goose bumps the spine tingling kind, the Music and the first scene was just amazing, brilliant...Peter Jackson, what a Legend......

Well put together video. Good work.

Well Bob, one of the Hobbits was technically killed off. When Frodo leaves at the end, thats basically him dying and transcending to a greater plain with Bilbo

New Line CInema: not all heroes wear capes

When an absolute chad director meets an absolute gigachad studio. I still can't believe this trilogy happened and how good it was. I dont think we'll see anything like this happen again. The story, the production, the scope, the scale, the trust people had in each other's work. Its pretty insane for such a cynical industry.

In an alternate reality, a version of you is watching a video of "How the cancelled LOTR film could have been"

I wonder how many amazing films we never got because they faced obstruction like this and didn’t prevail

Wow, wow, wow.... kill off one of the Hobbits for drama is one of the craziest Hollywood things I've ever heard. Those people are nutz.

Can you imagine how long the extended version would be if they had squished the story into 2 movies?

Jackson had his own epic journey defeating a Balrog of his own. All those who couldn't see past the end of their noses, can eat 💩

Has that sizzle reel shown at Cannes ever been made publicly available? It would be quite neat to see which parts they got to experience.

This magnificent trilogy was made at the right time. How blessed we all are to be able to experience it to this day!

I remember return of the king in theaters omg the big screen of the epic battle was crazy

New line will forever be geniusses for stepping up.

Getting LotR to be made: “3 movies is too long, make it 2 and kill off a main character” Getting the Hobbit to be made: “2 movies is too short, make it a trilogy and throw in a bunch more characters”

Thank you for summarizing a segment of a book which I would never buy/read. Fascinating.

If I saw a 12 foot guy swinging a mace and 15 guys go flying, I’d make a quick exit.

The one and only difficulty with The Lord of the Rings is there is no explanation of why was Denethor CRAZY. Denethor uses the Palantir of Minas Tirith with good intentions to peer into Sauron's mind (just the same as Saruman using the Palantir of Isengard). Sauron instead gets into everyone’s head, taunting all filling doom and terror, that all was lost.

Two more movies to be made - Tom Bombadil (from crossing the Brandiwine to the entrance to Bree0 and the Cleansing of the Shire. Done by Jackson or someone closely associated.

Watched it with great pleasure again ❤- very well done, thank you !

It is crazy that Return of the King did not any oscar for best actor, yet manages to tie itself for one of the movies with the most oscars ever won

I wish it was possible to go back in time and tell Peter Jackson -"You know Harvey -I know where he's going".

It's already difficult to adapt a book in a 2 hours movie. I can't imagine doing it for a trilogy. The proposed changed are scary! I think it would had been difficult to find a serious director for such a project. Anyone with a little common sense and knowledge of the fandom would know it's suicidal professionally. Making a trilogy out of one book wasn't a much better idea though...

I knew they show the scenes from Moria at Cannes as in The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug documentaries, it was revealed that the music from Moria was recorded in Wellington, New Zealand, rather than in London where rest of The Lord of the Rings score were done. I didn't knew about the other scenes though, except for one behind the scene footage where Peter Jackson rides with Gandalf in his cart while they talk to the audience as a tease for the movie.

Something like The Lord of the Rings will never happen again as Hollywood is even worse now than it was back then.

Learning this story just disgusts me. I am glad Peter Jackson cut ties with Mirmax.

This video deserves more eyes on it.

I thought I knew everything about these movies, this was news to me. Thanks for making a great mini documentary!

Quentin and Harvey were two peas in a pod. Quentin is a creep 100%.

I remember downloading LotR FSotR trailer for few hours… how times have changed. These were better days, the anticipation was giving more value to everything. Now we are all spoiled kids.

Love this edit, a job well done Hayden Myers, you should be a director....

I think one again this shows that we should, just give artists unrestricted funds. Every great movie seems to have this story of almost being destroyed by Hollywood moneymen, and every bad movie a story of it being worn down to what we got from something that might have been great.

Kinda makes you wonder, how many terrible movies were made that way just because some one executive was like "no, make it shorter and cheaper."

Star Wars and Lord of the Rings are my favorite film series'.

It's a shame the Hobbit didn't work out half as well as LotR...

Thats why we have an Orc that looks like Harvey Weinstein at the battle of the Pellanor fields.

He should do what miyazaki did, sent hin a bloody sword encraved with the Works: "no cuts"

If only Hobbit was that good. Missed opportunity

Tolkien giganerds can complain about the movies all they want, but.... we could have got the Weinstein approved version. Mull that one over, and appreciate the wonderful thing that we got.

The fans got very involved in LOTR and actually helped it become a more Tolkien movie. Peter Jackson was going off the rails with Arwen especially. Turning her into a warrior elf for the Helms Deep battle. When the fans heard of that... the rest is history. Peter Jackson has thanked the fans in every commentary track ^

The goosebumps at the Montage...wow....

I shudder to think how close we came to never getting an acceptable LOTR adaptation. Hollywood execs should never be allowed to meddle like that.

Quentin Tarantino directing a two-hour version of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy? That would be like getting stormy daniels and donald trump to play Mary and Joseph in a Gospel film. Some things are just blasphemous by default.

This trilogy is really a miracle

This project could have gone sideways in so many ways…the battles Peter Jackson had to fight. What story of success.

Weinstein also almost ruined Princess Mononoke, but no cuts 🗡️

I'd like to see this 11 minute documentary expanded into a 2 hour narrative film.

They literally won every oscar except the best actors and actress!

I just want to flex that Peter Jackson was my favorite director before LOTR because of Heavenly Creatures - I knew he was special

Amazing ending, almost felt like attending a $2M afterparty!

Really cool documentary. I had no idea about this history.

Scary to think how terrible this movie could have been. Perhaps even worse than Rings of Power?