If Harvey Weinstein had fired Peter Jackson as director of Lord of the Rings and replaced him with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, it probably wouldn't have made the Top 100. Weinstein threatened to take LotR away from Jackson if he didn't condense J.R.R. Tolkien's trilogy into a single, 150-minute movie.
The Independent has a wonderful new oral history of the making of the films, and it shows that Peter Jackson had a deal with Miramax when he was developing the Lord of the Rings movies. Weinstein was initially against Jackson's plan to make multiple movies, but he relented after Disney objected.
Harvey was happy. We thought we would have room to tell the stories, but we weren't paying attention to the political dynamic between Miramax and Disney. Disney had set a budget cap on Miramax that was well in excess of what they could greenlight on their own. When Disney decided to shoot the films back-to-back, and the director was not an A-list name, they made it clear they were not going to do it. Harvey began the process of not admitting to the Disney pushback and then at the same time saying to Peter, "This is what you have to do."
Weinstein turned into a huge, abusive asshole as a result of this, and demanded massive changes to the project he had previously approved. Again, from Kamins.
Bob Weinstein suggested that we kill three of the Hobbits. The relationship between Peter and Miramax soured because Disney didn't want the adaptation. Harvey would turn into Mr. Hyde and threaten Peter. If Peter couldn't do it in one film that was two-and-a-half hours, he'd threaten to get Quentin to direct.
It's not clear if the Lord of the Rings movie would have turned out the way it did, but things worked out. Weinstein let Jackson shop LotR to other studios, which was probably due to Disney not wanting to pay for an expensive epic from a largely untested director. New Line Cinema suggested to Jackson that he turn his two-movie project into a trilogy.
The oral history is filled with stories from Ian McKellan, John Rhys-Davies, and more. Sir Christopher Lee, who was a member of England's Special Operations Executive during World War II, is known for his work in sabotage, creating resistance armies in occupied territories, and assassination. Dominic Monaghan, who played Merry in the movies, said that he once saw him throw a pen at a tree and it stuck into the tree.
Bob Ordesky, producer of New Line Cinema, describes him as the best dinner guest he has ever had. His most boring story is someone else's.
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