To celebrate the 20th anniversary of The Lord of the Rings, Deadline spoke with many of the key players involved in getting the movie made for a deep dive retrospective. The full piece is a fascinating look back into what has become one of the biggest fantasy movie series ever, and it contains a number of eye-catching stories about the struggle to get the movies made.
In particular, the budget was a concern. Jackson was initially given $60 million per movie, but this was optimistic. In reality, he needed at least $120 million for each movie, and this ballooning budget caused a stir amongst the financiers who were paying for it.
“There was a lot of pressure, and they were very upset with us as the budgets went up,” Jackson said of New Line executives Rolf Mittwe and Bob Shaye. “The anger was understandable. They aren’t the bad guys in this story; we are really the bad guys for going over budget.”
This pressure and anger eventually “stabilized,” Jackson said, when producer Barrie Osborne joined the project. At this time, the movie got “re-budgeted and realistic.”
“We all felt a bit under siege, but looking back on it, I get it, I understand it all now much clearer,” Jackson said.
While things did eventually settle down, Jackson recalled a particularly tense moment when he blew a fuse on set. While filming the Helm’s Deep scene for The Two Towers, Jackson eyed Osborne walking up to the remote set in a rock quarry, carrying a special phone that could work in off-the-grid locations. Osborne had New Line’s Michael Lynne on the phone for Jackson to discuss budget concerns and the possibility of suing the director, but Jackson was having none of it.
Here’s how it went down:
“It was a period of time when New Line were at their most angry with us in terms of the budget,” Jackson said. “I am on the parapet, probably with Viggo [Mortensen], and I see Barrie. It took him about 30 minutes to huff and puff his way to get on the top, and so I kept on shooting. Barrie arrives and says, ‘I have the studio, I’ve got to connect you with Michael Lynne of New Line.’ I ask why. He says, ‘Oh, he’s going to threaten to sue you and sell the house from under you to cover the cost overruns.’ Barrie was just the messenger, but it was one of the only points where I really snapped. I said, ‘Just tell Michael Lynne that I’m shooting this f**king film and I’m doing the best job I can, and I’m not going to interrupt my day with a phone call like that.’ Barrie picked up the cellphone and made his way back down to the car and drove off.”
Also in the piece, Jackson recalls a time when he saw a different side of Shaye. He traveled to Los Angeles to screen footage from the film at Shaye’s house, and Jackson witnessed Shaye breaking down into tears in the bathroom over his concerns about doing right by the stakeholders.
“Before it started, Bob signaled to me with his finger, you know, ‘Come with me.’ I followed him, and we went into a bathroom, he shut the door. I’m there alone in a bathroom with Bob Shaye thinking, what the hell is this? He looked at me and he said, ‘Please, Peter, please, we have all these partners, they’re relying on the success of this film. If it doesn’t work, they’re going to go under, so I just want you to know how important it is for me that we don’t let our partners down.’ And he began to cry. I mean, Bob began to sob, and it was literally the most personal moment that I ever had with him.”
Jackson added: “I just said to Bob, ‘Look, I’m doing my best, Bob. I hear you, I get it, and I understand, and I’m trying to make the best film I can.’ He really cared. He was crying not on behalf of New Line. He was crying on behalf of all the international partners that they brought on board to help finance the film, the Greens and the Hadidas, all the independent distributors that had bought into the project. He was crying on their behalf, not on his own, or his own company’s behalf.”
This is just a very small sampling of the fascinating insight from Deadline’s piece–go read the full thing here.
The Lord of the Rings would go on to become a massive success both commercially and critically. The entire series won 17 Academy Awards, and The Return of the King specifically won 11 on its own, including Best Picture. Jackson would go on to direct The Hobbit trilogy, but it was not as successful critically, and Jackson later acknowledged he was winging it.
Looking ahead, Warner Bros. is producing a Lord of the Rings animated movie, while Amazon is currently shooting a Lord of the Rings TV series. Outside of film and TV, Daedalic Entertainment just shared more details on its upcoming game, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum. What’s more, a new Lord of the Rings audiobook is coming from Andy Serkis.
