The Lord of the Rings trilogy is one of the most successful series in the fantasy genre. It still rules over other popular franchises like Game of Thrones and Harry Potter, even after two decades.
The creator of this trilogy took inspiration from George Lucas and Star Wars during its creation. But the one from whom Jackson took inspiration praised him. Yes right, Lucas, the creator of Star Wars, admired Jackson for successfully advocating the creation of his trilogy.
George Lucas Applauded How Peter Jackson Manipulated The Studio For LOTR Trilogy
In an interview with Charlie Rose, George Lucas revealed (video posted by Remembrance of Things Past on YouTube) that Peter Jackson pitched the studio to shoot all the movies of The Lord of the Rings trilogy together. Why? Because it would be cost-effective.
Jackson hadn’t actually filmed all the movies after securing the deal. However, the studio was willing to proceed with the following films due to the first movie’s success. As Lucas said, he [Jackson] convinced “the studio to make all three movies and sort of get them pregnant with all of them.” The creator of Star Wars continued:
“The sell wasn’t easier, and basically what he [Peter Jackson] did was say, ‘Well, this I’ll do all of them at once, and it’ll cost the same price as if I did one.’ And somebody bought that story, and later on, he [Jackson] said, ‘oh yeah, by the way, I didn’t really shoot all of em. I only shot a little bit of each one, and now I’m gonna have to pay for all of em.’ But by then, it was too late, and he was lucky that he did a fantastic job. It was extremely successful. So then it was okay for the other ones to be done.”
Jackson’s journey to make this iconic trilogy wasn’t easy at all.
Peter Jackson’s Journey in the Epic Making of LOTR Trilogy
Miramax joined forces with Peter Jackson to fund the production of The Lord of the Rings films in 1997. But, Disney didn’t like the cost of a two-parter and requested it to be produced as a single film instead.
Jackson disagreed with Disney’s preference for a single film and searched for a different studio. So, Miramax sold the rights of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit to New Line Cinema in 1998.
The three films of LOTR were shot in Jackson’s native New Zealand from 1999 to 2000 at the same time. Though the pick-up shots were done from 2001 to 2003. It was one of the biggest and most ambitious film projects ever made (that time)—with a budget of $281 million.
