![]() In 1998, Variety reported, Jackson pitched two “Lord of the Rings” films to New Line Films chairman Bob Shaye was impressed and said “Let’s do three.” Shaye also greenlit the idea of filming the three simultaneously. Jackson and Walsh resisted and were given three weeks to find a new film company. “LOTR” was developed as two films, but Weinstein later changed his mind and wanted to combine three books into one film. Jackson, Walsh and Miramax worked out a deal for the Tolkien books. Fate steered us there.” (“English Patient” was in danger of shutting down as funding collapsed Weinstein and Miramax gave the film the needed cash.) We said ‘We don’t know who has rights’ and it turned out the rights were held by Saul Zaentz, whom Harvey had just bailed out on ‘The English Patient’ (1997). “We called up Harvey (Weinstein, head of U.S.-based Miramax), since we had a first-look deal with him. So we finally thought, ‘Why don’t we inquire about rights to these books?’ I assumed they would be tied up and impossible. “We kept referring to Tolkien’s books, which were such a benchmark as we attempted to write an original. “Around 1995, the time of ‘The Frighteners,’ Fran and I began writing an original story,” Jackson recalled. Jackson and Walsh had been thinking about a film adaptation for years, but it seemed like a remote dream: Various Hollywood companies had held the rights since the 1960s, after the three “LOTR” volumes were published between July 1954 and October 1955. Tolkien’s works are in two different styles: ‘Hobbit’ was written as a children’s book and ‘Lord of the Rings’ obviously wasn’t.” ![]() “Our first idea was to do ‘The Hobbit’ as single film, then if that worked, do two ‘Lord of the Rings’ movies.
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