{"id":1777,"date":"2007-01-11T17:34:00","date_gmt":"2007-01-11T17:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/01\/and-now-a-look-back-at-happier-times\/"},"modified":"2007-01-11T17:34:00","modified_gmt":"2007-01-11T17:34:00","slug":"and-now-a-look-back-at-happier-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/01\/and-now-a-look-back-at-happier-times.html","title":{"rendered":"And now, a look back at happier times."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

FWIW, the increasingly nasty war of words<\/a> between New Line Cinema co-founder Bob Shaye and Lord of the Rings<\/a><\/i> director Peter Jackson has had me thinking back wistfully to this Salon.com<\/a> story that I remember reading way, way back in November 2001 (gadzooks, Harry Potter<\/a> looks so young in that photo):<\/span><\/p>\n

At a time when the big, mainstream studios are managed by teams of bland executives whose marching orders are set by corporate bean counters, New Line, despite its ownership, has always moved to Shaye\u2019s own mercurial personality.<\/p>\n

And with \u201cLord of the Rings,\u201d Shaye has put his company (and his own legacy) in the hands of two men: Peter Jackson, a director whose work up to now has hardly put him in the same league as a Steven Spielberg, James Cameron or a George Lucas; and Tolkien, a fusty Oxford don whose nearly half-century-old fantasy has a huge, devoted following but has never successfully made the journey to film. . . .<\/p>\n

Jackson\u2019s original plan was to make \u201cThe Hobbit,\u201d and, if it was successful, then to turn the full \u201cLord of The Rings\u201d tale into two movies, shot back-to-back. Easy enough \u2014 but the plan required that Miramax obtain the rights to the books from Saul Zaentz<\/a>, the difficult but talented Academy Award-winning producer of \u201cOne Flew Over the Cuckoo\u2019s Nest\u201d and \u201cAmadeus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zaentz had controlled all \u201cLOTR\u201d film and merchandising rights since the 1970s and had refused to part with them ever since he produced Bakshi\u2019s movie. But Miramax had an edge: The company was bailing out Zaentz on the production costs for \u201cThe English Patient\u201d (which would also go on to win an Oscar<\/a> for best picture). Weinstein began what would become a yearlong process to secure the rights to \u201cLord of the Rings.\u201d (Zaentz controls \u201cThe Hobbit\u201d as well, but because of some preexisting copyright kink, United Artists owns the rights<\/a> to distribute the film, so Weinstein decided to dive directly into \u201cThe Lord of the Rings.\u201d)<\/p>\n

By early 1997, Miramax had completed its deal with Zaentz, and Jackson turned his attention to making two \u201cLOTR\u201d films for $75 million. But as the director got deeper into the development process, the budget began to look inadequate; Weinstein\u2019s partner and brother, Bob, pushed to find another studio to help shoulder the cost. With no takers, in mid-1998, Miramax decided that the only way it could move ahead was to make a single three-hour film. Harvey Weinstein, by some accounts, was furious when Jackson told him he couldn\u2019t agree to direct only one film and wanted to try to find someone else willing to finance two.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt got really ugly,\u201d says one person close to the situation. The outsized, dogged movie mogul had, after all, allowed Jackson to break from his deal with Miramax to make \u201cThe Frighteners\u201d and to work on another dream project, \u201cKing Kong<\/a>,\u201d since scuttled, both at Universal; and besides that had spent nearly a year securing the rights for the director to a project no one else previously had managed to get. . . .<\/p>\n

Miramax had already sunk about $12 million into the project \u2014 buying rights, testing special effects and paying Jackson. Not wanting to lose that investment, Weinstein grudgingly agreed to give Jackson three weeks to try to find a new backer \u2014 with several seemingly prohibitive restrictions. Among these demands were that Miramax\u2019s investment be repaid within 72 hours of a signed agreement; that the two Weinsteins share executive producer credit with Zaentz on any film that resulted; and that the brothers receive a hefty 5 percent of the gross earnings of any and all films.<\/p>\n

With the clock ticking, in late summer 1998 Jackson\u2019s representatives began shopping the two scripts and an animatronics tape (a reel of storyboards accompanied by actors\u2019 voice-overs) to major studios and a few top producers who held significant sway with certain studios. Quickly, nearly every potential patron summarily passed on the \u201cLord of the Rings\u201d project, citing issues of cost, scope or Jackson\u2019s ability to pull it off. Only two companies \u2014 New Line and Polygram Filmed Entertainment \u2014 were willing to hear Jackson\u2019s full pitch for the project. While his team was out soliciting interest, to further help their cause Jackson returned to New Zealand to shoot a documentary to make the case that this was the right time to mount \u201cLord of the Rings.\u201d His central point: Movie-making technology had finally caught up to Tolkien\u2019s imagination. Jackson spent roughly $35,000 of his own money to make the reel, which included footage of special-effects tests, creature models, locations in New Zealand and interviews with department heads.<\/p>\n

The next week, Jackson and his writing and producing partner, Frances Walsh, flew to Los Angeles with props and that 38-minute raison d\u2019\u00eatre for a day of meetings, first with Polygram and then with New Line. The group from Polygram was intensely interested in the project, but because the company had just been taken over by Universal Studios, its future was up in the air; the executives present hadn\u2019t the authority to make a deal. So Jackson\u2019s last hope came down to New Line.<\/p>\n

Shaye first met with Jackson alone. The director recalls: \u201cEssentially, he said, \u2018Look, you know before I hear your presentation that I\u2019d love to work with you. You\u2019re always welcome here.\u2019 He seemed to be almost preparing me in advance to say no.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then Shaye heard the team\u2019s presentation and watched the documentary. Jackson\u2019s agent, Ken Kamins, who was also in the room, says that when the tape ran out, Shaye turned to the group and said, \u201cWell, it\u2019s not two movies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Says Kamins: \u201cAnd Peter begins to hang his head, dejectedly, because he\u2019s thinking, \u2018Oh, no. Not again.\u2019 But Bob says, \u2018Tolkien did your job for you. He wrote three books. It\u2019s three movies.\u2019 At which point my foot is black and blue because Peter is kicking me under the table because he can\u2019t believe what he\u2019s hearing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kamins and Jackson weren\u2019t the only ones stunned by Shaye\u2019s pronouncement. \u201cI was hoping no one would pick it up \u2014 and some people corporately rooted that they wouldn\u2019t,\u201d admits Weinstein, who thought the project would come back to Miramax and Jackson would concede to doing one film. \u201cI was surprised.\u201d . . .<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That\u2019s more than I intended to quote, but it\u2019s such a fascinating story, and there\u2019s a lot, lot more where that came from.<\/p>\n

Sigh. Makes you wish they could all just get along again. Also makes you realize that nothing has really changed, even if some of the personalities involved are wearing different hats this time.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FWIW, the increasingly nasty war of words between New Line Cinema co-founder Bob Shaye and Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson has had me thinking back wistfully to this Salon.com story that I remember reading way, way back in November 2001 (gadzooks, Harry Potter looks so young in that photo): At a time when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nAnd now, a look back at happier times.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"FWIW, the increasingly nasty war of words between New Line Cinema co-founder Bob Shaye and Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson has had me thinking\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/01\/and-now-a-look-back-at-happier-times.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"And now, a look back at happier times.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"FWIW, the increasingly nasty war of words between New Line Cinema co-founder Bob Shaye and Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson has had me thinking\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/01\/and-now-a-look-back-at-happier-times.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-01-11T17:34:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. 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