I’ve never read the Lord of the Rings books, though I understand they have a very devoted following. I can only imagine the reaction that must have occurred after it was announced that Peter Jackson would be directing the movie versions. This was the same guy who made a number of low-budget horror comedies, including the infamously avoided “Meet the Feebles”.
Regardless of your opinion of the movies, it must be acknowledged that they have been a success in box office sales, critics reviews, and in the winning of awards. So, basically I’m just wondering if there were those who were knocking the idea of Peter Jackson being the director before the premiere of the first movie.
In a similar vein, just what would have happened had the first movie been a financial and critical flop? Would the studio have been committed to releasing the other two? I would imagine if they did, they wouldn’t have looked quite as spectacular, as the budget would have probably been cut dramatically, (aka no reshooting, no time spent on visual effects, reduced post-production work, straight-to-video, or even outright cancellation of the project…)
I only remember that I was extremely skeptical when I heard that they were going to make movies based on LotR.
When I heard that the director would be Peter Jackson, I laughed out loud.
Of all people on earth I did not expect Peter Jackson, director of timeless classics like Braindead and Bad Taste, hero of our mildly drunk video evenings.
However moments later, I started to like the idea.
Well Jackson himself came up with idea of a two part version and sold it to Miramax. But Harvey Weinnstein who loved Heavenly Creatures couldn’t get Disney to cough up the $190 million so he gave Jackson 4 weeks to find finance. Using his own money Jackson made a pitch tape and sold the movie to New Line.
Apparently as costs soared Bob Shaye of New Line visited the studio where Jackson was working and found posters for Bad Taste, Braindead and Meet The Feebles on the walls and was worried that he had made a mistake but the footage he saw reassured him.
Even though New Line would have had to sell up to Warner Brothers if LOTR did bad business even it’s first weekend, New Line were commited because they had bankrolled bombs like Little Nicky, Thirteen Days and Town and Country in 2000.
It’s no surprise that Shaye would back Jackson - he had previously bankrolled Wes Craven when he was a nobody.
There wasn’t as much moaning as you might think because Heavenly Creatures had already shown Jackson was a capable dramatic director, not just the cheapo splatter king. In any case, many famous directors have low-budget genre pictures on their resume–but when Martin Scorcese starts a new project, it’s not like people say, “The guy who did Boxcar Bertha? He’s a hack!”
Since all three movies were shot simultaneously, the studio would have to be insane not to release the other two, even if the first one had flopped. Even if Fellowship was a disaster of Battlefield Earth proportions, there’d still be enough faithful Tolkien fans who would dutifully trudge to the theatres or pick up the DVDs to recoup a bit of the studio’s three-picture investment. As you say, though, the studio would have tried to cut costs on the special effects and reshoots.
Meet the Feebles is actually pretty well-received in some circles, and the low-budget horror flicks (such as Braindead/Dead-Alive) are modern masterpieces of black comedy. Who can forget the priest’s line: “I kick ass for the LORD!”?
That said, when I first heard Peter Jackson was directing Lord of the Rings, the very first film that came to mind for me was Heavenly Creatures… and I instantly saw that Jackson could do LotR well. I had seen several of is movies by then, including The Frighteners and Dead-Alive, but HC is the one that stood out for me.
I do remember others who questioned the fitness of the choice of director. Whenever someone would mention their disdain of Jackson at the helm of LotR, I would invariably point them in the direction of Heavenly Creatures. If they followed my advice and saw it, they came away at least more open to the idea that he could undertake such an ambitious project as Lord of the Rings.
And imagine my delight when we all found that he not only could do it, he exceeded expectations at nearly every turn.
I found very little of value in Meet the Feebles, along with Jackson’s other gross out movies. Just isn’t my cup of tea. What I knew going in was that he made Heavenly Creatures and that was more than enough for me. The fantasy sequences in that movie were beautifully done with a low budget, I saw exactly the sensibilities that would appeal to someone casting LOTR. I still think I like Heavenly Creatures more than the trilogy despite a deep affection for both.
Since all three movies were released at once, New Line certainly would have been able to release the last two movies, perhaps as direct-to-video and certainly missing a lot of the post-production work. I do think there are enough drooling Tolkien fanboys who would watch/buy the movie(s) no matter how badly they suck, so predictions of a studio-busting, “Heaven’s Gate”-like disaster were likely unfounded.
One thing’s for sure…if the movies bombed, we would have missed out on those wonderful “Extended” Editions!!