Kristin Thompson
Rohan
Sep 10 2010, 2:33pm
Views: 6049
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The LOTR trilogy production got delayed by perhaps a year due to the Miramax problems. Early 1997, Miramax acquires LOTR production and distribution rights. PJ, Fran, and eventually Phillippa write the script and lots of pre-production goes on, for 18 months. In June, 1998, Michael Eisner decides Miramax can only make one feature instead of two, with a budget cap of $75 mil. PJ refused, and Harvey Weinstein gave him three weeks to find another studio. The meeting with Bob Shaye at New Line takes place sometime in July. Negotiations follow, and the switch to NL is announced in August.
The three then rewrite the script--which they more-or-less have to do from scratch because the structure is so completely changed by the expansion to three parts. Principal photography begins in October of 1999. Of course, a lot of pre-production material already created could be used in the film. Still, there was a delay, including a very scary month for the filmmakers, who thought all their work might be turned over to some other director at Miramax. It's true that the public didn't pay much attention at the time. As far as I can tell, MIramax never announced that it was producing the film, so the fact of an adaptation wasn't known to the public until August 1998. But if we had been paying attention, we would have been at least as frustrated and worried--if not more so. After all, how many people knew who PJ was in those days? (I only knew his name from having seen some good reviews of Heavenly Creatures.)
At least this time we know, 1) that the film will be made eventually, and 2) that with PJ in charge to a considerable extent, whether as director/producer or producer, we should get a worthy successor to LOTR.
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7th extension ? Very likely.
