Kiwi director Peter Jackson helped revolutionize modern studio blockbusters with his original “Lord of The Rings” trilogy, using practical effects in conjunction with newly developed CGI effects from his companies Weta Digital and Weta Workshop. These companies would later help bring James Cameron’s “Avatar” to life. While there were mixed reactions to “The Hobbit” critically, the three films in the trilogy almost made $1 billion each. And when it was announced that Amazon Studios had secured the television rights to make a “Lord of The Rings” series, Jackson told the media he was open to helping out, supervising or having some creative role.
“I think they’re going to send us some scripts to see if we can help them along,” he told Metro UK in late 2018.
So, while there had been some initial promises about courting the filmmaker for his help, instead, he was essentially ghosted, and those scripts never materialized. On The Hollywood Reporter’s podcast, Awards Chatter revealed the story of him and co-writer/producer Fran Walsh essentially never hearing back after some early discussions.
“They asked me if I wanted to be involved — [writer-producer Fran Walsh] and I — and I said, ‘That’s an impossible question to answer without seeing a script,’” Jackson recalled. “So they said, ‘As soon as we get the first couple scripts, we’ll send them to you.’ And the scripts never showed up. That’s the last thing I heard, which is fine. No complaints at all.”
He also reiterated the story on an upcoming episode of The Business podcast, as posted by THR.
“About four, five years ago, they asked if I would be interested in it,” the director says. “So I said, ‘Have you got the scripts yet?’ Because I know how hard the scripts were to write for the films, and I didn’t know the people writing their scripts. They said, ‘Oh no, we haven’t got the scripts yet, but as soon as we do, we’ll send you the scripts.’ So I was waiting for the scripts to arrive, and they never did.”
This experience doesn’t mean that Jackson won’t be watching the show, “I’ll be watching it. I’m not the sort of guy who wishes ill will. Filmmaking is hard enough. If somebody makes a good film or TV show, it’s something to celebrate. The one thing I am looking forward to is actually seeing it as a perfectly neutral viewer.”
Amazon reacted to Jackson’s comments with the following statement:
“In pursuing the rights for our show, we were obligated to keep the series distinct and separate from the films. We have the utmost respect for Peter Jackson and ‘The Lord of The Rings’ films and are thrilled that he is looking forward to watching ‘The Rings of Power.’”
The outlet claims that showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay attempted to make overtures to the filmmaker privately. Still, the biggest hurdle came from the Tolkien estate, as they were said to be against having Jackson on board. And this totally tracks given the history of the estate and Jackson’s films.
It was never a secret that Christopher Tolkien, the son of the famed author, hated Jackson’s movies and called them an “evisceration” of his father’s work. Before his death, Christopher wielded the powers of the Tolkien estate and oversaw his father’s unpublished work by editing and putting together a volume of novels chronicling the history of Middle-Earth (loosely what is inspiring the show). He then could dictate what Amazon could and couldn’t use in “The Rings of Power,” series which takes place in the Second Age, long before the events of the original four novels. And well, that’s probably the very reason Jackson was ghosted: the estate.
“Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power” is set to debut next month on Prime Video. Listen to the entire podcast conversation below.