The production of The Lord of the Rings film series posed enormous challenges, both logistical and creative. Under Peter Jackson's direction, these obstacles were overcome between 1997 and 2004. Many attempts to produce J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings had failed; the few that had reached the screen were animations. Since the publication of the source novels in the mid-1950s, many filmmakers and producers had considered a film but then set the project aside. The series as filmed by Jackson consists of three epic fantasy adventure films. They were produced by New Line Cinema, assisted by WingNut Films. The theatre versions appeared between 2001 and 2003, and the extended edition for home video in 2004. Development began in August 1997. The films were shot simultaneously. Their production was undertaken entirely in Jackson's native New Zealand. It spanned the 14-month period from October 1999 until December 2000, with pick-up shots filmed over a further 24 months, from 2001 to 2003.
Storyboarding began in 1997; the Tolkien illustrators Alan Lee and John Howe worked as conceptual artists throughout the project, Lee mainly on architecture, Howe on characters such as Gandalf and the Balrog. Extensive sets were built, including the village of Hobbiton. Weta Workshop created armour, weapons, prosthetics, monsters and other creatures, and miniatures. Some of the miniatures, such as of the city of Minas Tirith, were very large and extremely detailed, becoming known as "bigatures". The work was driven by Jackson's desire for realism, to give the effect of history rather than fantasy. Animals were studied to make the creatures biologically believable; weapons and armour were based on appropriate medieval or classical era peoples. Some 48,000 pieces of armour, 10,000 arrows, 500 bows, 10,000 Orc heads, 1,800 pairs of Hobbit feet serving as shoes, and 19,000 costumes were created for the filming.
The composer Howard Shore saw the set in August 2000 and watched the assembly cuts of the first two films. He created around 100 leitmotifs to represent themes (such as the Ring), cultures, and characters, a record in the history of cinema, resulting in a long, complex and Academy Award-winning film score.
Visual effects broke new ground in filmmaking, from prosthetics to almost wholly digitally-realized creatures such as Gollum. The Hobbits are represented as tall, and the Dwarves as around tall, requiring sets both at normal scale for Men and Elves, and at larger scale for Hobbits and Dwarves — these were able to use the same scale of sets by virtue of the casting of shorter actors for Hobbits, taller actors for Dwarves. Monsters such as trolls, the Watcher in the Water, the Balrog, and the Ents were created entirely with computer-generated imagery, requiring months of design work from sketches to maquettes and finally computer work. Many scenes were created by filming natural scenery or miniatures, and combining these images with those of actors on a green-screen studio set.
Development
Previous adaptations
Tolkien's novels The Hobbit (1937) and The Lord of the Rings (1954–55), set in Middle-earth, were the subject of many early failed attempts to bring the fictional universe to life in screen. Tolkien was skeptical of the prospects of an adaptation. While animated and live-action shorts were made in 1967 and 1971, the first commercial depiction of one of his books onscreen was an animated television special of The Hobbit, produced by Rankin/Bass in 1977. The first cinematic adaptation of the fictional setting was Ralph Bakshi's animated 1978 film The Lord of the Rings.
The rights to adapt Tolkien's works passed through the hands of several studios, having been briefly leased to Rembrandt Films before being sold perpetually to United Artists (UA), who then passed them in part to Saul Zaentz (which did business as Middle-earth Enterprises). Filmmakers and producers interested in an adaptation included Walt Disney, Al Brodax, Forrest J Ackerman, Samuel Gelfman, Denis O'Dell (who contacted David Lean, Stanley Kubrick and Michelangelo Antonioni to direct), and Heinz Edelmann.
At the time that Bakshi's film was released, a teenaged Peter Jackson had not read the book, and went to see the film: "I liked the early part – it had some quaint sequences in Hobbiton, a creepy encounter with the Black Rider on the road, and a few quite good battle scenes – but then, about half way through, the storytelling became very disjointed and disorientating and I really didn't understand what was going on. However, what it did do was to make me want to read the book – if only to find out what happened!" He then read the book,Sibley (2001), pp.11–12 thinking it would make for a great live-action film. He assumed that Disney or filmmakers like George Lucas or Steven Spielberg would eventually produce one for him to see, but realized it would have been impossible to adapt at the time. An amateur filmmaker, he soon tried making original fantasy films inspired by Jason and the Argonauts and Conan the Barbarian. He did not revisit the books until 1997, thinking that he would be out of his depth to adapt them.
Early development
In 1995, Jackson and his partner Fran Walsh were finishing The Frighteners and considered doing an original high-fantasy film to keep their special effects company in business. With the new developments in computer-generated imagery following 1993's Jurassic Park, Jackson set about planning a "Lord of the Rings-type of story" but whenever he and Walsh tried conceiving of a story, they ended with something so similar to Tolkien's books as to be considered derivative. Jackson began wondering "why nobody else seemed to be doing anything about" adapting Tolkien to live-action, and at his request, his agent Ken Kamins tracked the rights to Saul Zaentz.
Since Heavenly Creatures, Jackson was in a contract with Miramax Films. While he and his lawyer were unsure whether he was contractually obligated to bring his pitch to Miramax Films first, Jackson decided to do so out of courtesy, only to realize upon calling Harvey Weinstein that he had recently rescued Zaentz' production of The English Patient, and could therefore leverage the rights from him. Jackson realized it would take multiple films to adapt the books properly, but pitched a single trilogy: one film based on The Hobbit and, if that were to prove successful, a two-part adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, shot back-to-back and released six months apart.
Negotiations with Zaentz were elongated due to Weinstein's intention to keep Zaentz from producing the film himself, and by the fact that the distribution rights for The Hobbit were left in UA's hands. Miramax Films tried to buy the rights from the studio in vain. By April 1996, Jackson had reread The Hobbit and commissioned WETA to produce concept art, when Weinstein suggested postponing it to a potential prequel.
Weinstein's dalliance led Jackson to take up an offer from Universal Studios to film a remake of King Kong. Weinstein was furious, but Jackson still intended to make The Lord of the Rings immediately afterwards, and had the book to hand, re-reading the prologue. Indeed, he suggested that Miramax Films and Universal co-distribute both films, to which Weinstein agreed once Universal threw Shakespeare in Love into the deal, as well.
Pre-production for Miramax
When Universal cancelled King Kong in 1997, Jackson and Walsh immediately received support from Weinstein and began a six-week process of sorting out the rights. Jackson and Walsh asked Costa Botes to write a scene-by-scene synopsis of the book, which Jackson then rearranged as the basis for his screen treatment.
Immediately after King Kong's cancellation, Jackson clarified to Weinstein that he still intended to make two films, but concerns expressed by Miramax led him to try and write the treatment as a single film, "but by the time we had got to the end, it was clear that we were talking about two films." At the story conference at Miramax (during which the Bakshi film was screened), the Weinsteins "blanched" but accepted this. While writing the treatment, Jackson considered doing three films and "shaped our treatment into three parts" before Miramax rejected the idea.
Between the synopsis and the treatment, Jackson decided to cut Gildor, Crickhollow, the Old Forest, Tom Bombadil, the Barrow-wight, Bill Ferney, Radagast, Lothlorien and Ghan-Buri-Ghan. The final treatment divides the story into two parts: The Fellowship of the Ring (which covered the novel of that name, and The Two Towers) and The War of the Ring (which covered The Return of the King). The first opens immediately with the Battle of the Last Alliance (in what Jackson called a "James Bond" opening) and ends with Saruman's death, and Gandalf and Pippin (the latter having looked into the Palantir) going to Minas Tirith.
In this treatment, Farmer Maggot and Glorfindel are present; Gwaihir and Gandalf visit Edoras after escaping Saruman, and Eowyn and Eomer help him find Shadowfax against the wishes of a possessed Theoden. Gollum attacks Frodo when the Fellowship is still united, a struggle during which the Ring falls into the mud and is picked up by Boromir. Bilbo attends the Council of Elrond and Sam looks into Galadriel's mirror. At the end of the film, Saruman is shot by an overhead Nazgûl and, before his death, is redeemed through issuing the Palantir for Gandalf to look into. Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli are sent south to espy Sauron's forces, and Frodo and Sam are en route to the Black Gate.
The second film opens in the thick of battle, and ends with Frodo sailing to the West. It features a more pronounced romantic triangle with Arwen and Eowyn, including a scene of Aragorn and Eowyn "asleep in each other's arms"; and has Elladan, Elrohir and Erkenbrand join Aragorn on the Paths of the Dead (the latter dying in the process), which are described as though made of flesh. The Nazgul just make it into Mount Doom before they fall.
They presented this treatment to Harvey and Bob Weinstein, the latter of whom they focused on impressing with their screenwriting, as Bob had not read the book. They agreed upon two films and a total budget of $150 million across two films combined. Early discussions of casting were held, with Miramax Films wanting to "americanize" the project, and suggesting star names like Daniel Day-Lewis for Aragorn (starting "fanciful internet speculation" that Day-Lewis was allegedly approached for the part several times) and even suggested Morgan Freeman for Gandalf. Weinstein had dissuaded Jackson from considering Mira Sorvino and Ashley Judd, whom Weinstein had secretly harassed just previous to this time. Jackson compiled his own casting wishlist, which included Ian Holm for Bilbo Baggins and Cate Blanchett for Galadriel.
Meanwhile, WETA Digital developed the "MASSIVE" software and WETA Workshop began conceptual design for the films. Having used their paintings for inspiration (to the point of showing them in story conferences) Jackson suggested hiring Alan Lee and John Howe. Miramax didn't want to involve Lee, due to his association with the Tolkien Estate, but Jackson tracked the reclusive Lee through Michael Palin and convinced him and Howe to join the project. Howe, who previously mailed Lee and spoke to him on the phone once, met him on the plane. Howe brought along a collection of recreated Medieval armour for reference. A third artist, Ted Nasmith, was invited to join, but had to decline. Ralph Bakshi claimed that Jackson's company bought many of his designs.
During mid-1997, Jackson and Walsh began writing the two scripts with Stephen Sinclair. Sinclair's partner, Philippa Boyens, was a major fan of the book and joined the writing team after reading their treatment. It took 13 to 14 months to write the scripts, which were 147 and 144 pages respectively.