Middle-earth in film

In 1938, just as Tolkien began to work on The Lord of the Rings, Walt Disney considered adapting The Hobbit to animation. An animator of Disney's sent a memo suggesting that elements of The Hobbit and Richard Wagner's Ring cycle could be incorporated into the Academy Award winning animated anthology film, Fantasia.[6] According to animator Wolfgang Reitherman, Walt Disney wanted to make a Lord of the Rings feature in the 1950s, but his storyboard artists deemed it too complex, lengthy and scary for a Disney feature.[6] These attempts were the basis of the rumor (perpetuated later by Ralph Bakshi) that Disney held the rights to Tolkien's works before United Artists, which is untrue. On these rumors it was later said in the New York Times that Disney deemed that Tolkien's writings "lacked the kind of humor that audiences expect from Disney animation” and that "any attempt to alter Tolkien's story to inject such humor might result in bad will and vocal resentment among Tolkien devotees."[7]

In 1972, storyboard artist Vance Gerry pitched an animated adaptation dedicated to The Hobbit. He illustrated Bilbo, and produced a synopsis of the work, prefacing that the Disney studios had "never done a cartoon with this much story", admitting that "there are far more incidents in the story than we could ever use" and that "many sections are too frightening for our purposes."[8] He suggested cutting the scarier sequences, which would possibly include the spiders. The pitch was never green-lit, and the project died until 1996.

In June 1956, animator Al Brodax reached out to Tolkien's publisher's with a proposal for an animated film adaptation of his works. The final volume of The Lord of the Rings had only just been published in the US, and didn't yet achieve the commercial success it would later find with the counter-culture movement, but Brodax apparently wanted to adapt it to animation. Tolkien, nearing retirement and yet to see substantial commercial success from his writings, was cautiously interested, saying he should "welcome the idea" of a film, "quite apart from the glint of money",[4] but nothing came out of it.

At the end of the 1956, Tolkien was approached by American agent Forrest J. Ackerman, who had an interest in producing an animated film based on Tolkien's work for am amateur screenwriter and acquaintance called Morton Grady Zimmerman. Ackerman, a literary agent and genre fan, wanted to get into producing films with this project. He later became the editor of the American magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland.

Ackerman showed Tolkien artwork by Ron Cobb and pitched Zimmerman's story synopsis, according to which the story would be condensed to a three-hour film with two intermissions.[6][4] According to Tolkien, it was described to him as an animated film, but he professed to being ignorant of the process, and its possible that Ackerman wished to make a primarily live-action film, using animation, stop-motion and miniature photography for specific characters and environments.[6][9][5] Cobb scouted locations around California for the project,[10] showing pictures of mountains and deserts to Tolkien, who was impressed.[4]

Tolkien already had objections at this phase – Lothlorien was described to him as a fairy-castle, and the story had been greatly condensed[10] – but he liked the concept art, which he describes as akin to Arthur Rackham[11] as opposed to Walt Disney, whom he loathed. While Tolkien noted that a film "would be pleasant",[4] he delayed in reviewing the synopsis until urged by Unwin, and once he delivered his initial notes to Ackerman, the agent was granted a six-month option on the book, if he could find a producer to finance the project. In looking for a studio, he intended to make the film with American International Pictures, but president James Nicholson declined, as did other studio heads.[10][6]

Tolkien was sent a 55-page[12] treatment by Zimmerman, which he greatly disliked.[13] Keeping his publisher's financial interests in mind (and his own, as he neared retirement), Tolkien was diplomatic in his response and even showed appreciation of a few scenes, but largely criticized the script. He complained of divergence from not only the tone of the book (such as a "fairy-tale" depiction of Lothlórien, as well as elements cut "upon which [the book's] characteristic and peculiar tone principally depends") but also the character representation (such as Sam leaving Frodo to Shelob and going on to Mount Doom alone). In addition, he took issue with dialogue changes as regards to the "style and sentiment" of characters, and with intercutting between the storylines of Frodo and Aragorn. He suggested eliminating the battle of Helm's Deep to better emphasize the defense of Minas Tirith, as well as cutting characters out instead of diminishing their roles. Tolkien protested against added "incantations, blue lights, and some irrelevant magic" and "a preference for fights".[5]

Nevertheless, Tolkien didn't wish to kill the project "which I think promised well on the pictorial side."[14] Ackerman filed to extend his lease to a year, but his inability to secure a producer made him unable to pay for the extension, and the negotiations were terminated.[15][5][6] The treatment went under considerable criticism from Ian Nathan,[16] Tom Shippey[17] and others, with Kristin Thompson noting the amateur nature of the enterprise, saying that it never represented a serious attempt to make a commercial film.[9] Zimmerman, who never went into filmmaking after this ordeal,[5] donated his script to the Tolkien collection.[17]

In 1959, Tolkien entered brief negotiations with Robert Gutwillig to adapt The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien told Gutwillig he had "given a considerable amount of time and thought" to a film adaptation, noting "some ideas concerning what I think would be desirable" as well as the "difficulties" involved.[6] Tolkien spoke with Gutwillig's agent and producer, Samuel W. Gelfman. Their discussion was apparently amicable, with Tolkien finding Gelfman intelligent and reasonable,[18] and Gelfman later recalled that they talked about specifics to do with an adaptation.[19] Tolkien directed Gelfman to his publishers, but nothing came out of it.[6]

Tolkien later received a suggestion in fan-mail to have The Hobbit adapted to a serial in four intervals, which was declined by Rayner Unwin for its potential to "incarcerate us in the local odeons for nine or ten hours."[6]

In 1961, William L. Snyder negotiated the rights to adapt The Hobbit to animation. His company, Rembrandt films, had won multiple Oscars for animated shorts, and he contacted Tolkien's agent for the rights to The Hobbit. Unlike Ackerman, Snyder could raise sufficient funds for Tolkien and Unwin to enter negotiations to lease The Hobbit to him for five years, and give him creative freedom in adapting the book in exchange for a percentage off of the revenue. Due to a mishap in the publishing of the first edition of The Hobbit (and, later on, The Lord of the Rings) the books were public domain in the US, which gave Snyder leverage to renegotiate the conditions of the lease. Tolkien and Unwin only received a $15,000 advance.[9]

While Tolkien was aware that Snyder was "sure to perpetrate [...] many objectionable things",[6] he agreed to lease the rights to the producer in 1962. In 1964, having released the new, second edition of The Lord of the Rings in the United States to great commercial success, Tolkien was still wondering if a film will be made, and what it will be like, and Snyder reported that a script was being finalized.[6]

Snyder commissioned cartoonist Gene Deitch to write a script for a feature-length Hobbit cartoon, during which he took significant liberties with the text, inserting a princess of Dale who undertakes the Quest and ends up married to Bilbo. Deitch was unaware of The Lord of the Rings until later in the scripting process,[6] when he incorporated the concept of the Ring of Power into the Gollum (or Goloom, as he's called in the piece) episode later in the writing, making a sequel based on The Lord of the Rings possible.

When a deal with 20th Century Fox fell through and the rights we due to expire, Snyder commissioned Deitch to quickly make a condensed film that would fulfill the requirements of the contract. The deal was for an animated, colour film but didn't specify length, and so Deitch had to compress the story into an animated short, which was screened in New York in 1967. This prolonged Snyder's lease on the rights, which Snyder was now aware were highly prized.[9]

Deitch's film technically constitutes the first onscreen depiction of any of Tolkien's works, but it amounts to little more than a narrated picture-book, with a narrator telling the short story (twelve minutes in length) over a series of animation stills. The film was only exhibited once in a projection room at New York to around twelve spectators who were pulled from the street, provided the admission money by the exhibitors so that they may sign a document stating that they payed to see a color film based on The Hobbit.[9]

Deitch recalled that the extended lease extended to the rights to The Lord of the Rings, and that the rights to both novels were sold back Tolkien for a higher price.[20][21][22][10] However, publisher Sir Stanley Unwin maintains that Snyder continued to hold only the rights to The Hobbit, and that they were then sold directly to United Artists when they secured the rights to The Lord of the Rings.[9]

Tolkien was negotiating television rights separately. Carole Ward suggested adapting The Lord of the Rings for television in 1964, to air on the newly launched BBC2. ITV launched a competing offer, according to which the book will be adapted via puppetry, which Tolkien found contemptuous. Another attempt at purchasing the television rights was made in 1968, which would put it concurrently with the cinema rights being sold to United Artists.[23]

The idea of live-action fantasy became fashionable in the early 1960s due to the success of Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion productions. By 1967, Gelfman established Katzka-Bernie productions with Gabriel Katzka and entered negotiations with Tolkien to adapt The Lord of the Rings for United Artists,[6][19] "with an option for The Hobbit."[9] As was the case with Snyder, the emerging contracts would provide United Artists with complete creative freedom over the works, and even offered UA first bidding at the television rights, which were negotiated separately but never sold to them.[24]

Meanwhile, a couple of American teenagers unsuccessfully attempted to obtain the rights to The Hobbit.[6] Joy Hill, Tolkien's secretary who worked for Allen & Unwin, was said to have contacted Disney for the rights at the time,[1] and it was possible this was done to place United Artists in a competitive position. MGM were also said to have been interested in the rights at the time.[25]

United Artists were the studio behind several of the lucrative widescreen epics of the decade. In the 1960s, long widescreen epics (presented as a roadshow with an intermission) still proved successful, but few sequels were made in that genre, and therefore Katzka-Bernie commissioned Sir Peter Shaffer to write a treatment for a single, three-hour film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, which was deemed "elegant",[26] keeping The Hobbit in mind as a potential prequel. Merchandizing was of little concern at the time, but the rights to make profit off of such products was included in the contract.

Negotiations extended until 1969, when the rights were sold off for $250,000 (adjusted for inflation, the modern equivalent is about $1.5 million) and 7.5% of gross receipts, minus expenses, to be paid to Tolkien. Shaffer's script never got off of the ground, but the rights were sold to United Artists in perpetuity, including the option to pass the rights to another studio. Arlo Guthrie pitched an animated feature to the studio, but UA were adamant they wanted the film to be live-action, although the contract options an animated film.[6]

Stanley Unwin suggested that Tolkien's inexperience in dealing with movie producers led to the generous conditions of the contract.[9] Now elderly, Tolkien's desire to set-up a trust fund for his grandchildren could indicate that he might not have expected to live and see the resulting film, and wanted to use the profits to take care of his ailing wife.[6] The increase in income tax rates at the time decreased Tolkien's profits off of book sales, and he expected a fall-off in the sales in years to come.[27] In 1968, Tolkien expressed skepticism about adapting his works to film, saying "its easier to film the Odyssey",[3] although he reportedly exhibited cautious enthusiasm in a later correspondence with John Boorman.

During this period, The Beatles were on a three-picture deal with United Artists. Their previous two features, A Hard Day's Night and Help!, were directed by Richard Lester and were financially successful. When it became clear that the animated Yellow Submarine would not count as part of this deal, Denis O'Dell (head of the Beatles' Apple Films) entered negotiations for their third film. He came up with the idea of a Lord of the Rings "multimedia musical extravaganza",[26] starring the Beatles as the four Hobbits. He eventually learned that United Artists themselves were in negotiations for the rights.[28]

In conversation with studio heads David and Arnold Picker, it was decided that Richard Lester wasn't up for such an undertaking and a "star director" was required. O'Dell shortlisted David Lean (with his writer at-the-time, Robert Bolt), Stanley Kubrick, and Michelangelo Antonioni. Lean and Kubrick, in particular, had experience in adapting literary works into lucrative widescreen epics, while Antonioni recently made his breakout English-language film in Blowup. Some reports mention a treatment[29] having been written by Paul Gallico,[30] which seems unfounded.[29]

O'Dell phoned Lean once he got back to the hotel. Lean was a fan of A Hard Day's Night and his brother Tangye was an acquaintance of Tolkien's. He was interested, but busy with preproduction on Ryan's Daughter. "It's a very interesting idea, Denis. Unfortunately I'm tied up at the moment with a little love story I'm going to do out here."[28] Another project Lean had recently declined in favour of Ryan's Daughter was a Gandhi biopic, which Lean first pitched in 1958. When Bolt pulled out of Gandhi in order to stay on Lean's film, he used a rhetoric similar to what Lean used to turn down O'Dell. In 1972, Lean and Bolt were in conversations to adapt Dune, but declined. A similarly labyrinthine project, Dune passed to Rospo Pallenberg, and finally to David Lynch, John Harrison and Denis Villeneuve.[31]

O'Dell next contacted Kubrick, who hadn't read the books, but was sent copies to read during the voyage back the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, O'Dell left to India to visit the Beatles, with the books in his suitcase. At the behest of Donovan, who had previously been musically and cinematically interested in the books, the band divided the three volumes among themselves (Harrison was absent on the day of O'Dell's arrival) and began to think "seriously" about the idea.[26]

According to O'Dell, John Lennon (reportedly the most taken with the books) fancied the role of Gandalf, but George Harrison later recalled that John eventually wanted to swap for Frodo. Ringo Starr wanted to play Sam, and Paul McCartney, also taken with the book, coveted Frodo. He later told Jackson that Lennon would have been Gollum, Ringo as Sam, and Harrison as Gandalf. Donovan was keen on Merry, and they wanted Twiggy for Galadriel and "a lot of other people",[32] either their friends or British thespians, for the other parts.[29][28]

When O'Dell returned to England, Kubrick told him the books were excellent, but "unfilmable",[28] but Denis tried to convince Kubrick otherwise. When Lennon (a fan of Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey) returned, O'Dell arranged for him and McCartney to meet Kubrick for lunch at his house. McCartney recalled that Kubrick was charmed and "vaguely interested"[2] but ultimately convinced them it could not be made into a film and, according to Lennon, was "very negative."[33] In a later conversation with O'Dell, Kubrick reiterated that "not a challenge that he or any other director could pull off."[28]

Kubrick's reasons are not known in detail: it could have been a lack of interest on his part[34] or his prior commitment to his unmade Napoleon biopic, which he tried to recruit O'Dell for.[29][28] However, that Kubrick tried to dissuade the Beatles and O'Dell from the project altogether would suggest that his "unfilmable" comment should be taken at face value.

Kubrick worked on genre films before and since and was a fan of such movies as Sergio Leone's westerns, but while he pioneered breakthrough special effects with 2001: A Space Odyssey, it proved a very complex production and towards the end of the project Kubrick was still unable to depict the aliens onscreen, which would have made him wary of the prospect of rendering fantasy creatures.[35] He was still promoting that film, which at this point was yet to garner the critical reappraisal it would later enjoy, nor was it making the box-office returns that Kubrick had hoped for, until the marketing strategy was revised. Chris Conkling[36] and Peter Jackson[37] later said that making it live-action at the time was inconceivable, and Ralph Bakshi said it could have been made, but would have been "very tacky."[38]

Reportedly, Kubrick cited the issues that the "immensity"[39] of the novel's narrative would pose to the script,[40] especially given that the pitch was for one film. Kubrick had disliked Gone With the Wind,[41] which similarly distilled a 1000-page book to three-and-a-half hours, as well as adaptations of War and Peace, both a 200-minute one-film adaptation and a soviet serialized production which was released the year prior.[42] The Lord of the Rings was over a hundred-page longer than those books, was set as an imaginary setting that required establishing, and its plot was more tightly knit (the bulk of it occurring over a year as opposed to 15 in Leo Tolstoy's book or 12 in Margaret Mitchell's) making it more difficult to cut sequences and characters out whole-cloth. Kubrick's own films never exceeded the three-hour runtime before, and splitting the story (an approach considered with such widescreen epics as The Bounty and Cleopatra around that time) would have been risky given that 60s widescreen epics rarely had sequels, and the nature of the story would result in the first part feeling unresolved. Kubrick was also aware that, unlike his other literary adaptations, there was a large fanbase that wouldn't suffer major changes from the book.[6]

Heinz Edelmann, a fan of the book and art director on Yellow Submarine, pitched his own idea for an adaptation to United Artists. Thinking that a "straight"[43] adaptation of the story was impossible, he wanted to do an animated film in the style of Fantasia or "rock opera" with a Kurosawa-like aesthetic.[6] He first considered the Rolling Stones to star, but then latched unto the Beatles', but United Artists wanted a live-action film.[10] "Maybe its better it has remained just a concept",[43] Edelmann concludes.

O'Dell talked to Antonioni,[40] who is said to have been keener,[44] but the project (which was only one of several film project the band members were considering at the time) never got off of the ground. O'Dell recalls that the Beatles themselves simply lost interest.[45][46] Other reported issues extend to disputes within the group over their desired parts,[35] or the notion that some of band members (namely, Harrison and McCartney) were skeptical of the endeavor.[47] McCartney (who credits the initiative to John Lennon rather than O'Dell) remembers that Tolkien himself had reservations regarding the group, "or" - he incorrectly mentions - "maybe they'd already sold them to someone else," referring to United Artists themselves.[48] Supposedly, when Apple films approached Tolkien's agent on the matter,[29] he did threaten to withdraw from the talks with United Artists,[9] which hadn't yet concluded. At any rate, Let It Be became the Beatles third film with United Artists, instead, and Apple films was dissolved when the band broke-up.

This resulted in some false rumors that the Beatles and Kubrick, both already fans of the books,[49] talked about an adaptation in 1965.[6] Allegedly, the Beatles waited outside Kubrick's house until he invited them in,[16] and told them he couldn't do it and sent them calling for Antonioni, only for them to discover that Tolkien sold the rights to United Artists the day prior, all of which is untrue.[40]

After the rights were secured and John Boorman made his script, the idea of casting the Beatles (as the four Hobbits) was brought back to the table by David Picker until the band's separation became publicly known in 1970 and they decided not to regroup.[50] In retrospect, O'Dell is skeptical of the whole venture: "looking back I love the idea of The Beatles being small people in Middle Earth, but I wonder if they could have sustained the long period of shooting."[51][52] Others involved had since described the project as "madcap"[35] or "inspired showmanship."[53]

In 1969, John Boorman was on a two-picture deal with United Artists, having made Leo the Last. Boorman hadn't yet made his big impression with Deliverance, but was a prodigy of David Lean and had an interest in the Arthurian legends since 1962. He approached David Picker with a treatment for an Arthurian epic centered around Merlin. They instead commissioned him to do The Lord of the Rings as a single, three-hour film.[54] Boorman thought it was impossible, but said "United Artists were so insistent that I allowed myself to be persuaded”[44] although he was "happy to try that."[55] The project was announced in 1970, with Gabriel Katzka co-producing with Boorman.[56]

Boorman enthusiastically corresponded with Tolkien about the project, telling him he intended to make it in live-action with small people playing the Hobbits, which Tolkien preferred to an animated feature. He also considered having children dressed with facial hair, dubbed by adult actors.[5][57] Al Pacino was considered for Frodo,[53] and Sauron is described in the script as looking like Mick Jagger. In retrospect, Boorman later recognized that it "might have been" a disaster,[58] and recognises that it was much wiser to make a trilogy like Peter Jackson.[53] Pallenberg grieved that they never got to revise the script, which exists only a rough draft,[43] which Boorman himself said was "almost unmakeable."[59] While Bakshi later exaggerated the description of Boorman's script as a 700-page screenplay,[5] Boorman and Pallenberg wanted to shave it from an initial 178-pages to around 150.[60]

In the script by Boorman and junior writer Rospo Pallenberg, many new elements have been inserted or modified. Boorman and Pallenberg admit to downplaying the Catholic aspects of the original work in favour of a Jungian, surrealistic, counter-culture interpretation, with carnal elements added. Among other things, Gimli is put in a hole and beaten so he can retrieve the password to Moria from his ancestral memory, Frodo and Galadriel have sexual intercourse, Arwen is made into a teenaged spiritual guide with her role as Aragorn's love interest wholly transferred to Éowyn, and Aragorn's healing of Éowyn takes place on the battlefield and given sexual overtones, and the Orcs turn good with Sauron's defeat. To cut costs, all flying steeds were removed from the script.[5][57][61] Like Boorman's other genre films, Zardoz, Exorcist II and Excalibur, the script takes a surreal approach to the material, and Boorman let his earlier concept of Merlin influence the way he was writing Gandalf, while Galadriel emerging from the lake is reminiscent of the Lady of the Lake, who appears in Boorman's Arthurian film.[5]

While writing the script, Boorman conceptualized his next film, Zardoz, and utilized some concepts from his Rings script in that film: Frodo sleeping with Galadriel to gain knowledge being mirrored with Zed and the eternals. Locations scouted for the film crop-up in Zardoz and Excalibur, and the optical effect techniques Boorman developed were used in both films, as well as Exorcist II: The Heretic, also co-written with Pallenberg.

By the time Boorman returned to head of production, Mike Medavoy, the studio had suffered a series of commercial failures, including Leo the Last. David and Arnold Picker were replaced by Arthur B. Krim and Robert Benjamin who hadn't read Tolkien's books. They were intrigued (Medavoy would later be keen to regroup with Boorman for Excalibur and again for Rings), but the script called for more expensive optical effects than was originally conceived (Boorman himself called it unmakeable) and the executives were "worried about how big an audience there might be for a fantasy film",[62] thinking the genre mostly appealed to kids, and the project stalled.[53]

Nevertheless, Boorman had become invested in the script and tried shopping the project at other studios. Disney were interested, but ultimately passed because "they were too worried about the violence"[63] and no other studio was interested in making a widescreen epic, which had since fallen out of favor. Boorman remembers that as late as 1975, when he was shopping his Arthurian treatment, "all I got was embarrassed smiles"[64] and he had similar difficulties shopping Zardoz around. In 1978, after the success of the space-fantasy film Star Wars, Boorman returned to the Arthurian epic, making Excalibur for Mike Medavoy, now at Orion Pictures.[57][61]

Publicly admitting that the film was made after he failed to adapt The Lord of the Rings, Boorman said "I’m trying to suggest a kind of Middle Earth, in Tolkien terms."[65] An early draft contained a duel between Merlin and Morgana which was based on a duel between Gandalf and Saruman from the Rings script,[65] and the armor worn by the knights in the film recalls the description of the armored Rohirrim from Boorman's script. Boorman reportedly cast Nicol Williamson as Merlin due to their shared love of Tolkien (Williamson had done an audibook recording of the books).[66] Excalibur became the first high-fantasy film released in the 1980s, and was a modest financial success (especially given its R rating), although film critic Roger Ebert called it "a mess."[67] Indeed, with the exception of Conan the Barbarian, no high-fantasy film of the 1980s proved a big financial success (if at all), and none of them scored favorable reviews, further reducing the appeal of Tolkien to movie producers.

Nevertheless, in the early 1990s, Boorman again contacted Medavoy in the interest of adapting The Lord of the Rings using new special effects technologies, but the project fell apart when Zaentz wanted more money,[62] and demanded merchandising rights for himself.[53] Boorman was then briefly attached to an adaption of The Chronicles of Narnia novels, written by Tolkien's colleague C. S. Lewis.

In 1972, animators Rankin and Bass wanted to adapt Tolkien's works to animation as part of their series of television specials. Rankin thought adapting the whole Lord of the Rings was impossible and that the audience "wouldn't sit still for it."[68] He decided "that the Tolkien property that I could handle was 'The Hobbit',"[7] although portions of The Lord of the Rings were optioned as a sequel given pressure from the network. At $2 million to produce, the special would prove the costliest made up to that time,[6] and starred John Huston, a fan of the book, as Gandalf.

They contacted Tolkien's Estate, who declined, but Rankin pointed out that, due to a mishap in the publishing of the first edition of The Lord of the Rings, the books were public domain in the US.[69][68] The Estate, along with Saul Zaentz who had since purchased the film rights, tried to stop the production through a lawsuit, but it instead "became authorized through a series of settlement agreements"[70] which allowed the special to air in Canada, where the books weren't public domain.

The special wasn't aired until 1977, because Rankin originally contacted a British animation firm, Euroanimation. Some cell animation was produced by the time Goeff Dunbar and Oscar Grillo of Euronimation bowed out. Rankin then outsourced the animation to Japan's Topcraft (later Studio Ghilbi).[71]

The designs were done by Rankin, Bass and several Japanese animators working the United States. Lester Abrams sent Rankin 20 character designs after Rankin and Bass liked his work on an excerpt of Tolkien's for Children's Digest at the time. He was brought on board again later in the production to help illustrate the Dwarves – basing Thorin on concept art for Disney's Grumpy. He also drew Gollum as a corrupted Hobbit, but Rankin insisted that he be made more ferocious.[36]

Romeo Muller, who wrote previous teleplays for Rankin, was employed for the special. His first draft tried to encompass the whole of the story, plus a setup for The Lord of the Rings at the end. Rankin had him pare it down, and at one point also wanted to cut out the spiders, but was talked out of it by Lester. Beorn was "sacrificed" to keep the Spiders.[36] The Stone Giants were animated, but they were cut from the film. While Rankin wanted it to be released in theaters if it was successful enough, this did not come to pass, making Ralph Bakshi's The Lord of the Rings the only theatrical feature based on Tolkien's works to appear before the WingNut films productions.

The television special received mixed reactions. In 1978, Romeo Muller won a Peabody Award for his teleplay. The film was also nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, but lost to Star Wars.[72] Douglas A. Anderson, a Tolkien scholar, called the adaptation "execrable" in his own introduction to the Annotated Hobbit, although he did not elaborate.[73] Ian Nathan considers it "regrettable" and "twee."[74]

Filmmaker Ralph Bakshi was introduced to the work of J. R. R. Tolkien by a director at Terrytoons in 1956. In 1957, he started trying to obtain the rights by convincing producers that the books could be animated,[75] and developing his own Tolkien-esque fantasy film "in the American idiom" which would become Wizards. When he learned of Tolkien's death in 1973, Bakshi started an "annual trip" to Medavoy, eventuall proposing that United Artists produce The Lord of the Rings as two or three animated films,[54] and a Hobbit prequel.[14] Medavoy offered him Boorman's script, which Bakshi refused, saying that Boorman "didn't understand it" and that his script would have made for a cheap film like "a Roger Corman film".[76] He would later call the Rankin and Bass TV special an "awful, sell-out version of The Hobbit."[77] Medavoy didn't want to produce Bakshi's film, but allowed him to shop it around if he could get another studio to pay for the expenses on Boorman's script.[76]

In 1976, Bakshi and Dan Melnick, then-president of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, made a deal with United Artists to purchase the film rights to the story for $3 million (covering the cost of Boorman's screenwriting), and Bakshi started pre-production. Bakshi started writing, enlisting Chris Conkling to do research for the script, eventually to promote him to screenwriter

However, with $200,000 spent, Dan Melnick was fired from MGM.[54] Bakshi contacted Saul Zaentz, who had helped finance Fritz the Cat, and persuaded him to produce The Lord of the Rings.[54] Zaentz had recently produced the Academy Award-winning adaptation of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, distributed by United Artists, and agreed to buy the project. UA stayed as the distributors. Zaentz was only able to offer a humble budget of $8 million.[76] Since Bakshi was primarily interested in Tolkien's more adult-oriented novel, Zaentz's Fantasy films procured the rights to The Lord of the Rings as well as the rights to produce The Hobbit. The rights to distribute the prequel remained with United Artists. Bakshi later clarified that he thought the film could "make some money" to save his studio after his previous film, Coonskin, tanked.[78]

With Conkling, Bakshi considered ways to divide the story. When they started, they contemplated a three-film structure, but "we didn't know how that middle film would work"[36] without a beginning and an end. Conkling even started writing one long, three-and-a-half hour feature of the entire work, but eventually settled on two 150-minute films. At one point, the story was to be told in flashback by Merry and Pippin to Treebeard as a setup for the second film, which was tentatively set to be released in 1980. Early drafts of Conkling's included Farmer Maggot, Tom Bombadil, the Old Forest, Glorfindel, Arwen, and several songs.[12]

After several drafts, Conkling's work was deemed unsatisfactory by Bakshi and Zaentz, who brought Peter S. Beagle to do rewrites. He insisted a complete overhaul was necessary, and wrote a version which began at Bilbo's Farewell Party, and continued until Saruman's Death, while Frodo and Sam left Cirith Ungol. This was abbreviated and cut in later revisions (adding a brief prologue in the process) so as to allow for a two-and-a-half hour movie.[36] The final revisions overlapped with the voice recording in London, and account for some inconsistencies like the spelling of Saruman's (originally changed to Ruman to avoid confusion with Sauron) name in the film. Fans were threatening Bakshi to get it right, and he would constantly revise the story to include certain beats at the behest of such fans.[79]

Bakshi was approached by Mick Jagger[76] and David Carradine[38] for roles in the film, and Carradine even suggested that Bakshi do it in live-action, and while Bakshi's contract allowed this, he said it couldn't be done and that he'd "always seen it as animation."[54]

Bakshi went to England to recruit a voice cast from the BBC Drama Repertory Company, including Christopher Guard, William Squire, Michael Scholes, Anthony Daniels, and John Hurt. Bakshi then shot character actors playing to the recording in empty soundstages, and later rotoscoped the performances.[76] Bakshi later regretted his use of the rotoscoping technique, stating that he made a mistake by tracing the source footage rather than using it as a guide.[80] Live-action footage for crowd scenes was shot in Death Valley and in Spain.[76] To cut ballooning costs, cinematographer Timothy Galfas suggested solarizing the crowd scenes, to create a pseudo-animated look. Animation was done in the United States by Bakshi's studio, and Bakshi's request for three additional months to edit the film was turned down, and he had only four weeks left to cut the film, of which little was reportedly left on the cutting room floor. The whole project from pitch to release lasted about two years.[9]

At this time, Arthur Krim resigned from United Artists and was replaced by Andy Albeck, who objected to marketing the film as the first of two parts. After test screenings, it was decided to switch the other of the last two sequences, so that the film wouldn't end on the cliffhanger of Frodo and Sam being led into a trap by Gollum. The Lord of the Rings was released without any indication that a second part would follow, in spite of Bakshi's objections.[54][81] Rated PG, The Lord of the Rings was the longest animated film made at the time, and cost $8–12[56] million to produce, grossing $30.5 million at the box office.[82] Film critic Leonard Maltin said that it was one of only two major commercial successes in Bakshi's career, the other being Fritz the Cat.[83] However, the sum did not encourage the studio with the prospect of a sequel,[54] and merchandise and VHS sales weren't promising. While the film won the Golden Gryphon at the 1980 Giffoni Film Festival,[84] critical reaction was mixed, with Roger Ebert calling Bakshi's effort a "mixed blessing" and "an entirely respectable, occasionally impressive job ... [which] still falls far short of the charm and sweep of the original story."[85] Peter Jackson recalls the film's second half as "incoherent" and confusing.[86]

Some B-roll footage was shot for the sequel, and Bakshi began working on a script[56] and he and Zaentz attempted to stop Rankin and Bass from airing the Lord of the Rings television special in order to avoid overlap with their film. A merchandize catalog containing a letter from Zaentz' company dated January 1980, claims writing is on the way for Part II, "scheduled for release during the Spring or Summer of 1981."[87] However, Bakshi - having found the production extremely difficult and receiving scathing reaction from fans of the books for his pains, was becoming reluctant to continue. Finally, he got into an argument with Zaentz (reportedly over his fee for the sequel[56]) and quit the project. Zaentz left the experience bitter, saying the film "wasn't as good as we should have made"[36] and later remarked that an "animated [film] couldn't do it. It was just too complex for animated to handle it, with the emotion that was needed and the size and scope"[88] and confided in Boorman and others that making the film was a miserable experience.[53][89]

In 2000, Bakshi still toyed with the idea of making part two with Zaentz,[90] but was later disappointed that the producer hadn't contacted him regarding the live-action films, and said he has no interest in completing the picture, and would have rather not having done Part One.[91] He said he was later asked by Warner Brothers[92] to do the second part, but declined,[93] asking them "why they thought they had the rights to go ahead" with the live-action films without him.[92]

A 1981 BBC radio adaptation recruited veterans of Bakshi's voice cast, Michael Graham Cox and Peter Woodthorpe to reprise their roles (Boromir and Gollum, respectively) from the film. Sir Ian Holm (later to become Jackson's first choice for Bilbo Baggins) voiced Frodo. Bakshi's film enjoyed renewed interest ahead of the release of Jackson's film, and he had it remastered for DVD with a redubbed closing line. The film had since been packaged by Warner Brothers with both of Rankin and Bass' TV special as an animated trilogy, although there are major gaps of story between the three films.

In 1980, Rankin/Bass more or less completed what Bakshi had started with their own animated adaptation of The Return of the King,[94] based on their own concepts previously applied to their earlier animated adaptation of The Hobbit. In fact, contrary to reports that the film was made following the failure of Bakshi's film, it was already in pre-production before Rankin/Bass released The Hobbit.[7] Zaentz and Bakshi sued Rankin and Bass in an attempt to prevent the television special from airing, but were unsuccessful.[95] Rankin/Bass first titled the film Frodo: The Hobbit II, but as part of their settlement with Tolkien's estate, it was renamed The Return of the King, with the subtitle "a story of Hobbits."[96] In retrospect, Rankin expressed regret over the unsuccessful television special, saying "we shouldn't have made it."[97]

Zaentz rejected many proposals for film adaptations in years to come,[98][89] including from Mark Ordesky and John Boorman. Universal once contacted him for the rights, to no avail.[25] In 1993, European producers commissioned a treatment for two or three live-action films, but terminated the project when it became apparent that Zaentz would not extend the rights to them.[99] In 1997, Alan Lee was sent a script for a twelve-part TV adaptation by ITV Granada, for which they "couldn't get the approval" from Zaentz.[100] Franco Zeffirelli, Jake Kasdan,[101] Sir Ridley Scott,[102] Steven Spielberg and George Lucas were rumored[103] to have had an interest in the rights in the 1980s and/or 1990s. The Hobbit was an influence on Lucas' Star Wars,[104] and he later entered a lucrative partnership with Spielberg in producing and writing the stories for his Indiana Jones films. It was supposedly Lucas' inability to acquire the rights to The Hobbit (which would have been split between Zaentz and UA, anyway) that led to the creation of An Ewok Adventure and Willow,[105] both heavily indebted to The Hobbit. Willow was eventually directed by Ron Howard, financed by Lucasfilm and distributed by MGM, and its inability to make substantial profits ended the high-fantasy productions of the 1980s. Nevertheless, Spielberg's DreamWorks Pictures reportedly tried for the rights in the early 1990s.[25]

Eventually, it became clear that the scope of the project was beyond Miramax' ability to finance on its own. An appeal to its parent company of Disney to manufacture additional funding was denied: CEO Michael Eisner later claimed this was due to Harvey Weinstein refusing to show him the scripts,[114] but his decision to split the percentage evenly with the Weinsteins may speak to a more fundamental mistrust in the project. Harvey look to co-operate with other studios, but was unsuccessful.[118]

The Weinsteins suggested reducing the project to a single, two-hour film. Jackson was willing to consider this, if the film was to be around four hours in length, but Miramax limited it to two hours, and offered suggestions in order to achieve this, namely amalgamating Gondor and Rohan. They contacted Hossein Amini to rewrite and threatened to get John Madden or Quentin Tarantino to direct. Jackson believes this was an empty threat to get him to concede to the one-film version. He refused, but his agent Ken Kamins convinced Harvey Weinstein that getting another filmmaker to work on the project will result in further delays and costs, at which point Harvey conceded to give Jackson the opportunity to find another studio to take over.[118][114]

Robert Zemeckis, Universal and DreamWorks declined. Fox were interested, but unwilling to enter a project involving Saul Zaentz, and Sony and Centropolis didn't find the scripts to their liking. Harvey Weinstein limited the turnaround to three weeks, hoping that (by rendering it impossible for Jackson to find a studio in time) Jackson would have to come back to him and do the one-film version.[118][114]

In 1999, New Line Cinema assumed production responsibility (while Miramax executives Bob Weinstein and Harvey Weinstein retained on-screen credits as executive producers). The three films were shot simultaneously. They featured extensive computer-generated imagery, including major battle scenes utilizing the "Massive" software program. The first film subtitled, The Fellowship of the Ring was released on December 19, 2001, the second film subtitled, The Two Towers on December 18, 2002 and the third film subtitled, The Return of the King worldwide on December 17, 2003. All three won the Hugo Award for Best (Long-form) Dramatic Presentation in their respective years.

The films were met with both critical and commercial success. With a total of 30 nominations, the trilogy also became the most-nominated in the Academy's history,[119] surpassing the Godfather series' 28 (with the release of The Hobbit, the series currently has 36 nominations total). Of these, Jackson's adaptations garnered seventeen Oscar statuettes and three Scientific and Technical awards: four for The Fellowship of the Ring, two for The Two Towers, eleven for The Return of the King plus two Scientific and Technical Awards, and one such award for An Unexpected Journey, "for the development of the Tissue Physically–Based Character Simulation Framework."[120]

The Return of the King in fact won all of the eleven awards for which it was nominated, including Best Picture; as well as a Technical Achievement Award and the Scientific and Engineering Award.[121] Titanic six years earlier and the 1959 version of Ben-Hur each won eleven 11 awards overall, an industry record until the release of The Return of the King. The film also broke the previous "sweep" record, beating Gigi and The Last Emperor, which each took 9 out of 9. Both records set by the film stand as of 2020.

The Return of the King also made movie history as the highest-grossing film opening on a Wednesday and was the second film after Titanic to earn over US$1 billion worldwide. The Lord of the Rings film trilogy is verified to be the currently highest grossing motion picture trilogy worldwide of all time, evidenced by its earning close to $3-billion (US).[122] Critical acclaim has commonly hailed the trilogy as "the greatest films of our era,"[123] and "the trilogy will not soon, if ever, find its equal."[124]

The series also drew acclaim from within the industry, including from people formerly interested in adapting Tolkien: Ackerman, who appeared on Jackson's Bad Taste said his pitch "could never have been given the grand treatment that Peter Jackson afforded it."[10] Deitch thought the films were "serious and great."[20] McCartney said he loved the films, and watched them each Christmas with his family.[125] Boorman was happy that his film got cancelled, being that it resulted in Jackson's films.[125] Harvey Weinstein said "they have the next Star Wars."

On the other hand, Edelmann said he thought it was "badly directed," and "Tolkein [sic] wasn't such a great storyteller." [126] Bakshi felt (incorrectly) that the film was derivative of his own without due acknowledgment,[38] and that Jackson "didn't really get it."[92] However, he did praise the effects of "thousands of men in armies attacks each other."[127] Bakshi's writer, Peter Beagle, said Jackson has done it the only way possible, by making three different movies" and one of Bakshi's animators, Michael Ploog, said the trilogy was "brilliantly handled."[79]

Jackson was unsure if he should direct The Hobbit, so as to not compete with himself, but he did want to produce and write an adaptation of the book. He considered helming a Hobbit film and a Lord of the Rings prequel film in 2006,[128] before deciding to produce two films based on The Hobbit for a director of his choosing. New Line suggested Sam Raimi to direct, but in 2008, Guillermo Del Toro was chosen to direct a two-film adaptation, produced by Jackson and co-written with Walsh, Boyens and Del Toro. The films would have included much of the content present in Jackson's film, but would have been cast differently and featured Del Toro's distinctive design aesthetic, instead.

Time constraints caused Del Toro to bow out, and Jackson stepped in to direct. Other director's considered before Jackson took over are said to have included Neil Blomkamp, David Yates, David Dobkin and Bret Ratner.[129] Tel Toro's The Hobbit would have had a similar scenario to Jackson's eventual film, but with a different design aesthetic. He considered sky replacement and other changes.

During principal photography, Jackson looked at assembled footage and decided to split the piece into three installments, which were released between 2012 and 2014. The three films are subtitled An Unexpected Journey, The Desolation of Smaug and The Battle of the Five Armies.[130] As with The Lord of the Rings trilogy, the prequel movies were filmed back to back in New Zealand; principal photography began on 21 March 2011.[131] The first film was released on 14 December 2012, the second was released on 13 December 2013, and the third was released on 17 December 2014, with the final extended cut released in October 2015, twenty years after Jackson's original pitch.

The films star Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins,[132] Richard Armitage as Thorin Oakenshield and Benedict Cumberbatch as Smaug.[133] Several actors from The Lord of the Rings reprised their roles, including Ian McKellen, Andy Serkis, Hugo Weaving, Cate Blanchett, Christopher Lee, Ian Holm, Elijah Wood and Orlando Bloom.

Also returning were the heads of almost all departments in the production: the only major changes in the staff were of the gaffer (after Brian Bansgrove, gaffer of The Lord of the Rings, died) and with stunt co-ordinator Glen Boswall replacing George Marshall Ruge. Besides directing, Jackson and Walsh returned to producer, and Carolynne Cunnigham returned as First Assistant Director. Philippa Boyens returned to co-write and Victoria Sullivan for Script Supervison. Art director Dan Hennah (with conceptual artists Alan Lee and John Howe returning as well), cinematographer Andrew Lesnie (and Key Grip Tony Keddy); costume designer and Workshop manager Sir Richard Taylor; hair and makeup supervisors Peter King and Peter Owen; sound designer David Farmer (and mixers Christopher Boyes, Mike Hopkins and Mike Semanick) and composer Howard Shore.[134] Editor Jabez Olssen, who worked on the editing of the Rings trilogy,[135] edited all three Hobbit films. Brent Burge succeeded colleague Ethan Van der Ryn as sound editor. Joe Letteri (a Rings veteran) replaced Jim Rygiel as animation supervisor.

Following the release of The Battle of the Five Armies, Freeman reprised his role as Bilbo Baggins in the Saturday Night Live sketch known interchangeably either as The Office: Middle Earth or The Hobbit Office, alongside Bobby Moynihan, Taran Killam, Kyle Mooney, and Kate McKinnon as Gandalf, Gollum, Legolas and Tauriel respectively as they take up office jobs. The skit explains that during the events of The Lord of the Rings, Tauriel remained working at this office. The skit is based on the fact that Freeman starred in the British series of The Office as Tim Canterbury.[136]

Notes

Amazon, in cooperation with Warner Brothers and New Line Cinema, purchased the TV rights to adapt Tolkien's works for over $200 million and announced in November 2017 that they will work on a multi-season TV show, tentatively titled "The Lord of the Rings". Working with the Tolkien Estate, they will set the show in the Second Age.[137]

According to John Howe[138] (acting as the show's lead conceptual designer) and to Jackson,[139] who has been contacted[137] to look over the scripts, the series is going to be set in the same continuity as the live-action features.