All language subtitles for Icons.Unearthed.S07E01.The.Impossible.Film.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-BTN_track4_[eng]

Peter Jackson's
The Lord of the Rings...

[Gandalf] There is only one
Lord of the Ring...

We were filming
three massive films,

all happening at the same time.

The cinematic saga
that conquered Hollywood...

The Oscar goes
to The Lord of the Rings.

...as well as the world.

People lost their minds.

From the battlefields
of World War I...

Tolkien did see action
in France.

...to the battle
of how to visualize

the sprawling saga.

Retreat to the caves.

It just ends. Boom.

Harvey said,
"If you don't wanna do it,

"we'll find another director."

They realized,
"We have to rescue this thing".

An incalculable risk.

This hadn't really been done
before.

It's the chronicle
of the unlikely Kiwis.

And I thought, "There's gotta be
another way to do this".

The outsiders...

Jackson was adamant
on filming in New Zealand,
and they let him.

Half the country
worked on those movies.

...that
revolutionized filmmaking.

You know, we all were
along for the ride

and holding on for dear life.

An epic story,
epic amount of money.

We can't afford to fail.

They'd need
to break the rules.

So many lawsuits were filed.

You will be blacklisted forever.

Not to mention,
break a few bones.

You know,
a lot of people got hurt.

-
- Stitches.

[Elijah] Oh, my God.

Teeth came out of my mouth,
flew through the air.

And there's Christopher Lee
holding his face.

A cast and crew...

- Liv hated horses.
- Oh, ow!

There was
a Harvey Weinstein orc.

...pushed to the limit...

- We had people fainting.
- I remember him saying,

"This is not
why I became an actor".

...plagued by disaster...

There was flooding.

...after disaster.

Police came
and stopped us from filming.

The fate
of the franchise

lay in the hands
of an unlikely fellowship.

Fran is a very astute director,
writer.

It was the tale
of love...

They got romantically
involved

and then became
creative partners.

...and heartbreak...

The decision was made
to let him go.

...epic victories...

It was mind-blowing.

$2.9 billion
at the box office.

Fantastic.

[Graham] ...and unprecedented
failure.

Are you just now working out
how to shoot this?

[Graham] It's the story of how

an unassuming filmmaker
beat Hollywood...

He will persevere until
he's got exactly what he wants.

[Graham] ...without leaving
his backyard.

This is the greatest adventure
story there's ever been.

[Graham] Amidst the lushest
green rolling hills

of a land
very much like Middle Earth...

[Bilbo] There's always been
a Baggins living here.

[Graham] ...could be found
a powerful, wild-bearded,
woolly wizard

of incredible power,

full of wisdom and whimsy,
and his name?

Gandalf the Grey.

[Graham] Ah, no, no, no.

Who are you?
Show yourself.

Gandalf the White.

[Graham] No, no version of Gandalf.

- No?
- [Graham] We're talking,

of course,
about the New Zealander...

- Peter Jackson.
- [Graham] Right.

And it's this wild, woolly
New Zealander,

along with his partner,
Fran Walsh,

who brought us, arguably,

the greatest literary
adaptation

in the history of cinema.

For which I am very thankful.

[Graham] But under this wild,
woolly beard

can be found a boy.

You carry the fate of us all,
little one.

[Graham] In the 1960s,
this little Peter Jackson

wasn't content playing
with toys like the other kids.

He's wanted to be a filmmaker
ever since he was ten.

Well, I had a little
Super 8 Camera

that couldn't shoot sound.

[Graham] There was
just one slight problem.

Peter Jackson is one of those
guys who's movie-obsessed

from birth,
but born in the wrong place,

on the other side of the globe
in New Zealand.

The film industry
hadn't really taken off.

We only made
one or two movies a year.

[Graham] The young Peter

wasn't about to let that
stop him.

He got interested in filmmaking
about the 1933 King Kong.

The eighth wonder of the world.

It is the movie that made him
wanna make movies.

[Graham] But this isn't
the story of Peter Jackson.

Well, it is, but, it isn't.

We're here to learn
about The Lord of the Rings,

and to do that,
we have to return

to where it all began.

[Bilbo] Ah, yes.

[Graham] Not at all Middle Earth

and not New Zealand,

but rather King's Heath,
England,

in the very early 1900s,
where the would-be author

of these classic novels lived,
with his mother and brother.

So, Tolkien was living in this
little village in England,

just trees, greenery.

Everything he writes
about the Shire is that time

when he was eight or nine
or ten years old.

And then, his mother dies
and he's a total orphan,

him and his brother.

[Janet] His father, he had died
of rheumatic fever.

His mother,
she died with diabetes.

[Chris] This good
Catholic Father

puts them up
in a boarding house.

[Janet] He helped them continue
their education.

He was a very kindly man

and he cared very deeply
about both of them

and was always looking out
for them.

[Graham] Through his teenage
years and into adulthood,

Tolkien fell in love
with language.

He loved the sound of words,

and the relationship between
sound and meaning,

and how these things
could influence each other.

[Graham] But he also loved
Mother England,

enlisting to fight
during World War I.

His battalion was sent
to France.

His unit did see action
in France.

They were in the trenches
at the Battle of the Somme.

[Graham] Yet, amidst
the muddy horrors of war,

Tolkien wasn't struck
by a bullet,

but by inspiration.

Tolkien came down
with trench fever

and was sent to the hospital.

While he was in this period
of recovery,

that's when we see him starting
to write all these stories

that had been fizzing
in his head.

[Corey] That time, from when
he was still in the hospital

to when he was recuperating
afterwards,

his writings really began
to blossom,

and a lot of the things
that he would go on to write,

many of them were written
during that time.

After the war was over,

he and his small family
moved back to Oxford.

[Graham] Yet, even
as he continued life

back in the real world
of academia...

At Oxford, Tolkien was
a very popular lecturer.

[Graham] ...his fever dream
persisted.

[Michael] He said
he was grading exams.

The candidate had done
the kindest thing a candidate

can ever do for an examiner,
which is to leave a page blank.

[Graham] And here,
on this page...

Blank, glorious.

[Graham] ...J.R.R. Tolkien

penned the most consequential
words of his life.

So, I scribbled on it,
I can't think why,

"In a hole in the ground
there lived a Hobbit".

[Graham] The Hobbit was
the tale of Bilbo Baggins,

an unlikely hero thrust
into a grand adventure.

So, The Hobbit grew
from this light adventure story

that he started telling
to his muse's children,

to include deeper matters

and traces
of his growing mythology.

[Corey] He wrote The Hobbitover the course

of something like three years.

And he has a friend
that's a publisher.

He sends it to him and they have
their son look at it,

and their son can't put it down.

[Graham] The question was,
of course,

would the general public
pick it up?

On its release in 1937,
that question was answered.

The first printing sold out
by Christmas.

This is the greatest adventure
story there's ever been.

There are so many creatures,
and there's dragons

and there's hobbits
and there's spiders.

So with the success
of the Hobbit,

the publisher says,
"People want more".

[Corey] The Hobbit thing
is a winner.

Write us some more
fun hobbit stories.

If you can keep churning
these puppies out,

we can keep selling them
and this is gonna be fantastic.

[Graham] And so,
riding a groundswell

of hobbit enthusiasm,

Tolkien got straight to work
on the sequel.

[Janet] He started working
on The Lord of the Rings,

and it would take him 17 years.

[Graham] Ah, well, he did have

an entire world
to immerse you in.

[Elrond] Middle Earth stands
upon the brink of destruction.

[Graham] And for Tolkien,

it was all
about the little things.

[Bilbo] Concerning hobbits.

[Janet] He'd get lost
in these arcane questions

about very minor points.

How long
an elvish pregnancy lasts?

Tolkien would spend two pages
describing a forest or a meadow.

Or, what other races besides
hobbits ate mushrooms?

Mushrooms!

[Graham] Tolkien's expansive,
granular world

was the perfect palette

for this new tale
of Middle Earth,

a tale that follows young...

- Frodo Baggins.-...on an epic quest.

By the way,
his name wasn't Frodo, yet.

The original name of Bilbo's
heir was Bingo Baggins.

For really a quite distressing
length of time.

[Graham] That name certainly

would have played
very differently.

- Welcome to Rivendell...
- [Corey] Bingo Baggins.

[Graham] But in the end...

- [Bilbo] Frodo.
- [Graham] ...was his name-o.

Tolkien finally decided
to change his name to Frodo.

[Graham] And after 18 years,
one very large novel

called The Lord of the Rings,
was complete.

[Michael] It was so long.

It's in this postwar period

when there's paper shortages

and a really high cost of paper,

and the British economy
is in bad shape.

And the publisher agreed
to publish it,

but, they say, "We're gonna
publish it as three books.

"We cannot publish as one
giant book the way you want,

"and we can't pay you in advance
for something

"that we think we might
lose money on.

"In exchange,
if there ever are any royalties,

"you'll get 20% rather than
the normal 10%."

I think we might have
made a mistake.

Turned out to be
the worst contract

that any publisher
has ever signed anywhere,

but how could they
possibly know it would sell

hundreds of millions of copies?

[Graham] But that success
didn't come overnight,

as Tolkien had yet to find
an audience in the States.

American sales were
kind of stagnant

until the publishing company,
Ace,

took advantage
of a legal loophole

and published
a cheap paperback edition

without Tolkien's permission.

[Victoria] The books were
public domain the US,

so they're like,
we're gonna be fine.

[Graham] The publication
was controversial.

And then, with that controversy,
people started reading it.

[Corey] The books gained this
entire new second wave of life

and became a cult classic

in ways that it had never been
before.

[Graham] The problem was,
that if Tolkien didn't own

the rights to his novels
in the US,

did that also mean
his life's work was

fair game for Hollywood
to plunder as well?

I don't want to be in a battle.

Only time would tell.

[Graham] The unauthorized publishing

of the Lord of the Ringstrilogy in the United States

left Tolkien wary
of his ability to control

the rights to his own creation.

However,
it wasn't all bad news.

Those inexpensive paperbacks
were the basis

for that campus craze
in the late 1960s.

College students
everywhere were just,

you know,
madly in love with this.

We'd see buttons and graffiti,
"Frodo Lives",

"Gandalf for President".

[Graham] Tolkien now found himself

a celebrity of sorts.

And I think it took him
a bit by surprise.

This aging, old-fashioned,
conservative,

Catholic Oxford don
had people calling him

at three o'clock
in the morning.

He was puzzled and bemused

by the kind of popularity
that he achieved.

[Graham] But it wasn't just
kids in college.

Tolkien had captured the hearts
of the most unlikely audience.

American hippies, and with whom
he had very little in common.

♪ In the middle of the earth

♪ In the land of the Shire

♪ Lives a brave little hobbit

♪ Whom we all admire ♪

[Graham] That's right.

At 73 years old,

Tolkien had officially become

an icon of the counterculture.

It was back to nature, it was,
you know, tree hugging,

anti-materialistic
the hippie culture.

The finest weed
in the Southfarthing.

[Chris] Hobbiton,
it was that kind of world.

And a lot of hippies
were rock musicians.

[Graham] You could hear
Tolkien's influence

on hit artists
like Black Sabbath...

♪ A wizard walks by

♪ Casting his shadow ♪

[Graham] ...and Led Zeppelin.

♪ In the darkest depths
Of Mordor ♪

[David] When Led Zeppelin
released a song that references

Lord of the Rings,everybody went,

"Ooh, they're Tolkien fans".

[Graham] But beyond rock stars,

Lord of the Rings spoke
to the fears of a generation.

[David] That generation
converged on Washington, D.C.

to demonstrate their opposition
to the Vietnam War.

[Corey] Americans who shared
the anti-war sentiment

found that sentiment
to resonate

with things
in The Lord of the Rings.

[Graham] It's quite possible,

without the flower-powered
fans of the '60s,

Tolkien's works may have
slipped into obscurity.

The universal appeal
of the Lord of the Rings

spread beyond
the hippies eventually.

The publication
of the Lord of the Rings

made fantasy
go mainstream for adults

in ways that it never had
before.

[Graham] And so it was that
talk began of Tolkien's words

leaping off the page
and onto the silver screen.

However, J.R.R. was
initially reluctant

to enter that conversation.

He doesn't think
that it's gonna work

when you have to follow
the Hollywood tropes.

And not just make it into

some kind of vehicle
for something else.

[Graham] You mean, like a vehicle

for a globally popular
pop band?

[Andrew] The Beatles
were two films
into a three film deal

with United Artists,
and they were looking for

the third film
to complete that deal.

All four of the Beatles
had read the books.

Apparently,
John Lennon was the one

who was really spearheading
the idea.

John Lennon would be Gollum.

[Gollum] My precious.

[Michael] Paul McCartney
would be Frodo.

- Gandalf.
- Yes.

George Harrison
would be Gandalf.

[Gandalf] I've thought
of a better use for you.

[Michael] And Ringo Starr
would be Sam.

[Gandalf] Come along,
Samwise, keep up.

It is a wild scenario
to imagine.

Their first choice to direct was
actually Stanley Kubrick.

They actually showed up
on Stanley Kubrick's doorstep,

the four Beatles.

Kubrick actually
invited them in.

They pitched it,
and at the end of the day,

Kubrick turned it down.

[Corey] Stanley Kubrick
thought that

adapting The Lord of the Rings
well on film was impossible.

[Graham] And on this matter,

Tolkien and Kubrick
saw eye to eye.

Tolkien said, "If you have
to suspend disbelief

"while watching a film,
then the art has failed".

I think it's very likely

it would have been
a complete disaster.

[Graham] Nevertheless,
in the years ahead,

Hollywood's hunger
for the ring only grew...

My precious.

[Graham] ...while its author
only grew older, and in 1969,

John Ronald Tolkien would
concede to the modern world,

and Hollywood got its way.

[Andrew] United Artists
acquired the rights

from the Tolkien estates
directly.

He did, in fact,
sell the film rights,

partly because he needed
the money to pay the taxes

from the unexpected income
from all the books.

[Graham] United Artists
had the rights.

So, there is a script
from John Boorman.

[Graham] John Boorman
was a director on the rise.

John Boorman, he wanted
to do Lord of the Rings.

[Chris] So, John,
he had a version...

[Janet] His script is really wild.

He takes that story and goes off
into the strangest directions.

He had a 700-page,
three-hour script.

There was a lot of sex.

...and went for almost
a rock and roll

Lord of the Rings adaptation.

He's got this whole sequence
of the Counsel of Elrond...

You've been summoned here
to answer the threat of Mordor.

...but it's like this kabuki
play and Cirque du Soleil,

and it's just nothing at all
like it's described in the book.

It would not have been
Tolkien at all.

After the screenplay
was put together,

United Artists essentially
rejected it.

We had a lot of money in it.

I didn't think the book could
be adaptable, even with John.

Part of it had to do with,
you know,

the amount of effects
that you would have needed.

I don't know how the film
would have turned out

'cause John never got to do it.

[Graham] Boorman's unique adaptation

had the unfortunate distinction

of being the last
that Tolkien would see.

[Corey] Tolkien died in 1973.

[Graham] Lord of the Rings

would be back
to the drawing board.

The one ring to rule them all.

[Graham] In this case,
the animation drawing board.

[Graham] At the time
of Tolkien's passing,

when you thought
of animation...

Magic mirror on the wall,
who is the fairest one of all?

[Graham] ...one name
came to mind.

However,
there was another animator

making a name for himself.

Oh, yeah.

Ralph Bakshi was anti...

...you know,
he was the opposite of Disney.

He was doing x-rated cartoons.

[Graham] Bakshi believed
animation could be

just as popular with adults.

He had first doneFritz the Cat.

Fritz had his own private
little orgy.

[Graham] Based off Robert Crumb's

infamous comic strip.

Lovely set of eyes there.

[Graham] Turns out not only
was there an audience

for a sexually explicit
cartoon cat, it was huge.

[Victoria] Fritz the Cat became

the most successful animated
independent feature of all time.

[Graham] After a string
of gross-out films,

Bakshi would move on
to something truly shocking.

[Andrew] Ralph Bakshi
was a ardent Tolkien fan.

The time has come.

Bakshi said, "I've seen
what John Boorman did.

"It's not good.
I'm gonna try it."

[Graham] There was
just one slight problem,

he didn't have the rights,
or the money to buy them.

[Victoria] So Bakshi contacts
Saul Zaentz.

[Graham] The man who had
partially financed the film,

Fritz the Cat.

[Chris] Saul Zaentz,
he had a lot of money

and was willing to take chances.

[Mike] Ralph Bakshi,
his pitch was,

"As an animated movie,
it'll be much better".

Where is the ring, Gandalf?

You know,
if you try to do it straight

you can't realize the full value
of the property.

[Graham] Full value that thus
far had cost United Artists

nearly $3 million
in development.

[Janet] It's like this kabuki
play and Cirque du Soleil.

[Graham] So, with nothing much
to show for their investment,

when Saul Zaentz came knocking,

United Artists were
more than happy to listen.

Saul Zaentz sort of took over
Tolkien from United Artists.

[Mike] Made a lot of sense
for us at that point.

We had a lot of money in it.

You know, it was $3 million,
and I figured,

"Hey, let's take the $3 million
that's owed to us

"and release this version
of the film".

[Andrew] They gave everything
but the distribution rights

over to Saul Zaentz.

[Graham] It was a savvy move
by UA,

but Bakshi and Zaentz
would need to deliver,

and their first hurdle,
delivering the script.

I was a screenwriter
on the film,Lord of the Rings.

What does the ring bearer say?

My sister had been after me
for a couple of years,

"You gotta read these books,
you gotta read these books",

and I finally
started reading them,

and, of course,
was completely hooked.

I remember one vacation,
I was driving,

and I had the books
on the steering wheel.

Don't do this at home, kids.

And I would look up,
no cars coming,

I'd read a paragraph,
then I'd look up again.

I literally couldn't
put the books down.

I'd done a little screenwriting

of some high school
documentary films after college.

I read in
one of the trades that

Ralph Bakshi was considering
doing it, and so I said,

"I've gotta go for this
somehow",

and found somebody
to write a note to.

Somehow, that note
got to Ralph Bakshi.

He gave me an assignment
to do research,

and he had a writer.

He had an English writer
signed up.

Something happened
with the writer in England.

Either he was busy or too much
money, whatever it was.

So he said, "Here's your shot.

"I'll let you write it,
and we'll see how you do.

"You got one shot".

Bakshi early on told me,
"Let's get one thing straight.

"You're the screenwriter,
Tolkien is the genius.

"Here's the three books.

"That's your bible.
Stick to that".

[Graham] Chris soon learned
the scope of Bakshi's vision.

Ralph Bakshi first said to me,
"We're going to do three films",

but I didn't think a middle film
would work.

But why ruin it?

The middle film doesn't have
a beginning or ending.

So, I said,
"Let's do two films".

- The decision lies with you.
- And he agreed.

[Graham] It was a decision
that would go down in infamy,

but more on that in a bit.

I think I did five
different scripts.

Big scripts, smaller scripts,
medium-sized scripts,

different points of view.

It was sort of gut

and sort of trial and error
between me and Ralph.

[Graham] And with this script
came the realization

that what many
thought was impossible,

was actually going to happen.

The war of the ring has begun,
Frodo.

The thing was that it was not
just an ordinary project.

It had been shot
all in live action.

We had to do a rotoscope.

We kept the live action,

made photographs out of them

and you go
over the photographs.

I worked mostly on Gandalf.

He did it for the impact.

[Graham] At a time when
computer-generated effects

were still years away,

rotoscoping was the closest
solution to opening up

Lord of the Rings'potential on screen.

It would bring certain things
out in animation that probably

is impossible
to do with special effects.

It was very powerful.

It was something artistic,
something special.

[Graham] But how special?

When The Lord of the Rings
premiered

on November 15th 1978...

[Chris] People were lined up
around the blocks.

They were so excited
to see it...

...at first.

You cannot pass.

The end result at times

was absolutely beautiful
and brilliant.

And other times...

- ...it looked a little odd.
-

- Significantly odd.
- What's going on here?

[Graham] One of the biggest
criticisms was the decision

to only produce
a book and a half.

It just ends. Boom.

- They're coming!
-

It's right in the middle
of the battle.

So, too,
ends the first great tale

of the Lord of the Rings.

Suddenly, here ends part one
of the Lord of the Rings.

For fans,
it was incredibly frustrating.

[Graham] However, not all fans
were disappointed.

In fact, for one young man
in particular,

Peter Jackson...

A new power is rising.

[Graham] ...it was the first step

in an unexpected journey

that would impact
not only his fate...

[Saruman] Embrace the power of the ring.

[Graham] ...but, in fact,
the future of all cinema.

Peter Jackson, the first time

he confronted Tolkien
was in our movie.

Greetings, Frodo.

[Andrew] Peter Jackson liked it

and then went
and bought the book.

[Graham] Bakshi's Lord of the Rings

was undeniably an inspiration

to Peter Jackson,
but, ironically,

it was Bakshi's earlier work

that more reflected the tone
of this fledgling filmmaker,

because Peter Jackson's work
was, well, quite shocking.

- Bad Taste.
- Kill them.

Dead Alive or Braindead,
depending on where you saw it...

...or Meet the Feebles.

♪ Meet The Feebles

♪ Meet The Feebles ♪

He grew up doing everything
himself.

He was in it.

He ran the camera.
He recorded sound.

He's incredibly good at getting
what's in his head onto screen.

-
-

These movies feel like
they were put together

in someone's garage...

[Peter] ...with a Steadicam.

Normally,
if you buy a proper one,

they're about 40 or 50 grand,

but this one cost, like,
20 bucks.

...with Scotch tape.

It's really held together
by glue.

[Drew] They're crazy.

Put the gun down.

They're hyper-gory.

It wasn't until I worked
on Braindead that I realized

just what a genius he is
at shooting practical effects.

His knowledge of so many things
is just amazing.

[Graham] But Peter Jackson's
knowledge of horrendous gore

wouldn't come close
to preparing him

for the horror
that awaited him.

[Graham] As Peter Jackson left a trail

of fake blood in his wake,

one of the most consequential
projects he undertook

was providing special effects

for the beloved
British scarecrow spin-off,

Worzel Gummidge Down Under.

The very first time I met Peter,
I was a camera operator

on Worzel Gummidge,filming Down Under.

[Graham] For the uninitiated...

[Victoria] Worzel Gummidge Down Under

was a TV show centered around
a scarecrow.

[Graham] While some go
to film school

to meet lifelong collaborators,

Peter had Gummidge,

but of all the relationships
Peter made,

none held a candle
to Fran Walsh.

[Victoria] Fran actually met Pete

when she was dating
Stephen Sinclair.

[Graham] Sinclair,
also a writer, and Walsh,

began to advise Peter Jackson

as he made his film,
Bad Taste.

Eventually the couple
became collaborators,

writing Jackson's film...

Meet the Feebles.

Oh, Nick, you man-stealing slut.

[Graham] Thanks to Fran,
Meet the Feebles

became much more
than an ironic puppet movie.

That world was incredibly rich
and layered and sort of sardonic

and dark in its humor,
but also very light in a way.

Oh, dead luck, old shit.

And I think it makes it all
very bearable and uplifting.

[Graham] Meet the Feebleswas also

where two other future
vital cogs

in Jackson's machine would
start to show their worth.

Richard Taylor and Tania Rodger.

[Graham] Richard and Tania
stepped up,

and with no prior experience,

built the cast from scratch.

Richard and Tania, so integral
in the success of these films,

and they continue to be integral
in the success of Peter's films.

[Graham] While building The Feebles,

Richard and Tania began
to lay the foundation

for something much bigger.

[Victoria] That's around the time

that Weta Workshop was
brought to life.

[Drew] Weta Workshop
is essentially

a matter of necessity.

It is a local solution

to a problem of "How do you get

"special effects that look like
what Hollywood is doing?"

[Graham] Peter Jackson's
relationship with Weta Workshop

continued
thanks to Dead Alive,

while another relationship
was about to fracture.

[Victoria] Fran, she was dating
Stephen Sinclair,

but they would break up, though.

Peter and Fran, they got
romantically involved...

[Graham] As their relationship evolved,

Jackson and Walsh would
become partners.

[Andrew] ...as well as creative partners.

[Victoria] She worked with Peter
ever since then.

[Mahaffie] Fran is
a very astute writer.

I think Fran added
some emotional side

to the partnership,
a bit that was quite important.

Peter was great
with the visual storytelling.

They were a great complement
to each other.

[Graham] Their next film,
Heavenly Creatures,

would signal a new direction
for the pair.

Well, Heavenly Creature
is based on a true story...

Do you like your mother?

No.

[Drew] ...and represents a perfect

sort of irresistible
opportunity

to jump to the next level
as filmmakers.

Come with me.

[Tim] It's a very strange
but really amazing story

about two teenage girls.

I think they were around 14,
and for some reason,

they decided one of their
mothers was their enemy.

So, these two teenage girls
killed the mother.

[Victoria] Pete did not really
wanna make Heavenly Creatures,

but Fran was really fascinated
by the murder trial.

You know, this was something
that happened in New Zealand.

You know,
we have all these diaries.

Let's really try and make
a good script out of that.

It's a three X story
with a tragic end.

[Graham] But the transition
from grind house

to art house
wasn't an easy one.

To do it, they needed
a seasoned cinematographer.

Of course, all his previous
films had been splatter films.

You know, gore.

So, when he asked me
to shoot Heavenly Creatures

I was a wee bit wary
I must admit,

but after a conversation
with him,

I thought, yeah, this guy
knows what he's doing.

[Drew] Peter and Fran, they cast
the two perfect kids for it.

- Melanie Lynskey...
- Smile.

...and Kate Winslet.

[Pauline] It is indeed a miracle
one must feel

that two such
heavenly creatures are real.

[Graham] The film
was a critical success.

Exhilarating.
One of the year's best films.

[Graham] The film would
be distributed by Miramax,

Harvey and Bob Weinstein's
company,

and they also signed
Peter Jackson

to a first look deal.

So, essentially, the next
original project

that Peter Jackson wanted
to take on,

he had to go to Miramax first.

After Heavenly Creatures,

they wanted to do
a fantasy project.

The story goes that he and Fran
and Philippa were sitting

in their house
wondering what to do.

One of them made a joke,
"Who has the rights

"to make Lord of the Rings?"

They went online and found out
that they could make an offer.

Then I got a call from Peter,

asking if I would come
to Los Angeles

to pitch getting money
to make Lord of the Rings.

So, a group of Wellington actors
got together

and played all of the parts
that they wrote

for Lord of the Rings
as radio plays.

I'd read the books.

It was such a huge undertaking.

As much as I trusted them,
I just didn't think that anyone

would try and make those books
into films.

[Graham] Peter knew he had
the skills to pay the bills.

He just had to convince
everyone else of it.

[Victoria] So, he calls up
Harvey Weinstein,

'cause they have a first look
deal and he says,

"I'm really interested
in Lord of the Rings"

and Harvey's like, "Okay".

Saul Zaentz has the rights
to Lord of the Rings.

They were producing
The English Patient together.

[Tim] The English Patient,funding dried up

right before they were shooting.

So, Harvey Weinstein came in,
gave them money.

The film was made and the film
won a bunch of Oscars.

[Graham] Weinstein saw
Saul Zaentz as owing him one,

something that could be settled

by selling him
The Lord of the Rings rights,

but Zaentz didn't see it
like that.

[Chris] He was
a sharp businessman.

People that worked with him
said he was very tight-fisted.

And I think it was a hard,
hard year of negotiations.

[Graham] And this would have

major repercussions
for Peter and Fran.

[Drew] He kept them on the hook
for a long time

before he really had
any handle on the rights,

but he told them right away,
"Oh, no worries,
we'll get them".

[Graham] Little did Peter
and Fran realize

that this was the beginning
of a journey as complex as

The Lord of the Ringstrilogy itself.

[Graham] The film,
Heavenly Creatures...

That's Mummy!

...had announced
to the world

that Peter Jackson
and Fran Walsh

were a creative partnership
to be reckoned with.

And the nominees are
Frances Walsh and Peter Jackson

for Heavenly Creatures.

[Graham] However,
Peter and Fran's

passion project,
The Lord of the Rings trilogy,

was, well, dragging on...

When Miramax is trying to get
the rights from Saul Zaentz,

there's this long
waiting period, but you know,

there's not a guarantee
that it's gonna go anywhere.

Patience.
Patience, my love.

[Graham] ...and Peter needed
something to happen soon,

having recently opened
Weta Digital,

a cutting edge world's leading
digital effects studio,

which we will get around
to telling you all about.

But for now...

You have to keep
those people on point.

You have to have something
for them to do.

[Graham] ...luckily an old project

was about to receive
some new heat.

Only one way to deal
with this thing.

They had developed a script.

[Graham] The Frighteners

is the story of a conman...

A psychic investigator?
That's a good one.

[Graham] ...who could talk
to the dead.

Hate to break this to you,
you're dead. You can't smoke.

You can light 'em up and blow
the smoke in my face.

[Graham] There was only
one problem.

[Victoria] Peter Jackson
had a first look deal

with Harvey for anything
that he would make.

[Graham] And in the case
of the Frighteners,

it was Universal that Peter
and Fran wanted to deal with.

[Drew] They had to negotiate
to get the freedom

to go make another movie
for Universal.

OK, well, folks,
I can do a clearance

but it's not gonna be cheap.

[Drew] Harvey Weinstein,

he knew that he had
Universal in a barrel,

so he managed to extract
quite a bit from them.

[Graham] And Peter Jackson
had a demand of his own.

Pete said, "I want to do it
here in New Zealand".

He was adamant.
"I wanna film in New Zealand",
and they let him.

I'm on my way.

Crews began to fly

to the other side of the world,

so New Zealand could double
as the American Mid-West.

Ready, and action.

And, at that point,
they jumped whole hog into it.

For that time, there were
a lot of special effects.

For Weta and for Peter Jackson,
it was a training ground

of how to work
with digital effects.

It was a way of working
with a giant movie star.

I'm kinda surprised to see you.

Here on business, I guess.

Those were important milestones.

Frighteners was going so well
as it was coming together

that Universal wanted
to make sure

they had the next
Peter Jackson film.

Again, Lord of the Rings,

the rights were taking forever
to negotiate.

[Graham] And while
Harvey Weinstein struggled

with the films rights
to Tolkien,

Universal knew they
had the rights in hand

to something far more precious
to Jackson.

Something monstrous.
All powerful.

King Kong has been his obsession
since he was a child.

It is the movie that made him
wanna make movies.

[Graham] Once again, timing was
perfect for Harvey Weinstein,

who still had Peter Jackson
on a string.

All of that is to his advantage.

He was a king and a God
in the world he knew.

Weinstein was gonna have
a piece of King Kong.

Universal's giving up so much

to be able to lock Jackson
down to this.

I think that is how all-in they
were on him as a filmmaker.

[Graham] And with The Frighteners

ruling the box office,
Jackson would have it all.

Only that's not what happened.

[Drew] The Frighteners
belly-flopped at the box office.

It was a disaster.

It's a goddamn tragedy.

[Barrie] After Frighteners,
Universal,

they didn't wanna makeKing Kong.

The studio pulled it.

It was Beauty
who killed the Beast.

[Graham] Not only was
Kong dead...

[Drew] That ended
Universal's interest

in working with Peter Jackson.

[Graham] ...now unable to put
the squeeze on Universal,

Weinstein continued
to squeeze Saul Zaentz

for the rights
to Lord of the Rings.

The Ring of Power
within my grasp.

Harvey Weinstein was a very
difficult combative producer.

There are not many stories
where people tell you,

"I had a remarkable experience".

[Graham] For a share

of the gross profits,
Saul relented.

So, Harvey got him to give him
the rights to make the picture.

[Graham] Harvey Weinstein
had played Hardball

to secure the deal,
but Peter Jackson wasn't beyond

playing Hardball himself
to get what he wanted.

[Victoria] Pete always felt
that New Zealand

would be the perfect country

to film
a Lord of the Rings film.

[Graham] And as far as
Peter was concerned,

it was a non-negotiable.

[Barrie] There were
a lot of articles that said,

"They'll never be able to make
this movie in New Zealand".

So, that just fired Peter up.

[Graham] So, Peter mobilized
his army,

but they weren't orcs
or trolls.

It was an army
of set designers,

costume makers willing
to do everything it took

to make The Lord of the Ringsa trilogy for the ages.

Trees and cliffs and castles,
and sculptures, roads, bridges.

In order to get the grass
to the right length

and the hedgerows to look like
they'd been there forever,

our greens department went
and transplanted a whole lot

of quite large trees
and the hedgerows

around the hobbit holes,
and all the gardens.

To get the gardens working
and looking believable,

you need to give it the time

so your plants would grow
and die back,

and new ones spring up,
and then weeds grow.

[Graham] Building
Tolkien's Middle Earth

was a brutal exercise
and took well over a year.

Thankfully, New Zealand
was small enough

and varied enough
to make the task possible.

It does sort of feel in a way
like a magical land.

[Stephen] We have varied sceneries.

I mean the north of this country
is sub-tropical,

and the bottom
is snow-capped mountains.

It would be difficult to find
such varied landscapes

in another country that was
actually so close together.

[Graham] However,
deep into pre-production,

Harvey Weinstein dropped
a bombshell on Peter Jackson.

Weinstein tells them

what they're going
to be able to make.

It's kind of a shock
to the system,

'cause it's not really
creatively

what I think any filmmaker
would think.

The plan was to make two films,

so condense the whole trilogy
into two films.

We're gonna make 'em together

and they're gonna cost
$75 million total.

Don't you see that is madness?

[Graham] $75 million
wasn't an arbitrary number.

Miramax had a $75 million cap

which was enforced by Disney
who owned Miramax.

[Drew] They had a distribution
deal that said,

$1 over this amount and it's not
your movie any more,

and they were not going
to give that up to Disney.

[Graham] Under the circumstances,

making Lord of the Ringsseemed impossible,

but Peter had
an ace up his sleeve.

[Graham] Peter Jackson's motivation

to film The Lord of the Ringsin New Zealand

ran far deeper than the green,
green grass of home.

He had Weta Workshop.

[Graham] But the workshop

wasn't a workshop
full of wetas,

it was actually a workshop

full of talented,
practical effects geniuses

and they sharpened their claws
on two iconic shows.

Xena, Warrior Princess.

Hercules.

Oh, this can't be good.

[Graham] But it was good,
and they were good.

The last six years had been

the apprenticeship
for all of us.

Archers, fire!

Weta had developed this way

of producing
absolutely authentic

metal weapons...

...and lightweight chainmail

out of plastic rings
joined together.

You could hold it in your hand.

Unless you felt
the weight of it,

you would believe it
to be metal.

I don't believe we would have
succeeded without those shows.

[Graham] It really did seem

like the stars were aligning
for Jackson,

New Zealand and Middle Earth.

So, they got to work on it.

[Graham] But there was
the not-so-small issue

of creating a two-film

Lord of the Rings story
out of three books.

[Galadriel] Stray but a little,
and it will fail.

[Graham] If it took Tolkien
almost two decades

to write the novels,

how would Jackson
and his writing partners,

Fran Walsh and Stephen Sinclair
ever succeed?

They needed a professor
of Tolkienology.

[Drew] Philippa Boyens,
Philippa is the living

Lord of the Rings
encyclopedia.

[Graham] But not only
did she know The Shire,

she knew how to script movies.

[Jed] She was well known
in New Zealand, you know,

as one of the top script editors
in the country.

You need people of intelligence
on this sort of mission.

Quest.

[Graham] Philippa's secret sauce

scattered over the script

was attention
to the little things.

[Andrew] Thanks to Boyens
in particular,

all the little details
were kept in place.

I think she's the secret weapon
of the whole thing.

[Graham] With their secret weapon,

the unlikely quartet
began their quest,

hoping to succeed
where so many others failed.

Yet the question remained...

[Drew] In two scripts,
can you tell Lord of the Rings

and have it beLord of the Rings?

All we have to decide
is what to do

with the time
that is given to us.

So, it's a huge gamble.

[Graham] But Peter Jackson
was not a betting man.

He knew exactly
what he was doing.

With the script
in capable hands,

Peter Jackson began to focus
on the visuals.

[Mahaffie] Peter had had
a number of storyboard artists

giving visual influence to
what the script was suggesting.

[Graham] There was only one way
that he'd succeed

in visualizing Middle Earth.

[Gilbert] A lot of the images
from Lord of the Rings

that people had imprinted
on their minds

from reading the books,
we had the guys

who actually produced those
images doing a lot

of the conceptual drawings
for the film.

[Sean] Alan Lee and John Howe
basically

drove the look
of the whole thing.

We kind of just put so much
trust in those guys.

[Sean] Yeah, Alan used to sit
there with us and draw.

It was crazy to just have him
right there with us.

[Graham] But although Jackson
had illustrative royalty

at his disposal,
it was somewhere else

he looked for inspiration.

[Chris] We feel like
we had some influence.

Some of the shots,
early shots especially,

are almost shot for shot
identical.

I think people can aspire
what they're seeing

and they wanna improve it.

[Graham] They'd give it
an ending for a start.

[Chris] Right in the middle
of the battle.

It just ends. Boom.

[Graham] But Peter Jackson
had far more to think about.

The fierce,
burning eye of Sauron,

AKA, Harvey Weinstein.

It was the mum and dad of it,
you know.

One had the purse strings
and one had the creative vision.

[Graham] Jackson's vision was
starting to make Weinstein

pessimistic of his ability
to shoot the film on budget.

This budget kept going up
and it was now looking like

almost twice
that $75 million cap.

[Victoria] Harvey's like, "I can
only do it for $75 million".

[Graham] And if two movies
cost 140 million,

then Harvey simply
did the math.

So Harvey said, "We're not gonna
make two movies.

"We're only gonna make one".

No! Never!

Of course, Pete was going,

"You can't do it with one movie.
It's too big".

He's like, "No, that's
what it is, one single film".

[Andrew] Peter Jackson
and Fran Walsh did not think

that they could do justice

to the source material
with just one film.

[Graham] After two years
of preparing

to turn New Zealand
into Middle Earth...

I think it broke them.

[Victoria] Peter was convinced,

"I'm gonna
have to walk away from this".

Harvey said, "Well,
if you don't wanna do it,

"we'll just find another
director that wants to do it".

It's a strange fate
that we should suffer

so much fear and doubt.

They panicked and they realized,
we have to rescue this thing.

It cannot be
a Harvey Weinstein movie.

[Graham] For Peter Jackson
and his fellowship,

the fate of Middle Earth

and the New Zealand
film industry...

Half the country
worked on those movies.

[Graham] ...was in his hands.