Peter Jackson's LotR Trilogy Almost Became Most Expensive Failure in Movie History

The Lord of the Rings, directed by Peter Jackson, is included in many lists of the best movies of all time.

The trilogy has a huge fan base all over the world – people spend large sums of money to visit New Zealand and see the Shire built by the filmmakers. Without a doubt, The Lord of the Rings is a cult movie series.

Despite it being divided into three installments, it can be called a single artistic creation. When a fan says they like The Lord of the Rings, they likely mean the whole trilogy, as the movies simply cannot be separated from each other.

One of the secrets to making the sequels as successful as the first movie is that all three films were actually shot at the same time.

Many fans argued that it was impossible to adapt The Lord of the Rings to the big screen, let alone shoot three such massive films at the same time, but Peter Jackson's trilogy has become a living proof of that.

However, Viggo Mortensen revealed what happened behind the scenes, and in his opinion, not only the sequels, but also the first Fellowship of the Ring movie could be a failure:

“Anybody who says they knew it was going to be the success it was, I don’t think it’s really true. […] They were in a lot of trouble, and Peter had spent a lot.”

Mortensen also revealed that it was true that all three movies were shot at the same time, but when Jackson finished filming in December 2000, the sequels were still a mess and required extensive reshoots, what was done in the following years.

The actor admitted that if the first movie had not been a hit, Jackson would not have received money for additional filming, and the sequels would have turned out simply awful.

And it would be the most expensive failure in history, considering how much money was spent on production. The director himself later confirmed this information.

Viggo also named his favorite movie in the franchise as The Fellowship of the Ring. In his opinion, the sequels had too many special effects, which of course were grandiose, but because of that, something subtle was lost in following installments.

Source: The Telegraph