The Hero And The Dark Lord

A NEW BOOK BY EMPIRE CONTRIBUTING EDITOR IAN NATHAN TELLS THE UNTOLD STORIES BEHIND THE MAKING OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS. IN THIS EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT, PETER JACKSON RECALLS ONE OF HIS GRIMMEST MOMENTS — TANGLING WITH HARVEY WEINSTEIN

In the summer of 1997, reeling from the box-office failure of his horror-comedy The Frighteners, Peter Jackson was desperate to get his mooted adaptation of The Lord Of The Rings off the ground. Fortunately, a powerful Hollywood force seemed eager to make it as two films. Unfortunately, that person was Harvey Weinstein, the tempestuous and often terrifying head of Miramax — who has since been disgraced over multiple accusations of sexual assault — to whom Jackson was bound by a first-look deal.

Fran remembers this stuff much better than I do,” says Peter Jackson stoically. “It’s like a car crash, I tend to sort of wipe out all the bad memories. Fran hangs on to every detail.”

With their initial treatment completed, Jackson and [producer/co-screenwriter] Fran Walsh flew to New York to begin their script meetings at Miramax, and get their first taste of the Weinstein way. There would be three script meetings in all, principally with the two executives, Cary Granat (inevitably dubbed ‘Cary Grant’), the head of production at Dimension, and Jon Gordon, a Miramax production executive who had survived as Harvey’s assistant, who were managing the project. Harvey and Bob Weinstein were, as Jackson ominously puts it, “floating around”. It had been decreed that this was to be the first Dimension-Miramax co-production and both brothers would make their presence felt.