Lord of the Rings Took a Creative Jab at Harvey Weinstein; Elijah Wood Recalls

There is probably no other fantasy movie series that is as recognizable as The Lord of the Rings by Peter Jackson. The huge scope of the production is still impressive today. However, there was a danger that none of the movies would be filmed. Harvey Weinstein wanted to make sure of that. The actions of the infamous producer were mentioned by Elijah Wood (vide Collider).

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In 2021, the actor playing the role of Frodo Bagginsmade a guest appearance on the Armchair Expert podcast. The actor mentioned that originally the rights to the books were held by Harvey Weinstein's co-owned Miramax studio. However, it did not have the funds needed to realize the movie vision of Peter Jackson, so the director and Fran Walsh asked for permission to look for another studio willing to finance the project.

Their request was acceded to, but a condition was imposed that sabotaged any chance of filming the production. Harvey Weinstein announced that the new studio would only get the rights to the brand if it decided to make all the movies at the same time. This seemed impossible, since in the case of a trilogy, understandably, studios preferred to make one part first, see how it would do, and only then shoot the sequels.

Weinstein's plan succeeded for a while, until Jackson and Walsh ended up at New Line Cinema, where they were able to come to an agreement, and the director of the studio, Bob Shaye, himself offered to sign a contract for all three movies as soon as the aforementioned men told him about the first two. Thanks to this The Lord of the Rings found a new home, but Harvey Weinstein's decision was not forgotten.

Elijah Wood revealed that some of the orc masks were inspired by the facial features of the unpopular producer. In this way they wanted to "honor" the attempt to sabotage the movies. Interestingly, the costumes themselves were awarded Oscars, which shows the attention to detail in their creation. In some ways, Harvey Weinstein contributed to the huge success of the trilogy, but certainly not in the way he might have imagined.

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