‘The Hobbit:’ Inside Peter Jackson and Warner Bros.’ $1 Billion Gamble
THR has a nice backgrounder about The Hobbit which Warner Bros. has turned into a billion dollar trilogy. Gotta be the most expensive movie project ever, right?
A knowledgeable source says the first two installments cost $315 million each, and that’s with Jackson deferring his fee. A studio source insists that number is wildly inflated and, with significant production rebates from New Zealand, the cost is closer to $200 million a movie. (The budget on the third film still is a wild card, but one reason a third movie was even discussed was because Jackson had shot more footage than two films could contain.)
The article goes into depth about this project which had a tortured path to getting produced. While Peter Jackson’s involvement was crucial to that end, it’s unlikely he would have agreed to direct the movies if it hadn’t been for one man:
Although Jackson still hadn’t made a decision to direct the movies, New Line’s Blackwood says the opportunity to get Jackson into the director’s chair was “a phenomenal gift.” Concurs New Line president Toby Emmerich: “It wasn’t clear the movies would survive if he didn’t step in. And certainly no one on the planet was better qualified to do it.”
It was [Alan] Horn who got Jackson over the hump, telling him that one day, he would be glad he’d directed the entire cycle. “In all our deliberations with Peter, it was never about the money,” says Horn. “It was about what he wanted to do with his life, whether he wanted to dive back in.” Finally, Jackson was willing but wary because the film still had no green light. By then, MGM was about to file for bankruptcy. Horn agreed that Warners — which already had invested $45 million before a single frame had been shot — would foot the bill for the movies and MGM could reimburse the studio over time.
“I would give Alan the credit for these films existing in the first place,” says Jackson. “It was only his total focus and attention that actually sorted through the issues. … I trust anything that he tells me. And I pay attention to anything he tells me, which is not really the case with some of these people.” Although Horn since has left Warners and taken the helm at Disney, he will have an executive producer credit on all three movies.
My favorite anecdote in the article is one about the making of the original LOTR:
The idea was to make two films at a combined cost of $120 million. But Michael Eisner, then-CEO of Disney (which owned Miramax), balked and wanted to finance only one. Now it was Jackson’s turn to balk. Having already spent about $10 million to develop the project, Harvey and Bob Weinstein allowed Jackson just three weeks to find another buyer. Any deal had to give the Weinsteins and Zaentz executive producing credits, reimbursement for their costs and a piece of the gross profits.
Jackson and his team found their way to New Line Cinema — at that point, their last resort. After looking at Jackson’s models and a reel of material, chairman Bob Shaye asked the magic question: If there were three Lord of the Rings books, why not do three films? It was a huge gamble considering that Jackson was a cult filmmaker with a total box-office haul of $30 million.
In 2002 I went to a special screening of the first LOTR in which two of the screenwriters — Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens — as well as Toby Emmerich was there, and they recounted this episode in great detail. Miramax told Jackson they already had someone ready to make LOTR as 1 movie, so the pressure on Jackson was even greater. Plus New Line was the only studio with any real interest in taking on the project. So when Jackson went in to pitch to Shaye, that was it: He succeeded in selling Shaye on his vision for the movie or his lifelong dream of directing the films was over.
The way I remember the story was Jackson had all sorts of visuals to support his pitch, but the main thing is he basically acted out the whole thing, bouncing around the room for a half-hour or so, sweat flying, arms gesticulating, leaving himself gasping for breath. A long beat. And then Shaye’s question: Why not three films?
It’s a wonderful story that reminds us sometimes a filmmaker’s passion is what can take a project over the top [see today’s Business of Screenwriting post].
For more of the THR article, go here.
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