Harvey Weinstein threatened to replace Peter Jackson with Quentin Tarantino as Lord of the Rings director

Peter Jackson devoted more than six years of his life trying to bring JRR Tolkien’s epic masterpiece The Lord of the Rings to the big screen. He of course turned the book into a movie trilogy with each one around three hours long. But they still seemed to fly by rather seamlessly thanks to Jackson’s astounding attention to detail, perfect pacing and some incredible special effects. However, the ace director was nearly replaced by Quentin Tarantino, thanks to Harvey Weinstein, reports The Stuff. [caption id=“attachment_4456187” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Peter Jackson; Quentin Tarantino with Harvey Weinstein. Images via Twitter[/caption] Jackson initially developed his adaptation at Miramax under the guidance of the disgraced producer before he went on to team up with New Line Cinema. The revelation comes in a new book detailing the Kiwi filmmaker’s epic quest to bring to life Tolkien’s seminal fantasy novel. British film writer Ian Nathan’s book, Anything You Can Imagine: Peter Jackson and the Making of Middle-earth, describes how Weinstein who wanted a single, two-hour movie, rather than a trilogy of blockbusters. The producer even threatened to replace him with the Pulp Fiction director or John Madden, the director of Shakespeare in Love, if he refused to comply. Here’s an excerpt from the book: “Harvey was like, ‘you’re either doing this or you’re not. You’re out’. And I got Quentin ready to direct it’,” Ken Kamins, a fellow producer called in by Weinstein to assist on the project, told Nathan…Jackson himself recalled receiving a memo dated June 17, 1998 from the Miramax (the Weinstein’s production company) development head Jack Lechner at his New York hotel, which detailed what Nathan describes in the book as “a more radical, streamlined approach”, which would enable the story to be told in a single movie." Though if Tarantino helming the movie might sound like an interesting R-rated idea, it is hard to imagine a better adaptation than Jackson’s. Earlier this week, Ashley Judd sued Weinstein, saying the former movie mogul hurt her acting career in retaliation for her rejecting his sexual advances. Central to the suit is Jackson saying in December that Weinstein had warned him 20 years ago that Judd was a “nightmare” to work with, and should be avoided “at all costs.” Jackson was considering Judd for a major role in his Lord of the Rings films, and had met with her about the role.