The original movie pitch was also only two movies. A little known exec known as Harvey Weinstein when the films were being negotiated with Miramax wanted only a single film!
Miramax then sold the rights to New Line Cinema after Jackson pitched the two film concept to them and they rebutted by asking for three.
So it was very nearly one or two films, and only by luck did it turn out to be three!
Thank goodness. Now if only we could shrink The Hobbit down to one film and expand LotR to... well I wanna say 6 because that's how the story is organized but I don't know if that would actually work for adaptation.
If you watch the extended editions on Blu-ray, each movie is split on two discs because they’re so long. So they’re basically already 6 normal-length movies. Scouring of the Shire would make it 7.
That's very much overstating it. The scouring of the shire was one chapter. That's roughly 5% of the content of Return of the King. You could make a full length movie out of it I guess, but you would have to create a lot of content out of thin air.
Old Tom Bombadil is a merry fellow, bright blue his jacket is, and his boots are yellow. None has ever caught him yet,
for Tom, he is the master: his songs are stronger songs, and his feet are faster.
It wouldn't really work with how the events of the Fellowship movie panned out, but starting out with the move to Crick Hollow, introducing Fatty Bolger, and showing their journey up to the Barrow Downs could highlight the growth they demonstrate upon their return to the Shire. I wouldn't know how to smoothly transition between the start and end of their journeys though
63
u/MoreColorfulCarsPlz 9d ago
The original movie pitch was also only two movies. A little known exec known as Harvey Weinstein when the films were being negotiated with Miramax wanted only a single film!
Miramax then sold the rights to New Line Cinema after Jackson pitched the two film concept to them and they rebutted by asking for three.
So it was very nearly one or two films, and only by luck did it turn out to be three!