Peter Jackson gained widespread notoriety for his excellently directed “Lord of the Rings” films. He had hit it out of the park and cemented the trilogy as some of the best book to film adaptations out there. But did you know that he was almost replaced by none other than Quentin Tarantino!
That’s not even the craziest part. The dark lord of Hollywood himself, Harvey Weinstein, was the man behind the threat. He didn’t like the film’s long runtime and had told Jackson to cut it down or he’d be replaced with the “Pulp Fiction” director.
According to Jackson’s manager Ken Kamins, “Harvey would go from acting empathetically to turning on a dime into Mr. Hyde and would threaten Peter. He’d threaten to get Quentin Tarantino to direct if Peter couldn’t do it in one film that was two-and-a-half hours — which was the exact opposite of what he initially told us he wanted.”
No surprise that Hollywood’s biggest scumbag is a bipolar, impossible to please asshat. Still, the prospect of a Tarantino directed “Lord of the Rings” is certainly tantalizing. It was for the best that Jackson stayed on to direct. I dare not deny that. But, in some alternate universe there’s a “Lord of the Rings” trilogy with one too many shots of dirty Hobbit’s feet and an F-bomb spewing Gandalf played by a certain lover of the word motherf#%ker.
