Things You Didn’t Know About the Making of ‘Lord of the Rings’, Part One

When “Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” opened on Dec. 19, 2001, it was the culmination of one of the most audacious and successful bets ever made in the movie business. The three films in the series were shot back to back and grossed $2.9 billion dollars — not bad for a trilogy that very nearly didn’t get made.

Why did it take so long after the J.R.R. Tolkien books were published to see a “Lord of the Rings” film? And how did Peter Jackson, who wasn’t a well-known director at the time, end up directing all three? Here are some of the steps it took to put “Lord of the Rings” onscreen.

Hippies helped the Hobbits: The books were published starting in 1954 in England, but didn’t become popular in the U.S. until the mid-1960s, at the height of the Vietnam War, when war protesters and back-to-the-earth hippies ruled the cultural airwaves. The books became counter-cultural touchstones thanks to their themes of environmental protection and battles against forces of war and corruption.

Tolkien was flattered by the success and amazed by the profits. But he was born in 1892, and couldn’t get his head around fans whose idea of a great trip was to ingest “The Lord of the Rings” and LSD simultaneously. Plus, over-enthusiastic readers were invading his privacy, gawking at his house and calling him at all hours with obscure questions.

The influence grew: Themes from the book were reflected in music by groups such as Led Zeppelin with their song “Ramble On,” and writers including Clive Barker and Stephen King were strongly influenced by Tolkien.

George Lucas has often cited the books as an important influence on “Star Wars.”An animated attempt: After “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” producer Saul Zaentz acquired rights to the books, animator Ralph Bakshi made a feature-length animated film, “J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings.”

But until the mid-1990s, when digital special effects started to become more widespread, it was thought the vast mythological universe of elves, Hobbits, wizards and monsters would be too daunting and expensive to reproduce on film. Filmmakers including George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and John Boorman considered trying to adapt the books but ultimately didn’t follow through.