In December 2001 we will witness the first installment of the Lord of the Rings released into cinemas worldwide. Director Peter Jackson (Heavenly Creatures, The Frighteners) has undertaken the enormous task in bringing J.R.R. Tolkien’s vision to the big screen in three separate films. To do this Jackson has teamed up with writers Philippa Boyens and Stephen Sinclair (Heavenly Creatures) as well as writing partner Frances Walsh to do the screenplay.
Filming began in October 11, 1999 at numerous outdoor locations throughout New Zealand and at Peter Jackson’s Three Foot Six Studios in Wellington. Peter Jackson has a hand full of great producers to work with witch include Barrie M. Osborne (The Matrix, Face/Off), Tim Sanders (The Frighteners), executive producers are Saul Zaentz (Amadeus, The English Patient) and Bob and Harvey Weinstein from Miramax.
The Lord of the Rings trilogy, which will take till the end of 2003 to complete, is expected to cost $130 million US dollars. The trilogy will be released under the separate names of the original releases of the books – The Fellowship of the Ring (released on December 2001 and Tolkien’s book was first published in 1954), The Two Towers (December 2002, first published 1954) and The Return of the King (December 2003, first published 1956).
Jackson and his co-writers vow to stick closely to their literary source, J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. I and many other fans alike look forward to there release.