In the second of five special episodes to celebrate this podcast's 300th episode, focused on J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy epic The Lord of the Rings, Ralph Bakshi's The Lord of the Rings was 18-years-old by the time Peter Jackson started considering making his own version in live action. Jackson and his partner Fran Walsh wanted to make something high fantasy, but kept coming back to Tolkien's stories.

Acquiring the rights from Saul Zaentz took a while, and at the time Jackson was contracted to Miramax, so Harvey Weinstein took charge.

With a planned two-film adaptation, filmed back-to-back, this The Lord of the Rings adaptation was worked on under Miramax. Then the budget started to balloon, but parent company Disney refused to help.

Jackson was given an ultimatum by Weinstein - either reduce the number of films to one, continue with two on a heavily reduced budget, or abandon the project entirely and find another studio willing to take it on within four weeks.

Jackson and his "fellowship" would choose their own quest to find a new studio, and they ended up at New Line Cinema, where something incredible happened...

This episode is Part 1 of a three-part story, as well as Part 2 of a five-part group of episodes. You don't need to have listened to the previous episode, but it might help for context of the story as a whole to this point.

I would love to hear your thoughts on The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring [Part 2 of 5] !

Verbal Diorama is now an award-winning podcast! Best Movie Podcast in the inaugural Ear Worthy Independent Podcast Awards and is also now nominated for the Earworm Award at the 2025 Golden Lobes.

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ABOUT VERBAL DIORAMA

Verbal Diorama is hosted, produced, edited, researched, recorded and marketed by me, Em | This podcast is hosted by Captivate, try it yourself for free.

Theme Music: Verbal Diorama Theme Song. Music by Chloe Enticott - Compositions by Chloe. Lyrics by Chloe Enticott (and me!) Production by Ellis Powell-Bevan of Ewenique Studio

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