Back in 1995, Peter Jackson started looking for a project to show off the expanded digital-effects capacities he and his colleagues had built up for The Frighteners. With what at the time was naive optimism, they settled on The Lord of the Rings and set out to track down who had the production rights for it. Those rights belonged to producer Saul Zaentz, who was not inclined to sell them to anyone, let alone a little-known director from New Zealand.

Peter and company had, however, one advantage. Having distributed his 1994 film Heavenly Creatures through Miramax, Peter had an in with that art-film company and its co-founders, Harvey and Bob Weinstein. Indeed, he was required to give them an option on his next film. Through a happy coincidence, Zaentz owed Miramax a big favor, since the company had rescued his project The English Patient when Fox abruptly pulled the plug on its financing just before shooting began. After much negotiation with Zaentz, Harvey Weinstein acquired the trilogy’s rights, agreeing to produce a two-part adaptation of Tolkien’s novel with Peter to direct.

In retrospect, it seems impossible to believe that fans would have been satisfied with two features, especially when such elements as Galadriel and Lothlórien would have been left out entirely. But that version of the film went through 18 months of pre-production at Miramax.

Miramax was not a free agent, having been bought by Disney in 1993. In 1998 Michael Eisner, then head of Disney, declared that LOTR would be made as one inexpensive feature-length film or not at all. Peter declined to go forward and persuaded Harvey to put the film into turnaround for a few weeks, giving him a chance to try and sell the project to a different studio. Only one studio was interested, but that one was New Line, whose founder Bob Shaye wanted LOTR made as three features. The price was 5% of the trilogy’s revenues. Eisner had so little faith in the proposed adaptation, that he split the 5% between Disney and the Weinsteins!

(I tell this story in more detail in the first chapter of The Frodo Franchise.)

The Weinsteins subsequently left Miramax to form The Weinstein Company, probably in part using their considerable income from the trilogy. Their best-known recent film is Inglourious Basterds.

On Wednesday The Wrap announced that Disney is closing Miramax. Some of the firm’s important films, like Pulp Fiction and sex, lies, and videotape are mentioned, but there’s no reference to its key role in allowing LOTR to get made. After the Weinsteins’ departure, Miramax was a shadow of its former self, but it still had employees (80 have lost their jobs) and films scheduled to be released (six remain in limbo). Disney claims that the brand will not disappear, but it’s hard to imagine what they could do with it at this point.

Nothing much to do with LOTR or The Hobbit, but Newsweek has just posted a double interview with Peter Jackson and James Cameron. The interviewer’s questions have been eliminated, so it reads as a conversation between the two of them. They have some interesting things to say about the current dominance of the blockbuster in Hollywood filmmaking and about CGI–how much it costs, how it will never replace actors, and how the story still rules. Cameron has some nice things to say about Gollum.

The interview will also be in the January 4 print issue.

I’ve been reading a lot of articles on Avatar and interviews with James Cameron recently. Of course, there’s so much coverage that I couldn’t possibly get through all of it. But on the whole I was disappointed at how little information there was on Weta Ltd.’s role in the film’s groundbreaking special effects.

The Hollywood Reporter’s article by Alex Ben Block, posted December 10 and published in the December 11 print edition, is the big exception. It doesn’t get into the nitty-gritty details of the technology involved, but it gives the facts and figures to show just how much Cameron’s film relied on Weta to innovate the new techniques and to slog through the laborious process of rendering a huge number of effects shots. Here’s the section of the article on Weta: more »

It has been nearly six years since the release of The Return of the King, but its international distributors still look back on the three years of the trilogy’s distribution as one of their most lucrative periods ever.

As I explained in Chapter 9 of The Frodo Franchise, LOTR was technically an independent film, produced by New Line, then an independent company. It was financed in the traditional indie way, through sales of distribution rights to independent distributors abroad and through licensing fees for the tie-in products. Although those distributors had to pay hefty fees up front, before the film had even been made, and although they were naturally nervous about the prospects for success, they ended up happy and rich.

Indeed, New Line was the biggest supplier for many of these independent distributors. When it got absorbed into Warner Bros. early last year, that source of supply dried up. About a year ago, I wrote an entry on “Observations on Film Art,” discussing the companies that were possibly stepping in to take New Line’s place. Among the companies I mentioned was a relative newcomer to the American distribution scene, Summit Entertainment. At that point Summit had only released a few insignificant films in the US, though it had been producing films since the mid-1990s. Its main claim to fame was a long and successful track record for selling American movies to distributors abroad.

Summit’s producing efforts got a big boost in 2006. Paramount famously put Twilight into turnaround early in the year, and in October a producer brought it to Summit. (For a good background account, see this LA Times story.) In late 2008, Twilight was slipped into the original November 21 slot that had been announced for Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Although it wasn’t as immediately successful as the second entry in the series has been, it built into a hit. After less than two weeks in distribution, The Twilight Saga: New Moon has made an estimated $230 million domestically and is a big hit abroad as well.

Mike Goodridge, the editor of Screen Daily, has pointed out that the Twilight phenomenon is in some ways parallel to that of the Rings trilogy:

When New Line Cinema was absorbed into Warner Bros in early 2008, many of the world’s leading independent distributors lost one of their key suppliers of Hollywood-level product. Companies such as Entertainment in the UK and Metropolitan in France had gone through good times and bad with New Line over the years, but when they were good, as in the case of The Lord Of The Rings trilogy, they were very, very good.

Goodridge cites some figures to back this up:

Seeing E1 Films in the UK take nearly $20m in the UK, SND in France scoring $17m, Eagle in Italy $14.3m and Aurum in Spain $13.7m last weekend brought back the heady days of The Lord Of The Rings openings. In Australia, Hoyts Distribution brought in $13.3m for the biggest opening ever in the territory. In New Zealand as well, it took the all-time crown, the $1.9m gross beating, you guessed it, The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King.

Aurum, by the way, only exists today because of its success with the trilogy.

In my book, I suggested that LOTR, despite being a blockbuster, was enormously beneficial to international independent and foreign-language cinema. Now the Twilight series looks like it will have a similar, sustained effect. According to Goodridge:

What The Lord Of The Rings proved and the Twilight Saga reaffirms is that this kind of independent success is good for everybody. The Twilight distributors will have more money to invest in financing and acquisitions, benefiting other independent productions, while sales companies struggling to get films off the ground in a turgid distribution world will hopefully encounter a renewed buoyancy in the international markets.

The parallel is even stronger if we recall that LOTR was picked up by New Line when it was put into turnaround by Miramax.

The Hobbit will extend the franchise, but it won’t bring the same benefit to foreign distributors. New Line no longer handles its own financing or distribution. Warner Bros. will finance the film (perhaps with help from MGM if that studio manages to survive and put its economic affairs in order) and will distribute the film. There will presumably be no presales to independent distributors abroad.

There’s presumably no causal connection between the trilogy and the parallel Twilight phenomenon. Still, it’s good to see a similar windfall going to independent cinema around the world.

Today the New Zealand Herald posted a story on the other main center of filmmaking in New Zealand, Auckland. Its suburbs have become home to studios (mainly converted warehouses and factories) cranking out film and TV shows.

Producer Rob Tapert may be American by birth, but back in the early 1990s he was looking for a cheap place to make his TV series Hercules and Xena. Now he and wife Lucy Lawless have moved to New Zealand, and Tapert is currently shooting another miniseries, Spartacus.

As in Wellington, there are post-production facilities in Auckland, notably DigiPost, which has grown considerably by providing services to Tapert’s TV projects.

The story doesn’t talk about Peter Jackson or the Miramar-based production facilities he and his partners have created–except for passing mentions of how “Wellywood” gets all the attention while Auckland’s production hums along quietly and prosperously. Apart from the uptick in foreign productions coming into the country, the success of the LOTR trilogy hasn’t had much impact on the health of Auckland’s local filmmaking companies.

As I mentioned in The Frodo Franchise, though, some of the people involved in the making of LOTR got their training by working on Hercules and Xena, among them costume designer Ngila Dickson and stunt supervisor (and Viggo Mortenson’s double), Kirk Maxwell, both of whom told me about their experiences when I interviewed them. I suspect that Auckland projects will continue to be a way for young people to get experience in the industry.

In some cases it also provides work in between projects in Wellington. I interviewed IT expert Duncan Nimmo and casting director Liz Mullane in Auckland when they were working on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

It sounds to me as though Miramar, with its cutting-edge special-effects and post-production companies, is catering to the big-budget, technically sophisticated projects like James Cameron’s Avatar, while Auckland is geared more toward television and film productions seeking, as Tapert did, a way to save money by shooting offshore. The author notes that the lack of large soundstages in Auckland studios keeps some big-budget projects away, as when the third Narnia film went to larger facilities in Australia.

The piece is an interesting read for those who are interested in how Wellington’s sudden growth in filmmaking power fits into the larger picture of New Zealand’s production.

Although Peter Jackson’s news conference with 40 lucky media people has been the main news coming out of Comic-Con today, yesterday he also took part, alongside James Cameron, in a panel on 3D.

Cameron is one of the strongest advocates of 3D. Initially he insisted that Avatar, due out in December, would only play in 3D theaters. The slow conversion of screens to digital and thence to 3D (only partly due to the current recession) has made that plan unfeasible, and he has conceded that it will have to show in 2D theaters as well in order to recoup its costs. Still, he still attends technical trade shows and other venues to push the conversion. The Lord of the Rings trilogy, he suggests, could provide a big boost toward that effort.

Yahoo! has an interesting report on the Comic-Con event:

The two filmmakers say they inspired each other. Cameron said it was the artistic use of “humanoid CG” in Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” films that got him rolling on “Avatar,” set for release Dec. 18.

Jackson has said that the technology he used was borne out of Cameron’s CGI work on “The Abyss” and “Terminator 2.”

Both are thrilled by the possibilities of 3-D and plan to convert their biggest hits, “Titanic” and the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, into the format. Then they lamented the shortage of 3-D screens.

“There will be a lot more 3-D screens when they know the ‘Lord of the Rings’ films are going to be available,” Cameron said.

The movie industry needs 3-D, he said, to inspire originality and boost its bottom line. A “3-D ecosystem” could be built on big films converting to the format.

“If ‘Lord of the Rings’ and ‘Titanic’ are available in 3-D, that sends a signal all the way back to the consumer electronics manufacturers: Make the screens, make the modified Blue Ray DVD players so you can have it in your home,” Cameron said.

The bit about LOTR inspiring Avatar isn’t news; Cameron acknowledged that at the time he first announced the project. It’s good to see him making clear just how influential Gollum has been, though. And, yes, I’d say that a 3D LOTR would encourage some theater owners to take the plunge and invest in digital projection (which you have to have if you want to add on 3D equipment).

Last I heard, the conversion of LOTR to 3D was still years off, so it will be interesting to learn if there’s a timetable for this. In the meantime, there’s more 3D news from Peter:

Both men continue with high-tech pursuits outside of feature films. Jackson is developing a “King Kong” attraction for Universal theme parks that surrounds visitors with 3-D images and effects. Eight projectors will beam images onto giant screens surrounding the park tram, which will be stationed on a surface that shimmies and shakes with action as Kong battles a Tyrannosaurus Rex. The ride is set to open next summer, he said.

As I’ve said, I’m not a huge fan of 3D. I enjoy it occasionally, but I don’t relish the idea of all films being made that way. Peter doesn’t seem to, either. In the third clip of his Comic-Con interview with Entertainment Weekly online, he has this to say on the subject:

I personally love 3D, just because as a guy going to the movies like everybody else, I get a kick out of 3D. I think it largely adds to the experience of seeing a film. I think a lot of it is hypte at the moment, because the studios are in a desperate situation where they’re seeing video games eat into a lot of their revenue. There’s no doubt that the film industry is going through a difficult time so 3D is being used by studios as a way of tryig to attract audiences. There’s definitely hype involved. But I think beyond the hype, it’s a very, very fun, useful technical medium to tell stories. But look, I’ll tell you, the future of good film is the same as the past, the history of good film, which is about story and character. You’ve got to have good stories and you’ve got to have good characters, and whether it’s 3D doesn’t matter at all, at the end of the day. It really doesn’t. Story and character is all it’s ever been about.

So far indicators are that The Hobbit will not be in 3D, and that’s the way most fans seem to like it. I forget where I saw this (perhaps someone can remind me), but there was a poll of fans, and 81% preferred the film in 2D. Count me among that number. But definitely there are films I would like to see in 3D, including Avatar and The Dambusters.

The Screen Actors Guild negotiations over a new contract have now dragged on so long that a potential strike might actually have affected the production of The Hobbit. Today, however, the membership voted 78% in favor of the proposed deal, and so the hovering threat of a strike has disappeared. The new contract will last two years, to June 30, 2011. That’s well after the principal photography for The Hobbit is currently scheduled to end–though additional pick-up filming will presumably occur for both parts, and that would be likely to last beyond that expiration date. Variety has an account of the deal here.

A story posted by Variety today says that the company that designed the titles for the LOTR trilogy is going out of business. Pacific Title and Art Studio has been an extremely familiar name within the film industry. It was founded in 1919 by Leon Schlesinger, who went on to head the Warner Bros. animation department in the golden age of the 1930s and 1940s. It did the titles for The Jazz Singer, Gone with the Wind, Ben Hur, and a lot of other less familiar films.

Pacific Title is another victim of the economic recession, as well as production incentives that have led American films to shoot films and do their post-production work elsewhere. While it’s faintly possible that someone will step in and buy the firm, Pacific Title currently aims to finish its current projects by the end of this month, at which point it will be liquidated.

It’s sad to see such a major Hollywood institution go under after such a long run of success. Even at the end, it has been done the titles for such prominent items as Terminator Salvation, Gran Torino, Watchmen, and Fast and Furious. A sign of the bad economic times, but also of the growing competition for post-production offered by companies abroad–a trend which I discussed in the final chapter of The Frodo Franchise.

Variety announced today that Gordon Paddison has started a new company and that Peter Jackson has signed a deal with it.

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I was sad to see a report on Variety‘s website that special-effects house The Orphanage, founded in 1999, is going out of business. It’s a medium-size company, located in San Francisco’s Presidio, that contributed a major scene to Iron Man and did some effects for The Pirates of the Caribbean and The Day after Tomorrow.

Among sci-fi/fantasy fans, The Orphanage’s main claim to fame was creating the digital effects for the hit South Korean monster movie The Host (which is a clever, engaging film, for those of you who haven’t seen it). Originally the plan was for Weta Digital to provide the CGI for the film, but it was working away full throttle on King Kong and had to decline. Weta Workshop, however, collaborated on the creature design and initial maquette, which was scanned by The Orphanage, located in San Francisco in the Presidio. Two of its experts gave an interview available on the San Franciso Film Festival’s website, referring briefly to Weta.

As Variety puts it, “But midsized vfx shops like the Orphanage are under pressure as they lack the resources of the bigger shops to undertake advance research and development and can be underbid by ‘garage’ shops with lower overhead.”

Weta Ltd., of course, evolved from one of those “garage” shops to its current position as one of the top three effects houses in the world, as a result of LOTR.

As I pointed out in my book, small post-production centers have sprung up in several countries with little domestic film production of their own. No doubt many of them have far lower overhead than a company operating in the Presidio (also home to Industrial Light & Magic). It’s a pity to see The Orphanage fold, and one can only hope that its animators (which numbered 160 at the firm’s height) will find jobs in the current economy–perhaps someday some of them working on The Hobbit.