Oscar-winning director Peter Jackson revealed that the studio for the upcoming Lord of the Rings spin-off series asked him to be involved in the mega series alongside writer-producer Fran Walsh but after a few months of approaching him ghosted the director completely, in a recent interview on The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast.
During the sit-down, Jackson shared, "They asked me if I wanted to be involved — [writer-producer Fran Walsh] and I — and I said, ‘That’s an impossible question to answer without seeing a script,'" he went on to explain there were no hard feelings, "So they said, ‘As soon as we get the first couple scripts, we’ll send them to you.’ And the scripts never showed up. That’s the last thing I heard, which is fine. No complaints at all."
The filmmaker repeated the anecdote but added a few more details, in another chat with the outlet, "About four, five years ago, they asked if I would be interested in it." Jackson continued, "So I said, ‘Have you got the scripts yet?’ Because I know how hard the scripts were to write for the films, and I didn’t know the people writing their scripts. They said, ‘Oh no, we haven’t got the scripts yet, but as soon as we do, we’ll send you the scripts.’ So I was waiting for the scripts to arrive, and they never did." Even after the incident, Jackson shared that he had no beef with the studio and would surely be tuning in to watch the episodes, "I’m not the sort of guy who wishes ill will. Filmmaking is hard enough. If somebody makes a good film or TV show, it’s something to celebrate. The one thing I am looking forward to is actually seeing it as a perfectly neutral viewer."
As a response to the trilogy director, Amazon Studios explained, "In pursuing the rights for our show, we were obligated to keep the series distinct and separate from the films. We have the utmost respect for Peter Jackson and The Lord of The Rings films and are thrilled that he is looking forward to watching The Rings of Power."
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