I'm putting this up because I wanted to help Peter Jackson to dispell the wrongful opinion that has been spread recently. First off, a story like this to begin with really has no place on 'movie news' sites. And this whole bit kinda reminded me of the whole, George Lucas hated ID4 bits from a few years back. Ultimately, these sorts of things seem to often times be used as a devisive tool to pit fan base against fan base. I've never written Peter Jackson about Star Wars, and have never talked to him about it because... quite simply, I'm more interested in how cool the Balrog looks, and who is playing Aragorn and that sort of thing. There is enough information and rumors about the projects themselves that the last thing that we (sites like mine, Corona Coming Attractions, Dark Horizons, Cinescape, ZENtertainment, etc) need to be covering and starting are flame wars that will exist on the internet forever. I know a lot of filmmakers that hate Star Wars Episode One and a lot that really do adore the film. Who likes it and who doesn't is not a real relevant point cause ultimately we're out to see what films they make. CINESCAPE usually does a very good job of covering film. I loved their pick of Robin Williams in the BICENTENNIAL MAN robot garb recently. And when they confirmed some casting on LOTR... hurrah! But let's not start irrelevant battles of fan bases. As it is, we're going to have enough of that STAR WARS VS LORD OF THE RINGS stuff to make us sick over the next 10 years. Here's the letter I received from Peter's Publicist...
Dear Harry
Peter asked me to send you the following in response to a story that appeared on the Cinescape web site:
"Peter has asked me to express his concern at a recent story you (Cinescape) ran on your site (Cinescape) entitled "Jackson slams SW1".
Your (Cinescape) story claimed that Peter had made negative comments about The Phantom Menace to the Scottish Daily Record newspaper.
Peter has never spoken to this newspaper, he did not make these comments, and if you read the original newspaper story, The phantom Menace comments are attributed to an " insider", not Peter.
Peter has nothing but the highest respect for the Star Wars films and the people that make them. He does not condone your (Cinescape's) sloppy attempt to create a rivalry between the two trilogies.
We would like you (Cinescape) to print a retraction on your web site explaining the incorrectly attributed comments.
Yours sincerely,
Sian Clement
Publicist - "The Lord of the Rings"
