Good news folks! Looks like things are on a forward pace again with LORD OF THE RINGS. Seems that Miramax has decided it has a pair, so it will make our favorite treasure of fiction. Hooray!!! The chances are looking much better now it seems and it looks like that report from last week seemed to do some good/harm cause while it woke Miramax up, it seems ol Peter Jackson is doing the ol witch hunt routine at WETA to ferret out our spy, Bombadil. Too bad Bombadil doesn't work there, he just has friends that work there... Sheesh, people can't read or what? Anyway, After this report is another one that seems to explain some of the conflicting information we have had on this project. And I think you'll be quite shocked!!!
Hey Harry! I connected with my Weta contact Old Man/Woman Willow again. Not much to report this time. It seems that Jackson has spoken to all the Weta people one at a time, telling them to respect secruity and be careful what they say to people. The only snippet of real info I have is to report that It does seem like things are carrying on at full steam with "Lord Of The Rings" though. Jackson has been doing damage control, telling Weta people that Mirimax are being supportive and they are making the film, etc.
So the doors are shut right now, but we will see ... FYI I would like to rename Old Man/Woman Willow and now call them "Goldberry" - I'm not saying why, it's just a personnel thing.
See ya! Old Tom Bombadil.
Then this weekend I received a message from a plant in Kasdan's office. I'll call this plant, Audrey II for now. And here is her scoop...
Harry, love, I just wanted to drop you a line. We have been quite excited since that report about Miramax not funding Peter Jackson's LORD OF THE RINGS project, because we have our own in the works. How? You thought Miramax and Saul Zaentz are working on it alone? Sweetie, oh no. Saul is a wiley ol fellow, and is being wooed by Kasdan (actually both father and son) to get the rights away from Miramax. You see we already have an excellent script, which would make for 3 three hour films. No no, sweetie I am telling you the truth. You see it all started with Christopher Tolkein, who is upset with the Miramax project, who have not contacted him once about the whole project. We have his blessing with a script he found by a first time screenwriter, which we have already optioned. We have the support of Lucasfilm and DreamWorks waiting to finance us to the moon, should the Miramax project fall through. Here's hoping... eh? By the way, we don't hope Peter falls on his face, we'd actually like to have him tackle one of the three films, since he's got a head start in production.
Take care and don't worry Lord of the Rings is coming, one way or another...
Now this explains a whole hell of a lot. Harvey and crew at Miramax has been keeping this all such a secret, but to not contact Christopher Tolkein is a huge crime. I mean, jesus, he has a rabid hatred for Disney and then you pull something like this on him. Surely Peter Jackson contacted him. But if not, that would explain why we have been hearing rumors of Kasdan, Lucasfilm, Dreamworks, etc interspersed with the Peter Jackson project. Obviously two camps have been working on this.
I have been able to confirm there are two projects, one that can't move forward, and the Peter Jackson one which could only be held back by Miramax. I sure hope Miramax just goes ahead and commits publicly to this project, so we don't have anymore of this cat and mouse bull. I think that Harv probably wants to move forward, he's got to know how lucrative a property this could be. But they will need the support of the Tolkein estate, because Tolkein fans hang on their word. Perhaps the two camps will join forces, or fight. Who knows, but certainly I have my eye on the matter. Thanks goes out to Bombadil and Audrey II for these scoops...
