Lord of the Rings changed movies forever — but what if they were never made?

Americans were flooded with anger and sorrow by the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, while the rest of the world was anxious about the next round of wars. So people did what they’ve always done in times of crisis: They sought solace in art. The CD player was their best friend and they lost themselves in their past lives. Most critically, when the world around them collapsed in a cacophony of rage, despair, and cable news, they escaped to the movies — for hope, for humanity and, on Dec. 19, 2001, for hobbits.

The Lord of the Rings’ 20th Anniversary is 2021. It’s hard to imagine the three-part story that would be enough. We’ll be going back to the movies every Wednesday for the rest of the year. This will allow us to examine how the films remain timeless as classics. This is Polygon’s Year of the Ring.

Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy was far from a cultural cure-all. It was a war that took place, hundreds of thousands perished and fascism slowly made an unsettling comeback across the globe. But three months after a jarring foreign assault on American soil, Jackson’s adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy epic immersed viewers in a world where one small adventurer with the kindest of souls could make a difference.

This was a classic hero’s journey stuffed with all the rousing and tragic elements that made George Lucas’ original Star Wars a sensation in the devastating wake of the Vietnam War. Along with co-writers Fran Jackson and Philippa Boyens, Jackson slashed out the saga’s extraneous elements (kick rocks, Tom Bombadil) and transformed Tolkien’s dry prose into an invigorating blockbuster for the ages.

As Middle-earthians were eager to discover what the next step was, books flew off shelves. Hollywood marveled at Jackson’s seamless blending of practical New Zealand locations and digital hordes marching into battle. The filmmaker’s Weta Workshop and Weta Digital visual effects companies became the darlings of the industry. New Line bought Miramax’s project and made the bold Hollywood dealmaking move to become a major studio. The immediate impact was overwhelming, and the long-term impact — cultural, economic, technological — was equally staggering.

Lord of the Rings is the only thing that can be pictured in the past 20 years of movie history. It’s impossible. What if Jackson’s billion-dollar-worldwide-grossing trilogy never happened? How radically different would today’s cinematic landscape look? Far more different than anyone could possibly imagine, but it’s worth a try.

It’s 1996, and Peter Jackson is struggling. He was an envelope-pusher who made a name for his self swinging between splatter horror and (Bad Taste, Braindead) and human drama (Heavenly Creatures() Just watched his first major studio film. FrightenerThe box office bomb was s. Universal Pictures was forced to cancel his dream of a remake after the misfire. King KongJackson was left with only one chance to continue his career as a director: A remake of The Lord of the Rings.

Weta Digital’s high quality work is backed by a true technical perfectionist. Fears producer Robert Zemeckis, would’ve kept that company dealt in for years to come. But Jackson didn’t spend four years slugging it out on Bad TasteHe would like to be a visual effects consultant for major studios. He could go crawling back to Harvey Weinstein, who insisted on making a four-hour, $75 million version of The Lord of the Rings, but with Weta’s pre-visualization predicated on getting a nine-figure budget, there was a hope that someone else could pick up the project.

Jackson turned to Bob Shaye of New Line Cinema. He had dreamed of owning a big franchise. But the answer to an all-in request was simple: “Sorry, Peter. I can’t.”

Early in his career, Jackson toyed with an adaptation of Paul Chadwick’s Eisner Award-winning ConcreteThe story of a man trapped in the body and mind of a stone-like creature. By ’96, the emotional isolation of this character sounds appealing to the filmmaker after being rejected by audiences with FearsThe studios are equipped with King Kong and The Lord of the Rings movies, but it’s also in the rearview. Jackson was grateful to Weinstein for giving him the chance to make. Fears, develop King KongYou can shop Lord of the Rings in rival studios.

The most pragmatic option would be to shelve Tolkien and develop a mid-budget genre programmer that would show off Weta’s versatile effects expertise and give Jackson his first mainstream box-office hit. Jackson could reunite with Zemeckis at Warner Bros. under the Dark Castle shingle. Perhaps on a remake. Treisteen GhostsThis delivers beyond a design level. The Weinsteins will always be recognized for their excellence on any level.

Jackson picks his poison at Miramax. The lukewarm response to this is Star Wars: The Phantom MenaceIn 1999, there is a lack of enthusiasm among moviegoers. The first Matrix sequel isn’t due until 2003, so two newfangled franchises, Harry Potter and Spider-Man, are under the microscope. Pottermania will take root, as there is nothing much else to look forward to during the 2001 holiday season.

People need a big, hopeful, escapist fantasy in the wake of 9/11, and this more than fills the bill; older geeks who viewed the series as kids’ stuff hit the bookstores to get up to speed. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s StoneIt was a Christmas hit with packed houses, earning close to $2Billion worldwide. Titanic. Dreamworks’ troubled adaptation of H.G. Wells’s The Time Machine, salvaged by Gore Verbinski (stepping in for the overwhelmed Simon Wells), holds onto its Christmas 2001 release date in the hopes that there’s room for another four-quadrant fantasy hit. Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk DownThis is how you put it to rest. Hollywood’s big takeaway: Post-9/11, sci-fi/fantasy authors are no longer relevant. Now is the time to focus on Rowling, Marvel Comics and the Wachowskis. Clint Eastwood also won back-to-back Picture and Director Oscars, a feat that was unprecedented in 2003 and 2004, thanks to the zeitgeist. Mystic River Million Dollar Baby. Bob Shaye sighs of relief.

Warner Bros. Pictures

Studio’s infer that viewers prefer light-hearted, FX-heavy four-quadrant spectacles. Warner Bros. Pictures looks to their Partners-in Potter to highlight the good in the Iraq War as an answer to the darkening Star Wars stories. When the likes of Alfonso Cuarón, Guillermo del Toro, and Kenneth Branagh profess no inkling of how to make an upbeat Azkaban prisonerBrett Ratner is hot from a rapidly churned-out Rush Hour 3Hogwarts Inc. is the franchise-deficient New Line.

WB, thrilled to have Ratner in charge of their critical-proof cash cow and a painter-by-numbers director at its head, inks an all-out deal to bring Ratner in to the Potter franchise. Miffed at their parent company for poaching the maestro of their kung-fu comedy franchise, New Line takes Jackie Chan’s advice and hires Hong Kong’s Sammo Hung to direct. Mike Epps, a movie superstar who takes Chris Tucker’s frustration with the rote formula to death, steps in.

The box-office success of Insomnia, WB takes Christopher Nolan’s pitch for a Batman revival that grounds the Caped Crusader in a realistically dystopian Gotham City. But with Sam Raimi’s Spider-ManWB’s first series of dramas inspired by the Iraq War and failed to make a splash commercially are causing havoc at the box-office. WB now wants to match the profitably positive take on Superman that J.J. Abrams has created. Krypton is never in danger.

Nolan fails, but Nolan, conscious of his leverage, proposes a sci-fi movie about a group who steal highly valuable information. WB resists, but Nolan is attached to the Man of Steel Josh Hartnett. The studio bites,, flush with success thanks to the Potter, Superman and Ocean’s franchises, lavishes Nolan with a $100 million budget and final cut. Alas, the marketing campaign selling a “bold new vision from the director of Memento and Insomnia” falls flat with moviegoers. Although it was critically acclaimed InceptionThe word synonymous with Heaven’s Gate IshtarIt is one of the greatest films ever made.

The performance-capture revolution officially begins in 2004 with the release of Robert Zemeckis’ Polar Express. Critics are horrified by Sony Imageworks’ dead-eyed designs for the latter, but most audiences have never seen anything like it. The curiosity factor boosts the $165 million production over $200 million at the domestic box office, which is sufficient to whet the studios’ appetite for further use of this nascent technology (it isn’t so nascent in the visual effects world, because everyone’s seen or heard about Joe Letteri’s performance-capture test footage for the character of Gollum in Peter Jackson’s scrapped The Lord of the Rings).

It is the success of Polar Express is a slap in the face to Weta Digital, which was on the cusp of spearheading this technology when the entire industry passed on Jackson’s ambitious production. The company is thriving thanks to becoming the go-to effects house for Fox’s Marvel movies (now under the steady supervision of Matthew Vaughn, who took over for Bryan Singer after he took up permanent residence on a yacht 300 nautical miles off the coast of Tahiti). But there’s a sense that more established rivals like ILM and Imageworks keep getting credit for their pioneering work.

Image: 20th Century Fox

James Cameron however is attentive. James Cameron is a perfectionist who seeks the top of all the fields to make his feature for the first time in over 10 years. Letteri is his favorite subject. The Abyss. He’s seen the Gollum tests. He believes that all this Weta team needs to deliver game-changing imagery is time and money — and he’s got gobs of both. Weta Digital wins the job. James Cameron’s Avatar becomes the highest-grossing movie of all time and the first science-fiction/fantasy film to win the Oscar for Best Picture. Cameron thanks Peter Jackson as he accepts his second Best Director Trophy. It’s the first time most people watching the broadcast have ever heard his name.

There’s no market for high fantasy in the late 2000s, which means there’s zero commercial interest in George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones. Brett Ratner uses his Potter clout at WB to get John Milius’ King ConanBefore cameras in 2007. The writer-director is removed from the editing area after the film’s slow pace was criticized by test audiences. Studio cuts the film to just 90 minutes and then dumps it on Labor Day Weekend 2008.

Comic books are unlike fantasy and they’re gold. Abrams throws his Superman franchise to the curb with an ineptly designed Superman movie. Superman IIFans of Perry White are ready to try a knockoff in which General Zod is Perry White. Something dark. And they get it with Darren Aronofsky’s Batman, Year OneThe film reunites Oscar-winning filmmaker, titled FountainBrad Pitt, star

The 2009 film is the first Caped Crusader adventure since 1997’s disastrous Batman & Robin, and it’s precisely the kind of pissed-off, dystopian superhero flick mainstream audiences want as the country enters a massive recession. The newly formed Marvel Studios counters with Jon Favreau’s Iron Man starring Robert Downey Jr. As the 2008 summer film, the movie breaks through the $100m barrier. However, the movie’s military fetishism fails to resonate with war-tired audiences. There’s something missing, something the country didn’t grapple with in those dire months following 9/11. A steady diet of leotard-clad saints and pimply wizards leads to a kind of soul disease.

Image: Marvel Studios

Once this despair takes hold, it’s hard to shake. Fortunately, Marvel finds its footing with Guillermo del Toro’s fanciful Thor and Joe Johnston’s old-fashioned, rah-rah Captain America. It’s important not to focus on ongoing conflicts. The creative coup is Kevin Feige’s insistence on introducing the character of plucky teenager Rick Jones (Zac Efron) in Edward Norton’s The Incredible Hulk. Norton’s Robert Bly-like mediation on male rage isn’t a massive hit, but the post-credit stinger where Jones’ internet-savvy Teen Brigade intercepts news of Steve Rogers’ reanimation sparks online speculation about a potential Avengers movie.

We are pleased with the high quality Iron Man, but hellbent on bringing the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes together at any cost, Feige hires Downey pal Shane Black, whose hit Fox series The Nice GuysThis is its fourth season. To write and direct Iron Man 2. Marvel Studios’ Bond-inspired Tony Stark Adventure triples its gross. Black is now the Marvel Studios narrative point man. He will be remembered for his 2012 AvengersKaleidoscopic yarn, carefully made and interpreted by Feige. It captures every color of Jack Kirby’s comic books. Feige is now in control, as Marvel Studios has become the most prominent brand at the multiplex. By 2021, the MCU is the world’s favorite franchise. As for Black, he happily segues back to the world of pulp with the continuing adventures of Harry Lockhart and Perry van Shrike, as well as an FX television series based on the antisocial exploits of Richard Stark’s ParkerJames Badge Dale stars in the movie.

Whither Jackson

The Lord of the RingsSometimes it does. After his saving-throw attempt to make a $10 million horror-comedy for Dimension Films died in development in 2001, Peter Jackson swallowed his pride and acceded to Harvey Weinstein’s terms on the Tolkien saga. The budget was hard-capped at $75 million, while the four-hour length was subject to test screenings and the box office of Quentin Tarantino’s split-in-two Kill Bill The quality of the book was good, but it wasn’t outstanding enough to justify a larger investment in Tolkien.

Jackson buckled to secure the future of Weta Workshop, which had ramped up in anticipation of the trilogy getting greenlit in the late-’90s. Although Weta Digital was able to work remotely from its offices, they needed Workshop productions that could come to their location. They had to prove that they can handle major studio epics. Jackson believed that he was able to save the Workshop, and hundreds of artisans’ livelihoods by turning Middle-earth into his homeland.

Even in this compromised state The Lord of the RingsThis is a huge undertaking. Weta Workshop is overflowing with volunteers, excited to be a part of the creation of weaponry and armor. Local pride is evident throughout the production. The film will showcase everything New Zealand has to offer from subtropical forests to snowcapped mountains. If done right, this film could be a Hollywood hit.

But try as they might, Jackson, Walsh, and Boyens can’t piece together a screenplay that honors the sweep of the novels or their finely detailed characterizations. They correctly identify Samwise Gangee and Smeagol/Gollum as the stalwart heart and anguished soul of Tolkien’s tale, but they lack the screentime to do either arc justice. Director Elijah Wood, Viggo Morensen and Sean Astin are among the wish-list actors. However, it is impossible to give them more screen time. Jackson spends money on the script and then re-budgets it. Each penny of the $75 million budget is printed on the paper. He hates everything about it.

Weinstein doesn’t care. Jackson is deciding on his fourth and third choices. The mogul then offers his list of Miramax veterans for teens: Freddie Prinze Jr. as Frodo; Matthew Lillard and Sam; Rachael Lee cook and Arwen; Johnny Lee Miller and Aragorn. Weinstein also won him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. The Lord of the RingsMiramax Chattel quickly transforms into a carnival.

Image by Dimension Films

Jackson abandons his attempt to make the hobbits smaller by forced perspective, despite being stymied by a tightly scheduled production schedule. The storyboards, pre-visualization and plotting go out of fashion. This film will consist of cut-down footage that was salvaged from the edit room. Maybe Weinstein should’ve let him erect those hobbit-holes instead of reducing the Shire to an unconvincing agglomeration of mattes and CG.

No one is more aware of this than Jackson, who, two weeks into principal, goes over Weinstein’s head to Disney president Bob Iger. He is making the kind of four-quadrant adventure that Uncle Walt would’ve loved, and these Tribeca tyrants are hellbent on trashing one of the great literary works of the twentieth century. Like the rest of the company, Iger hates the Weinsteins. However, Disney executives are just as indifferent to movies. Iger says “no,” Weinstein flips out, and Jackson, spiritually destroyed after a decade of despair, quits.

Jackson’s replacement is Weinstein Shakespeare in Love’s John Madden, who diligently makes his days. Weta is a place where morale drops because meticulously designed props were reused and sometimes discarded. MASSIVE’s battle sequences are still in existence, but they never get finished. For several years, the film remains unreleased. When the Weinsteins break off from Disney following a dispute over the release of Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11The Mouse House, 2005, looks with sadness upon the legacy folly of their forefathers.

Studio dumps The Lord of the RingsThe film was shown on just a handful hundred screens in January 2006. There has been very little publicity. Actors avoid the media. Inquisitive Vanity Fair journalist flew to New Zealand in late that year to try to coax Peter Jackson from hermitage. But according to locals, he’s happily living in a hobbit hole in the country with Fran and Philippa. “Leave the man alone,” they say.

Howard Shore will conduct his abandoned business in 2021 Lord of the RingsTo rave reviews, the London Philharmonic Orchestra performed this symphony. The much-discussed score was heard for the first time by anyone. Harvey Weinstein discarded it to make room for a sloppy composition by Marco Beltrami. Jackson comes out of his seclusion and introduces the performance. In selling Weta for a billion dollars, he’d more than won the war with the now-imprisoned Weinstein. But there is no Director’s Cut. There isn’t enough usable footage to construct an approximation in the vein of David Fincher’s Alien 3. There is only the two-part screenplay reviewed over 20 years ago by the defunct Ain’t It Cool News. Maybe the Tolkien estate will allow it to be published so that fans can imagine what might have been.

It remains a positive thought for Middle-earthers all over the globe.