Middle Earth Production Costs

I know this isn't Disney, but I am a huge fan of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit films.

People believed that Walt Disney wanted to make an adaptation of the J.R.R. Tolkien books, but this isn't the case. Supposedly, Tolkien's publishers reached out to Walt Disney to see if he wanted to make an adaptation of the books, but Disney turned them down stating that production costs would be too high. 

Tolkien himself wasn't a fan of the Disney Company. He stated,
          "It might be advisable to let the Americans do what seems good to them — as long as it was
            possible…to veto anything from or influenced by the Disney studios for all whose works I
           have a heartfelt loathing."

The first animated films based on the books wouldn't appear until 1977, 1978, and 1980.

Although, there was an animated short film (12 minutes) released in 1966 and directed by Gene Deitch.
It didn't have the best animation.
There were also a few other foreign adaptations produced, either live-action or animated. They were all low-budget and low-quality.
We finally got the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings films in 2001, 2002, and 2003, with The Hobbits being released in 2012, 2013, and 2014. These films were all of higher production quality, but they came with a high production cost. In 2022, we got the Amazon-produced series The Rings of Power, which is the most expensive television series ever made. The series cost more to produce than all six of the films combined. Here is a breakdown of the production costs.

BONUS FACTS: Topcraft released The Hobbit (1977) and The Return of the King (1980) before they went bankrupt. They are also known for The Last Unicorn (1982) and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984). After the company went bankrupt, three of its top animators, Hayao Miyazaki, Toshio Suzuki, and Isao Takahata, bought out half the company and renamed it Studio Ghibli. The other half of Topcraft became Pacific Animation Corporation and lasted until 1988 when it was bought out by Disney and was renamed Walt Disney Animation Japan. 


If you liked these facts, check out my book with over 3,700 fun facts in it about Disneyland, California Adventure, and Disney Movies.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why Aren’t All of Them Disney Princesses? (updated 2023)

Image
Disney Princesses is a Walt Disney Company franchise, based on fictional characters that have been featured as part of the Disney character line-up. When Disney started the Princess Collection in 2001, these were the already-existing eight princesses that are still in the collection today: Snow White , Cinderella , Aurora , Ariel , Belle , Jasmine , Pocahontas , and Mulan . They weren’t the only ones in the original collection though. In the beginning, Tinker Bell, Esmeralda, Megara, Alice, and Jane Porter were all in the collection but were later removed as the guidelines for the princess requirements were refined. Tinker Bell left to start the Disney Fairies franchise. So, who is considered a Disney Princess in the eyes of Disney? This list is taken straight from Disney’s website www.Princess.Disney.com The official list consists only of these 13 princesses; 1.  Snow White      2.   Cinderella      3.  Aurora      4.   Ariel      5.   Belle 6
Read more

DISNEYLAND: Pirates of the Caribbean - History Of The Redhead and Female Pirates

Image
*Article was written on June 30, 2017 Disney is planning on changing the infamous Auctioneer scene in Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean in 2018, along with Disney World’s Pirates. We get the frequently spoken line  “We wants the redhead,”  from this attraction. Pirates first opened on March 16, 1967, just four months after Walt Disney passed away. Walt was only able to experience the Auctioneer scene before his passing. “Walt visited the show building in Disneyland and went on a tour with Marc Davis and a few other Imagineers. The boats’ water channel was not filled yet and all the sets were frame worked, so they were able to walk through. The Auction Scene was set up with the Auctioneer moving about. This would be the last Walt ever saw of the attraction’s sets, because of his failing health and then eventually his death.” - Discovering The Magic Kingdom: An Unofficial Disneyland Vacation Guide 2nd Edition page 508 (set up in the Burbank studio) Marc Davis w
Read more

MOVIES: Jabba The Hutt Was A Human

Image
The original script to A New Hope describes Jabba as a "fat, slug-like creature with eyes on extended feelers and a huge ugly mouth", but Lucas stated in an interview that the initial character he had in mind was much furrier and resembled a Wookiee. When filming the scene between Han Solo and Jabba in 1976, Lucas employed Northern Irish actor Declan Mulholland to stand-in for Jabba the Hutt, wearing a shaggy brown costume. Lucas planned to replace Mulholland in post-production with a stop-motion creature. The scene was meant to connect Star Wars to Return of the Jedi and explain why Han Solo was imprisoned at the end of The Empire Strikes Back . Nevertheless, Lucas decided to leave the scene out of the final film on account of budget and time constraints and because he felt that it did not enhance the film's plot. The scene remained in the novelization, comic book, and radio adaptations of the film. When the film was re-released to theaters in 1997, George had the
Read more