Cut It: Weinstein Wanted Tarantino to Turn Lord of the Rings Into One 2h Movie

British film writer Ian Nathan has published a new book in which it is revealed that the disgraced producer wanted to replace Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson with Quentin Tarantino to make the film much shorter.

Hollywood ex-mogul Harvey Weinstein wanted to turn J.R.R. Tolkien’s book into one two-hour film.

“Harvey was like, ‘you’re either doing this or you’re not. You’re out. And I got Quentin ready to direct it’,” Ken Kamins, a producer who worked for Weinstein on the project, told the author.

Weinstein’s company Miramax wanted a more “radical, streamlined approach” with Lord of the Rings and it meant cutting out many important details for the movie.

“This would have meant cutting the Helm’s Deep valley, having Eowyn replace Faramir as Boromir’s sister, the Balrog would disappear and Saruman too was on shaky ground,” the Stuff website reported.

According to Ian Nathan, he spoke with Peter Jackson the director of Lord of the Rings, who said, “It was literally guaranteed to disappoint every single person that has read that book.”

— tec goblin (@nikolaskp) May 3, 2018

— Stephen Graves (@stephengraves) May 3, 2018

​After Weinstein’s hardliner approach was told to Jackson, he refused to adapt the book the way the producer wanted.

“We’d rather have our lives and do our films and not deal with all this crap anymore. Tell Harvey to go ahead and make his film and good luck,” Jackson said.

Ken Kamins, Weinstein’s producer on the project, managed to convince the mogul to allow Jackson and his partner Fran Walsh to sell their idea elsewhere. 

New Line Cinema picked it up and Tolkein’s book was turned into a hugely successful trilogy: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Two Towers (2002) and The Return of the King (2003).

Jackson won a best director Oscar for The Return of the King and the series won 17 Oscars in total.

— Dennis Earl (@DennisCEarl) May 3, 2018

— Marc Morris (@Longshanks1307) May 3, 2018

​Earlier last week, Quentin Tarantino came forward saying that Weinstein Company owes him over $4 million in royalties.

The famous director, along with movie stars including Jake Gyllenhaal, Jennifer Lawrence and Meryl Streep, has filed court papers claiming the company owes them large sums of money.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Tarantino’s lawyer has filed papers referring to “numerous uncured monetary and non-monetary defaults” that he is owed before any sale is made. He is seeking $300,000 for Grindhouse, $575,000 for Inglorious Bastards, $1.25m for Django Unchained and nearly $2.5m for The Hateful Eight.

Harvey Weinstein, the renowned Hollywood film producer, fell from grace after being accused of sexual assault and harassment by a long list of women last year.