![\"Peter](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Peter-Jackson-2025-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
(Credits: YouTube Still)<\/p>\n
Fri 31 October 2025 16:05, UK <\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a dozen years since Peter Jackson<\/a> directed a movie, and it\u2019s been even longer since he directed a good one, but since he\u2019s the guy who helmed the Lord of the Rings trilogy, he\u2019ll always carry a certain amount of cache in Hollywood.<\/p>\n His only theatrical credits since The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies was released in 2013 are as the co-writer and producer of Mortal Engines, one of the biggest box office bombs in cinema history<\/a>, and producing The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, which also tanked and largely only existed so that Warner Bros. could hold onto the rights to JRR Tolkien\u2019s expansive fantasy world.<\/p>\n However, since he\u2019s a three-time Academy Award winner who filmed the unfilmable and delivered one of the greatest and most impressive trilogies that\u2019s ever been made, he\u2019s still a big deal, regardless of how much he\u2019s scaled back his directorial output. The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King hold up as well as ever, but they were nothing short of a nightmare to cast.<\/p>\n Viggo Mortensen was only hired after shooting had started when Stuart Townsend got the boot, with Nicolas Cage and Russell Crowe having already knocked back Aragorn, Sean Connery turned down the role of Gandalf, Uma Thurman regretted passing on Eowyn<\/a>, Ethan Hawke pulled out of playing Faramir, and Lucy Lawless completely forgot to turn up to her audition as Galadriel.<\/p>\n Beyond that, there were two names initially under consideration that Jackson was told he wasn\u2019t allowed to cast under any circumstances, and it wasn\u2019t until years later that he found out the troubling reasons why. When The Lord of the Rings was compiling its early wish-lists, Mira Sorvino and Ashley Judd were both present and accounted for.<\/p>\n \u201cI recall Miramax telling us they were a nightmare to work with, and we should avoid them at all costs. This was probably in 1998,\u201d Jackson told Stuff<\/a>. \u201cAt the time, we had no reason to question what these guys were telling us, but, in hindsight, I realise that this was very likely the Miramax smear campaign in full swing.\u201d<\/p>\n Sorvino had recently won an Oscar for \u2018Best Supporting Actress\u2019 in Mighty Aphrodite, and Judd was a rising star who\u2019d appeared in Michael Mann\u2019s Heat, Joel Schumacher\u2019s A Time to Kill, and starred opposite Morgan Freeman in Kiss the Girls. All it takes are two words to explain why Jackson was instructed to keep them as far away from The Lord of the Rings as possible: Harvey Weinstein.<\/p>\n