Here's a pretty interview on this "great" director:
Q: How does one go about adapting one of the most beloved works of fantasy fiction?
A: I wanted to make a film that I'd want to watch. I truly believe you can't make films for other people. There are millions of "Lord of the Rings" fans. If I had decided to listen to any one of them, who's to say that person is right. Everyone has a different opinion. I felt there was a real danger of the film becoming too homogenized and bland. I felt the best thing to do was say, "I'm a 'Lord of the Rings' fan, what film would I like to see?" That's the film I set out to make.
Q: So how close to that initial vision did you get?
A: Well, your vision changes all the time, and it improves. When we started all this in 1995, I imagined the movie playing in my head. The movie I was imagining then is very different from the one we have now, but in a good way. We've had designers Alan Lee and John Howe come in and visualize a much more wonderful world than anything I had in my head. The actors brought the characters to life in ways I hadn't imagined. So the vision of the film in my head was always changing. The collaborative way I like to work, I'm encouraging everyone to come up with ideas, and I always love it when they come up with a better one than me. That gets me excited.
Q: How much of a concern was it that non-fans might not be able to follow the story?
A: I didn't want to make the kind of movie where people say, "Don't even bother going to see the movie if you haven't read the book." I've tried to tell the story in a fairly simple, easy-to-follow way. I'm hoping that people who have never read the books will go see the movie; and if they like it, they will go buy the books.
Q: Can you talk about the casting?
A: I think everybody, when they read a book they really like, imagines the perfect cast for the film. We got to do that for real. It fell into two categories, really. There were the actors we imagined from the very beginning--Ian McKellen, Ian Holm, Sean Bean. Then there's the roles where we wanted an unknown and found someone like Orlando Bloom, who plays Legolas. And then there's someone like Elijah Wood. We thought Frodo would be an unknown English actor. But he sent us an audition tape where he dressed up in this really cheesy hobbit costume and hired a dialect coach for the accent. When I saw the tape, I knew instantaneously I had found Frodo.
Q: Early in your career, you made over-the-top gory films like "Bad Taste" and "Dead Alive." What was your attitude about the violence in this film?
A: I didn't have a particular desire to portray violence in this movie, other than what I thought was appropriate. I don't have an out-of-control violent streak that I can't contain. You do what's appropriate. If you're trying to make the goriest zombie splatter film in the world, you do that. Obviously, "Lord of the Rings" is something different. I feel the level of violence in the film reflects what's in the book.
Q: It's pretty unbelievable that "Lord of the Rings" happened at all. It's a big risk to make all three films at once.
A: It's broken all the rules, hasn't it? If you were going to finance three "Lord of the Rings" movies, you'd never in a million years hire me to do it. You wouldn't have Philippa Boyens write the screenplay: She'd never written one before. You would never hire Weta, a little New Zealand effects company, to do all the special effects. It's just not common sense. I attribute it all to the very slow, organic way in which this project developed. It's very brave for a studio to make three films at once. It's the sort of bravery you don't see anymore, and it's to be applauded.
