Elijah Wood says the “Lord Of The Rings” director pulled off the ultimate “f**k you” to Harvey Weinstein.
In a new interview with Dax Shepard on his hit podcast “Armchair Expert”, the actor recalled watching Jackson model the hit film franchise’s Orcs after the defamed producer, who is currently serving a 23-year prison sentence after being charged with the first-degree criminal sexual act and third-degree rape based on two women’s allegations against him.
Jackson was originally set to produce “Lord Of The Rings” under Miramax with Weinstein demanding the six books in J.R.R. Tolkien’s series be put into a single film. But after some back and forth, Jackson left Weinstein and Marimax behind for Bob Shaye at New Line Cinema.
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“I think the lore is that they were coming with two, and it was Bob Shaye who said, ‘We have to do three,’ which is insane,” Wood said in the new interview. “An incredible risk. Miramax thought there was no chance in hell.”
The “No Man Of God” actor continued, “It’s funny, this was recently spoken about because [Dominic Monaghan] and [Billy Boyd] have a podcast, ‘The Friendship Onion’,” Wood said. “They were talking to Sean Astin about his first memory of getting to New Zealand. He had seen these Orc masks. And one of the Orc masks — and I remember this vividly — was designed to look like Harvey Weinstein as a sort of a f**k you.”
“I think that is okay to talk about now, the guy is f**king incarcerated. F**k him.”
Jackson put out a total of three “Lord Of The Rings” films and another three based on Tolkien’s other works, The Hobbit, which is a prequel to “LOTR”.