The Lord of The Rings (1978 Film) - Production

Production

Director Ralph Bakshi was introduced to The Lord of the Rings during the mid-1950s while working as an animator for Terrytoons. In 1957, the young animator started trying to convince people that the story could be told in animation. In 1969, the rights were passed to United Artists, where filmmakers Stanley Kubrick and John Boorman each tried to adapt the story. (Contrary to urban legend, Disney never owned the rights.)

In the mid-1970s, Bakshi, who had since achieved box office success producing adult-oriented animated films such as Fritz the Cat, learned of UA and Boorman's attempts to adapt the story. He was told that Boorman had planned to produce all three parts of The Lord of the Rings as a single film, and commented, "I thought that was madness, certainly a lack of character on Boorman's part. Why would you want to tamper with anything Tolkien did?" When Boorman's proposed adaptation fell apart, Bakshi approached the studio and proposed that he direct a three-part animated film adaptation of the book:

"They said fine, because Boorman handed in this 700-page script, and do I want to read it? I said, 'Well, is it all three books in one?' They said, 'Yes, but he's changed a lot of the characters, and he's added characters. He's got some sneakers he's merchandising in the middle.' I said, 'No, I'd rather not read it. I'd rather do the books as close as we can, using Tolkien's exact dialogue and scenes.' They said, 'Fine,' which knocked me down, 'because we don't understand a word Boorman wrote. We never read the books. We ain't got time to read it. You understand it, Ralph, so go do it.'" —Director Ralph Bakshi

The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer office was located in the same building, and Bakshi spoke to then-president Dan Melnick. "I thought he would understand what The Rings meant, because UA did not." Bakshi and Melnick made a deal with Mike Medavoy at United Artists to buy the Boorman script. "The Boorman script cost $3 million, so Boorman was happy by the pool, screaming and laughing and drinking, 'cause he got $3 million for his script to be thrown out." However, after Melnick was fired from MGM, the deal fell through. Bakshi then contacted Saul Zaentz (who had helped finance Fritz the Cat) to ask him to produce The Lord of the Rings, and Zaentz agreed. Before the production started, the original three-part adaptation was negotiated down to two parts at United Artists, and Bakshi met with Tolkien's daughter Priscilla to discuss how the film would be made. She showed him the room where her father did his writing and drawing. Bakshi says, "My promise to Tolkien's daughter was to be pure to the book. I wasn't going to say, 'Hey, throw out Gollum and change these two characters.' My job was to say, 'This is what the genius said.'"