New Lord Of The Rings Trilogy In Pre-production…

Rumour has it that director Peter Jacksons' WingNut Films will begin shooting a new series of The Lord Of The Rings movies by mid-1999 - a trilogy of films to match the structure of the books, according to insiders. This follows reports that Miramax sold the rights to the books for $130 million last year. There have been various attempts to bring Tolkien's fantasy world to the screen over the years, including Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated version (which starred John Hurt voicing Aragorn), which was originally intended to also be a series of movies but failed due to alleged wranglings over distribution. The movie will be produced and shot in New Zealand, and has been hailed as a coup for the indigenous film industry.