“Many conversations happened”: The only movie Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman and David Bowie were all in the running for
One of the most successful film franchises of all time, The Lord of the Rings still stands up as a majestic cinematic spectacle.
Peter Jackson brought together the most talented creatives, crews and acting talent from around the world to make a trilogy that more than did justice to the masterworks of Tolkien, but ask yourself if they could have been even better had Ziggy Stardust himself put in an appearance at some point.
Honestly, it’s tough not to answer yes to that question, as even though the journey of Frodo Baggins to Mount Doom is epic enough, what with Gollum, Gandalf the Grey, various battles with orcs and a single ring to rule them all, just imagine David Bowie turning up, maybe with hair like he had in Labyrinth and humming ‘Ashes to Ashes’.
Well according to lore, that could well have happened had Jackson not decided against it, because Bowie was indeed on a long list of celebrities that he considered to throw into Mordor, along with Irishman Liam Neeson, who would presumably have warned the Dark Lord Sauron that he possessed a very particular set of skills, skills that make him a nightmare for bloodthirsty necromancers like him.
Jackson said publicly that “Many conversations occurred internally regarding potential casting”.
He added, “Fran Walsh (screenwriter and producer) and I recall that Morgan Freeman, Paul Scofield, David Bowie, Liam Neeson, Natascha McElhone, Claire Forlani, Francesca Annis, Max von Sydow, and Daniel Day-Lewis were some of the names discussed with Miramax for possible roles in The Lord of the Rings movies.”
Some of those would have been fantastic, really; Morgan Freeman could have talked a troll army to sleep with his lovely soporific tone, and Daniel Day-Lewis could have put on a one-man show of astonishing acting prowess to distract the Nazgul servants and give Frodo a clean run at the ring. Sadly, it wasn’t to be, but it isn’t like the trilogy of movies is lacking in the star quality department. As ensemble casts go, it has rarely been rivalled; legends from across several decades uniting for Jackson, including Hammer horror icon Christopher Lee, plus Sir Ian McKellen, Cate Blanchett, Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortensen, Orlando Bloom and Liv Tyler.
The first instalment, The Fellowship of the Ring, was a global box office sensation when it was released in December 2001, bringing in a staggering $900million, despite a running time just a couple of minutes short of three hours. Its scale and quality was reflected at the following year’s Oscars, where it was nominated for 13 awards, eventually winning for ‘Best Cinematography’, make-up and score.
The second and third parts of the epic followed in 2002 and 2003 to similar success, before Jackson took a decade away from Tolkien’s world and resumed with The Hobbit trilogy in 2012, which most people agreed could have just been one film really. Nevertheless, the public’s obvious thirst for all things Lord of the Rings remained, and the movie earned over $1bn in revenue.
After his extensive work on The Beatles Get Back documentary a few years ago, Jackson is now confirmed to be directing a prequel film to 2011’s CGI blockbuster The Adventures of Tintin, which was helmed by Steven Spielberg. It became the first motion-capture animated film to receive a Golden Globe award and earned over $370m at the box office.
