Anything You Can Imagine: Peter Jackson and the Making of Middle-earth

by Ian Nathan, Tristram Wymark (Narrator)

The definitive history of Peter Jackson’s Middle-earth saga, Anything You Can Imagine takes us on a cinematic journey across all six films, featuring brand-new interviews with Peter, his cast crew. From the early days of daring to dream it could be done, through the highs and lows of making the films, to fan adoration and, finally, Oscar glory.


Lights
A nine-year-old boy in New Zealand’s Pukerua Bay stays up late and is spellbound by a sixty-year-old vision of a giant ape on an island full of dinosaurs. This is true magic. And the boy knows that he wants to be a magician.


Camera
Fast-forward twenty years and the boy has begun to cast a spell over the film-going audience, conjuring gore-splattered romps with bravura skill that will lead to Academy recognition with an Oscar nomination for Heavenly Creatures. The boy from Pukerua Bay with monsters reflected in his eyes has arrived, and Hollywood comes calling. What would he like to do next? ‘How about a fantasy film, something like The Lord of the Rings…?’


Action
The greatest work of fantasy in modern literature, and the biggest, with rights ownership so complex it will baffle a wizard. Vast. Complex. Unfilmable. One does not simply walk into Mordor – unless you are Peter Jackson.


Anything You Can Imagine tells the full, dramatic story of how Jackson and his trusty fellowship of Kiwi filmmakers dared take on a quest every bit as daunting as Frodo’s, and transformed JRR Tolkien’s epic tale of adventure into cinematic magic, and then did it again with The Hobbit. Enriched with brand-new interviews with Jackson, his fellow filmmakers and many of the films’ stars, Ian Nathan’s mesmerising narrative whisks us to Middle-earth, to gaze over the shoulder of the director as he creates the impossible, the unforgettable, and proves that film-making really is ‘anything you can imagine’.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Film, Media Tie In, Audiobook, History, Biography Memoir

Audiobook

First published May 3, 2018

About the author

Ian Nathan is the popular, London-based author of Anything You Can Imagine: Peter Jackson and the Making of Middle-earth, The Coen Brothers: The Filmmakers and their Films, Alien Vault, Terminator Vault, and many other books, many of which have really long titles.

He is the former editor of Empire Magazine.

If you live in the UK, you may also know from from the Discovering Film series on Sky Arts television extolling the virtues of classic film stars and directors, and he can also be heard on Talk Radio every Friday afternoon, mostly berating the state of current movies. He is just about younger than this makes him sound.

Reviews

[Melindam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why, thank you, GR, for graciously removing the book from my shelves and the review, unasked.

**

Thankfully I've learned from previous experience and started saving my reviews independent from this site so I can repost.

--------

Having reread (listened to) the excellent J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography by Humphrey Carpenter and not having started a rererere.....read of Lord of the Rings yet, I felt I needed something to bridge the two.

My first choice was rerererere......watching the extended DVD of the movies together with all that compelling, extensive and awesome "making of" material. But then I realised that I simply would not have the time for that, so ... what to do? what to do? And that's when this bright idea struck: check if there was a book -preferably on audio- about the making of The Lord of the Rings. A few minutes search on Audible and checking out reviews here on GR, et voila!
Melinda downloaded Anything You Can Imagine: Peter Jackson and the Making of Middle-earth, started listening and was sucked in and enchanted right away.

Before I share some more info about the book, I have to praise the narrator, Tristram Wymark (a British actor I had to look up) to the skies.
Narrating non-fiction is not easy, but he was absolutely brilliant. He made the book even more engaging and enjoyable by capturing the accents, voices and speaking styles of all "players" - New Zealand, England, Scotland, California, etc. - to perfection. I was amazed by it all, though admittedly I am not a native speaker.

Anyways, back to the book .... almost there. Ian Nathan (film magazine editor, broadcaster, blogger) tells the story of director Peter Jackson, Middle-earth, and the films in a way that brought back all my great memories of watching the movies in the cinema for the first time with my fellow LoTR-fan father and brother, and later rewatching the extended DVDs every Christmas. Alongside those films, I devoured the fascinating “making of” documentaries and never grew tired of them.

So the million-dollar question: is there anything new here? For me, the answer is yes.

He also went beyond the DVD material (not easy, of course), but he was privy to a lot of information, having visited New Zealand several times during filming and interviewed cast and crew. I also learned quite a bit about Fran Walsh, Jackson’s partner and fellow screenwriter, who deliberately stayed out of the limelight and off the DVD extras. And since I hadn’t closely followed all the positive and negative press coverage back then, there were plenty of discoveries for me here. At times, it felt like listening to a docu-drama.

All in all, I just loved this book and despite its length (22 hours on audio) I tore through it.
Nathan mostly wrote about the LoTR movies, the Hobbit is also covered to some extent, but only towards the end. I wish there were a separate book about the making The Hobbit films with as much coverage as LoTR or that it were longer in this book, but you cannot have everything. :)

Highly recommended to fans of the LoTR books and movies.

[Gerhard · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘The Silmarillion is coming up, and that’ll be seven movies.’

I think that this is a textbook example of how to write a compelling and detailed, yet engaging, account of movie-making. I remember reading ‘The Making of Star Wars’ by J.W. Rinzler a few years back, which almost put me off reading these types of books for life.

Rinzler went into eye-watering detail about every single minute change to the initial script. I mean, there is detail, and then there is detail … Last year I read one of the best ‘making of’ books I have ever read, Michael Benson’s superb ‘Space Odyssey’, about the Kubrick/Clarke collaboration on 2001.

Here Benzon probably went into as much detail as Rinzler did – a granular level really called for, as Kubrick was such a notorious perfectionist (and bully) – but the difference is in the quality of the writing. Once you start reading ‘Space Odyssey’, you just cannot stop, it is that good. And if you think you knew everything about this famous SF masterpiece, think again.

One would have thought that the world needs another ‘making of Middle Earth’ book as much as we need a movie adaptation of The Silmarillion (yes, there is an inevitable examination of this possibility, in conjunction with the new Amazon series based on LOTR). However, I do not think there is really anything new here. Certainly there are no ‘Princess Diarist’ type of revelations guaranteed to get tongues wagging and the book flying off the shelves.

Instead, we get a very engaging and sufficiently complex examination of Jackson’s entire oeuvre, his impact on movie-making, and the titanic struggle involved to get what is essentially the most epic independent movie trilogy ever onto the big screen.

A lot of the reviews bemoan the fact that Ian Nathan apparently pays short shrift to The Hobbit trilogy. I don’t think so; here his focus is much broader, focusing more on the larger context of these movies against the original trilogy, and also in the prevailing television and movie climate (this was when Game of Thrones began to claw its way to ascendancy of the fantasy throne).

I think a key achievement of Nathan in this book is that I really want to look at The Hobbit trilogy again (the extended editions), and to appreciate Jackson’s achievements here with the benefit of hindsight. What is interesting is Jackson’s admission that the second trilogy was even more fraught with studio politics and complications than the original, going through tortuous wrangling to get the right director onboard, and then attempting the screenplay. Well-worth reading for a great journey down memory lane, and back again.

[Charlotte Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Around 3 years ago, I read Peter Jackson: A Film-Maker's Journey which I loved. That book focussed on Peter Jackson's life overall taking the story up to the start of the Lord of the Rings movies. This one is all about his journal to make those films and those of The Hobbit.

I loved this. Listening to this on audiobook narrated by the author who did brilliant accents for all of the cast involved, on the way to and from work, was heartwarming and inspirational. This story is one of such creativity and determination and though I'm in publishing not film-making, there are definitely lessons I've learned from it.

There's not much I can say about this apart from I loved it and if you're a fan, I implore you to pick it up.

[Lindsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a massive fan of The Lord of the Rings, both the books and the movies, I was excited to finally get my hands on a copy of this book. Although I knew I didn't know everything about the films and books, I thought I was pretty knowledgable about it and wasn't sure how much I could possibly learn from Anything You Can Imagine. The answer? So much!

Anything You Can Imagine is an incredibly well-researched book. The author is clearly a fan and was allowed into the inner sanctum during filming to see how things worked first-hand, something most fans of the movies would have given their left arms to experience.

The book starts from the very beginning, leaving almost no stone unturned during the journey of the making of these films. He delves into Peter Jackson's humble filmmaking beginnings and works up to Peter and Fran Walsh's decision to attempt turning The Lord of the Rings into a movie.

Things got a little slow during the first few chapters, which talked about all of the Hollywood politics that swirled around the rights before Peter was allowed to tackle the ambitious project, but it picked up as soon as he returned to New Zealand and we were allowed to jump into the actual making of the movies.

The interviews with the cast were interesting and even though I've watched the DVD extras on the Extended Editions of the movies and thought I'd read pretty much every interview available, there were things I didn't know, and I was ecstatic to learn even more about these films.

Things slowed down just a bit again after The Return of the King's triumph at the Oscars when the book again turned to Hollywood politics about trying to get The Hobbit films made, but it was nice to see a little behind-the-scenes of those movies, as well.

Getting to see behind the scenes of the making of my all-time favorite movies was definitely a treat and I have a greater appreciation of them than I did before, which I didn't even think was possible. If you're a fan of the movies and want to know more about how they were made, this is a book you definitely don't want to miss!

[Sammy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The long and short of this is:

If you're geek enough to have read the LotR, watched the movies and all of the extended behind the scenes extras (some of us more than once, which may or may not have resulted in obtaining a film degree...), if you're that person, then you've probably already read this book this one's for you.

A lot of the content is already avaible in the abovementioned dvd extras, but that doesn't make it any less fun, also there's new material regarding the Hobbit movies.

Also, kudos to the narrator, who does a superb job of the audio book. While my first choice of narrator would have been Andy Serkis, Tristram Wymark didn't leave me disappointed for long. While some of his voices/accents are better than others (he does a great Sean Bean!), he delivers the whole book in an engaging manner that had me reluctant to take my headphones off for inconveient things like showers and sleep!

[Ashley Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ugh, FINE, I’ll watch the Hobbit movies one more time.

This was a relatively solid look at everything that went into the making of the Lord of the Rings film trilogy, with words from many of the cast and crew. I appreciated the deep dive into studio politics in the early chapters and the long commitment to filming all three back to back. I deeply relished the chapters that centered on Andy Serkis’s (and Weta’s) groundbreaking work creating Gollum, Howard Shore’s unforgettable score, shooting on location all over New Zealand, and Viggo Mortensen’s eleventh-hour arrival as Aragorn.

Later pages of course detail the triumph of Return of the King at the Oscars, a chapter is given to the Hobbit films, hats tipped to other post-LOTR projects like King Kong and the Planet of the Apes reboot, and attention given to the phenomenon that Game of Thrones became, all thanks to the success of the LOTR films.

I do think the book could have been trimmed in places, and I’m not sure Ian Nathan ever claims to be an objective narrator. Overall though it is an extensively researched piece. Tristram Wymark narrates well.

[Grace T · Rating 5 out of 5]

so I may not have followed basically any of the inter-studio politics, but doggone. Guys. This book.

I was worried it would spoil the magic of the movies, by revealing all this behind-the-scenes stuff and constantly talking about what was digital and what was miniatures and all that.

But somehow I don't think anything's spoiled. If anything, I have a far greater appreciation for the challenges everyone involved had to overcome to direct and produce and design and act and edit the movies we know and love. I even have a better appreciation for Jackson's vision of the theatrical editions as the tighter versions (though I am definitely one of the Tolkien lovers who is glad for the extended editions' further insertions of canon).

I knew that the challenges would be overcome; I knew the movies would be made. But even so, the tension was palpable, and despite my foreknowledge I still cried when Return of the King got the Oscar for Best Picture. The narrative writing of that chapter in particular was phenomenal.

(I also cried when the perfect piece of New Zealand was found for Hobbiton. I don't know why.)

The allusions and occasional Tolkien pun were wonderful, the recognition of various aspects of Tolkien fan culture made my heart happy (especially theonering.net, which was my lifeline while the Hobbit movies were being made), and it was easy to overlook any proofreading issues that could have stood for another round of edits (still amused by one appearance of "bridal" for "bridle"). A brilliant book, both in subject matter and in execution.

Who wants to do a movie marathon with me?

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

By the end of this book, author Ian Nathan goes from someone who really loves the LOTR films to someone who seems convinced that Peter Jackson could cure Leprosy just by looking at the afflicted party.

Also, as an occasional professional proofreader, I was aghast at the amount of typos and grammatical errors in this book. Does HarperCollins just not care enough to give their books multiple rounds of proofing? Or are their proofreaders that slack...?

[Andreas · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author details very intimate views mostly of Peter Jackson‘s Lord of the Ring trilogy (some 15% are for the following films). Of course, there are the multiple hours of Making Of coverage as part of the Extended Edition. So, what new information does this 600 pages book bring? A studio independent view!
It brings light into the zig zag of the beginnings, when Miramax under the convicted criminal Harvey Weinstein passed rights over to New Line Cinema - thankfully we didn’t get his vision of a single film but an 11 hours trilogy. Or to Sean Connery‘s mythed participation as Gandalf, and to the backgrounds of Peter Townsend‘s premature leave of Aragorn. Also the haggle around Jackson sueing New Line.
The author went multiple times to the sets, got interviews with many of the participants of this epochal films and I recommend it for fans of the films.

[Ade · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author is a former film magazine writer, where promotional puff-pieces are more often the order of the day than analysis, detailed reportage or criticism. This book reads like an extended set visit from an Empire article. If you're a fan, this lack of objectivity may meet your expectations and be welcomed. He's good on the studio machinations early on, particularly the tribulations of dealing with the now thoroughly discredited Miramax of Harvey Weinstein days, and is reasonably upfront about the shortcomings of The Hobbit in the one chapter devoted to those films. But when he's not repetitiously telling us how resourceful New Zealanders have to be, or how Jackson is still the wide-eyed ingénue of modern cinema, he's endlessly gushing over the entertainments and goody bags laid on by New Line at Cannes (at least until his replica Sting letter-opener is confiscated by airport security on the flight home, hahaha) or the indefatigability of Weta Digital in overcoming their challenges (without really showing how). Nobody is portrayed here as anything less than noble, passionate, conscientious and supremely talented, which might be broadly fair given the results of their work but surely abends the truth too far in a Tolkienesque direction. There's a distinct shortage of the real dirt in what must have been often stressful circumstances, more moments of which made it into the DVD extras than are allowed to intrude on the narrative here. And the frequent tortured similes ("Had his more stylized vision of Middle-Earth been a bridge of Khazad-dûm too far?") rapidly pall in their laboured attempts to be down with the fans on the street.

Unfortunately though, it's this or Sean Astin's notoriously malcontented memoir in lieu of anything better if you want to read more about these films. In which case, this'll do but only just.

(If you want some real insight into the impact of these films on New Zealand, watch Lindsay Ellis's video essay The Hobbit: The Desolation of Warners and have your buzz comprehensively harshed.)

[Ethan West · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not as good as I was hoping it would be. It was also very very long. I think my main struggle with it was that they way the narrative was written. I love behind the scene history things like this but I like it to flow from beginning to end. I have noticed more and more recently that authors will opt to take parts of the story as a whole and tell about that part from beginning to end. Then move on to the next part and talk about that from beginning to end. So in this book he would talk about Weta Digital or Weta Workshop and talk about where they started and then on through the movies and past, then, he would go back to the beginning and talk about how all the hobbits came to be cast. Then, a few chapters later is is how Aragorn was cast. Then, many chapters later, it was how Gollum was cast and designed. It makes the story too fragmented for me to enjoy.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

It really needed one more editing pass but I had a great time.

[Romulus · Rating 5 out of 5]

To pozycja obowiązkowa dla fanów Śródziemia w interpretacji Petera Jacksona, a także dla tych wszystkich, którzy lubią czytać o filmach i o tym, jak one powstają. Niemniej ostrzec należy, że to książka opasła, która na dodatek imponuje przygotowaniem autora i niemal totalnością w oddaniu szczegółów dotyczących powstawania adaptacji trylogii „Władca Pierścieni” i - w mniejszym zakresie - trylogii „Hobbit”.

Nie jest to zatem historia pisana po łebkach, ale nie jest to również opowieść pisana z pozycji lukrowanych promocyjnych rozmów z aktorami, czy innymi twórcami. Autor zajmuje się także cieniami powstawania adaptacji. Nie było ich dużo, nie były szczególnie kontrowersyjne (głównie dotyczyły hajsu) - niemniej były i autor stara się je uczciwie przedstawić.

Książka zdecydowanie warta polecenia. Ale i wymaga ostrzeżenia, gdyż potrafi przytłoczyć szczegółami. Jednak patrząc na średnią ocen to zbyteczne.

[Dale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written by a true fan of Jackson’s Middle Earth who had also reported on the movies as they where being made back in the early 00’s.

This was a real treat as someone who adores revisiting the LOTR year after year. I can see myself relistening to this book every year, in October or November as I ramp up my yearly watching of the trilogy around Christmas. I truly adored the indie nature of the film making process. Truly remarkable how a chance was taken and these movies got made. A three at once!

[Eyleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 stars.
Big parts of this book were really interesting, but I feel like it just was A LOT ;)
I felt like I would never finish this.
Also I had the impression that this was not written by a "real" author, but by a huge LotR nerd, who did not know too much about pacing and about structuring a book.
A lot of knowledge about Jackson and the movies is just presumed. I did not have that and was for example very surprised when in a side note Jackson suddenly had two little kids with this one lady I thought was just his friend and creative partner. So..yes...structuring would be nice ;)
But I learned a lot and I am currently re-watching the movies.

[DaViD´82 · Rating 4 out of 5]

"He changes his mind, no one changes it for him."

Autor měl nevděčně vděčnou úlohu. Pokrýt (pre/post)produkci filmového "nejdražšího indie projektu" vůbec, který v mnohém prolamoval ledy. S plným vědomým, že (nejen) desítky a desítky hodin bonusových materiálů a komentářů, ale i stovky článků a reportáží, již udělaly to samé. Mnohem dříve a do detailu, do kterého v knize o necelých šesti set stran nemůže zabrousit. Musel tedy najít vlastní úhel, jak k tomu přistoupit. Měl však na své straně nespornou výhodu v bezmála dvou dekádách odstupu, kdy by se již dalo z lidí vytáhnout na světlo i problémy a jít pod povrch dobře známého.

Začnu zápory. Autor se opakovaně snaží prodrat "do děje". Jakmile má možnost, cpe se do popředí "já s ním mluvil, já tam byl, já si myslím", působí jak Hujer. Nejmarkantnější to je ve fotosekci, kdy místo fotek lidí, situací, míst, o kterých píše, je sada osobních fotek "tady si zkouším helmu, tady jsem na dotočné, tady sedím s XY". Někdy jeho osobní přístup smysl má (deníkové záznamy, když byl opakovaně na natáčecím place a v ateliérech, tam samozřejmě osobní pohled a bezprostřední dojmy na místě jsou), většinou však nemá žádné opodstatnění. To jde ruku v ruce s tím, že je zarytý fanoušek filmového LOTRa. A nebojí se to dát najevo. Nic proti tomu, ale on je fanouškem natolik, že jde proti vlastní knize, kdy sice zmíní validní argumenty protistrany, proč to či ono mohlo/mělo být jinak, co bylo špatně, ale on sám za tvůrce odpovídá. Ne že by argumentoval, ale takové to fanouškovské "ten tomu nerozumí, to prostě jinak nešlo". Ne vždy holt platí, že "od fanouška pro fanoušky" je kladně míněno. V neposlední řadě, se snaží odlehčit četbu příměry z předloh/adaptací. Což pobaví, když to udělá poprvé, aktivně to štve, když to dělá co druhou stranu. A co nejhůře, vůbec nevyužívá onoho časového odstupu, který hraje pro něj. Je více než jasné (a známé), že Jackson krom svých nepopiratelných předností, má i své mouchy (tvrdohlavost, nerad říká do očí špatné zprávy). Jak to bylo se zatajováním výdělků Warnery, kauza kolem del Tora, vyhazov Townsenda, smrt obou rodičů Petera v průběhu natáčení a případný dopad na něj, že si ne všichni na place vždycky padli do oka, nadužívání CGI ve třetím filmu a stovky dalších věcí.

Ovšem přes veškeré výtky je to čtivé. Jako průřez "jak nadšenci za pár šupů na Bohem zapomenutém ostrově adaptují nezadaptovatelnou knihu v podobě trilogie na jeden zátah, přitom posouvají hranice možného a vytvoří klasiku a ještě založí dodnes vzkvétající filmový průmysl na Zélandě" vynikající, nesporně při čtení budete mít nutkání si opět pustit celou trilogii. Pokud vás tedy obecně zajímá "jak se dělají filmy" či jste fanoušek filmové trilogie, ale nemáte čas na desítky hodin bonusových materiálů, tak to rozhodně stojí za přečtení. Pokud jste bonusy viděli a komentáře slyšeli, nemá to mnoho co dát. Začátek se získáváním práv a financí je jediný nově (a výtečně) zachycen a rozpleten, ale poté to není nic jiného než "napříč fázemi produkce, natáčení, efektů, maleb, hudby, herců". Přesně trefené tak, že to není moc do detailu, aby to běžného fanouška filmů neodradilo přílišným odbornostmi, ani moc obecné, aby si znalec filmových postupů neřekl, že je to až příliš v obecné rovině.

Přesto bych to doporučil. A vlastně docela dost. Byť výhodu časového odstupu autor nevyužívá nad rámec několika málo reflexí zúčastněných. V podstatě to mohlo vyjít v roce 2005 a nic by se nezměnilo (krom posledních pár desítek stran o natáčení Hobita). Což však neznamená, že by to v roce 2005 nebyla dobrá kniha. Protože byla.

[Rafal Jasinski · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I had never been on a set like it. Jackson's homeland feeds him in ways he could probably never articulate. (...) He's an auteur with an entire country behind him."

Ian Nathan took me on a fascinating journey behind the scenes of one of the most epic cinematic universes and the definitive adaptation of a cult fantasy literary work! This book is much more than a thorough analysis of the trilogy's creation process - although that aspect exceeded my wildest expectations.

It is a beautifully written tale of challenges, moments of doubt, and specters of failure that often loomed over and cast shadows on these monumental films. This book is also a chronicle of boundless faith and dedication, a history of those who risked everything on a venture deemed impossible.

A complete testament to the creative genius of Peter Jackson and the seemingly impossible - yet achieved! - synergy among the multitude of creators and artists involved in the project!

Nathan also spent several days on set, during post-production, and "pick-up" shoots for the second part of the trilogy, during which he got to know the creators' working methods inside out and conducted a multitude of interviews - sometimes in surreal conditions (over a buffet where Christopher Lee wonders whether he should choose chili for lunch while fully in character as Saruman).

This is a must-read not only for anyone who loves fantasy and cinematic Middle-earth but also for all those interested in film and the creative process that leads to the creation of cinematic masterpieces! Highly recommended!

Recenzja w języku polskim:

Lubimyczytac.pl : https://lubimyczytac.pl/ksiazka/51082...

[Jens Hieber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very enjoyable, if a bit long. This included copious details, most of them very interesting even for those of us that spent time with all the extra material included with the extended editions of the first trilogy. I like the little stories, the clear characterization of people that were mostly names before, and a distinct sense of the whole film creation process. The first 60-70 pages felt needlessly long with lots of names of studios and films I hadn't heard of or care about. At times, this felt a bit disorganized as Nathan jumps about a bit--I couldn't point to a better organizational principle, but it still felt a bit abrupt at times. And yet, a very engrossing read.

[Phil Cotnoir · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've never read a book about a movie that was based on a book before, but if they are all as good as this one, I might just have to explore the genre a little more.

The strength of this book is simply that the making of the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy by Peter Jackson is an amazing story in itself.

[Kayla · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of the LotR movies, and have watched the Extended DVD extras multiple times, but I was still able to find plenty of new details and stories about the making of the movies that I had never heard. If you love behind-the-scenes info and enjoy the movies, I'd recommend this book.
Note: language, including F-bombs
Also, I've never heard of the author before, but his ego gets dropped a few times throughout the book. Nothing major, but it got a couple of eye rolls from me.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rating: 4½ stars.

A fantastic and comprehensive look into Peter Jackson and the making of The Lord of the Rings. If you ever wanted to learn more about the behind the scenes of the fantasy film trilogy, I can't recommend this enough. Although the last few chapters do (relatively) quickly cover The Hobbit films as well, I'd easily read a sequel covering them in as much depth as the originals.

I can particularly recommend the audiobook, where Wymark gamely impersonates each person quoted (inc. their accent), which really helps keep track of the cast of characters and shifts to quotation in the audio format.

[James Andrews · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read a handful of books on the making of famous films. This is easily my favorite. It was a pure joy to follow along with Ian Nathan's narration of the $400 million undertaking down in New Zealand to translate Tolkien into film. I'm sad to have finished it.

[literaryaura · Rating 3 out of 5]

I used to read LotR once a year, until a few years ago. I love the movies, and got the extended versions, which I've watched many times, including once with the 2nd audio track where the actors spoke their way through the movie. I've watched all the behind the scenes extras.

This book should have been a perfect read at that time. Reading it now, after the terrible Hobbit movies, I guess I wasn't as interested.

The setting of this book seems quite haphazard. It seems to follow a set way most of the times - pre-production, filming, post-production, but sometimes in between he would skip to another time. It's as though he remembered that story, and put it where he was writing at that point, instead of slotting it in the correct place.

It also feels as though he's basically taken articles from his magazine (Empire), and stuck them all together. There are interesting moments written about, but it feels like what it is - an onlooker who has written the book. It might have been better from someone who was an integral part of the movie. (Or it might not have).

I really loved being taken back to that magic, and reading all about it. However I already knew a lot of this stuff, so not much was new, and so a bit of a let down. However it was wonderful having it all put down together in one book. I know I will enjoy it more when I next read it. There were also a lot of parts that bored me, and seemed to drag on a bit.

I had wanted to know more about the Hobbit movies, and the thinking behind those atrocious movies. Why did Peter Jackson, the mind behind the wonderful LotR movies, come up with such a dreadful adaptation of The Hobbit? The author spent less than 10% of the book on this, and hardly much is said about this.

Audiobook - I loved the narrator's voice at the start, but I soon got really fed up of him. He smacks his lips, slurps, gulps, and makes a lot of noises throughout the book. Very, very annoying. I will be avoiding narration by Tristram Wymark in the future.

[Matt Goldberg · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don’t want to be mean because this book was a thoughtful gift from a dear friend. I love the LOTR movies (The Hobbit trilogy less so).

I gobbled up the first 100-150 pages of this and then once it got into the production, I found my interest waning. By the end, I was grateful to be done with it. So what happened?

I think the book pulls you in because of history and conflict. You’re curious to know how this landmark of fantasy literature was previously attempted and then you have the various studio conflicts of whether or not Jackson can get the movies made.

But once it’s in production, there’s not much conflict left, and so much behind-the-scenes storytelling feels unnecessary when we were blessed with the copious bonus features on the Extended Editions.

The largest problem is that Nathan stops coming across as a journalist and feels more like a publicist. A majority of the book simply feels like reading press notes, the tidy summations you’re given at junkets to let you know how awesome everything was when making this movie. You can definitely feel Nathan smoothing out the ruffles when he gets around to The Hobbit, which probably should have been its own book, but you get the sense that the author now sees himself as a part of the team rather than someone who can provide a sense of objectivity. So major issues like the tax breaks granted and the NZ union steamrolled are quickly passed by.

I love books about the making of movies, and I love the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but this was a surprising letdown.

[Anthony · Rating 5 out of 5]

Audiobook.

This was brilliant. An in-depth look into the making of on the best film series ever, from Peter Jacksons introduction to the material, to acquiring the rights, setting up the SFX company WETA, to even untaking the prequel The Hobbit. The audiobook ran at 22 hours long, a length worthy of such a meaty series of films, and at times you still think more could have been included. Anecdotes from actors like Ian Mckellin and Christopher Lee felt insightful (and I didn't know Sean Connery was seriously considered for Gandalf until this)

I think if you have an interest in how films are made (once upon a time I used to be film student) then you'll get the most out of this but I think even casual film fans with a love of The Lord of the Rings will get enjoyment from this.

[Emma Theobald · Rating 4 out of 5]

What can I say - I love peter jackson and mf LOVE LOTR

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

good, but overstays its welcome a bit. could’ve cut some content throughout.

[G.R. Matthews · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'll start by saying I love the books and the films; they're different but both excellent. I know some purists will argue the films are not truly the books (and they can't be really) and ignore their existence (or rail against them, angry fists raised to the sky), but I love both.

Now that's out of the way, lets have a quick about this book I've just finished reading -

'Anything you can imagine; Peter Jackson and the making of Middle-Earth' by Ian Nathan.

It is quite a candid account of how the Lord of the Rings trilogy was made. As you read it, one of the first things you realise is quite how close we came to not having these movies made at all. Secondly, you come to realise how cutting edge the technology needed to make it was, and how much they innovated.

Looking back, over the twenty years since the films were made and released it is easy to forget just how far technology has come, and how much of it began in these films.

Peter Jackson did incredible work and they innovated every step of the way.

You'll also get to see some of the background shenanigans that went on behind the scenes, with the production studios, the wheels and deals that had to be done, and the risks taken.

I really enjoyed the interviews and comments of the cast and crew. Elijah Wood and his co-hobbits (we can't imagine anyone else playing them now) were so young when they began that journey and from all accounts it was a gruelling one, but one they took to with such enthusiasm, forging friendships which last to today.

Much is made of Viggo Mortensen portrayal and method acting. Never out of costume, never without his sword, going camping in the wilds of New Zealand, yet it all seems perfectly normal. I didn't know that he had been "parachuted" in at the last minute when the previous actor dropped out, and now he is Aragorn - no one else could play it so well, invest so much into that character!

Andy Serkis gets a good chapter and more which is more than welcome. We get to see the birth of motion capture and learn how Gollum developed. You can feel the passion come off the page and also the wonder at all.

Peter Jackson juggled so much but without his crew the films would have been nothing like they magnificence they are. Fran Walsh who loved the books and kept (though that's something of the wrong word) on the right track with the story deserves as much credit as anyone. There are so many others to mention and all get a starring role in this book.

The development of the studio and its special effects WETA are a theme throughout the book, as are the sets, make up and props. It really comes across that these films were a team effort guided by Jackson.

From the first page to the last, I enjoyed this book immensely! Go and read it.

[Stanley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the first 3/4 of this book with so many amazing stories around The Lord of the Rings books and films as well as Peter Jackson's early career and what it took to even get started making the films.

However, the final quarter does not reach the same heights as it gets to the post LotR world including Jackson's subsequent projects and eventually The Hobbit trilogy. Compared with the earlier portion of the book, this section seems to brief to get nearly as interesting while still being fairly long leaving me unfulfilled. The Hobbit section could have been titled Excusing the Hobbit as it tried to reframe it's not being as successful as LotR in a bunch of ways, none of which are that that aren't nearly as good.

It made me wish the book was firmly focused on The Lord of the Rings stuff and some of the connective tissue to the post trilogy portion of the book were used as a sort of wrap up. This would have almost certainly been a 5 star from me. Regardless, it was still quite good and while not great, the last section was still often interesting.

I rarely mention the reader when listening to the audiobook, but I really enjoyed him here, reading in a sort of natural, conversational style, which I really enjoyed listening to.

[Ben Bachman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic deep dive into the making of the greatest movies ever! (a cold, hard fact without any hint of hyperbole) It’s certainly not a written replacement for the appendices to the films, although you do most certainly learn some good nuggets not exactly contained in the supplements for the extended edition films. You do get a great understanding of Jackson’s early career and how everything lined up. Then of course you do get a thorough covering of the production followed by another fantastic covering of the cultural impact of the movies and how Jackson’s career found itself back in Middle Earth with The Hobbit. Any fan of the movies and movie-making should thoroughly enjoy this. Although I had to laugh a little at the afterword as it covers the at time of publishing just announced series from Amazon. The author wonders how much those creators will seek Jackson’s input or advice. Sadly, that seems to have been none at all and it showed. But enough about that. Take up this book and enjoy the great times in the making of cinematic Middle Earth.