Goodwill Built On: Dead Alive, Heavenly Creatures, The Lord of the Rings TrilogyGoodwill Squandered On: The Lovely Bones Peter Jackson earned countless fans when he adapted J.R.R. Tolkien's epic fantasy saga The Lord of The Rings into a megahit trilogy that won numerous Academy Awards including a Best Director Oscar for Jackson. Jackson's fan stayed true after the Lord of the Rings trilogy concluded and made his follow-up effort King Kong a substantial hit. In 2009, Jackson gambled on bringing a popular novel, The Lovely Bones, to the big screen. Expectations where high for the feature, given the popularity of the source material, and Oscar buzz preceded its release. Unfortunately the film did not live up to the hype, receiving mostly negative reviews from critics. The fans Jackson won with The Lord of the Rings failed to show up for the Lovely Bones and the film's box office performance was middling. A chastened Jackson later returned to the Tolkien-inspired world that served him so well in the past, releasing 2012's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey to boffo sales.