2. "Make It One Movie" - The Lord Of The Rings (2001-2003)
Given that - prior to the success of Peter Jackson's
Lord of the Rings trilogy - J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy books were considered pretty much unadaptable, it's not too surprising to learn that movie executives were nervous about putting their movie into three fully-fledged movies. And before Jackson got the chance to transform some of the world's best literature into some of the world's best motion pictures, a bunch of people tried to persuade him to do it much differently. Jackson had already bowed down to a two-movie treatment (because he knew selling a trilogy would be near impossible), but the executives over at Miramax had a few more suggestions for him: lose the character of Saruman entirely, combine Rohan and Gondor into one nation, make Boromir and Eowyn siblings, and blend all three books into one film. Jackson, unable to take their suggestions seriously, took his idea over to New Line, who said that
The Lord of the Rings clearly wasn't worthy of two films. It was worthy of
three.