10 Movies That Escaped Development Hell (And Were Worth The Wait)

The live-action rights to The Lord of the Rings was first optioned by United Artists in the early '70s, resulting in numerous scrapped attempts to bring the project to fruition, with most simply agreeing it was too complex and ambitious for a live-action treatment.

In the mid '90s Peter Jackson began negotiating with Miramax for adaptations of the first two Rings movies, but as the budget ballooned out of Miramax's scope, it ended up moving to New Line Cinema, who agreed to Jackson's original vision of a trilogy.

From 1997 until 2003, Jackson and co-writer Fran Walsh worked tirelessly on the three movies, which were shot back-to-back and often re-written during filming.

Principal photography lasted 14 months, while pick-up photography took place every year as Jackson fine-tuned each film in the editing room.

The sheer gargantuan scale of the project left many to question whether Jackson had simply bitten off too much, but of course, the trilogy was a phenomenal critical and commercial success, grossing just shy of $3 billion while Return of the King won all 11 Oscars it was nominated for, including Best Picture.

The less said about the Hobbit movies, though, the better...