8 Great Movies Saved By Ridiculously Last Minute Changes

5. Peter Jackson Spent Most Of Pre-Production Planning To Make Only Two Films - The Lord Of The Rings

In a situation pretty much identical to Scott and Jackman, Aragorn was almost played by Stuart Townsend, only to be replaced by Viggo Mortensen the day before shooting began. But that's only getting as far as Hobbiton in the vast Middle-Earth of last minute developments in the production of The Lord Of The Rings.

As crazy as it may sound, but the idea of making J.R.R. Tolkien's mammoth tome - which, let's remember, was released in print in three parts - as a trilogy was an obscenely fantastical idea. Even, it seems, for trilogy-hocker Peter Jackson himself - his original pitch for LOTR was a two movie story (with a third for The Hobbit), which (after a protracted negotiation phase that involved a failed attempt at King Kong) was approved by Miramax. When the budget spiralled, however, Bob Weinstein baulked and chose to bail on the project (unless it could be shrunk down to a single film, something that would clearly be impossible).

When Jackson tried to sell the production to New Line Cinema, they too questioned the number of films, only in the other direction; part-creatively motivated, part-financially, they suggested bumping the pitch up to three movies, and the rest, as they say, is legendarium. The finished films did chop and change a lot between books (much of The Two Towers novel - Boromir's death and Shelob - wound up in different films), but Jackson had the time to do the epic journey justice, producing cinematic history.

The reverse case happened with The Hobbit - originally a two-parter, Jackson bumped it up to a trilogy six months before release after principal photography was well over. And we all know how that turned out.