I'll preface my remarks by saying Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" (LotR) was positively brilliant. The way he scripted the story from the original novel and handled the casting was brilliant. Hiring respected Tolkien artists to do the story boards and pre-visualization was very clever. The way he incorporated New Zealand's scenary was genius. His use of CGI and the cunning showed in funding the movie also showed brilliance.

I've read the LotR and "The Hobbit" about three times. I've read the "Hobbit" to my son aloud. I've listened to the BBC radio version at least three times. I've read the "Silmarillion" once (which is hard to do because it reads like the Bible). I've gone to all three of Jackson's movies in the theater and bought the extended DVDs for all three movies. My wife and I have watched all three extended movies straight and also with all the different commentary versions turned on. The obvious point here is that I'm a serious Tolkien fanatic and my wife tolerates my fanaticism.

Jackson almost screwed up the LotR. What save him was his clever use of the Internet to communicate with Tolkien fans while shooting the movie. For example, Jackson almost had Arwen come in at the 11th hour with a band of elves to save Aragorn and Theoden at Helm's Deep (film was actually shot of this scene but later abandoned). That bit of stupidity would have ruined the "Two Towers". For the "Return of the King", Jackson almost had Sauron appear in his beautiful angelic form as Annatar. Jackson would have had Sauron / Annatar fighting Aragorn in single combat in front of the Black Gate (again film was actually shot of this idiotic scene but later abandoned). This would have utterly ruined the "Return of the King". Editing out Saruman's death at Isengard (an acceptable plot modification) in the theater version of the "Return of the King" was a signficant error. Not showing Denethor's connection with the palantir was a significant error in the script (Denethor's behavior in the movie without the palantir was inexplicable). I was also annoyed that Jackson excluded Theoden's burial scene but understand the movie's ending was too long as it stood. IMHO, Jackson's other exclusions were forgiveable, e.g. Tom Bombadil and the Scouring of the Shire. Poor Tom Bombadil always gets left out of the theater and radio versions of the LotR but he's actually a very significant character if you get down deep with him.

Anyway, Jackson got lucky with the LotR. He had some close calls in terms of making a complete mess of it. Fortunately he pulled it off and now his movie is a classic in the same league as "The Wizard of Oz" and "Star Wars".

Now getting back to "King Kong": Do I think Jackson is going to pull that one off? No way!! "King Kong" will be Arwen at Helms Deep and Annatar at the Black Gate all rolled up in one. The plot behind "King Kong" is idiotic. Jackson will probably piss away at least 10% of the money he made with LotR after "King Kong" flops. I hope his reputation isn't too tarnished by the experience that he is prevented from doing "The Hobbit".

Gary