Why did New Line trust Peter Jackson with the LOTR trilogy?

I was really curious why such a huge film with a decently high budget was given to Peter Jackson? Don’t get me wrong TFOTR is my all time favorite movie I am just highly surprised this beloved trilogy was given to an unproven director.

His biggest prior films to LOTR were Frighteners and Dead Alive. Not bad movies but didn’t really break any box office records. The fact he made this trilogy and handled the budget/schedule/directing is amazing.

Does anyone knows the backstory or how he got the directing job for the trilogy?

Submitted November 18, 2019 at 12:50PM by ZedLeppelins https://ift.tt/2KuH1vJ