alternatehistory.com

Apparently, back in 1997, New Line Cinemas was considering making three movies based on Tolkien's Lord of the Rings (I know it's pretty obscure, but you all are pretty knowledgable people regarding fantasy, so I'll post a summary only on request), instead of the Foundation Series we all know and love. However, marketing researchers found that the project couldn't escape the derision for fantasy films, and that few actors wanted their names associated with it. What would have been the consequences if the potential director, Peter Jackson, had sold his idea better, and gotten an LOTR trilogy made, nixing he Foundation Series? Would the rebirth of hard sci-fi have been prevented, and, without the humiliation of having his first Star Wars prequel get snubbed in favor of the unknown Foundation: Dark Age at the Oscars, would George Lucas have made the remaining two Star Wars films more adult and real? Would fantasy have finally escaped the opprobrium of "kid's films" and become a respectable genre?
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