Let's see...I'm trying to think of other wonderful fantasy novels that turned into crappy movies. Right now all I can think of is Once and Future King became - ACK! - Camelot! And of course, we won't go into the Disneyfication of "Alice In Wonderland", "The Jungle Book", etc. <P>Jackson approached the filming of the book with as much respect and dignity as he could, considering the very real problems of bringing such a richly worded book to the visual arena, and working in the time constraints. <P>Do you realize how incredible fortunate he was to find a major studio who was willing to pay to produce the movie as three films at three hours each? That's unheard of in this day and age. It was an incredible gamble, and has succeeded beyond anyone's expectations.<P>You can quibble all you want about what was left out, or what stray pieces of dialog did or didn't fit your standards, but Peter Jackson has created a masterpiece of fantasy film making, and hopefully has inspired others to leave all he old clitches behind, and look at the genres in a whole, new light. <P>Frankly, I think even Spielberg and Lucas could take some lessons from Mr. Jackson.
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