The Oscar winner met with director Peter Jackson about playing Aragorn in his film trilogy, but – according to Variety – their conversation apparently discouraged Crowe from further work on films. – Actually, no, the actor said during a video interview with British GQ when asked if he had any regrets about this project. Crowe explained:
I felt it was the studio’s decision, not the director’s. I talked to Peter Jackson on the phone and he didn’t say the kinds of things that directors would say if they were really trying to get you on the project. And I just got the impression that he already had someone else in mind that he wanted to do it with. And if I say yes, I will actually be standing in his way.
Russell Crowe could have been Aragorn, but he felt he shouldn’t take on the role
– There were some nuances to this conversation that other people might not hear. We are both New Zealanders, we can let people know in our own way, without saying anything negative, that we have a different plan. So I just left it like that, added the actor. Aragorn was played by Viggo Mortensen in all three parts.
Interestingly, Peter Jackson remembers the whole situation differently. The director explained in the book “Anything you can imagine. Peter Jackson and the making of Middle-Earth” that Crowe was being tried for the role of Boromir. When Sean Bean was brought in, Crowe stayed in the game. Jackson, together with Fran Walsh and Philillpa Boyens, searched for Aragorn for a long time and it was not an easy task. In the end, it was Jackson who proposed to speak to Russell Crowe (with the reluctance of both women), but the actor was no longer interested. He received the script, he was grateful that they were still considering it, but, as he explained in a conversation with the director, he had just come off the set of a “film with swords” (he meant “Gladiator”, the premiere of which was just ahead of him) and he was not able to now devote himself to another similar production in which he would play a fighting hero.
There will be another movie from the world of “The Lord of the Rings”
Years after the last part of Jackson’s trilogy received Oscars, a series set in the same universe premiered. . It will be directed by Andy Serkis, who played Gollum. The cinema premiere of “The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum” is planned for 2026, and one of the producers is Peter Jackson. Mortensen in one of the interviews, if he gets an offer and is interested in the script.
The script for “The Hunt for Gollum” is currently in the early development phase, written by Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, known from the trilogy, supported by Phoebe Gittins and Arty Papageorgiou. The new production is intended to present previously untold stories in Tolkien’s world.
Source: Gazeta
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