Harvey Weinstein threatened to replace Peter Jackson with Quentin Tarantino as director of Lord of the Rings

The disgraced mogul wanted a two-hour, single movie adaptation of the classic novels

Harvey Weinstein (L) and Quentin Tarantino in 2013 (Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

Harvey Weinstein once threatened to hire Quentin Tarantino to direct The Lord of the Rings if Peter Jackson did not turn the trilogy into a single two-hour movie.

The disgraced mogul was initially set to produce an adaptation of the fantasy novel with Jackson under the Miramax name, the team hoping to turn J.R.R. Tolkien's classic tale into two films.

However, a new book written by Ian Nathan reveals that Weinstein wanted to cut the films down further, saying Jackson had "wasted" $12 million developing a two film script and threatening to bring Shakespeare in Love director John Madden or Tarantino on board.

“Harvey was like, 'you're either doing this or you're not. You're out'. And I got Quentin ready to direct it',” Ken Kamin, a producer brought on by Weinstein, told Nathan according to Stuff.

Jackson further clarified the claims, recalled a memo dated 17 June 1998 from Miramax's head of development calling for “a more radical, streamlined approach”. Changes would include removed the battle of Helms Deep, replacing Faramir with Eowyn as Boromir's sister, removing the Balrog, and potentially losing Sauruman.

“It was literally guaranteed to disappoint every single person that has read that book,” Jackson told Nathan for his new book titled Anything You Can Imagine: Peter Jackson & The Making of Middle-Earth.

Luckily, Kamin was on Jackson's side. “We'd rather have our lives and do our films and not deal with all this crap anymore," he said. "Tell Harvey to go ahead and make his film and good luck.” As every movie buff knows, the duo, along with Jackson's partner Fran Walsh, landed a deal with New Line that led to three movies tallying 558 minutes in length (theatrical, not extended editions) and grossed almost $3 billion.

Jackson has previously spoken about how Weinstein and Miramax made their team blacklist the actors Ashley Judd and Mira Sorvino after being informed they were "a nightmare to work with and we should avoid them at all costs".

“At the time, we had no reason to question what these guys were telling us," he said. "But in hindsight, I realise that this was very likely the Miramax smear campaign in full swing. I now suspect we were fed false information about both of these talented women.”

Meanwhile, the Lord of the Rings saga continues on screen as Amazon are currently working on further adaptations of Tolkien's Middle Earth novels. The eventual series will reportedly be the most expensive TV show ever made.