Why was Peter Jackson's LOTR trilogy made possible?

Fifteen years ago this week, Peter Jackson's The Fellowship of the Ring premiered in theaters. The film opened to fanfare as the first installment of a long-awaited live-action adaptation of Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien's epic fantasy series. But in the years since, it's clear that it was more than that. read more

Peter Jackson mostly made it possible, because he knew that there was a 70 years of built-in interest in such a movie, but it was only because of relatively recent special effect technologies that made it possible for the movie to be well made. read more

Before Peter Jackson stepped into Middle-earth, J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1954 epic “The Lord of the Rings” had already changed the world of fantasy, having sold more than 100 million copies and given birth to countless fans over multiple generations. read more

Most of this with appropriate additional source attribution can be found on the wikipedia pages of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. When Jackson first started on this (1995) he wanted to make 3 movies, one based on The Hobbit, two based on Lord of the Rings. read more