
Anything You Can Imagine
Peter Jackson and the Making of Middle-earth
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Narrated by:
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Tristram Wymark
About this listen
The definitive history of Peter Jackson’s Middle-earth saga, Anything You Can Imagine takes us on a cinematic journey across all six films, featuring brand-new interviews with Peter, his cast & crew. From the early days of daring to dream it could be done, through the highs and lows of making the films, to fan adoration and, finally, Oscar glory.
Lights
A nine-year-old boy in New Zealand’s Pukerua Bay stays up late and is spellbound by a sixty-year-old vision of a giant ape on an island full of dinosaurs. This is true magic. And the boy knows that he wants to be a magician.
Camera
Fast-forward twenty years and the boy has begun to cast a spell over the film-going audience, conjuring gore-splattered romps with bravura skill that will lead to Academy recognition with an Oscar nomination for Heavenly Creatures. The boy from Pukerua Bay with monsters reflected in his eyes has arrived, and Hollywood comes calling. What would he like to do next? ‘How about a fantasy film, something like The Lord of the Rings…?’
Action
The greatest work of fantasy in modern literature, and the biggest, with rights ownership so complex it will baffle a wizard. Vast. Complex. Unfilmable. One does not simply walk into Mordor – unless you are Peter Jackson.
Anything You Can Imagine tells the full, dramatic story of how Jackson and his trusty fellowship of Kiwi filmmakers dared take on a quest every bit as daunting as Frodo’s, and transformed JRR Tolkien’s epic tale of adventure into cinematic magic, and then did it again with The Hobbit. Enriched with brand-new interviews with Jackson, his fellow filmmakers and many of the films’ stars, Ian Nathan’s mesmerising narrative whisks us to Middle-earth, to gaze over the shoulder of the director as he creates the impossible, the unforgettable, and proves that film-making really is ‘anything you can imagine’.
©2018 Ian Nathan, 2018 Andy Serkis - foreword (P)2018 HarperCollins PublishersCritic reviews
‘This book truly is the definitive history of the Lord of the Rings films. Nearly every single element of the productions is coverd here, from writing, to shooting, to Oscar-night jitters. Nathan’s prose does exactly what you want from a book like this: it makes you feel as if you’re really there.’
SlashFilm
‘In breezy and often cheeky prose, Nathan tells a grand story worthy of the annals of great filmmaking… there is much to learn, to chuckle over and to admire as Jackson and his band of indefatigable Kiwis face down the naysayers.’
Daily Mail
Great story - Awful attempts at accents.
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Apart from all this it's just a fascinating look into the inner workings of the business of movie making.
Two thumbs way up!
Behind the curtain
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Behind the scenes of middle earth
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The only issue is the reader - who has clearly never seen any of the rings or hobbit movies. He can’t pronounce any of the names or places, which is embarrassing - you’d think of you were going to spend 22 hours reading a book on a set of films, you’d at least watch one of them.
Great book, shame about the reader
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This books really did go into the history of the saga of getting LotR onto the big screen. From Tolkien selling rights to the announcement that Amazon would be taking a jaunt to Middle Earth.
Loved hearing from the actors and the makers. The narrator did a great job with the accents and keeping you interested when it would be quite easy for the mind to wonder after 20 hours.
Sadly the Hobbit did not take up much and seemed to be almost thrown in at the end as a ‘oh yes, there was also these three films’.
A lot was made of the New Zealand mind set. That this was a major factor in the success. That an almost MacGyver-ing view of life is in their DNA. This did get annoying. Perhaps because the minute I spotted it I couldn’t stop. It strikes me that this get it done with chewing gum and mud view is more of a creatives thing than specific to NZ and Jackson. (Eg. Jim Henson).
All in all a great listen and well worth the credit.
Fun behind the scenes read
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From discussions and arguments about where the money's going to come from to make the first film, to the final post production flourishes, every twist and turn of the making of six extraordinary films is outlined in Nathan's relaxed and amusing prose, and read brilliantly by Tristram Wymark, who gets ALL the accents and voices right. The only tiny quibble I have is that Nathan confuses the actors Luke Evans and Lee Pace, but that's the only hiccup in a long and complex piece.
I've always found the film making process fascinating, but even if listeners don't share my interest, it's a highly entertaining and intelligent book, well worth the monthly credit.
Middle Earth revealed
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I’d wholeheartedly recommend this book.
Entertaining and Informative
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How to make a Hollywood blockbuster
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What I’m most thankful for, is more insight into the integrity of Peter Jackson. I’m so pleased he doesn’t care much for adulation or awards. A man of heart & in his work it shows. I didn’t go to the cinema until the LOTR films came out as I generally don’t like the machine of Hollywood & it’s tedious repetitive formulaic movies. You know, I loved that dirt under the finger nails in the trilogy.
An epic account
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As Epic as the Movies
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