Peter Jackson Admits to “Winging It” with The Hobbit Movies

Though much enjoyed, Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit film trilogy did not match his Lord of the Rings ventures for critical acclaim. Now Jackson has conceded that his relatively late takeover of the director’s chair meant that he was “winging it” during the chaotic production period.

As reported by The Guardian, in a behind-the-scenes video accompanying the DVD release of the final installment, The Battle of the Five Armies, the New Zealander clarified the hectic situation he was thrown into after replacing Guillermo Del Toro as the trilogy’s director in 2010.

He explained that, after he took over, it was “impossible” for the team to “wind the clock back a year and a half and give me a year and a half prep to design the movie, which was different to what he was doing”. The result, he added, was that “I just started shooting the movie with most of it not prepped at all.”

This situation, he continued, led him to delay shooting of the climactic battle in Five Armies. He noted that “what that delay gives you is time for the director to clear his head and have some quiet time for inspiration to come about the battle, and start to really put something together.”