Lord Of The Rings star Elijah Wood has revealed that an orc who appeared in the famous film trilogy was designed specifically to look like Harvey Weinstein as a big 'f**k you' to the disgraced former Hollywood producer.
Wood was speaking on the latest episode of Dax Shepard's podcast Armchair Expert about his run as Frodo Baggins - which stretched throughout all three of director Peter Jackson's Lord Of The Rings films, as well as cameos in his Hobbit trilogy - and said the move came after Weinstein refused to make the films himself.
Weinstein also didn't want Jackson to shop them around either.
Weinstein co-founded Miramax, who had acquired the rights to J.R.R. Tolkien's famous fantasy books in the 90s.
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They worked with Jackson on developing the film adaptations but it increasingly became clear that Jackson's vision wasn't going to be matched by the production giants.
As Shepard recounted on the podcast, Jackson's request to offer the films to other companies was met with a pretty blunt response.
"Miramax said, 'We will only give it back to you in turnaround, but two things have to happen. One: You have to go get it set up this weekend. And two: Whoever agrees has to agree to make all three at once'" Shepard said.
Confirming this, Wood added: "The window of time was insane. They shopped it around town. Peter made a pitch video that's pretty impressive, taken to a variety of places.
"Most people were balking at the notion of doing more than one film. The popular opinion was, 'No, you have to see how [the initial movie] does and then invest the rest of your money.'"
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Thankfully for Jackson - and ultimately cinema fans the world over - Bob Shaye at New Line Cinema offered the project a path away from Miramax and agreed to make all three at once.
Wood called it 'insane' and added it was "an incredible risk. Miramax thought there was no chance in hell."
However, the films got made and the rest - as they tend to say - is history. But Jackson and the Lord Of The Rings crew didn't forget Weinstein's insane stipulations for allowing the rights to move over to New Line.
Recalling a recent episode of Dom Monaghan and Bill Boyd's (who played Merry and Pipping) podcast The Friendship Onion, Wood mentioned a conversation they had with Samwise actor Sean Astin about his first memory of getting to New Zealand.
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"He had seen these orc masks. And one of the orc masks - and I remember this vividly - was designed to look like Harvey Weinstein as a sort of a f**k you," Wood revealed to laughter.
The star added: "I think that is OK to talk about now, the guy is f*****g incarcerated. F**k him."
Harvey Weinstein is currently serving a 23 year prison sentence after being found guilty of sexual assault and rape.
The emergence of his crimes triggered the #MeToo movement in 2017, resulting in millions of people worldwide speaking out about sexual harassment, assault, and rape.
Featured Image Credit: Credit: AlamyTopics: Movies, Harvey Weinstein, US News, Lord Of The Rings