Peter Jackson Considered Hypnotism To Make Him Forget About Making THE LORD OF THE RINGS Trilogy
Watching The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring was easily one of the greatest moving-going experiences of my life. I was just in awe from beginning to end and my experience watching the other two films in the trilogy was just as incredible.
Director Peter Jackson never had the opportunity to enjoy those films the same way that we did as a fan and member of the audience. He was just too deep in the development of the films, and in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, he talked about how envious he was of other moviegoers. In fact, he says he actually considered going through hypnotherapy to make him forget he had made the films so that he could have that same experience of watching the trilogy that we all had. He said:
"When we did The Lord of the Rings movies I always felt I was the unlucky person who never got to see as a coming-out-of-the-blue film. By the time there were screening I was immersed in it for five or six years. It was such a loss for me not to be able to see them like everyone else. I actually did seriously consider going to some hypnotherapy guy to hypnotize me to make me forget about the films and the work I had done over the last six or seven years so I could sit and enjoy them. I didn't follow through with it, but I did talk to [British mentalist] Derren Brown about that and he thought he could do it."
I totally understand why he would consider doing this, but in the end, he made the right decision. The guy created three of the best films ever made and while I’m sure that there are stressful memories of that experience, there were also sure to be awesome and incredible memories as well. The real question is, could a hypnotist actually really make someone forget all of that!?
Luckily for Jackson, Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power series is coming out soon and he’ll be able to enjoy that along with the rest of us!
Although Jackson did claim that Amazon Studios asked him to be involved in the project, though they ended up never sending him any scripts.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power premieres on Prime Video on September 2nd.