Revealed: Who this Lord of the Rings orc was based on
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Elijah Wood, the actor who played Frodo Baggins in </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Lord of the Rings</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">, has revealed that one particular orc </span><a rel="noopener" href="https://happymag.tv/lord-of-the-rings-orc-harvey-weinsteins-appearance/" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">was modelled</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> after a real person in an act of revenge.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Appearing on </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Armchair Expert</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">, hosted by actor and comedian Dax Shepard, Wood shared that it was the orc named Gothmog, who made an appearance in </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Return of the King</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">, after Jackson was threatened to be replaced if he didn’t condense the trilogy into one film.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But who was the subject of the revenge?</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“One of the orc masks - and I remember this vividly - was designed to look like Harvey Weinstein as a sort of f**k you,” Wood said.</span></p>
<p><img style="width: 500px; height: 281.25px;" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7844672/orc-weinstein.jpg" alt="" data-udi="umb://media/2b7b8ba14511436eb31235973ddb06b5" /></p>
<p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Gothmog the orc (left) appears to be the character that most resembles Weinstein (right). Image: New Line Cinema, Getty Images</span></em></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">According to Wood, it was a way for the film’s production team to take revenge against the entertainment mogul and convicted sex offender after he made their lives hard during production.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Initially, Weinstein’s company Miramax was set to produce </span><span style="font-weight: 400;"><em>The Lord of the Rings</em></span><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But, Weinstein refused to make three movies, demanding that director Peter Jackson condense them into just one.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Weinstein then threatened to pass the film on to fellow directors Quentin Tarantino or John Madden if Jackson didn’t do as he asked.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">After Jackson reportedly asked for permission to get a different producer, Weinstein agreed but only gave him one weekend to do so.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“The window of time was insane,” Wood said.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“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’.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The franchise was later scooped up by Bob Shaye, the founder of New Line Cinema.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I think the lore is that they were coming with two and it was Bob Shaye who said, ‘We have to do three,’ which is insane,” said Wood.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The trilogy would go on to make $2.92 billion at the box office, and is considered to be one of the most successful franchises of all time.</span></p>
<p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Image: New Line Cinema</span></em></p>
