Anything You Can Imagine cover art

Anything You Can Imagine

Peter Jackson and the Making of Middle-earth

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Anything You Can Imagine

By: Ian Nathan, Andy Serkis - foreword
Narrated by: Tristram Wymark
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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 Publishers
Entertainment & Celebrities Entertainment & Performing Arts Celebrity Entertainment Magic Magic Users Fantasy Fiction

Critic 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

All stars
Most relevant
A fascinating look into the making of these movies, just as I had hoped! It also discussed some things that I felt are only tangentially related, or padding even, so the skip forward button was useful a few times. Not too many though.

The narrator was great and brought some extra entertainment value to the text. Other comments say he got the NZ names wrong - I don’t know about that so it didn’t bother me, but if you’re a NZ native you might want to adjust expectations accordingly.

The parts about Peter Jackson felt like they were written by a huge fan, and all the admiration and praise felt a bit repetitive and one-sided at times. But the book focuses mainly on the movies, so it’s not too much of a problem.

Happy to recommend this book to any fan of the movies.

Enjoyed it

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Would recommend for any film or LOTR buff.
wonderfully story about Peter Jackson's journey to Middle Earth.

One downfall is the incorrect pronunciation of the towns in New Zealand.

Great behind the scenes look into the making of

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This gives an intimate and deep view into the making of the films, those involved and the world it was created in. The writing is warm and thoughtful. I plan on listening again as there is so much to take in.

Incredible - a must read for LOTR fans

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I was born and lived in Wellington up to 2015. So I lived there during these going ons. It was nice to have so much more context to just how much Peter and the gang had to go through. It was as if they went through their own middle earth adventure while putting Tolkien’s one up the screen. Well written and read on Audio Books.

Way more context.

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Loved it. Probably only listen/read if you’re fairly into film, Rings, and Jackson (which I am). Although I didn’t feel like I learnt much new information, it is nice to have all of this laid out clearly as it is here.

For Nerds Like Me

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