Movies Elijah Wood says an orc in Lord of the Rings was designed to look like Harvey Weinstein Peter Jackson's films were originally supposed to be developed under the disgraced producer's Miramax. By Andrea Towers Andrea Towers Andrea Towers is a former assistant editor at Entertainment Weekly. She left EW in 2016. EW's editorial guidelines Published on October 5, 2021 12:58PM EDT Don't get on director Peter Jackson's bad side — unless you want an orc created to resemble you. While visiting Dax Shepard's Armchair Podcast, Lord of the Rings star Elijah Wood reflected on filming the epic trilogy that changed his career and admitted that one of the orcs in the film was designed to resemble Harvey Weinstein. Harvey Weinstein vs an orc in 'Lord of the Rings.'. Alexander Koerner/Getty Images; Everett Collection Wood revealed that the story was recently brought up on The Friendship Onion podcast run by former Lord of the Rings costars (and fellow hobbits) Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd. "They were talking to Sean Astin about his first memory of getting to New Zealand for the first time," Wood told Shephard and his cohost, Monica Padman. "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--- you." "I think it's okay to talk about this now," Wood continued after sharing the story. "He's f----ing incarcerated." Everett Collection Ardent Lord of the Rings fans are well aware of the behind-the-scenes details concerning Jackson's epic trilogy, including how the films were originally supposed to be developed under Miramax and Weinstein (as Miramax owned the rights to J.R.R. Tolkein's series). But when Weinstein tried to pressure Jackson to make just one or two films from Tolkien's books, the director put his foot down. The relationship between the two creatives reportedly became strained and eventually, Jackson was allowed to pitch his film to other studios under a tight time frame. Elijah Wood in 'The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring'. Pierre Vinet/New Line "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 first movie does and then invest the rest of your money,'" Wood explained. The film would ultimately land at New Line Cinema, where producer Bob Shaye saw Jackson's vision and agreed to the "three movies filmed at the same time" idea. The rest, as they say, is history — including Weinstein's orc face. Representatives for New Line Cinema and Jackson didn't immediately respond to EW's request for comment. Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more. Related content: Elijah Wood landed his Lord of the Rings role with an epic audition shot on a VHS tape 5 things you didn't know about Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies What to expect from Amazon's Lord of the Rings show and its Second Age setting