Peter Jackson. The lord of The Lord Of The Rings. And on The Hobbit, co-producer, co-writer and, finally, director. Jackson’s route to the director’s chair was an unexpected journey in itself, taking in legal skirmishes, financial struggles and a jolly giant named Guillermo.

“MGM and Warner Bros each had certain rights to The Hobbit, but the future of MGM was up in the air for a while,” recalls Jackson, “which left The Hobbit up in the air. It didn’t seem like there was any end in sight, and Guillermo [del Toro] had other projects lined up, so he eventually left, and it wasn’t until five or six months later that we finally got the green light.”

It was during that limbo period that Jackson “really started to fall in love” with the idea of directing the two-part opus himself, shifting from backseat to driver’s wheel.