Initially, Jackson was wary of taking his megaphone back to Middle-earth because of the different tone required.

“The Hobbit is very much a children’s book and The Lord Of The Rings is something else; it’s not really aimed at children at all,” he explains.

Jackson fretted that after three tours of LOTR duty (six, if you count the extended editions) he wouldn’t have a fresh slant on Tolkien’s world. But then he found his muse. Or muses.

“I realised the characters of the dwarves are the difference. Their energy and disdain of anything politically correct brings a new kind of spirit to it. And that’s why I thought, OK, this could be fun!”