The Lord Of The Rings - Presentation Reel (Cannes Film Festival 2001)

Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema's Bob Shaye decided to take a unique approach in introducing footage from "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" to the world by unveiling a lengthy showreel during the 2001 Cannes Film Festival.

Though New Line had gained a reputation for taking on risky films that turned out to be hits, "The Lord of the Rings" looked to be the company's biggest risk yet, with a blockbuster budget and plans to film all three entries back to back. In short, it was the kind of gamble that could sink a studio. When interviewed for the 20th anniversary of "Fellowship of the Ring" by Deadline, Jackson's agent/manager, Ken Kamins, said that New Line founder Bob Shaye was the biggest champion in Jackson's corner. Shaye wanted to blow viewers away with the "Lord of the Rings" footage — even though the movie still a long way from completion.

"It was Bob who came up with the idea of leaning into Cannes of 2001...'Let's blow people away.' But of course, once you decide you're going to spend $2 million dollars on a party and treat 26 minutes like a premiere, the stakes are total. Get it right and you are on your way to something really important and powerful. Get it wrong, and you've made the biggest miniseries in the history of TNT."

Cannes gave audiences a small taste of what Jackson had in store for Middle-earth. "That footage was going to make or break us," Jackson says in the book "Anything You Can Imagine: Peter Jackson and the Making of Middle-earth." "But it made us."