SUBMITTED BY Toad

February 15, 2002 —

The Hollywood Reporter elaborates on the success "Fellowship of the Rings" has been finding.

Director Peter Jackson's adaptation of the first volume of the late Tolkien's epic fantasy, "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring," dominated the field, winning 13 nominations, including best picture, best director and a supporting actor nomination for Ian McKellen, who plays the wizard Gandalf. Few in Hollywood would have predicted even six months ago that New Line Cinema's first installment of its audacious $300 million trilogy would magically transform into an Oscar front-runner -- if anything, it was regarded as a potential folly. "We had to weather sometimes withering criticism (of the decision to film all three installments of the trilogy simultaneously), and there is a small sense of vindication with these nominations," New Line co-CEO Michael Lynne said. "But ultimately, it's really about the degree to which this film has resonated across the world." In the post-Sept. 11 era, "Rings" -- a tale of ordinary blokes battling a faceless evil -- appears to have caught a wave of the zeitgeist. But then, "Rings' " fellow best picture nominees also suggest that this was, in fact, the year of the underdog who unexpectedly emerges as a potential best in show.