Harvey Weinstein threatened Lord of Rings director Peter Jackson that he would be replaced by Quentin Tarantino if he did not turn his vision for J.R.R. Tolkien’s book into one two-hour film.

A new book by British film writer Ian Nathan, Anything You Can Imagine: Peter Jackson & The Making of Middle-Earth, reveals that Weinstein thought the New Zealand director had “wasted” $12m in developing a two-movie script.

Weinstein told Jackson he had to make one two-hour film or he would be replaced by Shakespeare in Love director John Madden, or Tarantino.

“Harvey was like, ‘you’re either doing this or you’re not. You’re out. And I got Quentin ready to direct it’,” Ken Kamins, a producer who worked for Weinstein on the project, told the author.

Jackson said he got a memo dated 17 June, 1998 from Jack Lechner, the development head of Weinstein’s company Miramax, detailing “a more radical, streamlined approach”, which would allow the story to be told in one film.

This would have meant cutting the Helm’s Deep valley, having Eowyn replace Faramir as Boromir’s sister, the Balrog would disappear and Saruman too was on shaky ground, the Stuff website reports.

“It was literally guaranteed to disappoint every single person that has read that book,” Jackson told Nathan.

Jackson called Kamins to say he and his partner Fran Walsh could not adapt the book in the way Weinstein wanted.

“We’d rather have our lives and do our films and not deal with all this crap anymore. Tell Harvey to go ahead and make his film and good luck.”

Kamins persuaded Weinstein to allow Jackson and Walsh sell their treatment elsewhere. New Line Cinema picked it up and Tolkein’s book was turned into a hugely successful trilogy: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Two Towers (2002) and The Return of the King (2003).

Jackson won a best director Oscar for The Return of the King and the series won 17 Oscars in total.

Last December Jackson admitted to blacklisting actors Ashley Judd and Mira Sorvino in response to a “smear campaign” orchestrated by Weinstein, resulting in both women falling out of the running for parts in the Lord of the Rings series.

“I recall Miramax telling us they were a nightmare to work with and we should avoid them at all costs,” Jackson said.

“At the time, we had no reason to question what these guys were telling us. But in hindsight, I realise that this was very likely the Miramax smear campaign in full swing. I now suspect we were fed false information about both of these talented women.”