The Lord of the Rings(French: Le Seigneur des anneaux) is an American - New Zealand fantasy film trilogy directed by Peter Jackson and based on the three-volume novel of the same name by JRR Tolkien . The films that make up this trilogy are The Fellowship of the Ring ( 2001 ), The Two Towers ( 2002 ) and The Return of the King ( 2003 ).

This project is considered one of the most ambitious in the history of cinema , with a budget of 285 million dollars. It began to be developed by Jackson in 1995 and came to fruition with the New Line Cinema production studio after Miramax Films dropped it. The entire project lasted eight years, although filming for all three films took place simultaneously between October 1999 and December 2000 and took place entirely in New Zealand .. An extended version of each film in the trilogy was released on DVD approximately one year after their theatrical release. Although the films generally follow the story of the novel, they omit certain elements and add others, thus deviating from their source material.