 By October, he and his partner Fran Walsh teamed up with Miramax boss Harvey Weinstein to negotiate with Saul Zaentz, who had held the rights to the book since the early 1970s.Jackson and Walsh pitched an adaptation of "The Hobbit" and two films based on "The Lord of the Rings".Negotiations then stalled when Universal Studios offered Jackson a remake of "King Kong" (1933).