The trilogy's American backer, New Line, won't comment, but industry sources say the company had recognised for some time that the initial budget of $260 million would be inadequate.
Now that Peter Jackson's NZ team has completed the scripts and development work, the studio has formalised the increase.
The Lord of the Rings is now one of the biggest film projects of all time, second only to the Titanic, which cost $NZ470 million to make.
August 1999
Onfilm