Director Peter Jackson has discussed the difficulty of shooting three feature episodes of Lord of the Rings simultaneously.

At a news conference Tuesday in New Zealand, where Jackson began shooting the three films one year ago, he remarked, "I'm about to go insane." He then explained the difficulties of trying to keep track of continuity: "Any movie you shoot, you shoot out of sequence and what we have done is have three movies shooting out of sequence completely."

He said that he expects filming to be completed on schedule on Dec. 22, allowing him to begin work after the first of the year on post-production special effects. The first film is due to be released at Christmas 2001, with the other two films to follow at yearly intervals.

Source: Studio Briefing