   #copyright

The Lord of the Rings film trilogy

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Films

   The Lord of the Rings film trilogy comprises three live action fantasy
   epic films; The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001),
   The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) and The Lord of the Rings:
   The Return of the King (2003). For simplicity, the titles are often
   abbreviated to 'LOTR', with 'FOTR', 'TTT' and 'ROTK' for each of the
   respective films.

   Set in Middle-earth, the three films follow the young Hobbit Frodo
   Baggins as he and a Fellowship embark on a quest to destroy the One
   Ring, and with it, ensure the destruction of the Dark Lord Sauron. The
   Fellowship breaks and Frodo continues his quest with loyal Sam and the
   treacherous Gollum. The heir in exile to the throne of Gondor, Aragorn,
   and the Wizard Gandalf must also unite the Free Peoples of Middle-earth
   in the War of the Ring, as Sauron rises once more to reclaim his prize
   with the Wizard Saruman.

   Peter Jackson directed the movies, which were released by New Line
   Cinema. The trilogy is based on the book The Lord of the Rings by J. R.
   R. Tolkien and follows its general storyline, despite some major
   deviations. Considered to be the biggest movie project ever undertaken
   with an overall budget of $270 million, the entire project took eight
   years, with the filming for all three films done simultaneously and
   entirely in Jackson's native New Zealand.

   The trilogy was a huge financial success, with the films being the
   11th, 5th and 2nd most successful of all time respectively. Critically
   acclaimed, they won 17 Academy Awards in total, as well as praise for
   the cast and groundbreaking practical and digital special effects. Each
   film also had popular Special Extended Editions (SEE), released a year
   after the theatrical release on DVD.

Cast

   Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The Fellowship of the Ring

     * Elijah Wood as Frodo Baggins, the young Hobbit entrusted as the
       Ring-bearer, and must travel to Mount Doom, deep in the enemy's
       territory, to destroy it. He finds his own will tested by the power
       of the One Ring though.
     * Sean Astin as Samwise Gamgee, a Hobbit gardener who becomes Frodo's
       loyal companion.
     * Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn, the heir to the throne of Gondor, brave
       and noble yet doubtful of his own ability and his fate to become
       king of Gondor, due to the failures of his ancestor to destroy the
       One Ring. Working as a Ranger of the North, he is also adept at
       healing, and as a Númenórean descendant, he is long-lived, being in
       his prime at 87.
     * Ian McKellen as Gandalf the Grey/White, the wise Wizard who
       engineers much of the planning to overthrow Sauron. He undergoes
       death, resurrection and transformation over the course of the
       trilogy, as his change in titles show.
     * Dominic Monaghan as Merry, a young Hobbit; kinsman of Pippin and
       Frodo.
     * Billy Boyd as Pippin, another Hobbit, Merry's best friend and
       somewhat immature.
     * Orlando Bloom as Legolas, an accomplished Elven archer and fighter.
     * John Rhys-Davies as Gimli, a warrior Dwarf, brave and often used as
       comic relief. He and Legolas have a friendly rivalry over their
       number of kills.
     * Sean Bean as Boromir, a Gondorian warrior and the eldest son of its
       Steward, Denethor. He is killed at the end of The Fellowship of the
       Ring by the Uruk-Hai after wrestling with the temptation of the
       Ring.

Others introduced in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

     * Sala Baker portrays Sauron the Dark Lord in his physical form.
       During the trilogy, he is incarnate as a flaming Eye and his
       presence in the One Ring is voiced by Alan Howard. His wish is to
       recover the Ring lost in battle many years ago, so that he can
       restore himself to full power. Sauron commands a vast army of Orcs
       to help him in this goal.
     * Andy Serkis provided the voice and motion-capture movements of
       Gollum, once a Hobbit-like being called Sméagol who found the Ring
       many years ago. The Ring slowly consumed him completely and mutated
       him into a hideous and lonesome creature; he calls the Ring his
       "Precious." He initially tracks and follows the Fellowship to
       recover what was "stolen" by Bilbo, and is forced to help Frodo and
       Sam in leading them in their journey, though he is ever
       treacherous.
     * Ian Holm as Bilbo Baggins, Frodo's uncle. He is celebrating his
       111st ("eleventy-first") birthday at the start of the trilogy and
       is writing a book of his exploits, detailing how he recovered the
       One Ring.
     * Christopher Lee as Saruman, the corrupted white wizard, who wants
       to share power with Sauron. He breeds an army of Uruk-hai within
       his fortress of Isengard, devastating Fangorn Forest in the process
       and waging war upon the Men of Rohan.
     * Hugo Weaving as Elrond, the Elven head of Rivendell, who guides and
       helps forge the Fellowship. He lacks faith in Men following their
       failure to destroy the One Ring, but does his best to convince
       Aragorn to become King.
     * Liv Tyler as Arwen, Elrond's daughter, and is in love with Aragorn.
       Arwen is torn between leaving Middle-earth for the Undying Lands
       with her elven kin, and remaining with Aragorn the mortal. As a
       token of her love, she gives him the Evenstar jewel.
     * Cate Blanchett as Galadriel, the Elven Lady of Lothlórien. She
       provides comfort, foretelling, strength and faith to Frodo, and
       gives individual gifts to the other members of the Fellowship.
     * Marton Csokas as Celeborn, Galadriel's husband, Lord of Lothlorien.
     * Craig Parker as Haldir, an Elven archer who encounters the
       Fellowship during their stay at Lothlorien in the first film. He is
       killed by an Uruk-Hai at the Battle of Helm's Deep.
     * Lawrence Makoare as Lurtz, the first of the monstrous Uruk-hai
       spawned by Saruman who leads an attack on the Fellowship.

Introduced in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

     * Bernard Hill as Théoden, King of Rohan, land of the horse lords. He
       is near-possessed by Wormtongue and Saruman's sorcery. He is healed
       by Gandalf and leads Rohan during the Battle of Helm's Deep and the
       Battle of the Pelennor Fields, making up for his previous inaction
       and avenging the death of his son Théodred.
     * Miranda Otto as Éowyn, Théoden's niece. A shieldmaiden of Rohan,
       she wants to prove herself in battle and also falls in love with
       Aragorn.
     * Karl Urban as Éomer, Éowyn's brother, Théoden's nephew and second
       in line for the throne of Rohan after the death of Théodred. He
       suspects Wormtongue of treachery, and is an accomplished rider and
       warrior.
     * Brad Dourif as Wormtongue, an insidious agent of Saruman. He
       attempts to stop Théoden from declaring war and desires Éowyn.
     * David Wenham as Faramir, Boromir's brother, and head of the Rangers
       of Ithilien. He is brave yet sensitive, trying hard to please his
       distant father, and is tempted by the power of the Ring to do as
       such.
     * John Rhys-Davies voices Treebeard, the leaders of the Ents,
       shepherds of the trees. He soon encounters Merry and Pippin and is
       initially unaware of Saruman's destruction of his forests.
     * Nathaniel Lees as Uglúk, Uruk-Hai, in charge after Lurtzs death.
     * John Bach as Madril, ranking officer, loyal to Faramir's command
       and control.

Introduced in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

     * John Noble as Denethor, father of Boromir and Faramir. However, he
       makes his first unofficial appearance in The Two Towers extended
       cut. Steward of Gondor, he is opposed to Aragorn's claim to the
       throne, dislikes Faramir as a "Wizard's pupil" and is so stricken
       with grief over the death of Boromir that he is blind to the threat
       of Sauron's army.
     * Lawrence Makoare plays the Witch-king of Angmar, the Lord of the
       Nazgûl who leads the assault on Minas Tirith, Gondor's capital.
     * Makoare also plays Gothmog, an Orc leading the troop movements on
       the ground.
     * Paul Norell as the King of the Dead, the ancient cursed leader from
       whom Aragorn must seek help.
     * Bruce Spence as the Mouth of Sauron, the herald at the Black Gate.
       He only appears in the Extended Cut.

Prologue characters

     * Harry Sinclair as Isildur, Aragorn's ancestor. He cuts off the Ring
       from Sauron, but despite Elrond's insistence, he refuses to destroy
       it, setting the main story in motion.
     * Peter McKenzie as Elendil, the first King of Gondor, who is killed
       by Sauron. His sword Narsil is broken, and becomes an object of
       speculation over whether or not Aragorn will become King and
       reforge it.
     * Mark Ferguson as Gil-galad, the Elven High King who leads the Last
       Alliance of Elves and Men. Seen only briefly.

   Spoilers end here.

Development and Screenplays

   Peter Jackson first read the book as an 18-year-old, after seeing Ralph
   Bakshi's 1978 animated film version. Jackson and his wife, Fran Walsh,
   began enquiries about the Lord of the Rings rights in 1995 and struck a
   deal with copyright holder Saul Zaentz and Miramax Films in January
   1997 after production stalled on their King Kong remake.

   The trilogy began pre-production as a two-film deal similar to a few
   other projects. Then Miramax, citing budget concerns, decided to
   condense the project into one film, but Jackson refused, and on August
   24, 1998, after being rejected by other studios, the project was sold
   off altogether to New Line Cinema. Robert Shaye, head of New Line
   Cinema, immediately decided to expand the project to three films (with
   a budget of $270 million), replying to Jackson's offer, "Now Peter, who
   in their right mind would make two movies?"

   As noted, Jackson and Walsh planned The Lord of the Rings as two films.
   They both wrote a 90 page treatment which Philippa Boyens read in the
   middle of 1997, and she soon joined the project. The first film was to
   end with the Battle of Helm's Deep whilst the second was more or less
   the finished The Return of the King. All in all it took around 13-14
   months to do the two film script.

   The expansion to three films certainly allowed a lot more creative
   freedom, and Jackson, Walsh and Boyens had to restructure their script
   into three films. Each film isn't exactly based on each volume of the
   book, but rather a three part adaptation, as Jackson takes a more
   chronological approach to the story, whilst Tolkien retold chunks of
   his fictional history. Frodo's quest is the main focus, and Aragorn is
   the main subplot, and any sequence (such as Tom Bombadil and the
   Scouring of the Shire) that didn't contribute directly to those two
   plots would be left out. Much effort was put into creating satisfactory
   conclusions and making sure exposition didn't bog down the pacing.
   Amongst new sequences, there are also expansions on elements Tolkien
   kept ambiguous, such as the battles and the creatures.

   Above all, most characters have been altered for extra drama. Aragorn,
   Théoden and Treebeard have added or modified elements of self-doubt,
   whilst Galadriel, Elrond and Faramir have been darkened. Boromir and
   Gollum are (arguably) relatively more sympathetic, whilst some
   characters such as Legolas, Gimli, Saruman and Denethor have been
   simplified. Some characters, such as Arwen and Éomer, are given actions
   from minor characters such as Glorfindel and Erkenbrand, and generally
   lines of dialogue are somewhat preserved or switched around between
   locations or characters depending on suitability of the scenes. New
   scenes were also added to expand on characterization.

   In the meantime during shooting, the screenplays would undergo many
   daily transformations, due to contributions from cast looking to
   further explore their characters. Most notable amongst these rewrites
   was the character Arwen, who was originally planned as a warrior
   princess, but reverted back to her book counterpart, who remains
   physically inactive in the story (though she sends moral and military
   support).

Production Design

   Jackson began storyboarding the trilogy with Christian Rivers in August
   1997 and assigned his crew to begin designing Middle-earth at the same
   time. Jackson hired longtime collaborator Richard Taylor to lead Weta
   Workshop on five major design elements: armour, weapons,
   prosthetics/make-up, creatures and miniatures. In November 1997, famed
   Tolkien illustrators Alan Lee and John Howe joined the project. Most of
   the imagery in the films is based off their various illustrations.
   Grant Major was charged with the task of converting Lee and Howe's
   designs into architecture, creating models of the sets, whilst Dan
   Hennah worked as art director, scouting locations and organizing the
   building of sets.

   Jackson's vision of Middle-earth was described as being " Ray
   Harryhausen meets David Lean" by Randy Cook. Jackson wanted a gritty
   realism and historical regard for the fantasy, and attempted to make
   the world rational and believable. For example, the army helped build
   Hobbiton months before filming began for real growth to the plants.

Casting

   Auditions began in April 1999 with calls for 15,000 extras: in total
   20,000 would be used. Jackson admitted that he was under no pressure to
   cast "big names" for the trilogy, due to the popularity of the book
   securing an already large audience. Popular rumours before filming
   included Sean Connery as Gandalf, who was actually approached but
   declined. Then couple Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman were also rumoured
   for Faramir and Éowyn. Auditions provide an interesting insight into
   what could have been: Orlando Bloom and John Rhys-Davies auditioned for
   Faramir and Denethor respectively, and Stuart Townsend was cast as
   Aragorn and set for filming.^[ citation needed]

   Elijah Wood was the first cast member cast, on July 7, 1999. By the
   time filming began, Astin, McKellen, Lee, Tyler, Monaghan, Boyd, Bean,
   Bloom, Rhys-Davies, Dourif, Holm and Blanchett had been cast. During
   2000, casting would continue for the likes of Otto, Weaving and Noble.

   Before filming began on October 11, 1999, the principal actors trained
   for six weeks in sword fighting (with the legendary Bob Anderson),
   riding and boating. Jackson hoped such activities would allow the cast
   to bond so chemistry would be evident on screen as well as getting them
   used to life in Wellington. For example, Astin, a father-of-one, took
   it upon himself to look after 18 year old Wood. They were also trained
   to pronounce Tolkien's verses properly.

Filming

   Principal photography for all three films was conducted concurrently in
   New Zealand from October 11, 1999 through to December 22, 2000 for 274
   days. Pick-up shoots were conducted annually from 2001 to 2004. The
   trilogy was shot over 150 different locations in the North and South
   Island, with as many as seven different units shooting, as well as
   soundstages around Wellington and Queenstown. As well as Jackson
   directing the whole production, other unit directors included John
   Mahaffie, Geoff Murphy, Fran Walsh, Barrie Osbourne, Rick Porras and
   any other assistant director, producer or writer available. Jackson
   monitored these units with live satellite feeds, and with the added
   pressure of constant script re-writes and the multiple units handling
   his vision, he only got around 4 hours of sleep a night.

   Peter Jackson described the production as the world's largest home
   movie, due to the independence and sense of family. Barrie Osbourne saw
   it as a travelling circus. Fran Walsh described the production as
   "laying the track down in front of a moving train" (paraphrased).
   Jackson also described shooting as like organizing an army, with 2,400
   people involved at the height of production. Due to the remoteness of
   some of New Zealand's untamed landscapes, the crew would also bring
   survival kits in case helicopters couldn't reach the location to bring
   them home in time.

Late 1999

   The first scene filmed was the Wooded Road sequence where the Hobbits
   hide underneath the tree from a Ringwraith. The focus was generally on
   The Fellowship of the Ring when the Hobbits try to reach Rivendell,
   such as a single night in Bree exteriors. Second units also shot the
   Ford of Bruinen chase and the deforestation of Isengard. Liv Tyler
   generally came to New Zealand for stints, and spent 5 days on a barrel
   for Bruinen whilst riding double Jane Abbott got to ride on horseback.

   During the first month of filming, an immediate event took place:
   Stuart Townsend was deemed too young to play Aragorn, and within three
   days Viggo Mortensen became his replacement, just in time to film the
   Weathertop sequence. Mortensen, who decided to take the role because
   his own son was a book fan, became a hit on set, going fishing, always
   taking his "hero" sword around and applied dirt to improve Ngila
   Dickson's makeshift look to his costume. He also headbutted the stunt
   team as a sign of friendship, and bought himself his horse, Uraeus, as
   well as another horse for Abbott.

   Sean Bean began filming in November for most of the handful of his
   scenes. It was during this time shooting became focused on the battle
   of Amon Hen. Despite the focus on Fellowship, floods in Queenstown
   prompted the crew to shoot mountain interiors from The Return of the
   King for Wood and Astin: a single day ( November 24) of Astin's
   coverage from a pivotal scene. This would become a general failsafe
   measure if the weather disrupted the shooting schedule. Wood's coverage
   wouldn't be done until November 30, 2000.

2000

   A Christmas break followed, and filming resumed on January 17. This was
   when the shoot truly became that of a whole trilogy. Ian McKellen,
   fresh from filming X-Men, arrived to film scenes in Hobbiton and the
   Grey Havens. McKellen didn't become that close to the lead actors due
   to generally working with their scale doubles, but when Christopher Lee
   arrived in February, they became very friendly. Unfortunately, shooting
   the fight sequence in Orthanc exteriors without air conditioning (for
   atmosphere) and with heavy wigs and robes became "murder". The Grey
   Havens sequence, which takes place at the end of The Return of the
   King, ended up being shot three times due to 1) Astin forgetting his
   vest after lunch and 2) an out of focus camera.

   Whilst the Hobbit leads enjoyed scenes in Hobbiton and Rivendell
   exteriors in Kaitoke Park with new arrival Ian Holm, Mortensen, Bloom
   and Rhys-Davies filmed scenes involving the Rohirrim countryside.
   Mortensen broke his toe kicking an Orc helmet on camera, Bloom fell off
   his horse and broke a rib, and the Gimli scale double, Brett Beattie,
   dislocated his ankle. They spent 2 days as the walking wounded for the
   hunting sequence seen in the second film. Soon after, they spent a
   month of day shoots at Helm's Deep and another three months of
   nightshoots handled by Mahaffie, in Dry Creek Quarry outside of
   Wellington. Mortensen got on very well with Bernard Hill, a practical
   joker. Mortensen himself though would get his tooth knocked out and
   Hill was smacked on the ear with a sword. Amusingly, the extras had a
   blast, insulting each other in Maori and improvising stunts, primarily
   as those dressed in Uruk-hai prosthetics got extremely cold.

   The production got larger, with Wood and Astin shooting scenes in Mount
   Ruapehu for Emyn Muil and Mount Doom. On April 13, 2000, Andy Serkis
   joined the cast. During this shoot, cross coverage was used for a
   pivotal scene in The Return of the King. In the meantime, prologue
   scenes and the Battle of the Black Gate were shot, during which Sala
   Baker put on the Sauron armour. The latter was filmed at a former mine
   field in the Rugapi Desert (causing concern for all involved), and real
   soldiers served as extras. The Fellowship then reunited with the return
   of Sean Bean, as they proceeded to shoot the Moria sequence and the
   Rivendell interior, including 5 days of dull coverage for the Council
   of Elrond.

   In July they began shooting scenes with Cate Blanchett on soundstages
   for Lórien, as well as a week of exterior shooting for the farewell
   sequence.

   Edoras was built on Mount Sunday, and the Battle of the Pelennor Fields
   was shot in Twizel with 250 real horses.

   As filming ended, the nine actors portraying the Fellowship got an
   Elven '9' tattoo, bar John Rhys-Davies, who sent his scale double.
   Jackson and Bernard Hill got an Elven '10', and Hill and Mortensen
   founded the C-Bago club, the 'c' standing for an expletive. Originally,
   the cast members promised each other they would not show the tattoos
   on-camera. However, Sean Astin shows his (on his ankle) on an Oprah
   appearance, justifying the move by pointing out Elijah Wood showed his
   to Jay Leno and Orlando Bloom accidentally shows it in Pirates of the
   Caribbean.

Pick-ups

   Pick-ups were conducted from 2001 to 2003 for six weeks every year to
   refine each film's edit. For the first two films they often returned to
   sets; for the third, they had to shoot around the clock in a car park
   full of set parts. Pick-ups provided a chance for cast and crew to meet
   in person again, and during The Two Towers pick-ups, Sean Astin
   directed a short film entitled The Long and Short of It.

   Notable scenes filmed in the pick-ups included The Two Towers Extended
   Edition's flashback with Boromir, and the reshot Witch-king scenes with
   his new helmet design for The Return of the King, the latter with
   improved Orc designs and the new character of Gothmog. Theoden's last
   scene was reshot just after he finished; Bernard Hill was luckily still
   in New Zealand. Andy Serkis also had to shoot a scene in Jackson's
   house during post-production.

   Amusingly, the final and only pick-up in 2004 were a few shots of
   falling skulls in The Return of the King as part of an extended Paths
   of the Dead scene. Jackson joked that "it's nice to win an Oscar before
   you've even finished the film".

Post-production

   Post-production would have the benefit for a full year on each film
   before their individual December releases, often finishing in
   October-November, with the crew zooming immediately into the next film.
   Later on, Jackson would move to London to advise the score and
   continued editing, whilst having a computer feed for discussions to The
   Dorchester Hotel, and a "fat pipe" of internet connections from
   Pinewood Studios to look at the special effects. He had a Polycom video
   link and 5.1 surround sound to also organise meetings, and listen to
   new music and sound effects generally wherever he was. The Extended
   cuts also had a brief schedule at the start of each year to complete
   special effects and music.

Editing

   To avoid pressure, Jackson hired a different editor on each film. John
   Gilbert worked on the first film, Mike Horton and Jabez Olssen on the
   second, and longtime Jackson collaborator Jamie Selkirk and Annie
   Collins on the third. Daily rushes would often last up to four hours,
   with scenes being done throughout 1999-2002 for the rough (4 1/2 hours)
   assemblies of the films. In total, six million feet of film (over 1,800
   km) was edited down to the 11 hours and 23 minutes (683 minutes) of
   Extended DVD running time. This was the final area of shaping of the
   films, when Jackson realized that sometimes the best scripting could be
   redundant on screen, as he picked apart scenes every day from multiple
   takes.

   Editing on the first film was relatively easygoing, with Jackson coming
   up with the concept of an Extended Edition later on, although after a
   screening to New Line they had to re-edit the beginning for a prologue.
   The Two Towers was always acknowledged by the crew as the most
   difficult film to make, as "it had no beginning or end", and had the
   new problem of intercutting storylines appropriately and Jackson even
   edited the film when that part of the schedule officially ended. So
   much so, scenes including the reforging of Andúril, Gollum's
   back-story, and Saruman's demise were moved to The Return of the King,
   the latter controversially cut when Jackson felt it was not starting
   the third film effectively enough. As with all parts of the third
   film's post-production, editing was very chaotic. The first time
   Jackson actually saw the completed film was at the Wellington premiere.

Deleted scenes

   Many filmed scenes still remain unused, not included even in the
   Extended Editions.
   Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
     * Additional footage from the Battle of the Last Alliance.
     * Famous footage of Arwen at Helm's Deep, cut by Jackson during a
       revision to the film's plot. Foreshadowing this sequence were
       scenes where Arwen and Elrond visit Galadriel at Lothlórien (seen
       in The Two Towers teaser trailer). The scene was edited down to a
       telepathic communication between Elrond and Galadriel.
     * A line of dialogue during the death of Saruman, in which he reveals
       that Wormtongue poisoned Théodred, giving further context as to why
       Wormtongue kills Saruman and Legolas in turn kills Wormtongue.
     * Further epilogue footage, including that of Legolas and Gimli, as
       well as Éowyn and Faramir's wedding and Aragorn's death and
       funeral.
     * Faramir having a vision of Frodo becoming like Gollum.
     * Dialogue from the Council of Elrond, such as Gandalf explaining how
       Sauron forged the One Ring.
     * An unknown scene displayed in The Two Towers preview of Éomer
       lowering a spear while riding his horse.
     * Éowyn defending the refugees in the Glittering Caves from Uruk-hai
       intruders.
     * An obscure shot from the trailers of two Elven girls playing about
       in Rivendell.
     * Sauron fighting Aragorn at the Black Gate. A computer-generated
       Troll was placed over Sauron due to Jackson feeling the scene was
       inappropriate. Sauron is also seen in a beautiful form as Annatar,
       giver of gifts.
     * Also at the Black Gate sequence, Pippin was seen in the trailer
       holding a wounded Merry, a scene which did not take place.
     * Further scenes between Elrond and Arwen following her decision to
       stay with Aragorn. This is presumably set after the reforging of
       Andúril.
     * More Arwen footage, including a flashback scene of her first
       meeting with a beardless Aragorn.
     * Aragorn having his armour fitted during the preparations for the
       Battle of the Black Gate. This was the final scene filmed during
       principal photography.
     * Footage of Sam confronting the Gate Watchers of Cirith Ungol.
     * An attack by Moria Orcs on Lothlórien. Jackson replaced this with a
       more suspenseful entrance for the Fellowship.
     * An extended scene between Gandalf and the Balrog, as the beast is
       extinguished in water while they battle upon the Endless Stair.
     * Footage of Theoden proclaiming Eomer as his heir, reshot later on.

   Spoilers end here.

   Peter Jackson has stated that he would like to include some of these
   unused scenes in a future 'Ultimate Edition' home video release of the
   film trilogy. They will not be re-inserted into the movies but
   available for viewing separately. This edition will also include
   outtakes.

Special effects

   The first film has around 540 effects shots, the second 799, and the
   third 1488 (2730 in total). The total moves up to 3420 with the
   Extended cuts. 260 visual effects artists worked on the trilogy, and
   the number would double by The Two Towers. The crew, led by Jim Rygiel
   and Randy Cook, would work long and hard hours overnight to produce
   special effects within a short space of time, especially with Jackson's
   overactive imagination. For example, they produced several major shots
   of Helm's Deep within the last six weeks of post-production of The Two
   Towers, and the same amount of shots for The Two Towers within the last
   six weeks on The Return of the King.

   Interestingly, despite WETA being the major stylistic force behind the
   films, a single scene where Arwen confronts the Black Riders in The
   Fellowship of the Ring was done by Digital Domain.

   Production was complicated by the use of scale doubles and forced
   perspective on a level never seen before in the film industry. Elijah
   Wood is 5ft 6in (1.68 m) tall in real life, but the character of Frodo
   Baggins is barely four feet in height. Large and small scale doubles
   were used in certain scenes, while entire duplicates of certain sets
   (including Bag End in Hobbiton) were built at two different scales, so
   that the characters would appear to be the appropriate size. At one
   point in the film, Frodo runs along a corridor in Bag End, followed by
   Gandalf. Elijah Wood and Ian McKellen were filmed in separate versions
   of the same corridor, built at two different scales, and a fast camera
   pan conceals the edit between the two.

   Forced perspective was also employed, so that it would look as though
   the short hobbits were interacting with taller Men and Elves.
   Surprising the makers of the film, the simple ruse of kneeling down was
   used to great effect. As well as this, some actors wore over-sized
   costumes to make average sized actors look small. As well as this,
   there were numerous scale doubles, who are disguised with costumes, and
   an avoidance of close-ups and numerous backshots, and even animatronic
   faces for the Hobbit doubles.

   Bigatures is the nickname for the 72 miniatures from WETA, so dubbed
   for their massive size by any person's scale, such as 1:4 scale for
   Helm's Deep, which alongside Khazad-dûm and Osgiliath, was one of the
   first built. Most sets were constructed to allow compositing with the
   models and matte paintings. Notable examples include the Argonath,
   Minas Tirith, the tower and caverns of Isengard, Barad-dûr, the trees
   of Lothlórien and Fangorn Forest and the Black Gate. Alex Funke led the
   motion control camera rigs, and John Baster and Mary Maclahlan led the
   building of the miniatures. The miniatures unit worked more than any
   other special effects crew, working over a 1000 days. Often they held
   parties to celebrate each landmark, such as day 666. Their final shot
   was one of the Black Gate for the third film in November 2003, after
   they actually wrapped.

   Creatures such as Trolls, the Balrog, the Ents, the fell beasts, the
   Wargs, the mûmakil and Shelob were created entirely within a computer.
   Creatures would spend months of creation and variation as sketches
   before approved designs were sculpted into five-foot maquettes and
   scanned into a computer. Animators would then rig skeletons and muscles
   before animation and final detailed colouring scanned from painted
   maquettes. Treebeard had a digital face composited upon the original
   animatronic, which was scanned for the digital model of his longshots.

   As well as creatures, WETA also created highly realistic digital
   doubles for many miniature longshots, as well as numerous stunts, most
   notably Legolas. These doubles were scanned from having actors perform
   movements in a motion-capture suit. There are even morphs between the
   doubles and actors at times. Horses also performed with mo-cap points
   on them, although deaths are animation.

   Whilst Jackson insisted on generally using miniatures, sometimes shots
   would get too difficult for that, primarily with the digital
   characters. Gary Horsfield led the creation of digital versions of
   Dwarrowdelf, the Chamber of Marzabul, ruins in Eregion, Helm's Deep,
   the Barad-dûr and Black Gate for complicated sequences, such as
   destruction or having an arena for a digital camera to move around. He
   himself spent his entire Christmas 2002 break creating the Barad-dûr
   for The Return of the King's climax. Sometimes natural elements like
   cloud, dust, fire (which was used as the electronic data for the
   Wraithworld scenes and the Balrog) would be composited, and natural
   environments were composited to create the Pelennor Fields.

   To give a "painterly" look to the films, cinematographer Andrew Lesnie
   worked on every scene within the computer to strengthen colours and add
   extra mood and tone to the proceedings. Gold was tinted to Hobbiton,
   whilst cooler colours were strengthened into Lothlórien, Moria and
   Helm's Deep. Such a technique took 2-3 weeks to do, and allowed some
   freedom with the digital source for some extra editing.

   Weta began animating Gollum in late 1998 to convince New Line they
   could achieve it. Andy Serkis "played" Gollum by providing his voice
   and movements on set, as well as performing within the motion capture
   suit. His scenes were filmed twice, with and without him. Originally
   Gollum was set to solely be a CG character, but Jackson was so
   impressed by Andy Serkis' audition tape that they used him on set as
   well.

   Gollum's CG model was also redesigned during 2001 when Serkis was cast
   as Sméagol, Gollum's form before he is cursed by the One Ring, so as to
   give the impression Andy Serkis as Sméagol transforms into the CG
   Gollum. The original model can still be glimpsed briefly in the first
   film. So over Christmas 2001 the crew proceeded to reanimate all the
   previous shots accordingly within two months. Another problem was that
   the crew realized that the cast performed better in the versions of the
   film with Serkis. In the end, the CG Gollum was rotoscoped and animated
   on top of these scenes. Sometimes due to Gollum not being human, they
   fully animated some shots such as him crawling upside down. Serkis also
   did motion-capture for the character, to animate the body whilst
   animators did the head. Gino Acevedo supervised realistic skin tones,
   which took four hours per frame to render.

   MASSIVE was the name of a computer program developed by WETA to create
   automatic battle sequences rather than individually animate every
   soldier. Stephen Regelous developed the system in 1996, originally to
   create crowd scenes in King Kong. The system creates a large number of
   choices for each "agent" to pick when inside a digital arena. Catherine
   Thiel provided the movements of each type of soldier, like the unique
   fighting styles or fleeing. To add to this, digital environments would
   also be created for the simulations.

Music

   Howard Shore composed the trilogy's music. He was hired in August 2000
   and visited the set, and watched the assembly cuts of Films 1 and 3.
   Although the first film had some of its score done in Wellington, the
   trilogy's score was mostly recorded in Watford Town Hall and mixed at
   Abbey Road Studios. Jackson planned to advise the score for six weeks
   each year in London, although for The Two Towers he stayed 12. As a
   Beatles fan, Jackson had a photo tribute done there on the zebra
   crossing.

   The soundtrack is primarily the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and many
   artists such as Ben Del Maestro, Enya, Renee Fleming, Sir James Galway
   and Annie Lennox contributed. Even actors Billy Boyd, Viggo Mortensen,
   Liv Tyler, Miranda Otto (extended cuts only for the latter two) and
   Peter Jackson (for a single gong sound in the second film) contributed
   to the score. Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens also wrote the lyrics to
   various music and songs, to which David Salo translated into Tolkien's
   languages. The third film's end song, Into the West, was a tribute to a
   young filmmaker Jackson and Walsh befriended named Cameron Duncan, who
   died of cancer in 2003.

   Shore composed a main theme for the Fellowship rather than many
   different character themes, and its strength and weaknesses in volume
   are depicted at different points in the trilogy. On top of that,
   individual themes were all given to represent different cultures.
   Infamously, the amount of music Shore had to write for the third film
   every day increased dramatically to around seven minutes.

Sound

   Sound technicians spent the early part of the year trying to find the
   right sounds: animal sounds like tigers and walruses were bought, and
   sometimes human voices in the mix, such as Fran Walsh as the Nazgûl
   scream and David Farmer as some Warg howls. As noted, they also hired
   voices for the Ring, and some sounds were unexpected: a donkey screech
   is the Fell Beast, and the mûmakil roar comes from the beginning and
   end of a Lion. In addition, there was ADR for most of the dialogue.

   They worked with New Zealand locals to get the right sounds. They
   re-recorded sounds in abandoned tunnels for an echoey effect in the
   Moria sequence. 10,000 New Zealand cricket fans provided the sound of
   the Uruk-hai army in The Two Towers, with Jackson acting as conductor
   within a single cricket break. They spent time recording sounds in a
   graveyard at night, and also had construction workers drop stone blocks
   for the sounds of boulders firing and landing in The Return of the
   King. Mixing generally took place between August and November at "The
   Film Mix", before Jackson commissioned work on a new studio in 2003.
   Annoyingly, building wasn't fully completed as they started mixing on
   The Return of the King.

Pre-release

   The online promotional trailer for The Lord of the Rings: The
   Fellowship of the Ring was first released on April 27, 2000 and
   shattered records for download hits, registering 1.7 million hits in
   the first 24 hours of its release. The trailer used a selection from
   the soundtrack for Braveheart, and The Shawshank Redemption among other
   cuts.

   In 2001, 24 minutes of footage from the trilogy, primarily the Moria
   sequence, was shown at the Cannes Film Festival, to great reception.
   The showing also included an area designed to look like Middle-earth. A
   full description of the footage can be found here:

   Fans first received a preview of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
   at the end of the theatre showings of Fellowship of the Ring. A
   promotional trailer was later released. The trailer contained some
   music re-scored from the film Requiem for a Dream.

   The promotional trailer for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the
   King was debuted exclusively before the New Line Cinema film Secondhand
   Lions on September 23, 2003.

   Each film had many premieres around the World, with Official "World"
   premieres in London, Paris and Wellington for each film respectively.
   The Wellington premieres were often the most spectacular, with
   dedicated fans lining the streets as well as statues of the Cave Troll,
   Gollum reaching for the Ring and the Witch-king on his steed
   respectively. For the first film, Wellington changed its name to
   Middle-earth for a single day.

Releases

     * The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring was released
       December 19, 2001. It grossed $47 million in its U.S. opening
       weekend and made around $871 million worldwide.
     * The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers was released December 18,
       2002. It grossed $62 million in its first U.S. weekend and
       outgrossed its predecessor with $926 million worldwide.
     * The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King was released December
       17, 2003. Its first U.S. weekend gross was $72 million, and became
       the second film (after Titanic) to gross over $1 billion worldwide.

   Each successive film made more money at box offices worldwide than the
   last; the reverse of what normally happens to a film series. Each were
   released onto standard two disc edition DVDs containing previews of the
   next film. The success of the theatrical cuts brought about 4 disc
   Extended Editions, with new editing, added special effects and music.
   With the films and special features spread over two discs apiece, they
   were issued as follows:
     * The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, November 12,
       2002. Containing 30 minutes more footage, in a green coloured
       sleeve. It contains an Alan Lee painting of the Fellowship entering
       Moria, and the Moria Gate on the back of the sleeve. An Argonath
       styled bookend was issued within a Collector's Edition.
     * The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, November 18, 2003. It
       contains 42 minutes more footage. Red coloured, with a Rohirrim sun
       symbol on the back of its sleeve and a Lee painting of Gandalf the
       White's entrance. The Collector's Edition contained a Sméagol
       statue, with a crueler looking statue of his Gollum persona
       available for order during a limited time.
     * The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King December 14, 2004. It
       has 50 minutes more footage, and a blue sleeve with the White Tree
       of Gondor. The Lee painting is the Grey Havens. The Collector's
       Edition is a model with Minas Tirith, with Minas Morgul available
       for order during a limited time.

   The Special Extended DVD Editions also had in-sleeve maps of the
   Fellowship's travels. They have also played at movie theaters, most
   notably for a December 16, 2003 marathon screening culminating in a
   midnight screening of the third film.

   On August 28, 2006 both versions were put together in a Limited Edition
   ' branching' version plus a new feature-length documentary by Costa
   Botes. The complete trilogy will also be released in a 6 Disc set on
   November 14th, 2006.

Public and critical response

   The Lord of the Rings film trilogy is widely and currently considered
   to be the most popular and is verified to be the currently highest
   grossing motion picture trilogy worldwide of all time, besting such
   other film franchises as the Star Wars trilogy and Harry Potter. The
   film trilogy also tied a record for the total number of Academy Awards
   won.

   Critical acclaim has hailed the trilogy as "the greatest films of our
   era", and "the trilogy will not soon, if ever, find its equal." In
   particular, performances from Ian McKellen, Sean Astin, Sean Bean, Andy
   Serkis and Bernard Hill stood out for many, and special effects for the
   battles and Gollum were praised. The Return of the King became the most
   popular individual film of the trilogy, being marketed later on DVD as
   the trilogy's "crowning jewel".

Comparison of worldwide box office figures

   The Lord of the Rings trilogy: $2.92 billion

   Harry Potter "trilogy" (first 3 movies of a projected 7): $2.64 billion

   Star Wars: Episodes I, II, and III prequel trilogy: $2.424 billion

   Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy (incomplete; first 2 movies): $1.618
   billion

Academy Awards

   The three films were nominated for a total of 30 Academy Awards, of
   which they won 17, which is a record for any movie trilogy. On its own,
   The Return of the King tied the previous record for academy awards and
   won in every category it was nominated in, an extremely rare feat.
     * The Fellowship of the Ring — Nominations: 13, Wins: 4
     * The Two Towers — Nominations: 6, Wins: 2
     * The Return of the King — Nominations: 11, Wins: 11

   The Awards were as follows (a win is marked with a "W" A nomination is
   marked with a "N"):
   Award Awards Won
   The Fellowship of the Ring The Two Towers The Return of the King
   Art Direction No No Yes
   Cinematography Yes
   Costume Design No Yes
   Directing No Yes
   Film Editing No No Yes
   Makeup Yes Yes
   Music (Original Score) Yes Yes
   Music (Original Song) No "May It Be" Yes "Into the West"
   Best Picture No No Yes (for Drama)
   Sound Editing Yes
   Sound Mixing No No Yes
   Supporting Actor No Ian McKellen
   Visual Effects Yes Yes Yes
   Writing (Previously Produced or Published) No Yes

   As well as Academy Awards, the trilogy scored a hattrick with Empire,
   MTV Movie Awards' Best Film, and the Hugo Awards for Best Dramatic
   Presentation categories. The first and third films also won the Best
   Film BAFTAs. It must also be noted that the soundtrack for the Two
   Towers did not receive a nomination because of the rule prohibiting a
   soundtrack including music from a previous soundtrack to be eligible
   for nomination. This rule was overturned in time for the Return of the
   King to receive the Oscar for Best Music Score.

Reactions to changes in the movie trilogy from the book

   Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

   While the movies were generally liked by readers and non-readers alike,
   some of the former have decried, with varying levels of strength,
   certain changes made in the adaptation, including changes in tone and
   themes; various changes made to characters such as Aragorn, Arwen,
   Denethor and Faramir, as well as to the main protagonist Frodo himself,
   and the deletion of the next to the last chapter of the book, " The
   Scouring of the Shire", a part Tolkien felt thematically necessary. For
   example, Wayne G. Hammond, a noted Tolkien scholar, has said of the
   first two films:


   The Lord of the Rings film trilogy

    "I find both of the Jackson films to be travesties as adaptations...
        faithful only on a basic level of plot... Cut and compress as
   necessary, yes, but don't change or add new material without very good
     reason... In the moments in which the films succeed, they do so by
    staying close to what Tolkien so carefully wrote; where they fail, it
   tends to be where they diverge from him, most seriously in the area of
   characterization. Most of the characters in the films are mere shadows
   of those in the book, weak and diminished (notably Frodo) or insulting
    caricatures (Pippin, Merry, and Gimli)... [T]he filmmakers sacrifice
    the richness of Tolkien's story and characters, not to mention common
    sense, for violence, cheap humor, and cheaper thrills... [S]o many of
   its reviewers have praised it as faithful to the book, or even superior
   to it, all of which adds insult to injury and is demonstrably wrong..."


   The Lord of the Rings film trilogy

   It is important to note that many who worked on the trilogy are fans of
   the book, including Christopher Lee, who alone among the cast had
   actually met Tolkien in person, and Boyens once noted that no matter
   what, it is simply their interpretation of the book. Jackson once said
   that to simply summarize the story on screen would be a mess, and in
   his own words, "Sure, it's not really The Lord of the Rings... but it
   could still be a pretty damn cool movie." Other fans also claim that
   despite any changes, they do not matter within the context of
   stand-alone films, and nonetheless they serve as a tribute to the book
   and yet appeal to those who have not read it, and even lead some to.
   The Encyclopedia of Arda's Movie Guide states:


   The Lord of the Rings film trilogy

    "It seems appropriate to end with a word of acknowledgement of Peter
   Jackson and everyone else associated with the movie version of The Lord
   of the Rings. Though of course they haven't come close to the scope and
 intricacy of the original story — that would be quite impossible — what
      they have produced is still nothing less than a masterpiece. The
     film-makers, and of course Peter Jackson in particular, have to be
      admired merely for having the courage to take on such an immense
       challenge, let alone to produce such an exceptional result. The
     complete story of The Lord of the Rings is probably unfilmable, but
        Peter Jackson has come closer than anyone could have imagined
                                 possible."


   The Lord of the Rings film trilogy

   Spoilers end here.

Is it a trilogy?

   Because the films were shot together and then edited into three
   separate films released theatrically over a span of three successive
   years, a significant number of fans and critics have come to regard the
   trilogy as a single film. They argue that similar to the book, which
   was intended as a single work, but was first released in three parts
   for marketing and budget reasons (leading to the common but erroneous
   label of "trilogy"), Jackson's trilogy is one long 10-hour film.
   Tolkien wrote the story as six books produced in three volumes. When
   Time magazine placed the trilogy in its top 100 list it was done under
   a single heading. While this grouping into a single entity is debated
   it is not unusual as Krzysztof Kieślowski's The Decalogue was
   originally released as ten separate short films with intersecting
   themes and characters but now is regarded by the majority critics as a
   single work. Satyajit Ray's The Apu Trilogy is also grouped together
   quite often.

   The character development, continuity, look and feel of all three films
   are regarded by its fans as seamless and consistent and that unlike
   other trilogies where sequels often stand apart, each entry is
   completely dependent on the earlier and successive entry and cannot
   exist on its own. This is one of the reasons why critics have regarded
   the Oscar sweep of the third film as a proxy award. Recently, when
   coming top of an Australian film poll, the trilogy was regarded as one.

Legacy

   The release of the films saw a surge of interest in The Lord of the
   Rings and Tolkien's other works, vastly increasing his impact on
   popular culture. For example, in 2003, the BBC conducted a poll to find
   the U.K.'s favourite book, and The Lord of the Rings won, at the height
   of anticipation for the third film. Despite higher sales, the Tolkien
   family became split on the trilogy, with Christopher Tolkien and Simon
   Tolkien feuding over whether or not it was a good idea to adapt.
   Capitalizing on the trilogy's success, a musical adaptation of the book
   was launched in Toronto in 2006, but it closed after mixed reviews.

   Jackson has become his own mogul like Steven Spielberg and George
   Lucas, and has befriended some industry heavyweights like Bryan Singer,
   Frank Darabont and James Cameron. He was also finally given a chance to
   remake King Kong in 2005. On a personal level, he found it hard to
   leave the trilogy and still keeps the Bag End set (as a guest house)
   and Rivendell miniatures. He has also become a "favourite son" of New
   Zealand. Howard Shore also found leaving difficult, and in 2004 toured
   with The Lord of the Rings Symphony, consisting of two hours of the
   score.

   Alongside the Harry Potter films, the trilogy has also renewed interest
   in the fantasy film genre. Around the same time, fellow New Zealand
   director Andrew Adamson began The Chronicles of Narnia film series,
   credited by many to be stylistically influenced by The Lord of the
   Rings, being also shot in New Zealand and having art direction from
   WETA, as well as its own extended edition. MGM wishes to make an
   adaptation of The Hobbit in co-operation with New Line, although
   Jackson is not signed on due to a dispute with the studio.

   The use of motion capture was used for characters in King Kong and I,
   Robot. Kingdom of Heaven is one of many epics to use the MASSIVE
   technology. In non-filmic terms, tourism for New Zealand is up,
   possibly due to its exposure in the trilogy, with the tourism industry
   in the country waking up to an audience's familiarity.
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