The Lord of the Rings (film series)

This article is about the Peter Jackson films based on the book by J. R. R. Tolkien. For other uses of the phrase 'The Lord of the Rings', see The Lord of the Rings (disambiguation).

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The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring movie poster (2001)

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). Set in Middle-earth, they follow the young Hobbit Frodo Baggins as he and a Fellowship go on a quest to destroy the One Ring, and with it, ensure the destruction of the Dark Lord Sauron. In the meantime, the heir in exile to the throne of Gondor, Aragorn, must unite the Free Peoples of Middle-earth in the War of the Ring.

Peter Jackson directed the films, which were filmed together entirely in New Zealand, and they were released by New Line Cinema. They are based upon the fantasy book The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien and follow its general storyline, despite some major deviations. Considered to be the biggest movie project ever undertaken with an overall budget of $270 million, the trilogy was a huge success, with each film being the 11th, 5th and 2nd most successful films of all time respectively. Critically acclaimed, they won 17 Academy Awards in total, as well as praise for its international 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. For simplicity, the titles are often abbreviated to 'LOTR', with 'FOTR', 'TTT' and 'ROTK' for each of the respective films.

Cast

The Fellowship of the Ring

• Elijah Wood as Frodo Baggins, the young Hobbit entrusted as the Ring-bearer. 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, he is brave and noble yet in self-doubt 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 who joins the Fellowship.
• Billy Boyd as Pippin, another Hobbit, Merry's best friend and somewhat immature.
• Orlando Bloom as Legolas, an Elven prince who accompanies the Fellowship. He is an accomplished fighter and archer.
• 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 son of its steward, who accompanies the Fellowship. He dies at the end of The Fellowship of the Ring 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 when he still has a body. For the trilogy, he is incarnate as a flaming Eye, and his presence in the Ring is voiced by John Howard. He wants to retrieve the Ring that was lost in battle many years ago to restore himself to full power, and thus unleashes his massive army of Orcs to do so.
• Andy Serkis provided the voice and motion capture movements of Gollum, once a Hobbit who found the Ring many years ago. He became addicted to the Ring, which he calls "Precious", and mutated into a hideous creature. He follows the Fellowship to recover what was "stolen" by Bilbo, and is forced to help by Frodo and Sam to lead them, though he is ever treacherous.
• Ian Holm as Bilbo Baggins, Frodo's uncle. He celebrates his 111st birthday at the start of the trilogy and is writing a book of his exploits, during which he recovered the One Ring.
• Christopher Lee as Saruman, the corrupted head Wizard, who wants to share power with Sauron. He breeds an army of Uruk-hai within his fortress of Isengard, as well as devastating Fangorn Forest and waging war upon the Men of Rohan.
• Hugo Weaving as Elrond, the Elven head of Rivendell, who helps form 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 she is in love with Aragorn. She gets Frodo to Rivendell and is torn on whether to leave Middle-earth for the Undying Lands, or to remain with Aragorn and become 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 and faith to Frodo, as well as providing gifts for the Fellowship during their travels.
• Marton Csokas as Celeborn, Galadriel's husband.
• Craig Parker as Haldir, an Elven archer who encounters the Fellowship.
• 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 rendered incapable of decisions by Wormtongue and Saruman, who work sorcery over him. He is healed by Gandalf, and leads Rohan during the Battle of Helm's Deep and the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, trying to make up for his incompetence and 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 and Théoden's nephew. He suspects Wormtongue of treachery, and is an accomplished rider and warrior.
• Brad Dourif as Wormtongue, an insidious agent of Saruman. He is attempts to stop Théoden from declaring war and wants Éowyn for himself.
• David Wenham as Faramir, Boromir's brother, and head of the Rangers of Ithilien. He is brave yet sensitive, trying to please his distant father, and is tempted by the Ring, though more successful than his brother.
• John Rhys-Davies voices Treebeard, the leaders of Ents, sheperds of the trees. He protects Merry and Pippin, and is unaware of Saruman's destruction of the forests.

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, dislikes Faramir as a "Wizard's pupil" and is grieving over Boromir so much as to ignore 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 whom Aragorn must seek help from.
• 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. Only briefly seen.

Pre-production

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 in August 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), famously replying to Jackson's offer, "Now Peter, who would in their right mind would make two movies?"

Screenplays

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 . Allegedly 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. In the meantime during shooting, the screenplays would undergo many transformations, due to contributions from cast looking to further explore their characters, most notably Arwen, who was originally planned as a warrior princess, reverting back to her book counterpart, who remains physically inactive in the story (though she sends moral and military support).

In order to make the story flow more on screen, Jackson has excised sequences for pacing issues, such as the encounters with Tom Bombadil and the Barrow-wights, and the Scouring of the Shire. The Fellowship of the Ring is arguably the most faithful adaptation, with the removal of Bombadil and similar scenes allowing time to remove Gandalf's encounter with Saruman from flashback and allowing a more linear ending.

The Two Towers deviates more, removing Tolkien's two-part story (one on Aragorn and company, the other on Frodo) with intercutting, and climaxing with the Battle of Helm's Deep. Jackson credited the film Zulu as an influence in structure. The Return of the King covers some of The Two Towers book's endings as well as the third volume proper.

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, have taken 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, and overall new scenes have been added to expand on characterization.

Pre-visualisation

Jackson planned the entire trilogy during screenwriting with Christian Rivers on storyboards, beginning in August 1997 whilst writing the script, effectively creating a rough black and white 2-D version of the film. Jackson showed excerpts of the "animated" storyboards (filmed images with voices and a temporary soundtrack) to allow potential cast a view of the film's style.

To plan his visual effects sequences, Jackson also utilized a lipstick camera for the models of sets and computer animatics (learned from Industrial Light and Magic), planning the battle sequences like a real general and giving a sense of direction. This would often allow room for him to improvise for action sequences, such as the Moria staircase collapse (which was never in any script draft) as well as The Two Towers last minute addition of the Destruction of Isengard.

Design

The design of the trilogy began in August 1997 with the storyboarding, and in November 1997 , famed Tolkien illustrators Alan Lee and John Howe joined the project. Up until then, concept artists had primarily been influenced by Dungeons and Dragons in their designs. Jackson himself wanted a gritty realism and historical regard for the fantasy. Some of their famous images of Bag End, Orthanc , Helm's Deep , the Black Gate , and John Howe's Gandalf and the Balrog made it into the film. The last one inspired the opening of The Two Towers. Jackson sometimes replicated some shots from famous paintings as a nod to fans.

Art design

Lee worked on designs for architecture, the first being Helm's Deep, as well as the Elven realms, Moria, Edoras, and Minas Tirith , and although Howe primarily designed armour and the forces of evil (see below), he contributed with Bag End, Minas Morgul, Cirith Ungol and the Barad-dûr. Interestingly, Lee also painted imagery in Rivendell, such as the one of Isildur removing the One Ring from Sauron.

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 organising the building of sets and the making of props. Hobbiton was built a year before filming to give the impression of real growth and age with the help of the army, to move 5000 cubic metres of earth.

Weta Workshop

Jackson hired Richard Taylor on five major design elements: armour, weapons, prosphetics/make-up, creatures and miniatures. Just as Alan Lee and John Howe designed good and evil architecture respectively, the respective Weta artists of good and evil were Daniel Falconer and Warren Mahy. Jamie Beswarick and Mike Asquith also helped with the maquettes, as well as Ben Wooten with his extensive zoology knowledge, amongst many others.

John Howe was the supervisor on armour, having studied and worn it. Stu Johnson and Warren Green made 48,000 pieces of armour , from the numerous molds of plate steel, as well as a small group who spent days linking chain mail (eventually wearing their thumbprints away). Peter Lyon also forged swords, each taking a week, creating spring steel "hero" swords for close-ups, aluminium fight swords and rubber versions too. Weta also created 10,000 real arrows and 500 bows. .

Weta created numerous pieces of prosphetics, and would have to monitor them on set too. They created 1800 Orc body suits to go with 10,000 Orc heads, lasting six days and one day respectively. Weta also spent a year creating Hobbit feet that would look like furry feet yet act as shoes for actors. In total, 1800 pairs were used by the four lead actors during production. Actors would also go in for face casts to create pointed ears and false noses. Most extensive was John Rhys-Davies as Gimli, who would spend four-and-a-half hours in the morning to apply Dwarven prosphetics. Gino Acevedo also worked on created realistic skin tones for the actors, such as Bernard Hill's possessed Theoden and a younger Bilbo. Peter(s) King and Owen also led the make-up department in making numerous wigs and creating general dirt on the actors. As well as applying make-up, at the end of the day there was an hour of carefully removing the make-up and prosphetics.

Weta gave specific designs to the Moria Orcs, Uruk-hai and Mordor Orcs so as to give variety to the characters. They also spent time making creatures biologically believable, rooting them sometimes in real creatures: Shelob's body is a funnel web spider, and the Wargs are a bear/hyena/wolf hybrid. Cultures were given backstories only glimpsed subliminally on screen, as are the miniatures, and for the Elves and Gondorians, a fictional history had to be presented within the changes of armour. The Elves have an art noveau influence that involves leaves and flowers, whilst the Dwarves have a preoccupation with geometry that reminds the audience of their digging nature. The Hobbits hark back to 18th century England, the Rohirrim have numerous horse and sun motifs, and the Gondorians reflect 16th century German and Italian armour as well as tree motifs. The Haradrim take influence from Aztecs and Kiribati after bad feedback from Phillipa Boyens over looking African.

Costumes

Ngila Dickson was hired on April 1 1999 to handle the numerous costumes. She and 40 seamstresses worked on over 19,000 costumes. Due to the large shooting schedule, 10 versions of each costume would have to be made, and then 30 more for stunt, scale and other doubles, all in all meaning each design would have 40 versions.

Due to Jackson's requirement of realism, the costumers took great pains to make costumes look "lived in", wearing away colour, stuffing pockets and dirtying costumes for the likes of Gandalf and Aragorn due to their terrain crossing nature. Like armour, there would also be acid etching and some overdyeing of colours. Dickson decided to give the Hobbits shorts due to their barefeet, and specifically worked on long sleeves for the Elves for a gliding impression. Dickson also took great pains to distinguish the Gondorians (silvers and black) and the Rohirrim (brown and green).

Casting

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. Other rumours for Gandalf included Patrick Stewart, Anthony Hopkins and Tom Baker. Sam Neill was asked to play the role of Elrond, but turned it down because of his contractual obligations to another film — namely, Jurassic Park III.

Auditions provide an interesting insight into what could have been. Orlando Bloom and John Rhys-Davies auditioned for Faramir and Denethor respectively, and famously Stuart Townsend was cast as Aragorn and set for filming.

Elijah Wood was the first cast member cast, on July 7, 1999. Sean Astin, Ian McKellen and Ian Holm were also cast later in the month.

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. 30 actors were trained to speak Tolkien's fictional dialects. In total, there are 114 speaking roles in the trilogy.

Filming

Principal photography for all three films was conducted concurrently in New Zealand from October 11, 1999 through to December 22, 2000. 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.

Peter Jackson described the production as a defining period, in that he now divides his life into three chapters: before Lord of the Rings, during Lord of the Rings, and after Lord of the Rings. 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.

Late 1999

The first scene filmed was the Wooded Road sequence where the Hobbits hide underneath the Ringwraith. 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. Sean Bean began filming in November for most of the handful of his scenes.

2000

A Christmas break followed, and filming resumed in January. Ian McKellen, fresh from filming X-Men, arrived to film scenes in Hobbiton and the Grey Havens. Filming would continue until December 2000. Notable amongst the shoot was the three weeks of nightshooting on the set of Helm's Deep, before the set was rebuilt as Minas Tirith. Mount Ruapehu stood in for Emyn Muil and Mount Doom, Edoras was built on Mount Sunday, and the Battle of the Pelennor Fields was shot in Twizel with 250 real horses. Infamously, the Battle of the Black Gate was shot at a former mine field in the Rugape Desert, with real soldiers serving as extras. 20,602 extras were used in total for the films.

As filming ended, the nine actors portraying the Fellowship got an Elven '9', 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.

Cameos

Many crew members have cameos in the trilogy. Peter Jackson has one in each film: as a drunken, carrot-toting citizen of Bree (The Fellowship of the Ring); a spear-throwing defender of Helm's Deep (The Two Towers); and as the captain of a corsair ship (The Return of the King), seen in brief in the theatrical version, and longer in the extended version when Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli commandeer the ship after recruiting the Army of the Dead. Though not a cameo in the traditional sense, he also served as a stand-in for Sean Astin in the shot where Samwise Gamgee steps into frame, challenging the monster Shelob, thereby giving him two different appearances in that film. There are rumours that he is a Wild Man of Dunland in the second film, though it may well be a case of mistaken identity.

His children also cameo in each film, as Hobbits, Rohirrim and Gondorians respectively. Alan Lee also cameos in the first film as one of the nine Kings of Men who become the Ringwraiths, as well as with Dan Hennah as soldiers preparing for the Battle of Helm's Deep. Christian Rivers also cameos as a Gondorian, and in the Return of the King extended cut, Howard Shore and Richard Taylor cameo as one of the celebrating Rohirrim and a Corsair attacked by the Dead Men respectively. Whilst the Tolkien family was generally quiet on the films, Tolkien's great-grandson appears as a Gondorian ranger.

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. A personal chance for cast and crew to meet again too, 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 flashback with Boromir, and the reshot Witch-king scenes with new helmet design in The Return of the King, with improved Orc designs and the new character of Gothmog . Theoden's death 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 additional Paths of the Dead scene. Jackson joked "that it's nice to win an Oscar before you've even finished the film".

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The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers movie poster (2002)

Post-production

Post-production would have the benefit for a full year on each film before their individual December releases. The Extended cuts also had a brief schedule at the start of each year to complete special effects and music.

Editing

The first two films had 4 1/2 hour rough cuts, whilst the third film was 5 hours. To avoid pressure, Jackson hired a different editor on each film. John Gilbert worked on the first film, Michael Horton and Jabez Olssen on the second, and longtime Jackson collaborator Jamie Selkirk on the third. Daily rushes would often last up to four hours. 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.

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

Beyond the Extended Editions, many scenes still remain unused. Template:Spoilers

• The famous footage of Arwen at Helm's Deep, which Jackson changed in the end for story reasons. Foreshadowing this was scenes where she and Elrond visit Galadriel at Lothlórien (seen in The Two Towers teaser trailer). The scene is edited down to a telepathic communication between Elrond and Galadriel.
• A line of dialogue in the death of Saruman, in which he reveals Wormtongue poisoned Theodred, giving further context as to why Wormtongue kills him and Legolas in turn kills Wormtongue.
• Further epilogue footage, including that of Legolas and Gimli, as well as Éowyn and Faramir's wedding.
• 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.
• Éowyn defending the refugees in the Glittering Caves from Uruk-hai intruders .
• An obscure shot from the trailers of two Elven girls playing about.
• Sauron fighting Aragorn at the Black Gate. A computer-generated Troll was placed over Sauron when Jackson felt this was inappropriate. Sauron was also seen in his Elven form as Annatar.
• Further scenes between Elrond and Arwen following her decision to stay with Aragorn, presumably set after the reforging of Andúril .
• More Arwen footage, such as a flashback scene with her first meeting with Aragorn, played by a beardless Mortensen.
• Aragorn having armour put on as part of preparation for the Battle of the Black Gate (the final scene filmed during principal photography).
• An attack by Moria Orcs on Lothlórien. Jackson replaced this with a more suspenseful entrance into the location.
• An extended battle between Gandalf and the Balrog, as the beast is extinguished in water and they battle upon the Endless Stair.

Special effects

The first film has around 540 effects shots, the second 799, and the third 1488. In total it is around 2730. The total moves up to 3420 with the Extended cuts. Over 200 visual effects artists worked on the trilogy . Interestingly, despite WETA being the major stylistic force behind the films, a single scene where Arwen confronts the Black Riders was done by Digital Domain.

Digital

Creatures such as Trolls, the Balrog, the Ents, the fell beasts, the Wargs, the mûmakil and Shelob were created entirely within a computer. Treebeard had a digital face composited upon an enormous animatronic, and longshots of him are CG.

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. 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.

Whilst Jackson insisted on generally using miniatures, sometimes shots would get too difficult for that, primarily with the digital characters. Dwarrowdelf, the Chamber of Marzabul, ruins in Eregion, Helm's Deep, the Pelennor Fields and the Barad-dur and Black Gate were replicated for complicated sequences, such as destruction or having an arena for a digital camera to move around.

Digital grading

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. He also notably drained colour from Sean Bean's face during his death scene.

Gollum

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 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. 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.

MASSIVE

MASSIVE was the name of a computer program developed by WETA to create automatic battle sequences rather than individually animate every soldier. Click on the main article for more information.

Practical

Scale

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 would have to wear 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.

"Big-atures"

Bigatures is the nickname for the 58 miniatures from WETA, so dubbed for their massive size by any person's scale. 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 666. Their final shot was one of Orthanc for the third films extended cut in late 2003.

Music

Main article: Music of The Lord of the Rings film trilogy

Howard Shore composed the trilogy's music. The soundtrack is primarily the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and many talents such as Ben Del Maestro, Enya, Renee Fleming, Sir James Galway, Annie Lennox and even actors Billy Boyd, Viggo Mortensen, Liv Tyler, Miranda Otto (extended cut only for the latter two) and director Peter Jackson (for a single gong sound in the second film) contributed to the score.

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 worked hard to find the right sounds: Fran Walsh provided the Nazgûl scream, and ironically a Mumakil roar came from the beginning and end of a Lion's. Real screams and a horse neigh are within the mix of Sauron's fall. Technicians were also keen to not allow battles to fall into "sonic mud". Different elements are focused upon with the whim of Jackson's direction.

They often went to extreme lengths. 10,000 New Zealand Cricket fans were hired to provide the sound of the Uruk-hai army in The Two Towers with Jackson acted as commander within a single cricket break. During The Return of the King post-production, they had to contend with building work.

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, 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: [1]

Fans first received a preview of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers at the end of the theater 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.

All three trailers contain some materials that were later removed from the theatrical release of the films. (For example, in the Two Towers trailer, there was a shot of Éomer holding a spear that was never used. In the Return of the King trailer, Elrond tells his daughter Arwen that he cannot protect her any longer, a scene that was entirely removed from the theatrical and extended editions.)

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 was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture and won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation of 2001.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers was released December 18, 2002 and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. It also won the Hugo Award, this time in the new split category of Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King was released December 17, 2003, and won all 11 Academy Awards for which it was nominated, including the Academy Award for Best Picture of 2003. This film also won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form.

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 Extended Editions, with new editing, added special effects and music. They were issued as follows:

• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, November 12, 2002.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, November 18, 2003.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King December 14, 2004.

More than two hours' bonus footage has been added to the Trilogy which now makes the total over 11 hours of film. As well as the standard 4 disc releases, each Extended Edition also received a Collectors Edition box. The first film contained bookends based on the Argonath, the second came with a statue of Gollum, dubbed Sméagol (as the other bookend named Gollum available for a pre-order at a limited time), and the third having a model of Minas Tirith, with Minas Morgul available for order for a limited time. They have also played at movie theaters, most notably for a December 17 2003 marathon screening culminating in a midnight screening of the third film.

On August 28 2006 both versions were put together in a 'branching' version plus a new feature-length documentary by Costa Botes.

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, evidenced by its earning close to $3-billion (US), besting other notables such as the Star Wars and Harry Potter franchises. The film trilogy also set a record for the total number of Academy Awards won, tallying a total of seventeen Oscars. Critical acclaim has commonly 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. In particular, The Return of the King became the most popular film, 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: $2.424.0 billion

Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy (incomplete; first 2 movies): $1.618.0 billion

Academy Awards

File:Rotk poster.jpg

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King movie poster (2003)

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.

• 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	Award Winners
	The Fellowship of the Ring	The Two Towers	The Return of the King
Art Direction	N	N	W
Cinematography	W
Costume Design	N		W
Directing	N		W
Film Editing	N	N	W
Makeup	W		W
Music (Original Score)	W		W
Music (Original Song)	N "May It Be"		W "Into the West"
Best Picture	N	N	W
Sound Editing		W
Sound Mixing	N	N	W
Supporting Actor	N Ian McKellen
Visual Effects	W	W	W
Writing (Previously Produced or Published)	N		W

As well as Academy Awards, the trilogy scored a hattrick with Empire and MTV Awards' Best Film categories, and the first and third films also won the Best Film BAFTAs.

Reactions to changes in the movie trilogy from the book

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:

"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 trilogy's defenders assert that it is a worthy interpretation of the book, most changes stemming from Jackson's desire to make the story more appealing to a modern audience; connected to this is their perceived need for developing characters further. 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 summarise 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:

"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."

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. 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 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.

Alongside the Harry Potter films, the trilogy has also renewed interest in the fantasy film genre. Following the success of the trilogy, Peter Jackson was given the chance to finally remake King Kong in 2005. 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.

The use of motion capture was used for characters in King Kong and I, Robot, and currently there is talk of Jackson and company doing an adaptation of The Hobbit, which MGM wishes to make in co-operation with New Line, although Jackson is not signed on. 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 .

Trivia

• Throughout the entire film trilogy, only nine people (most of them Hobbits) touch the One Ring (listed in chronological order): Sauron, Isildur, Déagol, Sméagol (Gollum), Bilbo, Gandalf, Frodo, Boromir, and Sam. Of these nine, two of them never physically touch The Ring itself, but merely hold something that carries The Ring; Gandalf only holds an envelope that holds The Ring and Boromir lifts it by its chain.
• Movie-Mistakes.com lists 231 mistakes for The Fellowship of the Ring, 229 mistakes for The Two Towers, and 240 for The Return of the King. The most famous slip-up was the car visible in a scene in which Sam hesitates to step farther than he's ever been from home in The Fellowship of the Ring. When asked, Peter Jackson explained: "We actually didn't know about the car until we were cutting the movie. The smoke and dust wasn't so bad because there was already lots of it around, but the bloody windshield was reflecting the sun back into the camera lens. So we erased it from the DVD."
• The Return of the King and The Two Towers are within first and second place respectively as containing the biggest film body counts of all time.

External links

• Official site of the films
• The Official Fan Club
• An excellent source for old news regarding the making of the trilogy. Use to improve references.
• Official site of J.R.R. Tolkien
• A fansite that tracked the series since its conception. Also includes the shooting schedule
• A brief timeline of production
• The Lord of the Rings film trilogy at the Arts & Faith Top 100 Spiritually Significant Films list
• What To Do With The Time That Is Given: Vocation in The Lord of the Rings Essay length review of the film cycle as compared with the original book on the theme of vocation, or calling. Originally published in The Mars Hill Review.
• The Nitpickers Guide to LOTR A popular look at the film deviations from the book.
• An index of Harry Knowles set visits Scroll down to the red writing.
• Tolkien Geek Blogging J. R. R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" and Other Aimless Pursuits
• A series of webpages with a negative perspective on the trilogy, focusing on The Two Towers and The Return of the King