Nothing says timeless like J.R.R. Tolkien's classic creation of The Lord of the Rings. This book laid the foundation for future fantasy works, from video games to fantasy books. This movie was adapted multiple times and each adaptation took some creative liberties. So it is only natural for The Lord of the Rings facts to get a bit murky and distorted. After all, each of the movies attempted to attract new audiences. Sometimes, the book fans and movie fans butt heads on facts that are a little bit, or severely conflicting. So why are fans so heavily sided on facts about Lord of the Rings and which The Lord of the Rings facts are actually true?
As far as lore goes, J.R.R Tolkien didn’t miss a step to present a lot of it in The Lord of the Rings books. Everything seems to be planned out hundreds of pages away and logically explained. It’s left up to the reader's creativity to imagine how the creatures will look. On the other hand, we have the trilogy of The Lord of the Rings directed by Peter Jackson. A certain vision was presented, and the viewer only had to sit back and enjoy it. The biggest difference was felt in The Lord of the Rings characters, especially with the character of Legolas. It’s obvious that Peter Jackson took a lot of liberties to present his interpretation of the books. However, while quite different from the source material, Jackson’s adaptations turned out to be a great success nonetheless.
With so many facts flying around the internet, mixing movie facts with book ones might lead you to a confrontation with a hard-headed LOTR fan. So if you are out on an adventure, looking for some The Lord of the Rings fun facts, look no further than the list below. If a fact was interesting and opened an all-seeing eye in you — upvote it. Otherwise, if you know a bit more about the stated fact and would like to share, comment down below.
This post may include affiliate links.
Nothing says dedication like learning a fictional language, created by J.R.R. Tolkien himself. Viggo Mortensen, who can dominate any role he takes, learned the Elvish language for his role of Aragorn. This was done to create the most believable performance in a fantasy, make-believe world.
It’s not unusual to “borrow” a few things from a set to have a small memento of the movie you made. To remember the filming process, when he was finished playing Gandalf, Ian McKellen preserved the original wizard’s staff and wizard's hat.
Sean Bean, the immortal one, portrays the character Boromir in the movies and has quite a severe phobia that wouldn’t allow him to go to set in a helicopter. So when it was his time to film a scene, Sean Bean had to climb tall mountains daily to get to the set. If dedication was a human, Sean Bean would be the best example of it.
While actors got hurt and had a few stitches to remind them of the movie's production, the animals were safe from it. Throughout the three movies, 300 horses were used for a variety of scenes. Out of the 300 horses, not one was harmed. With such a large production, we can only be glad that the production team took all the precautions for safety.
The group of creatures that saw a lot of changes were the elves. In the books, they are described as being more cheerful and lively, while in the movies, they were changed. They were presented in a darker tone, perhaps to fit in the darker tone of the movie. They were also more grim and serious.
The original trilogy movies are long. Like, very long. Several hours each, with the last movie being three hours long. But do you know how long Frodo took to complete his legendary adventure? After inheriting the ring, in the books it took Frodo 17 years to start his adventure.
The filming of the original trilogy took more than a year to complete. With a lot of focus given to the costumes and uniforms of the characters, it was necessary to keep them in the needed shape. So it’s not strange to learn that during the production, some costumes had to be replicated 40 times.
Actually, filming took five years. Other parts of production added several more years. People gave so much to the film that they had no personal life at all.
When you love books, high chances are you will do your best to appear in an adaptation. Before landing the role of Saruman, Christopher Lee had read "The Lord of the Rings" books yearly for more than 40 years.
Well more than just reading the books, he met Tolkien himself at Oxford. Lee was a certified badass. Here are a few of his exploits: https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/peter-jackson-scared-christopher-lee-world-war/
Love is a powerful thing. We can see it around us and even in books of fiction. J.R.R. Tolkien and his wife have the names Luthien and Beren engraved on their gravestones. These two characters are shown in the books as loving each other very deeply. But while the man was a mortal one, the woman was immortal.
Viggo Mortensen is the source for many “The Lord of the Rings” facts. He took that extra step for better effects and performed stunts himself. He also used a real steel sword. While this all sounds tiring and hard to imagine, other actors of the trilogy claim that Viggo Mortensen liked the whole process, even with so many hardships.
Including breaking his foot when he kicked that helmet. The scream was genuine!
Even the smallest person can be the tallest one in a room. Literally. John Rhys-Davies, an actor who played Gimli, the smallest of the fellowship, is quite tall. He was the tallest among the actors. He is 1.85 m (6.07 ft) tall, while his character was 1.68 m (5.52 ft) tall. This just proves how incredible the camera work was.
To capture the image of the helmet flying toward the camera, the director had Mortensen repeat the helmet-kicking scene several times. On the fifth take, Mortensen shouted in agony before tumbling to his knees, brilliantly portraying his character's suffering. He had broken two toes with that final kick, which the creative team was unaware of until much later.
After the filming was over and it was time to part ways, each actor got a gift related to the character they played. Liv Tyler received Arwen's "death dress," Orlando Bloom received one of Legolas' bows, and Miranda Otto received one of Eowyn's skirts and her sword. A nice gesture that other movies should follow.
Gollum in the movies is one of the most memorable characters from the original and sequel trilogy. The way he moves, speaks, and acts all around is just horrific. The Gollum Effect, a.k.a his movements and so on, was based on drug addicts. The whole character is just a shell of the former hobbit.
And his brief scenes as a hobbit show what a nasty hobbit he was to begin with.
Nothing says dedication like becoming an awesome swordsman for the sake of authenticity. Throughout the trilogy, Viggo Mortensen improved tremendously as a swordsman. Instead of the much lighter aluminum swords or the more secure rubber swords that were designed for fight sequences and acrobatics, Mortensen insisted on just using a real steel sword.
Alka-Seltzers played a big role in helping Elijah Wood spit white foam out of his mouth during the Shelob scene. Elijah Wood had two Alka-Seltzers hidden beneath his tongue, which he chewed up to produce white foam for the scene in which Frodo is wounded by Shelob.
When there are a lot of characters in the movies, the costume department must use a lot of costumes to dress them up. For the filming of all three original trilogy films, more than 19,000 costumes were created.
If there is a battle scene to remember from the trilogy that all of us can say is epic, it is the battle of Helm’s Deep. In fact, its filming took four months to finish, due to the simple reason that the majority of scenes had to be filmed at night. When you think about how long the whole production lasted, this battle might have taken the longest time to finish overall.
Music does wonders for movies. It can elevate a scene to the top, if it's right, or sink it to the very bottom if the score is poorly selected. The rhythm of the music sets up the flow of a scene. For “The Lord Of The Rings”, Howard Shore was able to compose a fantastic soundtrack, setting the tone for the many heroic and sad scenes.
The first of the trilogy, “The Fellowship of the Ring,” set the stage for the trilogy and pushed the idea that fantasy movies are worth the time to watch. Overall, “The Fellowship of the Ring” was able to reach box office sales of $891,216,824 and was nominated for 14 categories. While it only won four, it created a great start for the franchise.
Acting is all about understanding the script and seeing yourself in the character's place. Because he didn't grasp the script, Sean Connery rejected the opportunity to play Gandalf. Luckily for us, Ian McKellen took up the torch and portrayed the perfect Gandalf.
When money is involved, a lot of conflicts can arise about who should get more of it. The entire sum that Tolkien was due for “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy was not given to him. He only got a total of $62,500 initially, which was about $150 million short. Tolkien received his full compensation only after a protracted legal battle.
considering he had been dead for 28 years when it was made, i doubt he would have been bothered.
A vital scene in the books and movies was the showdown between Gandalf The Gray and Balrog, a demon of power. While the tension is there in the theatrical version, it seems goofy when you find out how it was actually filmed. In fact, Ian McKellen had to fight green ping-pong balls and the visual effects took it from there.
It’s easy to forget that Denmark has a monarchy of its own, not only England. Funnily enough, the Queen of Denmark, Margrethe II of Denmark, illustrated the Danish edition of the LOTR, under the pseudonym of Ingahild Grathmer. Her illustrations were also used in the British version.
Our queen is very creative and reasonably skilled. In addition to illustrating LOTR, she paints, once a year she designs costumes and scenography for the Danish Royal Ballet. She participates in the entire production and she likes to discuss her design with the ballet dancers etc. Most Danes are proud of her talents and her respect for us.
Gollum is the reason that motion capturing took a large leap in evolution. Andy Serkis was casted due to the voice he possessed. But later, it became obvious that some interaction between him and the actors were needed. CGI and VFX were used in combination with Serkis' acting to deliver one of the best movie performances yet seen.
Aragorn is one of the most important characters in the story, so it was vital to cast the proper actor for him. While Viggo Mortensen perfected the character of Aragorn, originally Stuart Townsend was casted for this role. But when the shooting of the movie started, Mortensen replaced Townsend.
Viggo's son, a huge fan of the books, convinced his dad to take the role.
Sustainability was the name of the game when they filmed the franchise. In “The Two Towers,” Edoras was situated in the middle of a national park. They were permitted to film there by the Conservation Society of New Zealand, but only if they agreed to leave it precisely as they found it. Since the filming at the location would last for about 18 months, this required removing the majority of the native grasses and plants and putting them in a specially constructed nursery.
The Department of Conservation, I think you'll find. It's a government department affectionately known as Doc.
You can tell the mood of a person just by looking into their eyes. The pupils of Gollum reveal his mental state. "Friendly Gollum" has somewhat broader pupils than the "Treacherous Gollum," which has slightly narrower pupils. There is a scene in “The Two Towers” where the two states of his personality clash with each other and become apparent.
While Gollum is seen in all three movies of the original trilogy, he is much different in The Fellowship of the Ring and the other two movies. While in the first movie he is barely seen and acts like a shadow, in the other two movies, because of Andy Serkis’ awesome physical performance, a lot more attention was given to the character of Gollum.
Some surprises are good and career-shifting. When a director sees potential in an actor and the character he portrays, creative changes are made. When Andy Serkis was chosen to play Gollum, he believed he was merely being asked to record voiceovers for three weeks in New Zealand. Peter was so impressed with Andy's in-person audition that he chose to use performance-capture technology so that Andy could portray the part on set.
Legolas is such a memorable character because of the actor behind him. Orlando Bloom perfectly portrayed this elf and broke a few ribs while filming the movies. While horse riding with Gimli’s stunt double, Orlando fell off the horse, and then the double fell on him. He was the first of the cast members to be harmed while filming the movie.
Sean Astin literally stepped on a piece of glass in the river scene...
No one can doubt that the theatrical version of “The Return of the King” is one of the best fantasy movies there are. It has everything — drama, battles, and great dialogue. But even when the movie was playing in theaters, Peter Jackson and the cast took that extra step and filmed some extra scenes, all to see the vision fulfilled to the fullest.
Elijah Wood was stabbed with a prop when Frodo was struck by Shelob's stinger. He and Sean Astin said on the extended DVD commentary that it was not only excruciatingly uncomfortable but also damaged Wood's body to the extent that he had to spend a few days in the hospital.
The perfect conclusion to a perfect trilogy. “The Return of the King” also returned the audience to the movie theaters to see the story's ending. And if the box office and the Oscars have anything to say, this movie ended with a loud bang. Collecting $1.146 billion at the box office and sweeping the Oscars with 11 awards out of 11 nominations, “The Return of the King” is the perfect conclusion of an epic trilogy.
The fantasy genre wasn’t always this respected. The books were able to surprise the critics, while the movies lacked that needed buzz. In 2004, during the Oscar ceremony, "The Return of the King" won the main award of the night, the Best Picture, defeating other great movies of the year.
If you want to make every part of a scene as good as possible, it’s important to have professional cast members in front of the camera. In the trilogy, when there is a scene showing the making of weapons, you can be sure that the person behind the hammer is a trained blacksmith.
Aragorn is cool and powerful, and for one scene, he even partook in some baseball with knives. The very real metal knife, held by the actor portraying Lurtz, was intended to be thrown away from Aragorn. However, the actor's thick prosthetics caused him to spin around, and as a result, he threw the knife right at Viggo, who, luckily, swung it away.
It’s virtually impossible to make a completely faithful book-to-screen adaptation. Creative liberties must be taken to create the best experience for both the moviegoers and readers. The screenplays of the trilogy deviated slightly from the books’ narrative, but Peter Jackson and the writers took the required steps to stop the hate of the book fans. One such thing was including several inside jokes and nods in the dialogues. For example, when Frodo and Sam are in Osgiliath, a place they didn’t visit, a small piece of dialog, “By rights, we shouldn't even be here," was put in as an inside joke.
Arwen, played by Liv Tyler, was supposed to be a part of the elven combat force that assists the men in the Helm's Deep battle. This was a holdover from the Miramax script draft, which compacted all three books into two movies and sparked outrage online among Tolkien fans for its disrespectful portrayal of his works.
There is an animal lover in all of us. While most of us prefer to have a smaller animal, like a dog or cat in our houses and apartments, others like to keep bigger animals. Viggo Mortensen, a true animal lover, bought both of the horses he used in the movies and even bought the one that his co-star Liv Tyler used throughout the original trilogy.
While Middle-earth is a creation of fiction, The University of California is doing its best to implement this world in real life. New students have a chance to live and party in a hall of residence happily named “Lord Of The Rings”. Corridors are named after towns and regions that appear in books and movies.
We know Gollum as an evil character who seeks to take the ring of power for himself. Originally, Tolkien made the character kind-hearted, but seeing the potential of his development, Tolkien added an evil twist. Tolkien added a corrosion effect on the ring of power, which corrupted Gollum over time.
we know Gollum as an evil character do we? nope, anyone with a brain can see he is a tortured soul corrupted by the power of the ring.
Andy Serkis not only used his body for Gollum's performance but also put some strain on his voice to deliver the iconic voice. To counter this problem, he drank what he likes to call Gollum juice, a mixture of honey, ginger, and lemon. If he was able to make three whole movies using it, then it must have worked like magic.
Another accident for Viggo Mortensen led to an unpleasant injury. During the filming, Viggo Mortensen chipped away a part of his tooth. While filming a fighting scene, Mortensen's face was hit with a sword. While we can all imagine the pain that comes from a chipped tooth, it’s impossible to imagine how Mortensen felt at that moment.
The Riders Of Rohan might be the bravest and coolest group of characters displayed in the movies. While the riders look like men, with their beards, clothes, and weapons, the majority of them are actually women. To mask their femininity, they wore fake beards and manly clothes. If you couldn’t tell the difference, then it worked perfectly.
The fans will remember the moment when the tallest people in all of Middle-Earth were the four small yet brave hobbits. This scene was the last to be shot for the theatrical release. Viggo Mortensen insisted on being present for it even though he wasn't required to be on-site that day. Because there was no crown, Mortensen crafted a crown out of paper himself. The four actors playing the Hobbits frequently struggled to control their laughter as the crew began adorning the crown between takes, making it more elaborate and silly.
“The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings” have radically different themes. While “The Hobbit” feels somewhat lighter,“The Lord of the Rings” are much darker books. This can be explained by the simple fact that “The Hobbit” was written before World War II started, while “The Lord of the Rings” was written during it. Hence the different tones.
A lot of attention is given to the powerful actors of “The Lord Of The Rings”, but behind the camera and the actors stand an army of team members who have to do their job right for the movie to look good. While Peter Jackson directed the movies, he shared the writing with two other people — Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens.
The quality of a shot depends a lot on the camera work behind it. To capture the perfect view, you have to have it in your mind and know where to place the camera. Luckily for Peter Jackson, he had an ace up his sleeve by the name of Andrew Lesnie. He was the cinematographer and the one who filmed such beautiful shots.
When the production period is so long and you spend a lot of time with your fellow actors and cast members, it’s only normal to form a friendly bond with each other. The original nine members of the “The Fellowship of the Ring” have a number nine, in Elvish, tattooed on their bodies. This just shows how close the actors were to each other.
If you are a careful watcher, you might have noticed that no modern weapons were used in the movies. All of the weapons that the characters used were medieval, like bows and swords. In fact, throughout the original trilogy, it is estimated that more than 10000 arrows and 2000 weapons were made for the production.
J.R.R. Tolkien is an author that passed away in 1973, so, naturally, the original cast didn't have the chance to get to know him in person. Well, one did. Christopher Lee met the author in person by accident. While at an Oxford bar, both of them unexpectedly met and so a small friendship formed between the two men.
When you want to get the part — you have to do your best. Elijah Wood completely absorbed the character of Frodo for his audition video. He shot a video of his audition in the middle of the forest. He also had his handcrafted hobbit costume for the role. He was able to bring his role to life as a result, and he is now a well-known actor.
Watch your step and make sure you’re not like Frodo. The movies show Frodo as a clumsy character. Throughout the entire trilogy, he falls precisely 39 times. It’s not strange then, why so many characters see Frodo as a useless character in the movies. Still, with such a heavy weight, it’s normal for him to stumble from time to time.
To make the fights more realistic, the choreography had to be spot-on. Thus, an Olympic fencer choreographed the battle scenes. The fight choreography for all three movies was taught to the cast by Bob Anderson, who worked closely with them. He is also renowned for his involvement in the action scenes in “Star Wars.”
The Nazgul are some of the most popular villains in the trilogy. Their dark clothes, nightmarish horses, and horrific screeches set them aside from the other villains. But do you know how these screeches were made? Straws were used to deliver the nightmares-inducing sounds for the movie.
These days, movie success is counted by the awards it gets and how many tickets it sells at the box office. "The Lord of the Rings" film series has taken home 11 Oscars in total, with the Best Picture prize being the most famous. It is one of the extremely few works to have received all nominations.
It’s sometimes hard to part ways with a friend, but luckily for the actors of Frodo and Sam, they had a year to prepare for their parting scene. Reason being, the 1999 Queenstown flood pushed the crew to a nearby hotel squash court as it was filming “The Fellowship of the Ring.” Luckily for them, they easily jumped to film “The Return of the King.”
When you look into the eyes of Galadriel, or at least, when the camera is focused on them, it seems like you can see the whole universe in them. To get this effect, the film crew used Christmas lights to create the starry eyes effect. It has elves, it has Christmas lights, only needs a festive story and it could become a Christmas movie!
The ring of power might be small, but it is heavy. To symbolize this in the movie, the floor in Bilbo’s Bag End was made to be magnetic, so that it could attract the ring to it. The production team used a magnet under the floor in the sequences where the ring hits the ground to make the ring stick to it and prevent bounce or skidding.
“The Lord of the Rings” trilogy was not the only adaptation put on the screen. Ian Holm, who played Bilbo Baggins we all know and love, also played Frodo in the BBC adaptation of the trilogy. After trying out both of the most important Baggins roles, we might all agree that he perfected the role of Bilbo Baggins and will be remembered for it.
The orcs in “The Lord of the Rings” are cruel, muscular, and, without sugarcoating it, very disgusting. It was only fitting that the orcs' jaws were not just black, but also black due to their dark blood. The orc performers had to swish a mouthwash with licorice in it before each of their scenes to accomplish this.
“The Return of the King” was huge in the number of people who were featured on the screen. Over 2,400 crew members and 26,000 extras contributed to the five-year production of the trilogy. A lot of these extras were used for the epic battle scenes, while others were used for more labor-intensive work.
While only seen for several sequences, the creative team planted several gardens in the supposed Hobbiton a year before a camera started to film it. This was done to create that Middle-earth natural look that was described in the books and which Peter Jackson wanted to capture.
Sometimes illusions are much better than reality. We can all agree that the thing that separated Legolas from the other characters was his white-blond hair. However, Legolas was never described as being blond in the novels.
Gandalf and Frodo share a lot of scenes in the movies and the books. Interestingly, according to Ian McKellen, he and his co-star Elijah Wood didn’t film any scenes together. However, Elijah Wood said that “[they] shot everything together.”
It was challenging to depict Sauron's tower getting destroyed on film. “The Return of the King'' was released in 2003, thus most people still had recent memories of the 9/11 attack. It was challenging to choreograph the sequence of Sauron's tower because the creators did not want it to imitate the World Trade Center attack.
The opening of “The Fellowship of the Ring” introduces and explains the world in a matter of minutes. The studio felt that Galadriel's famous opening monologue from “The Fellowship of the Ring'' was confusing and sought to shorten it to two minutes. The studio finally caved after the filmmakers battled to keep the monologue because it swiftly supplied a lot of crucial context.
Some movies are shot chronologically, step by step, while others are filmed depending on the budget and timing. For example, during his first day of filming, Ian McKellen shot the scene of him arriving at Hobbiton, and on the second day, he filmed his last scripted scene, when he was in the Grey Havens.
While we don’t have the chance to see Andy Serkis' face, we get to see his spit instead. When Gollum spits in “The Two Towers” in disgust at Sam's preparation of rabbits, Andy Serkis' spittle can be seen flying through the air. That sequence is one of the three that Serkis considers being his favorite.
Middle-earth is a fictitious place, filled with a lot of unique cities, castles, and places. While writing them is easy, requiring only creativity, paper, and a pen, visualizing them for a movie requires much more work. 64 small sets were constructed by art designers to create this world. Some of them were known as "Bigatures" because they were so huge and intricate.
Middle Earth is NOT a fictitious place! We big people have just forgotten!
Every scene that is shot and put on the editor's table is on the chopping block. When the flow is the most important thing in the movie, scenes get cut and added depending on the rhythm of the story. Lucky for us, we have extended versions. And “The Lord Of The Rings” might have the longest one. Nearly two hours and eight minutes of extra content were edited into the theatrical release of the films' expanded versions.
This franchise is like a commercial for the New Zealand tourist sector. The entire “The Lord Of The Rings” trilogy was filmed in New Zealand at several locales with an international team. With such beautiful nature, Peter Jackson did the right thing filming it in New Zealand. The location makes the whole movie much more realistic and beautiful.
Nothing says classic like the LOTR. It was a revolutionary movie that set the standard of what a fantasy movie should be. The whole scenery of cinema changed because of the original trilogy. Being released at the start of the 2000s, the LOTR dominated not only the box office but also the Oscars.
An all-seeing eye — Sauron’s eye is one of the most iconic characters/creatures to exist in the world of Middle-earth. While in the books it is a metaphor for the evil vision that lurks in the Mount Doom region, in the movies, it is represented by a burning fire, striking fear into the creatures’ hearts.
We have ten fingers on our hands, but J.R.R. Tolkien didn’t have to use even half of them to create a masterpiece. J.R.R. Tolkien used just two fingers to type 1,200 pages of material for the novels.
When an author writes, he has a certain vision in his head that he is trying to recreate. A vision that he is trying to translate to the reader. But sometimes, details are created that weren’t even in the author’s intentions. When writing, Tolkien did base the events of the books on history, but he did not intend for the books to become an allegory for real life.
He stated that he hated allegory. He even discussed it in the prelude to the second edition (and every one after).
John Rhys-Davies objected to getting an Elvish tattoo that matched his fellowship. He was the lone member of the fellowship's nine cast members who refused to get tattooed. Though Davies’ stunt double Brett Beattie got the fellowship tattoo instead. The number is inked in various places on the body of all nine cast members.
I think John Rhys-Davies didn't enjoy making that movie as much as the others. His facial skin hurt from the prostetics, it got swollen so much that he could hardly keep his eyes open - I think you see it in some scenes that his eyes are narrowed. Also being hours in makeup and him being a dwarf which required him shooting scenes with the doubles (for the hobbits) or him being replaced by a double (when shooting with the elves/humans/wizards). So I get he didn't bond that much with the others.
Nicolas Cage is a talented actor who portrayed some powerful characters in the ‘90s and early 2000s. It’s no wonder that he tried his luck at the trilogy of "The Lord of the Rings." However, because of his family obligations, he had to refuse the role and instead moved on to other projects. Daniel Day-Lewis was next in line before Viggo Mortensen was cast.
Thank god. The mind reels just thinking of Nicholas Cage as Aragorn.
Jake Gyllenhaal is talented and well-known, but funnily enough, this actor tried and failed the casting for the role of Frodo. While it’s hard to say how the studio and creative team felt about the actor taking the role of Frodo, Jake Gyllenhaal said that the auditioning process was one of the worst auditions he had ever had.
It’s hard to get the age of a character from the books into the movies right and accurately. Hobbits in the books can be quite old, like 130 years and more. They can live for a longer time than the human race. Frodo Baggins in the books was 50 years old. The actor who portrayed him was 20 years old at the time.
There’s another difference between the movies and the books, which could arguably go as a win for the movies. In “The Return of the King,” the army of the dead, fallen soldiers who broke their vow to their king play a critical part in the last minutes of battle of Minas Tirith. However, in the books, they are only shown for one battle when Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas attack enemy ships.
It’s common for a studio or a film crew to take those extra few steps and secure the safety of the actors and other cast members. But some things are unavoidable. During the filming of the original trilogy, a few actors sustained some injuries. Some were serious, others were minor. However, Viggo Mortensen's broken toe from kicking an orc helmet and Orlando Bloom's broken ribs from falling off a horse will undoubtedly stick in the minds of many fans.
This is list is so redundant, it's like four people participated making this without knowing about other's contribution.
The Beatles might have been the rockstars of the music industry, but their star status couldn’t impress J.R.R. Tolkien. The Beatles wanted to create a movie, where they were the main actors of the movie, but when Tolkien didn’t give them his blessing, the group stopped their push and the movie didn’t even reach production.
CGI effects couldn't be used to their full potential in "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy. Many practical effects had to be used in the filmmaking process. Almost 3,500 pairs of hobbit feet and over 10,000 prosthetic facial appliances were produced. However, every effort was made to pay attention to every detail, which is what makes the sense of reality so powerful.
It's not that the CGI couldn't have been used more. Jackson preferred models when possible.
The author and the publisher are not always able to see eye to eye when it comes to giving names to books. Originally, Tolkien didn’t plan to name the last book “The Return of the King,” because it gives out a major plot point of the book. The publisher, on the other hand, had other intentions and chose to use “The Return of the King” as the main title of the final trilogy book.
Often, great authors draw inspiration from the things they experienced. According to speculations, Tolkien might have based The Dead Marshes on his experiences in World War I. In 1910, Tolkien served in the British Army and fought in The Battle of the Somme. The experiences Tolkien had while serving in the army served as a major inspiration for the entire franchise.
In the course of filming, Sean Astin was temporarily unconscious. On the Rivendell set, he was hit in the head by a wooden loom. Later during the production, Frodo stepped on broken glass and hurt himself as well. His foot needed more than 20 stitches as a result. These injuries put the production on hold, but not for a long time.
Sean Austin portrayed Samwise, not Frodo. See the next submission.
While at sea, you cannot see the harm beneath the water. Sean Astin couldn’t avoid the injuries that other actors encountered. While filming a scene of Samwise chasing Frodo through water, Sean Astin stepped on a piece of glass that was resting at the bottom of the body of water. A few stitches later and everything was alright.
While Viggo Mortensen took that extra step on the physical side, John Rhys-Davies took up extra roles in the movie. John Rhys-Davies not only performed the role of Gimli, but he also voiced Treebeard. Instead of using electronic distortion, the actor used a wooden megaphone to talk in his naturally loud voice at the lowest pitch possible.
Nothing says craftsmanship like a well-built door. The main entrance to Helm's Deep was constructed so solidly and effectively that the battering ram which was supposed to bring down the gates was unable to do so until the door was compromised. According to Peter Jackson, if a castle needed to be preserved, he would always choose Weta Workshop's craftsmanship.
There are a lot of details in the original trilogy that you might have not noticed at first. For example, when the Council of Elrond is taking place, leaves are constantly falling in the background to give the impression that the meeting is taking place outside. However, in reality, there were around six crew workers positioned above the set, scattering leaves at irregular intervals.
Wouldn’t you put yourself and your children in a movie that you know will become a blockbuster? In each trilogy, "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings", the director Peter Jackson and his kids made brief appearances.
When you love a character and invest a lot of time in creating the best possible form of it, it’s hard to let go of it and you just want to have a piece of something to remember it by. Because Cate Blanchett adored her part so much, she was given her elf ears as a present after filming.
This is list is so redundant, it's like four people participated making this without knowing about other's contribution.
Movies cost a lot of money to make. Fantasy movies are known for their cost due to the need for costumes, visual effects, and cast. While the original trilogy was expensive, the sequel trilogy, “The Hobbit,” was twice as expensive and reached a budget of $745 million for the whole trilogy.
A thing that we can’t get rid of is a name. It’s permanent, so if you are a writer, you have to create a catchy name for the character you are trying to create. Merry, one of the hobbits in the group, had his name changed a few times. Originally named Marmaduke Brandybuck, in later drafts the name was changed to a shorter and more catchy one — Merry.
It took years for Frodo to reach his end destination, but it might only take you several hours to watch it all in the original trilogy. How many hours? Oh, just 9 to 10 hours of pure fantasy content. Think of it like a marathon, but instead of running and being out of breath, you are just sitting and relaxing. A complete opposite.
Depends on which edition you watch. For the extended edition its about 4 hours each, so 12 hours.
It’s always good to have a backup plan or two when things go south. While Viggo Mortensen did play the character of Aragorn, Russell Crowe was seen as a backup for this role. But due to Crowe playing a fighter in “Gladiator,” the actor refused and instead focused on other roles in other movies.
Nothing says surprise like a sudden loud BANG! It was Billy Boyd’s genuine scream when the dragon firework went off at the party in “The Fellowship of the Ring” because, apparently, Boyd was not aware that the firework was going to explode on set (he thought that it would be put in digitally). Although it wasn't scripted, that take was included in the movie's final cut.
If you have seen the original version of the movie, you might have noticed that Saruman doesn’t pass away, and his demise is never shown in the theatrical version. In the extended versions, where there are a lot more scenes to watch and enjoy, you can see how Saruman passes away and how the characters react to it.
Like the middle child in a family, “The Two Towers” is sometimes forgotten, but no one can doubt that this part of the trilogy delivered some of the greatest moments of cinema. Like the heroes in Helm’s Deep, “The Two Towers” stood its ground at the box office, reaching $919,148,764, and at the Oscars, being nominated for six and winning two of them.
Christopher Lee, a talented actor, portrayed Saruman with perfection. But since he was a vivid fan of the books, he originally wanted to play the character of Gandalf, the gray wizard. He even got J.R.R. Tolkien's blessing to portray the character. But when the time came, he was too old to perform vital scenes, so the role went to Ian McKellen.
While we can’t know how J.R.R. Tolkien would feel about the adaptations, we do know how his son, Christopher, felt about the original adaptation. According to Christopher Tolkien, he doesn't appreciate the original trilogy since it lacks the original series' beauty and gravitas. Christopher is unwilling to meet Jackson because he despises the trilogy so much.
These days, getting a star named after you is cool. But what if your book's setting also shared a name with a planet's mountains? There are several mountain ranges on planet Saturn, which have the names of mountains from “The Lord of the Rings” books. Who knows, maybe some creatures are hiding in them?
Every parent has a favorite child. Even when they say they love them all equally, it’s just a big fat lie. Peter Jackson’s daughter was shown in the movie on several occasions. She portrayed a young child in Minas Tirith, a lovely female hobbit, and a refugee at Helm's Deep. It’s important to mention that Samwell Gamgee’s daughter, Alexandra Astin, was played by Sean Astin's real daughter.
It’s important to account for the animal actors too. With horses being the main animal we see on the camera, they had to be taken care of and looked after. For this reason, some fires in the movies had to be filmed more creatively. In one scene, due to Gandalf’s horse's fear of fire, a glass panel had to be installed between the horse and a blazing fire.
Scriptwriting is just writing a story and rewriting it till the final result is one that is liked by the creative team and the producers. While writing the scripts for the original trilogy, a lot of changes were implemented or thrown out. Originally, there were supposed to be two movies, but since the story is so long and rich in lore, it was changed to three movies.
A lot of scenes in the movie that are heartwarming and sweet were unscripted and created on the spot by talented actors. For example, one of the more memorable scenes is where Gandalf hits his head on a beam above him. Interestingly, this small “blooper” was kept in the final version of the movie.
The opening of “The Fellowship of the Ring” introduces and explains the world in a matter of minutes. The studio felt that Galadriel's famous opening monologue from “The Fellowship of the Ring'' was confusing and sought to shorten it to two minutes. The studio finally caved after the filmmakers battled to keep the monologue because it swiftly supplied a lot of crucial context.
Helm’s Deep and Minas Tirith from "The Lord of the Rings" might be two of the most memorable places in the eyes of the fans. They were also built on the same site. After the Helm's Deep sequences were completed, Minas Tirith was constructed on top of it, with some parts of the Helm's Deep set still present but altered.
When it came to massive battle scenes, CGI was used to enlarge the number of characters on the screen. A computer animation software (“Massive”) was used to create human, orc, and elf armies. Due to distinct fields of vision, these computer constructs were able to "think" and fight autonomously, identifying friends and enemies.
Due to time constraints, all three movies of the original trilogy had to be edited at the same time. Jamie Selkirk cut the finished movie while John Gilbert edited “The Fellowship of the Ring” and Michael Horton edited “The Two Towers.” Peter Jackson recognized that Selkirk would remain focused on the film's conclusion and wanted him on “The Return of the King” from the beginning.
When adapting the second book, "The Two Towers", the writers changed the story a bit to build a more proper climax. The sequence with the Shelob was pushed to "The Return of the King" and made Helm’s Deep the natural climax of the second movie. This tactical move allowed for the third movie to start on a nicer and more powerful note.
The makeup process is long and tiresome on both the actors and the makeup artists. Before appearing in front of the camera, the hobbit actors had to start their makeup process at 5 am and spend an hour and a half while their prosthetic feet were applied. To add, hobbits were the easiest to apply makeup on, as the orcs and other creatures took even longer to prepare.
When it comes to filming, the trilogy of “The Lord of the Rings” has a reputation for thinking outside the box and utilizing a variety of real-world approaches rather than solely relying on computer-generated visuals (CGI). A lot of fights were choreographed for days and weeks, and various camera techniques were used to create the best possible visuals.
Editing can be a long process that requires a lot of attention to details and other nuisances. To have the filmed footage close at hand and safely stored, for the first time ever, every single shot of the movies were digitally saved in a huge computer database for post-production changes, visual effects and editing.
“The Fellowship of the Ring” can be separated into three different parts, with each different from the other. Frodo Baggins and Gandalf are introduced in the Shire, followed by an escape to Rivendell, where the Fellowship is established, and the battle in the mines of Moria, which serves as the book's climax.
The trilogy of “The Lord Of The Rings” is long, like eleven-ish hours long. With so many twists and turns, and battles to enjoy, the trilogy's climax only comes at the very end of the third movie, “The Return of the King,” when Frodo and Sam finally reach Sauron's tower and after a small struggle, destroy the ring of power. Eleven hours are totally worth it to see that scene.
