The Lord of the Rings story, as told through the Extended Editions, has a running time of 11 hours and 22 minutes.
Peter Jackson made $125 million from the three Lord of the Rings films.
According to a survey of 276,500 people, covering both genders and every age group, LOTR is most popular among the following demogaphics in ranked order:
1. Females under 18
2. Females 44 plus
3. Females 18 to 29
4. Males under 18
5. Males 18 to 29
6. Males 30 to 44
7. Females 30 to 44
8. Males 44 plus
"Return of the King" was the first sci fi / fantasy film to win the Oscar for Best Picture, and the first to win for Best Director.
Peter Jackson cut his own hair throughout the project because he didn't have time to schedule a haircut appointment.
In the movie "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" as Harry enters Dumbledore's study, a portrait of Gandalf the Grey is included in the collection of paintings. (It is above the doorframe.)
The images during the closing credits of ROTK are pre-production sketches, shown in the reverse of the order the actors first appear in the trilogy.
Rohan was designed to look like a Kingdom from around 900 A.D.
48,000 props were used in the films.
At Rivendell, Sean was hit on the head by an Elven loom. (Viggo said it was because he was having impure thoughts.) He had to get a CAT scan. "When he got back all he could say was about how large his brain was!" says Elijah. "We didn’t hear if he was healthy, just how large his brain was."
On the quest to Mount Doom, Frodo and Sam always travel left to right on screen.
Ian McKellen based Gandalf off of Tolkien. "All the Fellowship reflect aspects of Tolkien's personality," he says, "but none more so than Gandalf. I adopted Tolkien's accent and voice somewhat."
Gimli's beard was made of yak belly hair.
Stuart Townsend, originally cast as Aragorn, was fired one day into shooting. (The Weathertop scenes were being shot). Not only was Stuart too young for the part, he wasn't a very good physical actor - an important part of Aragorn's character.
Bernard Hill (Theoden) made his own audition tape which he directed himself in a friend's barn.
Peter Jackson suffers from entomophobia. (This is not the fear of Ents, but the fear of insects.)
The Long Expected Party, Fangorn Forest, and the Paths of the Dead were all shot in studios indoors.
Millions of silk leaves were imported from China for the trilogy.
Lord of the Rings was known to be hot property in Hollywood for decades. Many different producers and directors asked Saul Zaentz about the possibility of making films based off the books. One of those requests came from a young Mark Ordesky. (Like all the rest before Peter, he was turned down.)
The majority of LOTR's soundtrack was mixed at Abbey Road Studios.
After 18 months of hard work, Peter had four weeks to save LOTR. Almost every studio refused to even hear a proposal during that time.
George Lucas has cited LOTR as a major influence for Star Wars.
Shooting for LOTR took place at over 100 locations and on more than 350 sets all in New Zealand.
Edoras was completely built and required no matte paintings or miniatures. "Consider the facts," says Richard Taylor. "I'm working with a director who wants to be able to film a full 360 degrees from the highest point and, somehow, I've got to locate three acres of tents, two acres of trucks, and stabling for 200 horses without their getting into any shots!" Dan Hennah came up with the solution: he created a large rock with a hidden corridor inside.
Galadriel's Glade, Elrond's Chamber at Rivendell, and the interior of Orthanc were all filmed in the same place (Studio A). Minas Tirith and Helm's Deep were built at the same location.
The design team had their worst problems envisioning how Elves should look, redesigning them hundreds of times. The hobbits, by contrast, were the easiest to design.
100,000,000 people world-wide have read the books
The face of the fell beast was based on that of a salmon.
The dress and props for Legolas are Celtic and whimsical. Gimli's are Teutonic and Norse inspired, with sharp edges and more of an architectural feel. This shows the cultural division between elves and dwarves.
John (Gimli) is actually the tallest of the Fellowship actors. He also voices the tallest character in the movie, Treebeard.
Weta's John Harding was going to play Radagast the Brown in the background of a scene, but those plans were scrapped. Years later, the costume was pulled out of storage and John was photographed as the wizard for a trading card
Ian McKellen's first day of shooting on the trilogy was Gandalf's first scene, arriving in Hobbiton. His second day of shooting was Gandalf's final scene of the film, at the Grey Havens. "I scarcely knew Frodo from Merry," Ian says, "and adopted the safest course of expressing very little as I said goodbye to them."
Sean Astin gained 30 pounds for his role as Samwise.
In the scene where the Hobbits finally return to Hobbiton, Elijah Wood had a hard time controlling his pony, Sean Astin was allergic to the ponies, and Dominic Monaghan was in a bad mood because of technical aspects revolving around the scene. Billy Boyd, meanwhile, was "in stitches".
Frodo's mithril shirt proved to be more than just a prop. When the Witch King (played by Ben Price at the time) was filmed stabbing Elijah Wood at Weathertop, Elijah wore the chain mail shirt under his costume for protection.
The actors who played the Riders of Rohan may surprise you. "Ideally, we wanted guys who were six feet tall with long hair and long beards to ride the horses," says Steve Old, head the Horse Department. "On New Zealand's South Island, though, it's mostly females who ride horses. In the end, we probably had five guys and the remaining 250 or so riders were women dressed as men! And the average age of the women was about 50." The women also played the Ringwraith riders.
Over 6 million feet of film shot during production.
In a 1999 interview that touched on Gollum, Peter Jackson said, "Throw out any thoughts or concerns you have about CG creatures you've seen. This is gonna be different. Gollum's going to be cool!"
Andy's first scene was confronting the Hobbits at Mount Doom.
Liv Tyler's father (rock legend Steven Tyler of Aerosmith) fell asleep when he saw FOTR.
At Osgiliath, Samwise says, "It's all wrong! By rights we shouldn't even be here!" In the books Frodo and Sam never visit Osgiliath.
The titles of the films in each extended cut appear in different places than in the theatrical cuts.
The Lord of the Rings Official website called the first film "The Fellowship of the Rings" for over a year.
Enya, who performed two songs for "Fellowship of the Ring", actually has a connection to another blockbuster. James Cameron originally wanted her to compose the score for "Titanic" and even went so far as to assemble a rough edit using her music. When she declined to be involved, Cameron hired James Horner who wrote the film's score in Enya's style.
One time, while Howard Shore was attempting to record music for FOTR, a studio laptop computer exploded static over the studio speakers and the player's headphones. This event caused some uproar, and also led to the quote from first violinist Dermot Crehan who, having been conversing with Shore in his lilting Irish brogue all afternoon, said "Howard, its Dermot... there are brains on the floor in here".
The One Ring was made by Jens Hansen, a renowned jewellery designer. (Actually many "one" rings were made.) Sadly, Hansen passed away prior to the start of principal photography. Elijah was given the main Ring at the end of the shoot.
The "short" versions of the films have a total running time of 9 hours and 17 minutes.
In late 2001, Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema decided to go with a three hour cut of Fellowship of the Ring, with the idea that TTT and ROTK could always be two hours if there was negative feedback. Because public reaction to the FOTR's length was overwhelmingly favorable, the other two films were given longer running times as well.
The very last piece of footage for the trilogy was shot after Peter returned to New Zealand from the Oscar Ceremony. The director wanted footage of two skulls rolling at the Paths of the Dead for the Extended Edition. He commented at the time, "This is the most bizarre thing because we are effectively shooting the last shot of the film after we won the Oscar. I bet this is the only time that has happened in history!"
When the mountains of Mordor are shown early in the movie, you can see Osgiliath just beside them.
The infamous car scene was digitally taken out of the DVD and home video version of the film, but it can still be seen in the Appendices and the National Geographic special. (There's not much to see, and this was blown way out of proportion.)
When Saruman says "Rip them all down!" to the orcs, one of them (lower left) is tugging so hard on a tree that when it's uprooted he falls over backwards onto his butt.
There are whip scars on Gollum's back from when he was captured by Sauron.
The tapestry in Arwen's room shows the Two Trees and a ship.
Faramir needs to talk to his cartographer. His map has several typos: "Black Gates", "Helms Deep", and "Dagorland"
When Théoden's saying, "Who will come? Elves? Dwarves? We are not so lucky in our friends as you!" there's a young mother on the wall behind him playing patty-cake with a toddler.
When the men are retreating into the halls of Helm's Deep, an archer in the bottom right corner repeatedly shoots his bow without an arrow on the string.
Gandalf never addresses a hobbit by his shortened name. He does only uses a shortened name when talking to others: "Sam has hardly left your side." "Merry and Pippin are quite safe." "There was no lie in Pippin's eyes.")
When Frodo slides down the little tunnel that Shelob can't fit through, he drops the Phial of Galadriel.
Aragorn gives a speech to the men of Gondor and Rohan on his horse Then in the next scene his horse is gone.
The Grey Havens scene includes Cirdan, last seen in the prologue of FOTR
Number Tolkien chapter titles referenced in the dialogue -- 18
Number of times Frodo falls down -- 34
Number of times Sam eavesdrops -- 7
Number of times Aragorn tosses somebody -- 3
Number of times we see food -- 36
Number of times they play the old "he's dead! No wait, he isn't" trick -- 15
Number of times a hobbit says, "What are you doing?" -- 7
Characters accused of being late-- 4
Number of times a character sings -- 10
The extended edition of FOTR was an idea that developed in 2001 during the editing phase. Extended editions for TTT and ROTK were not considered until much later. When asked in 2002 if NLC would make extended cuts for the second and third films Matt LaSorsa, senior vice president of marketing for New Line Home Entertainment, said, "We'll have to wait and see. So much of it depends on the running time of the theatrical versions, what can be included from ratings standpoints and just pure story content." (And needless to say, NLC was curious as to how FOTR EE would sell.)
When Aragorn's coronation was first filmed, the crown slipped right over Viggo's brow, over his face, and fell down to his shoulders. "And there was just this horrible silence," says Jasmine Watson, LOTR's jeweller. "My initial head measurement that I had taken from Viggo was drastically wrong."
Names most often misspelled by the press: Ian McKellen (sic as McKellan) and Philippa Boyens (sic as Phillipa or Phillippa). Even the Lord of the Rings Fan Club magazine has trouble with these names.
Boromir's father, Denethor, is played by John Noble. In Lothlorien, Boromir says, "My father is a noble man."
The Orc battle cries for the Helm's Deep battle sequence were provided by 25,000 cricket fans at Westpac Stadium. The fans screamed war chants spelled out on the Diamond Vision screen, with Peter Jackson himself leading the crowd. Sound technicians returned to the stadium a year later to record sounds for battle scenes in The Return of the King.
Originally, Eowyn was going to be a redhead. When shooting started, Miranda Otto wore a golden red wig, twisted back in a Pre-Raphaelite style. Then it was decided her hair would be blonde and allowed to fly free to make her look more feminine.
Instant potato flakes were used for Grima Wormtongue's dandruff.
All of the actors (except for some of the extras) were wigged. The actors had to have their real hair slicked back with a gel that when dry had a texture similar to concrete. The wig was then glued onto the forehead and pinned in the back. Orlando cut his hair off to make the process easier.
The Shire and the world of the hobbits were constructed to make it look like they live in a world of their own apart from the rest of Middle-earth. Every prop, set, and costume in a scene with both a hobbit and a big person had to have a double 1.38 times bigger so normal items would look the right size with the hobbits. Judy Alley, who helped dress the sets, says, "Even the pickled onions and gherkins in jars on the kitchen shelves were scaled in size."
Most of the food that appears in the film was edible. The most popular: the dishes that were served at the long expected party. The least popular: lembas bread.
Billy Boyd was the first of the Hobbit actors to be cast and the last of the Hobbit actors to leave New Zealand.
Hobbits were designed to look like they could've lived in 14th, 15th, or 16th century England.
The birthdays of Ian McKellen and Christopher Lee (the two wizards) are two days apart; as are the birthdays of Ralph Bakshi and Peter Jackson (the two LOTR directors). The birthdays of John Howe and Alan Lee (the concept artists) are one day apart. Dan Madsen, the President of the LOTR Fan Club, has a birthday that sometimes falls on President's Day (A United States holiday), as it did in 2004.
Gandalf's wizard hat was so hated by all the film crew, including actor Ian McKellen, that a plot was hatched to change the movie's storyline so the hat would be destroyed.
