Random Things You Didn't Know About The Lord Of The Rings Films (35 items)

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  (#1) Gandalf Bumping His Head In Bilbo's House Was Not Scripted

  Gandalf's painful encounter with a ceiling beam in Bilbo's hobbit-hole was not in the script - Ian McKellen banged his forehead against the beam accidentally, not on purpose. But Peter Jackson thought McKellen did a great job "acting through" the mistake, so he kept it in.
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  (#2) Saruman Was A Huge "Lord Of The Rings" Fan

  Christopher Lee read The Lord of the Rings once a year beginning in 1954, the year it was published. He was also the only member of the cast and crew to have met J.R.R. Tolkien.
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  (#3) Sean Bean, As Boromir, Would Hike To Set Every Day In Wardrobe

  The cast often had to fly to remote shoot locations by helicopter. Sean Bean (Boromir) was afraid of flying and would only do it when absolutely necessary. When they were shooting the scenes of the Fellowship crossing the snowy mountains, he'd spend two hours every morning climbing from the base of the mountain to the set near the top, already dressed as Boromir.

  The crew being flown up could see him from their helicopters.
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  (#4) Viggo Mortensen Became An Incredible Swordsman Over The Course Of The Trilogy

   

  Veteran sword master Bob Anderson called Mortensen "the best swordsman I've ever trained." Mortensen did his own stunts and insisted on only using a real steel sword, instead of significantly lighter aluminum swords or safer rubber swords, which were manufactured for battle scenes and stunts.

   
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  (#5) John Rhys-Davies Also Voiced Treebeard, But In A Surprisingly Low-Tech Way

  In addition to playing Gimli, John Rhys-Davies also provided the voice of Treebeard. It wasn't achieved by electronic distortion, but by having the actor speak in his naturally booming voice at lowest pitch possible, through a wooden megaphone.
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  (#6) The Last Shot Of Principal Photography Was, Fittingly, Of The 4 Hobbits

  The last shot of principal photography was of when the newly-crowned Aragorn bows to the four hobbits. Although Viggo Mortensen did not need to be on set for that day, he nevertheless insisted on being present. He didn't have a crown (it wasn't necessary - he wasn't being filmed) so he fashioned one out of paper.

  With each successive take, the crown was becoming more ornate and sillier as crew members kept decorating it, so the four actors playing the Hobbits often had difficulty suppressing their giggles.
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  (#7) Viggo Mortensen Not Only Bought His Horse, But Arwen's As Well

  Viggo Mortensen was so impressed with the horse his character rides in the series that he purchased it from the owners. The horse was shipped back to New Zealand for the additional shots that were filmed in 2002. He also purchased Arwen's horse after production and gave it to Liv Tyler's riding double.
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  (#8) Bilbo's Floor Was Magnetic, For An Important Reason

  In order to show the huge importance and weight of the One Ring, the floor was built to be magnetic, so that when Bilbo dropped the ring, it wouldn't bounce.
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  (#9) The Main Door To Helm's Deep Was Built Too Well And Had To Be Modified

  The main door to Helm's Deep was built so heavily and so well that the real battering ram that was built to knock down the gates failed to do so until the door was weakened. Someone had built the door a little bit too well and Peter Jackson can be heard on the extended DVD commentary saying that if they had to defend a castle, he would want the Weta Workshop guys to build the door.
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  (#10) The "LOTR" Trilogy Was One Of The First Franchises To Use MASSIVE And It Was Instrumental In Getting The Films Made

  For high-tech tasks, a computer program called MASSIVE made armies of CG orcs, elves, and humans. These digital creations could "think" and battle independently - identifying friend or foe - thanks to individual fields of vision. Peter Jacksons's team could click on one creature in a crowd scene of 20,000 and see through his "eyes." Different species even boast unique fighting styles.
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  (#11) Some Of The Things You Never Even Noticed In The Film Took The Crew Weeks To Pull Off

  During the Council of Elrond, leaves are continually falling in the background to suggest that this is a meeting that is taking place outside. This meant about half a dozen crew members were positioned above the set, dropping leaves at various intervals. This also meant that the art department had to collect sacks and sacks of leaves during autumn, and, since dead leaves turn brown fairly quickly, every single one of those leaves had to be individually painted.
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  (#12) Billy Boyd's Hobbit Scream In "The Fellowship Of The Ring" Was As Real As It Gets

  When the dragon firework goes off at the party, the shriek heard is Billy Boyd actually screaming, as he was unaware at the time that the firework was really going to explode on set (he thought that it would be put in digitally). It was not scripted, but that take ended up in the final cut of the film.
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  (#13) The Wrap Gift Each Cast Member Received Was Specific To His Or Her Character

  Each of the cast members was given a gift on their last day of shooting - usually a prop that was significant to their role. Miranda Otto received one of Eowyn's dresses and her sword, Liv Tyler received Arwen's "dying dress," and Orlando Bloom got one of Legolas's bows.
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  (#14) The Orc Blacksmiths Making Weapons Were Actually The Crew Members... Making Weapons

  The orc blacksmiths shown beneath Isengard in The Fellowship of the Ring are actually the WETA Workshop staff, who made the weapons used in the films.
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  (#15) The Franchise Went To Great Lengths To Preserve The Land On Which They Filmed

  The location for Edoras in The Two Towers was in the midst of a national park. The Conservation Society of New Zealand gave them permission to film there on the provison that they left it in exactly the same condition in which they found it. This meant lifting up most of the natural vegetation and grasses and storing them in a purpose-built nursery, as filming at the location would last approximately 18 months.
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  (#16) Christopher Lee Had Tolkien's Personal Blessing To Play... Gandalf?

  When Christopher Lee and J.R.R. Tolkien were in correspondence, Tolkien gave Lee his blessing to play Gandalf if there ever was a film version of Lord of the Rings. Years later, Lee campaigned for the part of Gandalf in this production, but was offered the part of Saruman instead. Lee, who wanted to participate in the project any way he could, accepted the role.
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  (#17) To Watch All 3 Extended Editions, You'll Need Almost Half A Day

  If one watched the extended versions back to back, it would take 681 min (11 hr, 21 min) to finish.
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  (#18) The Final Day Of Filming Took Place Months After The Third Film's Theatrical Release

  The final day of filming on the trilogy actually happened over a month after The Return of the King was theatrically released, and three weeks after the 2004 Academy Awards. Peter Jackson arranged to film one final shot of skulls on the floor in the tunnel of the Paths of the Dead, which was included in the extended edition of The Return of the King.

  He thought it was funny to still be shooting a movie that had already won the Best Picture Oscar.
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  (#19) Ian Holm Has Played Both Frodo And Bilbo Baggins

  Ian Holm, who plays Bilbo Baggins in the series, was the voice of Frodo Baggins in the 1981 BBC Radio adaptation of The Lord of The Rings.
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  (#20) Not A Single One Of The 300 Horses Used In The Films Was Hurt During The Production Of The Series

  Between two and three hundred horses were used in the trilogy. Because most of the scenes involving horses were intense battle scenes in which the horses could likely be harmed, a horse and rider were fitted with the same type of suit that Andy Serkis wore for his role, and were filmed in the studio doing typical "battle" things, like galloping and rearing up, so the footage could be inserted digitally into the battle scenes. In that way, no horses were hurt.
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  (#21) Before Filming The Orcs Had To Swish Licorice-Based Mouthwash To Achieve The Right Look

  As the orcs have black blood, it was only natural that the inside of their mouths should not be pink but black as well. To achieve this, the orc actors had to swill a licorice-based mouthwash prior to each of their scenes.
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  (#22) Alka-Seltzer Helped Make The Shelob Scene More Visceral

  For the scene in which Frodo gets pierced by Shelob, Elijah Wood had two Alka-Seltzers hidden under his tongue, which he chewed up to create white foam. The foam then leaked out of the corner of his mouth.
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  (#23) Some Inside Jokes And Nods Were Put Into The Dialogue In Cases When The Films Strayed From The Books

  In The Two Towers, when Frodo and Sam are in Osgiliath, Sam says, "By rights, we shouldn't even be here." This was a nod to a deviation between the book and the screenplay. In the book, Sam and Frodo never passed through Osgiliath at all.
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  (#24) Ian McKellen's First And Second Days Filming Were Gandalf's First And Last Scenes In The Film

  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 Gray Havens.
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  (#25) Arwen Was Originally Meant To Battle Alongside The Elves

  Originally Liv Tyler's character, Arwen, was to be included in the fighting force of elves who join the men in the battle of Helm's Deep. This was a relic of the script treatment for Miramax, which condensed all three books into two films, and met with fan fury on the Internet with its inconsiderate approach to Tolkien's work.

  Tyler had even trained with sword fighters in preparation for her scenes, before the decision to remove her was made by the writers, who realized that this approach wasn't working. Arwen, who doesn't appear in the book version of The Two Towers, was ultimately reworked into the story by lifting elements from the Appendices at the end of the novel, using flashbacks to her and Aragorn at Rivendell. It took the writers about a year to come up with this solution.
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  (#26) All 3 Films Were Also In Post-Production Simultaneously

  While John Gilbert was editing The Fellowship of the Ring and Michael Horton was editing The Two Towers, Jamie Selkirk was cutting the final film.  

  From the start, Peter Jackson wanted his longtime associate Selkirk on The Return of the King as he knew Selkirk would stay focused on the climax of the entire saga.
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  (#27) Minas Tirith And Helm's Deep Were Built On The Same Set

  The Minas Tirith set was built on the same site as Helm's Deep, after the Helm's Deep scenes had been shot. Pieces of Helm's Deep were altered and built on top of to create the Minas Tirith set.
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  (#28) The Creation Of Gollum Set The New Standard In Creating Realistic CGI Skin

  A new technique for creating realistic translucent materials was developed for the creation of Gollum. The so-called "subsurface scattering" technique, allowed the 3D artists at Weta Digital, to simulate light casting into objects and bouncing around underneath the surface and casted back out again. This has been used ever since in VFX production to create realistic skin.
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  (#29) The Day Of Shooting, A Ping Pong Ball Stood In For Balrog

  When Gandalf had his big stand-off scene with the Balrog, Ian McKellen was actually acting to a ping pong ball.
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  (#30) Shelob (The Giant Spider) Sent Elijah Wood To The Hospital

  While Frodo is stabbed by Shelob's stinger, Elijah Wood was actually stabbed with a prop. On the extended DVD commentary, he and Sean Astin comment that it was not only very, very painful, but actually did damage to the point that Wood had to stay in the hospital for a couple of days. Astin jokes on the commentary track that they used appendicitis as the excuse.
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  (#31) You Can Tell What Mood Gollum Is In By His Eyes

  Gollum's pupils signal his frame of mind. "Treacherous Gollum" has narrow pupils; "Friendly Gollum" has slightly wider pupils. This is most obvious in the scene when the two sides of his personality struggle with each other in The Two Towers.
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  (#32) You May Never See Andy Serkis In The Films, But You Do See His Spit

  In The Two Towers when Gollum spits in disgust at Sam's cooking of rabbits, that is Andy Serkis's very own spittle flying through the air. Serkis lists that scene as his favorite from all three films.
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  (#33) The Gollum Seen Briefly In "The Fellowship Of The Ring" Is Completely Different From The One In The Rest Of The Series

  The Gollum that is briefly glimpsed in The Fellowship of the Ring is an entirely different creation than the one that appears in the other two films. It was during the filming of the second movie that Peter Jackson realized that Andy Serkis's physical performance would have to be employed in the digital creation of Gollum. So Weta Digital had to alter the design of one of the lead characters in the film, scanning Serkis's face so that they would be able to incorporate some of his facial characteristics (the fact that Jackson had also filmed a flashback to be included in The Return of the King with Serkis playing the original Smeagol only cemented this decision). This ultimately meant, however, that Weta Digital had only two and a half months to redo two years' work. Serkis himself thought that the final result looked like a combination of his father and his newborn baby.
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  (#34) The Writers Had To Slightly Change A Few Things From The Book To Build To A Proper Climax In "The Two Towers"

  It was clear to the writers from the very beginning that the entire final sequence of the novel (Frodo and Sam's encounter with Shelob) would be part of the third film, not the second installment. Also, the confrontation with a defeated Saruman at Isengard was deemed to be too anti-climactic, and was therefore moved to the third film as well. This tactical move meant the battle for Helm's Deep became the natural climax in The Two Towers.  

  Another problem faced by the writers was that unlike in The Fellowship of the Ring, no major characters die in the course of The Two Towers, something which could have easily provided them with an emotional climax.
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  (#35) The Hobbits' Foot Makeup Took Longer Than An Episode Of "Game Of Thrones"

  The four actors playing the young hobbits would have to go into makeup at 5 am and stand for an hour and a half while their prosthetic feet were being applied.

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