The Lord of the Rings film trilogy
This article is about the live-action 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). |
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring movie poster (2001) |
The Lord of the Rings film trilogy comprises three
live action films, directed by
Peter Jackson and released by
New Line Cinema, based upon the fantasy book
The Lord of the Rings by
J. R. R. Tolkien. For the most part, they follow the storyline of the book. However, there are some major deviations as detailed within the entry for each film.
The Lord of the Rings film trilogy is widely and currently considered to be the most popular
[Remaking King Kong an honor for Jackson by John Horn, last retrieved on 5 August 2006] 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)
[Top Box Office Earning Trilogies Worldwide at Box Office Mojo.com, last retrieved on 5 August 2006], 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.
[The film trilogy's entry at UsefulTrivia.com, last retrieved on 5 August 2006] Critical acclaim has commonly hailed the trilogy as "the greatest films of our era,"
[Film Hobbit's review of Return of the King, last retrieved on 5 August 2006] and "the trilogy will not soon, if ever, find its equal."
[Return of the King review at CalendarLive.com by Kenneth Turan, last retrieved on 5 August 2006]On the other hand, some readers of the book decried certain changes made in the adaptation, including various changes made to characters such as
Aragorn,
Arwen,
Denethor and
Faramir, and the deletion of the next to the last chapter of Tolkien's work, the thematically necessary "
The Scouring of the Shire".
[Filming Issues With The Two Towers Movie at OddLots.digitalspace.net, last retrieved on 5 August 2006] The trilogy's defenders assert that it is a worthy interpretation of the book, most changes stemming from the filmmakers putting the book into a modern context ; connected to this is their perceived need for developing characters further. In any case, the films proved popular with critics from general audiences (i.e. non-readers).
Principal photography for all three films was conducted concurrently in
New Zealand from October of 1999 through December of 2000, while
post-production for each took place consecutively in 2001, 2002, and 2003. Extended versions of the films were post-produced in 2002, 2003, and 2004.
Pick-up shoots were conducted annually from 2001 to 2004.
The entire film project took over eight years from start to finish. Peter Jackson and his wife,
Fran Walsh, began inquiries about the
Lord of the Rings rights in 1995 and struck a deal with copyright holder
Saul Zaentz and
Miramax Films the following year. 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, before selling it off altogether to
New Line Cinema in 1998.
Robert Shaye, head of New Line Cinema, immediately decided to expand the project to three films (with a budget of $270 million), as his studio had a history of not being able to get sequels made to some of its more successful movies.
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). Production was complicated by the use of scale doubles and
forced perspective on a level never seen before in the film industry. Most props, costumes, and some entire sets had to be made twice: once regular size and once 1.38 times bigger. (Even the raw materials, such as threads in costumes, had to be manufactured at two different sizes.) Filming was further complicated by the use of a highly detailed photo-realistic
computer-generated image serving as a lead character in
Gollum â€" the third time this was ever done (the first being
Draco from the Universal film
Dragonheart, and second being
Jar Jar Binks of
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace).
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.
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 Longer Fellowship Ending? by Paul Davidson, last retrieved on 5 August 2006] 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.
[MovieWeb.com's News for 23 September 2003, last retrieved on 5 August 2006]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.)
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.
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.
Each successive film made more money at
box offices worldwide than the last; the reverse of what normally happens to a film series. The success of the theatrical cuts brought about Extended Editions, with new editing, added special effects and music. These versions were originally released on DVD and VHS, but they have played at
movie theaters. 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. In August 2006 both versions were put together in a '
branching' version.
[The film trilogy's entry at DVDActive.com, last retrieved on 5 August 2006]*
Frodo -
Elijah Wood*
Gandalf -
Ian McKellen*
Aragorn -
Viggo Mortensen*
Samwise -
Sean Astin*
Merry -
Dominic Monaghan*
Pippin -
Billy Boyd*
Legolas -
Orlando Bloom*
Gimli/Voice of
Treebeard -
John Rhys-Davies*
Boromir -
Sean Bean*
Faramir -
David Wenham*
Denethor -
John Noble*
Saruman -
Christopher Lee*
Isildur -
Harry Sinclair*
Elendil - Peter McKenzie
*
Bilbo -
Ian Holm*
Elrond -
Hugo Weaving*
Galadriel -
Cate Blanchett*
Celeborn -
Marton Csokas*
Gil-galad -
Mark Ferguson*
Arwen -
Liv Tyler*
Haldir -
Craig Parker*
Gollum -
Andy Serkis*
Theoden -
Bernard Hill*
Éomer -
Karl Urban*
Eowyn -
Miranda Otto*
Gamling -
Bruce Hopkins*
Grimbold -
Bruce Phillips*
Wormtongue -
Brad Dourif*
Witchking/
Gothmog/
Lurtz -
Lawrence Makoare*
Mouth of Sauron -
Bruce Spence |
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers movie poster (2002) |
* Amount of film shot during production:
Over 6 million feet (over 1,800 kilometers)* Props made from scratch:
48,000* Props not made from scratch:
0* Background actors cast:
20,602* Costumes produced by the wardrobe department:
19,000* New Zealand cricket fans enlisted to create the
Uruk-hai army's grunts:
10,000* Behind-the-scenes crew members:
2,400 at the height of production
* Pairs of prosthetic
Hobbit feet created:
1,600* Most real horses in one scene:
250* Computer special-effects artists employed:
180* Total number of special effects shots (Theatrical cut):
2730* Total number of special effects shots (Extended cut):
3420* Total speaking roles:
114* Locations in New Zealand used as backdrops:
100* Tailors, cobblers, designers, et al in the wardrobe department:
50 * Actors trained to speak fictional dialects and languages:
30* Total years of development for all three films:
8* Combined running time of the series (extended
DVD editions):
683 minutes (11 hours and 23 minutes)* Hours of behind-the-scenes footage shot for the DVD Appendices:
1,500 * Combined worldwide box-office gross:
US$2,916,544,743 eclipsing by far any other motion picture trilogy
|
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.
*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 |
| - |
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 written in the long form and then released separately into the three whole parts (this has had some debate and is actually a six part novel complete with prologue and Epilogue), the trilogy is one long 10-hour film. When
Time 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.
*Throughout the entire film trilogy, only seven people (most of them Hobbits) touch the One Ring (listed in chronological order):
Sauron,
Isildur,
Deagol,
Smeagol (Gollum),
Bilbo,
Frodo, and
Sam.
* Movie-Mistakes.com lists 231 mistakes for
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 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."
[Blunders in the first two films, last retrieved on 5 August 2006]*
Official site of the films*
The Official Fan Club*
Official site of J.R.R. Tolkien*
The shooting scheduleThe 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.
*
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*
Official Lord of the Rings Movie Merchandise Catalog 
