Warwick Davis and Timothy Spall auditioned for the role of Gimli.
Robin Atkin Downes and Jason Carter auditioned for the role of Aragorn.
Stuart Townsend. was originally cast as Aragorn, but was replaced by Viggo Mortensen after four days of shooting due to creative differences.
Ian Holm, who plays Bilbo Baggins, was the voice of Frodo Baggins in the 1981 BBC Radio adaptation of "The Lord of The Rings".
Producer Tim Sanders left the project after principal photography had commenced.
Elijah Wood dressed up in breeches and a flowing shirt and went out into the hills to shoot his audition tape. His friend George Huang, directed the video.
Although David Bowie was said to be keen on playing Elf Lord Elrond, the part went instead to Hugo Weaving.
Daniel Day-Lewis turned down the role of Aragorn.
In the prologue scene, John Howe and Alan Lee can be seen as two of the nine human kings.
The two most renowned Tolkien artists are Alan Lee and John Howe, and so it was important to Peter Jackson to have those two on board. Lee was tracked down to a tiny little village in Dartmoor, England and was FedExed a package of Jackson's Heavenly Creatures (1994) and a letter outlining his intentions. They monitored the progress of the FedEx package every step of the way, but were somewhat surprised when Lee rang them only 3 hours after delivery to say he'd love to work with them. Howe meanwhile was living in Switzerland, and because someone hadn't worked out the time differences between Europe and New Zealand correctly, was rung about 2am. He says that the biggest frustration with that phone call was waiting for Jackson to finish his pitch before he could say yes.
New Line insisted on a prologue of two minutes. What they got was one that lasts for seven and a half.
Originally the narration at the prologue was to be spoken by Elijah Wood, but it was felt that the information imparted had little bearing on the character of Frodo. Ian McKellen also recorded a narration but once again it was felt that Gandalf wasn't the right character to speak it. They eventually settled on Cate Blanchett as Galadriel as it emphasizes the timelessness of the elves.
The bridge in Hobbiton was built by the New Zealand army out of polystyrene.
There were supposed to be 144 Hobbits at Bilbo Baggins's party. Due to budgetary constraints, there are actually only 100.
Bilbo Baggins's birthday cake has 111 candles on it and they eventually set fire to the polystyrene cake.
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