Madril (John Bach), who appears in both "The Two Towers" and "The Return of the King" films, was actually not in either of the books. He was a character recreated from a character named Mardil (notice the "r" and the "d" switched), who was the Steward of Gondor in the books.
The last scene shot during principal photography was a scene where Aragorn was dressed by Gondorian Soldiers in his armor before riding to Mordor. The soldiers were played by people from the wardrobe department but the scene was eventually cut.
During one of the shots filming the charge of the Rohirrim, a horse rider fell off the back of his horse. All the horses that came behind him miraculously managed to either miss or avoid him.
Even though Saruman's demise appears in the Special Extended Edition of Return of the King (2003), Christopher Lee was (and still is) "not amused" that his character was cut from the theatrical release. In an interview done after the release of the Extended Edition, he acknowledged that the makers gave him several arguments for trimming the scene (pacing and time constraints), but in his opinion, none of them justified omitting such an important narrative element.
The scene where Aragorn's army assembles in front of the Black Gate of Mordor was shot in a desert that was used by the army as a training field. Because it was still littered with mines and bombs that hadn't gone off, the army had to sweep the field with metal detectors to make the danger for the actors and extras acceptable at least.
Since John Rhys-Davies suffered constant rashes from wearing the Gimli make-up, the make-up department gave him the opportunity to throw his Gimli mask into the fire on his last day of pick-up photography. He didn't hesitate a moment to grab and burn it.
Director Cameo: [Peter Jackson] In the extended edition, the pirate that is shot by Legolas's arrow.
Then 26-year-old Stuart Townsend was set to play Aragorn, but was let go after the six weeks of training and rehearsal and one day into filming because director Peter Jackson felt the character should be played by someone older. He was replaced by forty-one year old Viggo Mortensen
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) were filmed simultaneously.
Most of the lines Legolas says in the Extended Edition scene of the Paths of the Dead are direct quotes from the book.
Cameo: [Howard Shore (composer of all three films) and Michael Semanick (recording engineer)] seen over Legolas' shoulder during the drinking game in the Golden Hall, in the Extended Edition.
SDDS 8 channel decoders list the title of the film that it is decoding on its display. For this film, certain reels were labeled "Till Death for Glory" whereas others were labeled "Bejing Chicken".
John Rhys-Davies provides the voice of Treebeard (uncredited for this movie, but credited for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)).
The scene on the extended DVD version of the "Corsairs of Umbar" being attacked by the army of the dead includes several cameos. Peter Jackson is the one hit by Legolas' arrow. (In the commentary, he states that he performed 6 or 7 takes of the hit - without any padding.) Co-producer Rick Porras is seen with a "look of horror" as the ghostly hoard attacks at the very end of the scene.
A normal major motion picture averages about 200 effects shots. This film had 1488.
|
