User blog:TheWarrior29/Did you know...

That 
 * ROTK is in a three-way tie with  Titanic  and  Ben Hur  for the most Oscars won by a single film — eleven. Moreover, the film series  The Lord of the Rings  won more Oscars than  any  other film series.
 * Peter Jackson  actually used his own phobia of spiders to measure the effectiveness of Shelob's design and animations.
 * Sylvester McCoy (the Seventh Doctor) was considered for the role of Bilbo . (He would later go on to play Radagast the Brown in The Hobbit .)
 * Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke were being considered for Éowyn and Éomer. Thurman initially accepted the offer but had to cancel due to pregnancy.
 * Sean Connery was originally offered the role of Gandalf, but turned it down because he didn't like the first script. (Another version of this says he "didn't understand the story".) Russell Crowe was another actor who turned down a role from this movie (as Aragorn) because he didn't like the shooting schedule.
 * Christopher Lee originally auditioned for the role of Gandalf . He immediately realized that Gandalf was a very physical role and he might have been able to have done it 25 years ago.
 * Tom Baker was offered "a role" according to him, not necessarily "the role of Gandalf". He turned it down because he didn't want to be in New Zealand for months at a time. Speculation still exists on what this role may have been. Some speculate that it might have perhaps been Radagast the Brown (which eventually went to fellow Doctor Who alum Sylvester McCoy for Peter Jackson's adaptation of The Hobbit).