The Lord of the Rings film trilogy



The Lord of the Rings film trilogy consists of three live action films, directed by Peter Jackson. Principal photography for all three films took place in New Zealand over a continuous eighteen-month period &mdash; the first time that three films had ever been shot together in this way, although some pairs of films had. There were several later "pick-up" shoots over the following months and years as the films were edited, special effects were added and the script was honed and revised. These films could be considered the definitive visual medium of Tolkien's work.


 * The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring was released in December 2001, and won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation of 2001.
 * The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers was released in December 2002
 * The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King was released in December 2003, and won all 11 Academy Awards for which it was nominated, including the Academy Award for Best Picture of 2003.

Peter Jackson himself described the production as "laying the track down front of a moving train" (paraphrased). The series was also the largest film production ever mounted in the southern hemisphere.

The films for the most part follow the storyline of the books (see J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings); however there are some major deviations as detailed within the entry for each film.

Cast

 * Frodo - Elijah Wood
 * Gandalf - Ian McKellen
 * Aragorn - Viggo Mortensen
 * Sam - 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
 * Bilbo - Ian Holm
 * Elrond - Hugo Weaving
 * Galadriel - Cate Blanchett
 * Arwen - Liv Tyler
 * Gollum - Andy Serkis
 * Theoden - Bernard Hill
 * Eomer - Karl Urban
 * Eowyn - Mirando Otto
 * Wormtongue - Brad Dourif
 * Witchking/Gothmog/Lurtz - Lawrence Makoare
 * Mouth of Sauron - Bruce Spence

Facts and figures about the trilogy



 * Amount of film shot during production: Over 6 million feet (over 1,800 kilometers)
 * Swords, axes, shields and makeup prosthetics created: 48,000
 * Background actors cast: 20,602
 * Costumes produced by the wardrobe department: 19,000
 * New Zealand cricket fans enlisted to create the Orc 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 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: 7
 * Combined running time of the series (extended DVD editions): 680 minutes (11 hours and 20 minutes)
 * Combined worldwide box-office gross: US$2,916,544,743 (source)

Academy Awards


The three films were nominated for a total of 30 Academy Awards, of which they won 17.

The Awards were as follows (a win is marked with "W"):

Art Direction [Fellowship, Two Towers, King (W)] Cinematography [Fellowship (W)] Costume Design [Fellowship, King (W)] Directing [Fellowship, King (W)] Film Editing [Fellowship, Two Towers, King (W)] Makeup [Fellowship (W), King (W)] Music (Original Score) [Fellowship (W), King (W)] Music (Original Song) [Fellowship: "May It Be", King: "Into the West" (W)] Best Picture [Fellowship, Two Towers, King (W)] Sound [Fellowship, Two Towers] Sound Editing (Two Towers) Sound Mixing [King (W)] Supporting Actor [Fellowship: Ian McKellen ("Gandalf")] Visual Effects [Fellowship (W), Two Towers (W), King (W)] Writing (Previously Produced or Published) [Fellowship, King (W)]