Smalls

This weekend, Eric and I began a Lord of the Rings marathon, watching the extended versions of Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and Return of the King.  Tonight we will be finishing the marathon by watching the second half of Return of the King (my favorite).  Today’s trivia is some facts about making the trilogy:

~ The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and Return of the King were filmed simultaneously.

~ A normal major motion picture averages about 200 computer generated effects shots.  The Fellowship had 540, Two Towers had 799 and Return of the King had 1,488!

~ Large amounts of hair had to be imported to New Zealand for all of the wigs.  They found some women in Russia who were cutting their hair and selling it to film makers.

~ It’s common practice with a high budget feature film to have more than one unit shooting at any one time, usually two or three.  With Lord of the Rings, there were occasions when there would be between five and seven units shooting at any given time.

~ All of the actors were given gifts at the end of principal photography – usually a prop special to their character.  Andy Serkis (Smeagol/Gollum) and Elijah Wood (Frodo) were given prop rings used in the movie by director Peter Jackson.  Andy and Elijah each thought they had received the only ring.

~ The last line spoken in Return of the King – “Well, I’m back” – is also the last line of the book.