Allosaur14
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Trivia for
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
* 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.
* The final reel of the film to be completed was done so only five days before the world premiere in Wellington, New Zealand. The premiere was the first time that Peter Jackson had seen the completed film.
* When Gandalf rides out, using the light of his staff to ward off the fell beasts so Faramir's team can get back to Minas Tirith, you see that Pippin is on the horse with him, even though there would have been no reason to bring him along. The reason is that this scene was originally filmed to coincide with Gandalf and Pippin's arrival at Minas Tirith, but was pushed further back as the story evolved.
* The first shot of Sam's arm coming into frame holding Sting towards Shelob is actually Peter Jackson's arm
* Lawrence Makoare, when wearing the Gothmog makeup, was called "Pimplehead" by extras who didn't know his name.
* EASTER EGGS: One the Extended Edition DVD, Disc 1, as per the first two movies, go to the scene selection menu, to the last page. Press down until a ring icon appears next to the "new scene" phrase; Up comes a satellite "interview" of Elijah Wood, given by Dominic Monaghan using a German accent. Do the same thing on disc 2 to uncover an MTV skit featuring Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn pitching LOTR sequels to Peter Jackson.
* In every installment of the trilogy, one character says the subtitle of the film. In Fellowship during the council scene Elrond refers to the nine as the "Fellowship of the Ring"; in the Two Towers it's Saruman who says "The Two Towers" during a voiceover; and finally in this film, Gandalf tells the steward of Gondor and he can't refuse the Return of the King.
* Scenes were re-shot with the Witch King because his helmet was too similar to Sauron's in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) and Peter Jackson was concerned that audiences would confuse the two.
* The first film in the trilogy had 560 computer-generated effects. "The Two Towers" had 800 and "Return of the King" has 1500.
* Peter Jackson's children appear twice in the film: in Gondor, when the horsemen leave the city, and in Sam's wedding.
* Listed on the first release of the cast list for this film was Wi Kuki Kaa, who was to have appeared as a character named Ghân-buri-Ghân. In the book this character is the chieftain of the Woses, a group of wild men that inhabited the forests between Rohan and Gondor who offered their assistance to the Rohirrim as they passed through. Ghân-buri-Ghân does not appear in either the theatrical or extended editions the film, nor is any mention of him made.
* The Grey Havens scene had to be shot three times, much to the dismay of the actors, who had to be crying for most of the scene. On the first try, it was discovered in viewing the dailies that Sean Astin was wearing the wrong shirt under his cloak. After shooting the scene a second time, the negatives were inadvertently exposed to light during processing, causing a white haze over the entire day's footage. It was finally captured successfully on the third try.
* Director Cameo: [Peter Jackson] One of the mercenaries on the boats headed for Minas Tirtith.
* Cameo: [Christian Rivers] Art Director and Storyboard Artist, appears as one of the Gondorian soldiers watching the beacon in Minas Tirith.
* Cameo: [Rick Porras] The other soldier watching the beacon at Minas Tirith is the co-producer.
* Additional scenes were filmed in New Zealand in 2003, in much the same way as new sequences were shot for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) prior to that film's release.
* Sean Astin's daughter, Alexandra Astin, plays Sam Gamgee's daughter, Elanor. Sarah McLeod's daughter, Maisie McLeod-Riera, plays Sam and Rosie's son Frodo.
* While filming the trilogy, Viggo Mortensen got so into character that during a conversation, Peter Jackson referred to him as "Aragorn" for over half an hour without Mortensen's realizing it.
* The battle scenes, which reportedly contain over 200,000 digital participants, are so huge that an extra room had to be built onto Weta Digital's effects facility to house all the computer equipment needed to render the scenes.
* Viggo Mortensen estimates that, during the course of filming the entire trilogy and including all takes, he killed every stuntman on the production at least fifty times.
* Cameo: [Royd Tolkien] (the author's great-grandson) as a Gondorian Ranger handing weapons to his fellow soldiers when the orcs are invading Osgiliath.
* Andy Serkis and Elijah Wood were given prop rings used in the movie by director Peter Jackson. They each thought they got the only one.
* The film was originally going to end with a voice-over epilogue by Cate Blanchett's character, Galadriel, detailing the fate of the fellowship of the ring after the events of the movie.
* The opening scene which tells the origin of Gollum was originally shot for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), to be shown after Gollum remembers his real name (Smeagol) for the first time.
* Facts and numbers about the trilogy: Over 6 million feet of film shot during production; 48,000 swords, axes, shields, and makeup prosthetics; 20,602 background actors cast; 19,000 costumes made by the wardrobe department; 10,000 crowd participants at New Zealand cricket game who made orc army grunts; 2,400 behind-the-scenes crew members at height of production; 1,600 pairs or prosthetic hobbit feet created; 250 horses used in one scene; 180 computer special-effects artists employed; 114 total speaking roles; 100 real locations in New Zealand used for backdrops; 50 tailors, cobblers, designers and others in wardrobe department; 30 actors trained to speak fictional dialects and languages; 7 total years of development for all three movies.
* The film was shipped to theatres under the name "Till Death For Glory".
* Theoden touching the spears of his soldiers before they charge into battle was Bernard Hill's idea.
* For the scene where Merry and Pippin are smoking their pipes at Isengard, Dominic Monaghan (Merry) had to drink a glass of milk beforehand to keep himself from throwing up while smoking the pipe.
* Broke the international box office record for an opening weekend, bringing in nearly $250 million.
* 'Billy Boyd' (Pippin) sang and composed the tune for the song in Denethor's hall (Tolkien wrote the lyric).
* Andy Serkis's first scene was on top of Mount Doom near the Cracks of Doom. His last scene was the scene were Gollum and Frodo are fighting and fall off the ledge.
* Gollum is missing his left ear lobe. This is due to an air trap in the casting that was made for Peter Jackson's approval of the figure. When looking at the casting, the design team concluded that it should stay that way since it looked like a battle wound that might have occurred during Gollum's past adventures.
* The last spoken line of the movie - "Well, I'm back." - is also the last line of the book.
* John Rhys-Davies (Gimli) originally auditioned for the role of Denethor.
* In the crowd shot of the scene of Aragorn's ascension you can see the blue banner with the silver swan of Dol Amroth being waved. The prince of Dol Amroth, Imrahil, isn't a major character in the story but is the one who discovers that Eowyen is still alive after her slaying of the Witch King.
* The Minas Tirith set was built on the same site as Helm's Deep, after the Helm's Deep scenes had been shot and pieces of Helm's Deep were altered and built on top and around the existing pieces for the Minas Tirith set.
* Peter Jackson is arachnophobic.
* The final day of filming on the trilogy actually happened over a month after this movie was theatrically released, and three weeks after the 2004 Academy Awards. Peter Jackson arranged to film one final shot of skulls on the floor in the tunnel of the Paths of the Dead, which was included in the Extended Edition of ROTK. He thought it was funny to be doing filming on a movie that had already won the Best Picture Oscar.
* The last words exchanged by Elrond and Aragorn are "I give hope to Men," "I keep none for myself," are taken from Appendix A, in which the Elvish translation of those lines (Onen i-Estel Edain, u-chebin estel anim) are the final words of Aragorn's mother, Gilraen. Estel, meaning hope, was also the name given to Aragorn before his true heritage is revealed to him.
* While filming Saruman's death scene (now on the extended DVD), Peter Jackson tried to tell Christopher Lee how to react and breath after he was stabbed in the back. Lee, a WWII veteran with British special forces, assured the director that he knew what a man sounded like when stabbed in the back.
* The Oscar-winning end-title song, "Into The West", while being directly about Frodo's departure, was inspired by Cameron Duncan's struggle with death. The first time the song was ever played publicly was at his funeral.
* The end-credit portraits of each of the lead actors appearing alongside their name was the suggestion of Ian McKellen. The sketches were created by production designer 'Lee, Alan (II)' from production stills, although what is seen on the movie is actually a slight morph between the sketch and the original photograph.
* Lawrence Makoare plays both the Witch King and the orc Gothmog. At one point the two characters exchange dialogue, and later Eowyn fights both (she injures Gothmog, who is then killed trying to attack her, and she kills the Witch King).
* Andy Serkis's last day of filming was only a few weeks before the theatrical release. On the carpet of the floor of Peter Jackson's house, they filmed the facial reaction of Smeagol/Gollum when he realizes Frodo intends to destroy the ring. The resulting video was e-mailed to Weta Digital so the animators could replicate the shot with the CGI character.
* Director Cameo: [Peter Jackson] On the Extended Edition, one of the human sailors on the Corsair ships. He is seen twice: once walking, as the camera dollies down the side of the ship; and he is the sailor "accidentally" shot by Legolas.
* The "oil" that Denethor pours over himself and Faramir was a combination of water and glycerin, to achieve an appropriate glistening effect. Because this soaked the wigs and costumes, this scene had to be filmed in a single take.
* The "fall of Smeagol" scene had to be digitally touched-up in two ways. First, Thomas Robins (Deagol) accidentally blinked after being strangled. However, Peter Jackson liked that particular shot so much better than others that he decided to have the Weta Digital crew "freeze" the eyes. Second, in the shot where Smeagol falls on the rocks (just before Gollum begins to narrate), Andy Serkis' legs were considered to be too muscular and athletic, and so they were digitally thinned-down.
* The opening scene, where Deagol finds the ring and is killed by Smeagol, was directed by Andy Serkis himself.
* In the scene where Faramir is leaving Minas Tirith, he and his soldiers are riding their horses downhill. Because the streets were paved with smooth bricks, the usual steel horseshoes proved to be too "slick" and the horses were all re-shod with rubber horseshoes.
* The model of Shelob was based on a New Zealand tunnel web spider.
* Scenes were shot that involved Aragorn tackling Sauron one-on-one while outside the Black Gate. In the scene, Sauron would have appeared taller than the Sauron we see at the start of The Fellowship of the Ring. Once footage was reviewed, however, it was decided that to include this scene would pervert Tolkien's ideas. Footage from the fight remains: Aragorn's charge outside the Black Gate was to take him into the fight. Temp work on this scene can be seen on the third disc of the Return of the King Extended Edition DVD.
* In the scene when Denethor burns Faramir on the pyre, the pyre could not truly be on fire because Gandalf's horse would not go near it. To solve this, the crew reflected a real fire onto a pane of glass in front of the camera so that it looks as though the pyre is burning.
* In the extended cut of the film, the song during the Houses of Healing sequence is sung by Liv Tyler.
* According to a magazine article, Peter Jackson hated the Army of the Dead; he thought it was too unbelievable. He kept it in the script because he did not wish to disappoint diehard fans of the book trilogy.
* Dominic Monaghan was allergic to the elven cloaks the Fellowship wore. Before scenes were shot, Peter Jackson used to joke around and say "Are we ready to go? Does Dom have his cape on?"
* The confrontation between Saruman and Gandalf from the second book was filmed but was not included in the final cut for reasons of length and pacing. The scene will be included on the DVD.
* To create realistic galloping horses for the largely CGI horseback army, they took some footage of a horse in a motion-capture suit.
* The live-action Rohan army is made up of several hundred New Zealander extras, who responded to an open casting call for anyone who could ride a horse.
* When Frodo is writing the book, the top of the page notes that Sam was elected Mayor of Hobbiton.
* The Lord of the Rings trilogy became the most nominated film series in Academy Award history with 30 nominations, surpassing both the Godfather trilogy (28) and the Star Wars franchise (21).
* The first sci-fi/fantasy movie to win a top category since 1990 (Whoopi Goldberg won Best Supporting Actress for the fantasy film Ghost (1990)).
* The movie marks the second time in history that the third movie in a trilogy was nominated for Best Picture, by the Academy Awards and Golden Globes, after The Godfather: Part III (1990) and the only time that a third movie has won the Best Picture Oscar.
* The movie tied with Ben-Hur (1959) and Titanic (1997) to win the most Oscars (11) in a single year.
* It broke another record by winning all the Oscars for which it was nominated (11 out of 11). The previous record was nine out of nine by The Last Emperor (1987) and nine out of nine by Gigi (1958).
* The deformed orc leader Gothmog is based on the alien leader from Peter Jackson's earlier movie Bad Taste (1987).
* Ian McKellen's first day of shooting on the trilogy was Gandalf's first scene, arriving in Hobbiton. His second day of shooting was Gandalf's final scene of the film, at the Gray Havens.
* In the scene where the Hobbits return to Hobbiton, three of the hobbits had slight problems during the shoot. Elijah Wood had a hard time controlling his pony, Sean Astin was allergic to the ponies, and Dominic Monaghan was in a really bad mood because of technical aspects revolving around the scene. Billy Boyd was "in stitches" during the shoot.
* The London Daily Mail reported (5 December 2003) that the stars of the Lord Of The Rings trilogy were paid bonuses on top of their salaries, depending on how long cast members spent on the three films. The hobbit actors, Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan received bonuses of between 430,000 and 560,000 per film. Bernard Hill and Ian McKellen earned 312,000 per film, with Liv Tyler making a little less.
* In February 2004, became second film to break the $1 billion mark in worldwide box-office revenue (Titanic (1997) was the first).
* Wilhelm scream: When a Southron/Haradrim is knocked off an Oliphaunt/Mumakil by Legolas.
* Wilhelm scream: During the Retreat from Osgiliath, when Faramir is leading his men in a frenzied charge back to Minas Tirith, a fell beast picks one of the soldiers off his horse.
* The character of Irolas was originally written to be Beregond, a character who appears in the book. Irolas does not appear in the book, but he is identified as being Beregond's brother.
* The scene of the Rohirrim charging the Pelennor had to be filmed 52 times before the crew were satisfied with the take. During this process, about 60 of the 280 horses participating had to drop out for various reasons.
* To get enough extras for the Battle of the Pelennor fields, a few hundred members of the New Zealand army were brought in. They apparently were so enthusiastic during the battle scenes that they kept breaking the wooden swords and spears they were given.
* At 35 letters "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" has the longest title of any Best Picture Oscar winner in history. It surpasses the record previously held by Around the World in Eighty Days (1956) which has 26.
* Peter Jackson purposely avoided filming Frodo's left hand after the Mordor scenes to avoid conflicts as to the positioning of the wound on the index finger. It is only seen twice: when the Fellowship is re-united (the hand is bandaged) and when Frodo is writing his final pages in the Red Book (before he turns back to add the title).
* The deformed Orc leader Gothmog is only mentioned once in the original novel of "The Lord of the Rings" - identified only as by name and as the Lieutenant of Morgul. His race is not given; it was the filmmakers choice to make him an Orc. The name Gothmog is shared with the leader of the Balrogs in Morgoth's army in "The Silmarillion", Tolkien's history of Middle-Earth centuries before the events in "The Lord of the Rings".
* Alison Doody had been asked by Peter Jackson to play Eowyn, but had to decline the role due to her pregnancy and to the 18 months commitment.
* Won the Science Fiction Achievement Award (Hugo Award) for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form in 2004. This makes it the first work to take the top film honors in both the Oscars and the Hugos. The "profane acceptance speech" Gollum made for the MTV Movie Awards won the Hugo for Best Dramatic presentation, Short Form.
* Originally, Aragorn was to have fought the physical embodiment of Sauron during the climactic battle at the Black Gate, but was not used in the final film. Aragorn's fight with a troll at the Black Gate uses footage from the Aragorn/Sauron battle.
* Special care was taken to make sure that the destruction of Sauron's tower of Barad-dur did not resemble the destruction of the World Trade Center. For this reason, it disintegrates from the ground up, and the sound was made from breaking glass, so that it would not sound or look as if it were exploding.
* Like Billy Boyd earlier in the film, Viggo Mortensen also composed the tune and sung the part to the song Aragorn sings at his coronation. The translation of the Elvish words runs "Out of the Great Sea to Middle Earth I am come. In this place I will abide, and my heirs, unto the ending of the world." This is, according to the lore of Middle Earth, the same verse Elendil sung when he first arrived in Middle Earth from Númenor.
* A scene was cut from the finished film that showed Eowyn (Miranda Otto) stripping away her regular clothes and then dressing herself in the armor of a Rohan warrior.
* The runes on the helmet worn by the Mouth of Sauron, when transliterated, say "Lammen Gorthaur". Lammen means voice, and Gorthaur, which is mentioned in the Silmarillion, means Dread Abomination, another title by which Sauron was known. The complete phrase, "Voice of the Dread Abomination", identifies the speaker as the Mouth of Sauron.
* To get the idea of perspective in the scene where Denethor drags and throws out Pippin from the burial chamber, Billy Boyd's double was dragged and rolled out. When the double hit him in the back, he popped up.
* 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 Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
* 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.
* The final reel of the film to be completed was done so only five days before the world premiere in Wellington, New Zealand. The premiere was the first time that Peter Jackson had seen the completed film.
* When Gandalf rides out, using the light of his staff to ward off the fell beasts so Faramir's team can get back to Minas Tirith, you see that Pippin is on the horse with him, even though there would have been no reason to bring him along. The reason is that this scene was originally filmed to coincide with Gandalf and Pippin's arrival at Minas Tirith, but was pushed further back as the story evolved.
* The first shot of Sam's arm coming into frame holding Sting towards Shelob is actually Peter Jackson's arm
* Lawrence Makoare, when wearing the Gothmog makeup, was called "Pimplehead" by extras who didn't know his name.
* EASTER EGGS: One the Extended Edition DVD, Disc 1, as per the first two movies, go to the scene selection menu, to the last page. Press down until a ring icon appears next to the "new scene" phrase; Up comes a satellite "interview" of Elijah Wood, given by Dominic Monaghan using a German accent. Do the same thing on disc 2 to uncover an MTV skit featuring Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn pitching LOTR sequels to Peter Jackson.
* In every installment of the trilogy, one character says the subtitle of the film. In Fellowship during the council scene Elrond refers to the nine as the "Fellowship of the Ring"; in the Two Towers it's Saruman who says "The Two Towers" during a voiceover; and finally in this film, Gandalf tells the steward of Gondor and he can't refuse the Return of the King.
* Scenes were re-shot with the Witch King because his helmet was too similar to Sauron's in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) and Peter Jackson was concerned that audiences would confuse the two.
* The first film in the trilogy had 560 computer-generated effects. "The Two Towers" had 800 and "Return of the King" has 1500.
* Peter Jackson's children appear twice in the film: in Gondor, when the horsemen leave the city, and in Sam's wedding.
* Listed on the first release of the cast list for this film was Wi Kuki Kaa, who was to have appeared as a character named Ghân-buri-Ghân. In the book this character is the chieftain of the Woses, a group of wild men that inhabited the forests between Rohan and Gondor who offered their assistance to the Rohirrim as they passed through. Ghân-buri-Ghân does not appear in either the theatrical or extended editions the film, nor is any mention of him made.
* The Grey Havens scene had to be shot three times, much to the dismay of the actors, who had to be crying for most of the scene. On the first try, it was discovered in viewing the dailies that Sean Astin was wearing the wrong shirt under his cloak. After shooting the scene a second time, the negatives were inadvertently exposed to light during processing, causing a white haze over the entire day's footage. It was finally captured successfully on the third try.
* Director Cameo: [Peter Jackson] One of the mercenaries on the boats headed for Minas Tirtith.
* Cameo: [Christian Rivers] Art Director and Storyboard Artist, appears as one of the Gondorian soldiers watching the beacon in Minas Tirith.
* Cameo: [Rick Porras] The other soldier watching the beacon at Minas Tirith is the co-producer.
* Additional scenes were filmed in New Zealand in 2003, in much the same way as new sequences were shot for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) prior to that film's release.
* Sean Astin's daughter, Alexandra Astin, plays Sam Gamgee's daughter, Elanor. Sarah McLeod's daughter, Maisie McLeod-Riera, plays Sam and Rosie's son Frodo.
* While filming the trilogy, Viggo Mortensen got so into character that during a conversation, Peter Jackson referred to him as "Aragorn" for over half an hour without Mortensen's realizing it.
* The battle scenes, which reportedly contain over 200,000 digital participants, are so huge that an extra room had to be built onto Weta Digital's effects facility to house all the computer equipment needed to render the scenes.
* Viggo Mortensen estimates that, during the course of filming the entire trilogy and including all takes, he killed every stuntman on the production at least fifty times.
* Cameo: [Royd Tolkien] (the author's great-grandson) as a Gondorian Ranger handing weapons to his fellow soldiers when the orcs are invading Osgiliath.
* Andy Serkis and Elijah Wood were given prop rings used in the movie by director Peter Jackson. They each thought they got the only one.
* The film was originally going to end with a voice-over epilogue by Cate Blanchett's character, Galadriel, detailing the fate of the fellowship of the ring after the events of the movie.
* The opening scene which tells the origin of Gollum was originally shot for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), to be shown after Gollum remembers his real name (Smeagol) for the first time.
* Facts and numbers about the trilogy: Over 6 million feet of film shot during production; 48,000 swords, axes, shields, and makeup prosthetics; 20,602 background actors cast; 19,000 costumes made by the wardrobe department; 10,000 crowd participants at New Zealand cricket game who made orc army grunts; 2,400 behind-the-scenes crew members at height of production; 1,600 pairs or prosthetic hobbit feet created; 250 horses used in one scene; 180 computer special-effects artists employed; 114 total speaking roles; 100 real locations in New Zealand used for backdrops; 50 tailors, cobblers, designers and others in wardrobe department; 30 actors trained to speak fictional dialects and languages; 7 total years of development for all three movies.
* The film was shipped to theatres under the name "Till Death For Glory".
* Theoden touching the spears of his soldiers before they charge into battle was Bernard Hill's idea.
* For the scene where Merry and Pippin are smoking their pipes at Isengard, Dominic Monaghan (Merry) had to drink a glass of milk beforehand to keep himself from throwing up while smoking the pipe.
* Broke the international box office record for an opening weekend, bringing in nearly $250 million.
* 'Billy Boyd' (Pippin) sang and composed the tune for the song in Denethor's hall (Tolkien wrote the lyric).
* Andy Serkis's first scene was on top of Mount Doom near the Cracks of Doom. His last scene was the scene were Gollum and Frodo are fighting and fall off the ledge.
* Gollum is missing his left ear lobe. This is due to an air trap in the casting that was made for Peter Jackson's approval of the figure. When looking at the casting, the design team concluded that it should stay that way since it looked like a battle wound that might have occurred during Gollum's past adventures.
* The last spoken line of the movie - "Well, I'm back." - is also the last line of the book.
* John Rhys-Davies (Gimli) originally auditioned for the role of Denethor.
* In the crowd shot of the scene of Aragorn's ascension you can see the blue banner with the silver swan of Dol Amroth being waved. The prince of Dol Amroth, Imrahil, isn't a major character in the story but is the one who discovers that Eowyen is still alive after her slaying of the Witch King.
* The Minas Tirith set was built on the same site as Helm's Deep, after the Helm's Deep scenes had been shot and pieces of Helm's Deep were altered and built on top and around the existing pieces for the Minas Tirith set.
* Peter Jackson is arachnophobic.
* The final day of filming on the trilogy actually happened over a month after this movie was theatrically released, and three weeks after the 2004 Academy Awards. Peter Jackson arranged to film one final shot of skulls on the floor in the tunnel of the Paths of the Dead, which was included in the Extended Edition of ROTK. He thought it was funny to be doing filming on a movie that had already won the Best Picture Oscar.
* The last words exchanged by Elrond and Aragorn are "I give hope to Men," "I keep none for myself," are taken from Appendix A, in which the Elvish translation of those lines (Onen i-Estel Edain, u-chebin estel anim) are the final words of Aragorn's mother, Gilraen. Estel, meaning hope, was also the name given to Aragorn before his true heritage is revealed to him.
* While filming Saruman's death scene (now on the extended DVD), Peter Jackson tried to tell Christopher Lee how to react and breath after he was stabbed in the back. Lee, a WWII veteran with British special forces, assured the director that he knew what a man sounded like when stabbed in the back.
* The Oscar-winning end-title song, "Into The West", while being directly about Frodo's departure, was inspired by Cameron Duncan's struggle with death. The first time the song was ever played publicly was at his funeral.
* The end-credit portraits of each of the lead actors appearing alongside their name was the suggestion of Ian McKellen. The sketches were created by production designer 'Lee, Alan (II)' from production stills, although what is seen on the movie is actually a slight morph between the sketch and the original photograph.
* Lawrence Makoare plays both the Witch King and the orc Gothmog. At one point the two characters exchange dialogue, and later Eowyn fights both (she injures Gothmog, who is then killed trying to attack her, and she kills the Witch King).
* Andy Serkis's last day of filming was only a few weeks before the theatrical release. On the carpet of the floor of Peter Jackson's house, they filmed the facial reaction of Smeagol/Gollum when he realizes Frodo intends to destroy the ring. The resulting video was e-mailed to Weta Digital so the animators could replicate the shot with the CGI character.
* Director Cameo: [Peter Jackson] On the Extended Edition, one of the human sailors on the Corsair ships. He is seen twice: once walking, as the camera dollies down the side of the ship; and he is the sailor "accidentally" shot by Legolas.
* The "oil" that Denethor pours over himself and Faramir was a combination of water and glycerin, to achieve an appropriate glistening effect. Because this soaked the wigs and costumes, this scene had to be filmed in a single take.
* The "fall of Smeagol" scene had to be digitally touched-up in two ways. First, Thomas Robins (Deagol) accidentally blinked after being strangled. However, Peter Jackson liked that particular shot so much better than others that he decided to have the Weta Digital crew "freeze" the eyes. Second, in the shot where Smeagol falls on the rocks (just before Gollum begins to narrate), Andy Serkis' legs were considered to be too muscular and athletic, and so they were digitally thinned-down.
* The opening scene, where Deagol finds the ring and is killed by Smeagol, was directed by Andy Serkis himself.
* In the scene where Faramir is leaving Minas Tirith, he and his soldiers are riding their horses downhill. Because the streets were paved with smooth bricks, the usual steel horseshoes proved to be too "slick" and the horses were all re-shod with rubber horseshoes.
* The model of Shelob was based on a New Zealand tunnel web spider.
* Scenes were shot that involved Aragorn tackling Sauron one-on-one while outside the Black Gate. In the scene, Sauron would have appeared taller than the Sauron we see at the start of The Fellowship of the Ring. Once footage was reviewed, however, it was decided that to include this scene would pervert Tolkien's ideas. Footage from the fight remains: Aragorn's charge outside the Black Gate was to take him into the fight. Temp work on this scene can be seen on the third disc of the Return of the King Extended Edition DVD.
* In the scene when Denethor burns Faramir on the pyre, the pyre could not truly be on fire because Gandalf's horse would not go near it. To solve this, the crew reflected a real fire onto a pane of glass in front of the camera so that it looks as though the pyre is burning.
* In the extended cut of the film, the song during the Houses of Healing sequence is sung by Liv Tyler.
* According to a magazine article, Peter Jackson hated the Army of the Dead; he thought it was too unbelievable. He kept it in the script because he did not wish to disappoint diehard fans of the book trilogy.
* Dominic Monaghan was allergic to the elven cloaks the Fellowship wore. Before scenes were shot, Peter Jackson used to joke around and say "Are we ready to go? Does Dom have his cape on?"
* The confrontation between Saruman and Gandalf from the second book was filmed but was not included in the final cut for reasons of length and pacing. The scene will be included on the DVD.
* To create realistic galloping horses for the largely CGI horseback army, they took some footage of a horse in a motion-capture suit.
* The live-action Rohan army is made up of several hundred New Zealander extras, who responded to an open casting call for anyone who could ride a horse.
* When Frodo is writing the book, the top of the page notes that Sam was elected Mayor of Hobbiton.
* The Lord of the Rings trilogy became the most nominated film series in Academy Award history with 30 nominations, surpassing both the Godfather trilogy (28) and the Star Wars franchise (21).
* The first sci-fi/fantasy movie to win a top category since 1990 (Whoopi Goldberg won Best Supporting Actress for the fantasy film Ghost (1990)).
* The movie marks the second time in history that the third movie in a trilogy was nominated for Best Picture, by the Academy Awards and Golden Globes, after The Godfather: Part III (1990) and the only time that a third movie has won the Best Picture Oscar.
* The movie tied with Ben-Hur (1959) and Titanic (1997) to win the most Oscars (11) in a single year.
* It broke another record by winning all the Oscars for which it was nominated (11 out of 11). The previous record was nine out of nine by The Last Emperor (1987) and nine out of nine by Gigi (1958).
* The deformed orc leader Gothmog is based on the alien leader from Peter Jackson's earlier movie Bad Taste (1987).
* Ian McKellen's first day of shooting on the trilogy was Gandalf's first scene, arriving in Hobbiton. His second day of shooting was Gandalf's final scene of the film, at the Gray Havens.
* In the scene where the Hobbits return to Hobbiton, three of the hobbits had slight problems during the shoot. Elijah Wood had a hard time controlling his pony, Sean Astin was allergic to the ponies, and Dominic Monaghan was in a really bad mood because of technical aspects revolving around the scene. Billy Boyd was "in stitches" during the shoot.
* The London Daily Mail reported (5 December 2003) that the stars of the Lord Of The Rings trilogy were paid bonuses on top of their salaries, depending on how long cast members spent on the three films. The hobbit actors, Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan received bonuses of between 430,000 and 560,000 per film. Bernard Hill and Ian McKellen earned 312,000 per film, with Liv Tyler making a little less.
* In February 2004, became second film to break the $1 billion mark in worldwide box-office revenue (Titanic (1997) was the first).
* Wilhelm scream: When a Southron/Haradrim is knocked off an Oliphaunt/Mumakil by Legolas.
* Wilhelm scream: During the Retreat from Osgiliath, when Faramir is leading his men in a frenzied charge back to Minas Tirith, a fell beast picks one of the soldiers off his horse.
* The character of Irolas was originally written to be Beregond, a character who appears in the book. Irolas does not appear in the book, but he is identified as being Beregond's brother.
* The scene of the Rohirrim charging the Pelennor had to be filmed 52 times before the crew were satisfied with the take. During this process, about 60 of the 280 horses participating had to drop out for various reasons.
* To get enough extras for the Battle of the Pelennor fields, a few hundred members of the New Zealand army were brought in. They apparently were so enthusiastic during the battle scenes that they kept breaking the wooden swords and spears they were given.
* At 35 letters "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" has the longest title of any Best Picture Oscar winner in history. It surpasses the record previously held by Around the World in Eighty Days (1956) which has 26.
* Peter Jackson purposely avoided filming Frodo's left hand after the Mordor scenes to avoid conflicts as to the positioning of the wound on the index finger. It is only seen twice: when the Fellowship is re-united (the hand is bandaged) and when Frodo is writing his final pages in the Red Book (before he turns back to add the title).
* The deformed Orc leader Gothmog is only mentioned once in the original novel of "The Lord of the Rings" - identified only as by name and as the Lieutenant of Morgul. His race is not given; it was the filmmakers choice to make him an Orc. The name Gothmog is shared with the leader of the Balrogs in Morgoth's army in "The Silmarillion", Tolkien's history of Middle-Earth centuries before the events in "The Lord of the Rings".
* Alison Doody had been asked by Peter Jackson to play Eowyn, but had to decline the role due to her pregnancy and to the 18 months commitment.
* Won the Science Fiction Achievement Award (Hugo Award) for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form in 2004. This makes it the first work to take the top film honors in both the Oscars and the Hugos. The "profane acceptance speech" Gollum made for the MTV Movie Awards won the Hugo for Best Dramatic presentation, Short Form.
* Originally, Aragorn was to have fought the physical embodiment of Sauron during the climactic battle at the Black Gate, but was not used in the final film. Aragorn's fight with a troll at the Black Gate uses footage from the Aragorn/Sauron battle.
* Special care was taken to make sure that the destruction of Sauron's tower of Barad-dur did not resemble the destruction of the World Trade Center. For this reason, it disintegrates from the ground up, and the sound was made from breaking glass, so that it would not sound or look as if it were exploding.
* Like Billy Boyd earlier in the film, Viggo Mortensen also composed the tune and sung the part to the song Aragorn sings at his coronation. The translation of the Elvish words runs "Out of the Great Sea to Middle Earth I am come. In this place I will abide, and my heirs, unto the ending of the world." This is, according to the lore of Middle Earth, the same verse Elendil sung when he first arrived in Middle Earth from Númenor.
* A scene was cut from the finished film that showed Eowyn (Miranda Otto) stripping away her regular clothes and then dressing herself in the armor of a Rohan warrior.
* The runes on the helmet worn by the Mouth of Sauron, when transliterated, say "Lammen Gorthaur". Lammen means voice, and Gorthaur, which is mentioned in the Silmarillion, means Dread Abomination, another title by which Sauron was known. The complete phrase, "Voice of the Dread Abomination", identifies the speaker as the Mouth of Sauron.
* To get the idea of perspective in the scene where Denethor drags and throws out Pippin from the burial chamber, Billy Boyd's double was dragged and rolled out. When the double hit him in the back, he popped up.
* 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.
