Started: [[2024-09-11]] ## Notes 23,000 New Zealanders worked on LOTR. --- Tolkien saw LOTR as one book. And the reason it was split into three was due to the soaring paper costs following WW2. P6 --- Jackson wanted to make a fantasy film. So he spitballed ideas with Fran Walsh. With each suggested character or plot she would say “Lord of the Rings”. This happened over and over again. Until they realised that maybe they should just adapt Lord of the Rings. P45 --- Six weeks before the end of a film the freelance visual effects artists are allowed to start looking for their next job. P47 --- Whilst waiting for the rights for Lord of the Rings to be sorted (if ever) Jackson and Walsh looked for a film to do in between. They wrote a script for a Planet of the Apes reboot. James Cameron was slated to produce and Arnold Schwarzenegger to star. P49-50 --- New Line was Jackson and co.‘s last chance to get the film made. No one else wanted to pick it up. And before the meeting Robert Shaye from New Line pulled Peter aside and said essentially “look, I’m happy to hear your presentation, but I’m not going to be funding this project”. Peter and co went ahead anyway. They had prepared a 45 minute behind-the-scenes style documentary. It was apparently very good. It showed everyone’s passion for the project and explained how they were going to make it. Shaye was impressed. Not only did he agree to fund it. But he said to make three films, not the two they were planning to make at that time. P82-85 --- > “I will go to my grave saying that the crafting of those three screenplays was one of the most underappreciated screenwriting efforts ever undertaken. You are writing what is essentially a single ten-hour script, which you have to divide into three movies. You have to set up things in movie one that may not play out till movie three. And you're burdened with having to explain the world to the neophyte.” – Ken Kamins --- Robert Shaye wanted the second two of the three films to be done in a way that someone who hadn’t seen the previous ones could still follow the plot. This was a real issue and made it tough for Jackson and co. Luckily after the huge success of Fellowship of the Ring they didn’t need to worry about that in the editing room any more – nearly everyone would have seen the previous films. P102 --- Because so much was constantly being added and occasionally removed from the script there isn’t really a definitive ‘final’ copy of the script. P103 --- In the two film script and early stages of the three film script Arwen had a much bigger part. The love triangle between her, Aragorn and Eowyn was more pronounced. And she was at the battles of Helm’s Deep and rides alongside the Rohirrim in the final film. She even fights the Witch-king. P103-104 --- > They were constantly trying to insert the structural lessons gleaned from McKee to the glacial magnificence of Tolkien: climaxes, twists, foreshadowings, turning points and delayed reveals. Balanced with wilfully obscure references to his deep mythology. His archaic language could have enormous power when delivered by an Ian McKellen or Christopher Lee. But for clarity they would trim and edit from the book, moving passages around in the chronology or between speakers like a slider puzzle. > > Boyens' ancient prologue was still being reworked in post. > > 'I first wrote it as Gandalf narrating,' she says, running back through the manifold revisions in her head there had been a Frodo-narrated version at one stage. 'And then I wrote it in the voice of Galadriel. That was Fran's idea, and it was a good one. Then when we were recording the ADR in London, I said to Fran, "Can we overlay it in Elvish?" You want that sense of strangeness of history.' > > The trilogy's overture carries the quality of a dream as Blanchett's yearning voice pulls us across the frontier into Tolkien's imagination. P104 --- Artist Alan Lee was elusive and reclusive. So much so that Peter Jackson and New Line couldn’t work out how to get in contact with him. Bizarrely, during a meet-and-greet with Michael Palin, Peter Jackson if he knew how to get in touch with Lee (Lee had illustrated one of Palin’s books). A few weeks later Jackson got an email from Lee. And he was brought on to the production to provide art. P109-110 --- Artists John Howe and Alan Lee were some of the biggest LOTR artists and were hired for the film. But they had never met before. Jackson suddenly was worried. What if they had a rivalry and didn’t get along? They met for the first time on the plane to New Zealand. Luckily they got on well. P114 --- Airport ground staff were startled to discover that John Howe had a suit of armour in his suitcase. A serious [[medieval]] re-enactor, Howe was worried Weta Workshop wouldn’t get the armour right, so brought his to show them how it should look. P114 --- > “I was trying to make it feel real. It wasn't so much thinking about what can I do differently, rather than what can I do for the story? We really approached it like it was real; this is authentic, it is not fantasy, it is a piece of the past.” – Peter Jackson This one of my favourite things about LOTR. The world is taken seriously. It’s a believable world, and you’re transported to it. It very much feels like a real world – a forgotten history. P116-117 --- Rather bizarrely one Johnny Vegas auditioned for Samwise Gamgee. He even did his audition in person with Jackson. But he had done a gig the night before with a broken microphone. His already hoarse voice was incredibly hoarse during the audition. It went terribly. P145 --- Sean Astin was payed $250,000 for his role in the films. P146 --- Every member of the cast wears a wig. P147 --- Stuart Townsend has originally been cast as Aragorn. Each time a new actor joined the cast flew over to New Zealand a big group dinner would be arranged. Jackson remembers Ian McKellen’s one. It was a lovely night. But Townsend spent the whole time complaining. McKellen lent over to him and said ‘You do want to be in this film, don’t you?’. ‘It was strange,’ says Jackson, ‘Ian picked up on this thing straight away’. P152 New Line didn’t want Townsend, but Jackson did. However once he arrived in New Zealand things went wrong. He didn’t train with everyone else. He skipped boat training, safety training, and even sword training. He said ‘I know how to do that’ to everything. Townsend was liked by his fellow actors. He enjoyed the social life. But he had doubts over the character. He might have heard New Line thought he was too young and it got to him. Jackson thinks he was very anxious. Boyens spoke to him and thought he was very frightened and insecure’. On the second day of shooting, a few weeks before Aragorns scenes were due to be shot, Jackson told producer Barrie Osbourne ‘I don’t think I can work with Stuart. I don’t think it is going to work out’. He was fired. P174-176 In the scene where the hobbits are in the Prancing Pony and Samwise says ‘that fellow has done nothing but stare at you since we’ve arrived’ there was no Aragorn there. He had been fired and a new one was yet to be cast. P177 --- Sean Connery was offered the role of Gandalf. New Line wanted at least one big name in the film to help sell it to audiences. They offered him $6-10 million up front and then 15-20% of the gross. With the films eventually bringing in around $3 billion, Connery would have made at least $450 million. But after they sent him a script New Line and Jackson never heard back from him. They looked to Ian McKellen instead. It was only later in a press interview for another film that Connery said that he read the scripts and read the books, but ‘I still don’t understand it’. P157 --- ![[IMG_5487 1.jpeg]] Tolkien saw this artwork, “Der Berggeist” by J. Madlener, on a postcard whilst on a walking holiday in Switzerland. He wrote on the back of the postcard, ‘Origin of Gandalf’. P158-159 --- Jackson badly wanted Ian McKellen as Gandalf – they had no backups. But he could do it. He was in X-Men, which had been delayed because Mission: Impossible 2 has been delayed, because Eyes Wide Shut had been delayed. The guy playing Wolverine was waiting to be finished with Mission: Impossible 2. But when it was delayed too long, he had to drop out of X-Men and Hugh Jackman was brought in. This freed up Ian McKellen. Well, nearly. He was due to be finished with X-Men in February. LOTR was due to start filming in October. A compromise and gentlemen’s agreement was struck. Jackson would shoot other, non-Gandalf scenes until the New Year. And Bryan Singer, director of X-Men, gave Jackson his word that he would shoot McKellen’s scenes early, so he would be done with him by Christmas. There was no contract. Just a gentleman’s agreement. Singer was true to his work and Gandalf was ready to start filming in the New Year. P161-162 --- > McKellen brought with him conviction. Through the careful deployment of his delivery, the language sounded rich and true. Sillification was banished. We became instant believers. p163 I very much agree. Gandalf doesn’t feel like a silly, whimsical wizard. He has a serious heft to him. He is very grounded and real. --- > Jackson maintains he only had eyes for Lee for the corrupted wizard, but he had considered Tim Curry, Jeremy Irons and Malcolm McDowell. p165 --- For Boromir they met with a pre-[[Gladiator (2000)]] Russell Crowe and auditioned Daniel Craig. Bruce Willis, apparently a fan of the book, was suggested by New Line, but Jackson didn’t want him. They sent scripts to Liam Neeson, who turned down the role. Crowe turned it down because he did a ‘swords’ film a few months prior called [[Gladiator (2000)]], and he didn’t want to do another. --- Bill Bailey, Billy Connolly, Timothy Spall and Robert Trebor auditioned for Gimli. P168 --- Each one of Legolas’ wigs cost £15,000. P170 --- Arwen was the last main part to be cast. P170 --- Liv Tyler was oddly a big name in Japan. She was in Armageddon, which was huge over there. And off the back of it she had done quite a few adverts in Japan. P170 --- Arwen had to be digitally removed from the scene of Legolas pulling Aragorn and Gimli to safety at Helm’s Deep. P171 --- For Eowyn, Milla Jovovich, Iben Hjejle and Uma Thurman was considered. Thurman was married to Ethan Hawke at the time, who was considered for Faramir, and was a big fan of the books. But Thurman turned down the role. Years later on the Colbert show said said ‘I do consider it one of the worst decisions I ever made’. P172 --- Vin Diesel sent a homemade audition tape of himself dressed up as Aragorn. P173 --- > Jackson thought of going back to Crowe and between them Boyens and Walsh brought up Mortensen. They immediately plunged into his back catalogue Daylight, The Portrait of a Lady, G.I. Jane, A Perfect Murder-assured by the intensity of his blue eyes, chiselled cheekbones and the way he commanded your attention with minimal effort. > 'Fran's a great believer in fate,' says Boyens. 'The person who needs to play this role will come to us.' > He wasn't in any way British, but both Boyens and Jackson liked that his Scandinavian heritage chimed with the Nordic sagas from which Tolkien had drawn. > Everything about Mortensen seemed to add up. He was an actor for whom the idea of celebrity carried little value. He lived - and would place even further distance apart from Hollywood between them once the films had bequeathed him superstardom. He had romance written into the pages of his life. Born in New York raised in South America, schooled in the foothills of Argentina, returning to graduate from a New York high school, then off to find a purpose in the Denmark of his father's upbringing. There he took to writing poetry and short stories, odd jobbing as a dockworker and selling flowers. Back then to New York and acting classes, before moving to Los Angeles where a small part in Witness began a career in earnest. During which time he never stopped filling his mind and soul with music (he possesses a fine singing voice), photography, painting and publishing books of his own pictures and poetry. This is before you considered his outdoor side. How he loved to lose himself in the wilderness for days, ride horses, fish, sleep beneath the stars and generally unbuckle himself from civilization. On his mother's side he was related to Buffalo Bill. If he had a credo, then it was 'go see for yourself'. He spoke Danish, Spanish, French and English fluently, travelled the world, read the greats, including the Nordic and Icelandic sagas, and never wasted a word. To which one can only wonder why had they ever wanted anyone else to play Aragorn? 'He cared, you know?' says Boyens. 'And he was really smart. Yeah, he was gorgeous, but beyond that he's a poet. He's a Renaissance man. All that physicality he did standing on his head. That's who he was. But the other stuff was just a gift. That he had that soul. That he loved language. That he was meticulous, even though sometimes to the point where it drove you crazy. We'd see Viggo coming at you with the book in his hand, and you'd go, "Oh God." *** His agent warned that usually Viggo takes a long time with a script before deciding on a project. But they managed to hire Viggo in two days. And he was on camera within two days of landing in New Zealand. With Jackson on set there was phone call with with Boyens, Walsh and Viggo. He said ‘how old was I when I was taken to the Elves?’. ‘You were two’ replied Boyens. She took that question as a great sign. Both of his interest in the role, but also potential passion for it. The next phone call was with him and Jackson, who thought it was going terribly. Viggo has a glacial conversational pace, which the director wasn’t familiar with. So he thought he wasn’t interested. Only at the end of the conversation when he said ‘Well, I’ll guess I’ll see you next Tuesday’ did he realise he was interested. The budget for the films was $207 million. This went up to $211 million when Viggo was hired, as he would be payed more highly than Townsend was due to be. P180-182 *** After Viggo was hired there was fears from New Line that Liv Tyler was too young as a love interest for him. Jackson and co. explained that she’s an ageless Elf and Aragorn is a Numenorean who is very long lived. That’s how they convinced them it was okay. P182 --- Viggo arrived on day 12 of production. His first scene was where he explains what the Nazgûl are to the hobbies in the Prancing Pony. Peter Jackson: > “When I saw that first scene he shot at the premiere I could see he was not yet Aragorn. He is sort of a Method-type guy who really likes to get into the head of a character. He was literally off the plane putting on Stuart's outfit. And he didn't complain, he knew what he was signing up for. But he hadn't found Aragorn yet. It is the scene where he is in the Prancing Pony bedroom, telling the hobbits about the Nazgûl. That scene was Day One of Viggo, and I remember thinking he hasn't got Aragorn yet. Have a look at it again in that context. Then we shot the stuff of him smoking in the corner. Weathertop was when he got into it completely.“ p183 --- The first shot filmed for the films was the hobbits dashing to hide from the Ringwraith behind the roots of a tree. The tree and its roots was a physical prop, brought to the location. Many fans look for it in vain. P184 --- The first day of filming was October 11 1999. Jackson hadn’t been on a shooting movie set for four years. P185 + p187 --- The code name for the film all throughout production was “Jamboree”. --- > Ian Holm was amazed that between scenes small beads were loaded into the hip pocket of Bilbo's waistcoat to maintain the bagginess (or maybe that is 'bagginsiness') that has come from endless fiddling with the Ring. p191 --- Ian McKellen had days playing both Gandalf the Grey and Gandalf the White. P191 --- The scene where Pippin makes the case to Aragorn about “second breakfast” was shot at Bog Pine Paddock. It was spring in NZ, but heavy snow started to fall. The Hobbit actors and Viggo got cold and wet. After the snow got worse the police told the production to finish for the day, much to the Hobbits relief. But not to Viggo’s. He was loving the weather and in his element. He had to be dragged away. Back in the warmth of the hotel the Hobbits started to relax and warm up, drinking red wine as their feet was taken off and costumes removed. Viggo refused though. He remained in costume, “prancing around the hotel lobby like a cat, startling other guests, hoping the snow would relent enough for them to finish the shot.” P195 --- As the Fellowship paddles through their journey the script originally has them fight off a Uruk-Hai attack, with arrows raining down, and a fight amongst some waterside ruins. However, an awful, awful storm had battered Queenstown. And the ruins has been ruined. So Jackson and co, wary of already running behind schedule, decided to just remove it from the script. P198-199 During the same Queenstown storm, Sean Bean and Orlando Bloom shared a car for the drive down to the river shooting location. A landslide had blocked the road. And when they turned around the other side had been blocked by another landslide. Trapped on the road in awful condition and without phone signal, they were trapped. Luckily they spotted a small cottage. They knocked, and an old woman answered. She let them stay. It took four days and a helicopter to rescue them. P198-199 --- When bad weather caused them to be unable to shoot anything 8 weeks and with Ian McKellen not yet arrived on set they realised they could only shoot one thing: the dramatic scene on the Path of Cirith Ungol where Gollum turns Frodo against Sam. The convinced the hotel they were holed up in to allow them to take over the squash court for build the set. For Elijah and Sean Astin it was nerve racking. Not only were they having to shoot scenes from the last film, but they were some of the most dramatic scenes. They flipped a coin on how went first. So on day one they shot Sam’s scenes first, from Frodo’s POV. However, when day two and Frodo’s scenes arrived, the weather had cleared and they went back to Fellowship scenes. They convinced the hotel to let them leave their set on the squash court. It was a year later that they shot Frodo’s scenes. --- They didn’t shoot the Shire scenes until the New Year. And as they needed to finish up there as soon as, they had to shot the scenes where the Hobbits return to the Shire in the last film. Including Sam getting married. Jackson said to Sean Astin: ‘You realise what we’re shooting won’t be seen for four years.’ --- Viggo took his sword home with him for Christmas break. Sean Astin said that in all the many months of shooting he never saw Viggo out of costume. Viggo’s favourite spot to eat in New Zealand was The Green Parrot. --- The small-scale Bag End set was kept by Jackson. He built it into his 1930s estate at Masterton. It’s a guest house for any small people who visit his home. --- ### Jamboree The shot of Gandalf pushing back the Nazgûl with a beam of light as Gondor’s soldiers retreat to Minus Tirith was shot by Geoff Murphy’s second unit. P225 --- ### Miramar’s Mecca of Merry Souls By “Return of the King” Weta Digital had 60 TB of storage. That’s about the same amount of storage that my Plex server. Amazing how technology progresses. P253 --- The only shot not done by Weta Digital was the water scene where horses wash the Nazgûl’s away. P257 ---