The Lord of the Rings (film series)
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The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, known collectively as The Lord of the Rings, are three live-action films which were directed by Peter Jackson and based upon J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.
Principal photography for all three films took place in New Zealand over a continuous eighteen-month period — 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.
- 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 eleven of the Academy Awards for which it was nominated, including the award for Best Picture.
Differences from the book
The films for the most part follow the storyline of the book (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
Principal actors and actresses include:
Facts and figures
- 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)
- International all-time box office rankings: 2 (Return of the King), 5 (Two Towers), 7 (Fellowship of the Ring)[1]
Academy Awards
If all three films are counted as one, the trilogy was nominated for 30 Academy Awards, of which it won 17.[2]
The Awards were as follows (A Win is marked by a "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)]