The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
The journey continues.
Country
Production
Budget
$94 000 000
Revenue
$948 945 489
Website
Director
Actors
Scenario
Producer
Barrie M. Osborne, Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, Bob Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein, Mark Ordesky, Michael Lynne, Robert Shaye
Operator
Composer
Artist
Grant Major, Shane Prigmore, Jules Cook
Audition
Victoria Burrows, John Hubbard, Liz Mullane
Editing
Michael Horton
All team (172)
All team (172)
Short description
The second part of Peter Jackson's adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's novel follows the broken Fellowship as its members continue the quest to destroy the One Ring. Frodo and Sam, guided by the treacherous Gollum, make their way toward Mordor while Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli track the hobbits Merry and Pippin, who have been taken by orcs. Their paths lead them into the kingdom of Rohan, where the wizard Saruman's forces threaten war.
Jackson returned to direct after the first instalment, working again from a screenplay he wrote with Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens; the three also produced alongside Barrie M. Osborne. Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin and Andy Serkis lead a large ensemble, with John Rhys-Davies playing both Gimli and the voice of Treebeard. It is the eighth of the fifteen films Jackson has directed, following The Fellowship of the Ring and preceding The Return of the King.
Released in December 2002, the film cost about 94 million dollars and took roughly 949 million dollars worldwide, a return that placed it among the most widely seen pictures of its year. On IMDb it holds 8.8 from around 1.9 million votes, and on TMDB 8.4 from more than 24,000; a critics' rating of 8.7 from 288 reviews is close to those audience scores. It runs 179 minutes.
What's left behind the scenes
- Stuart Townsend was replaced by Viggo Mortensen shortly after filming began, as the producers felt that Aragorn should be older.
- Gollum first appears on screen in 'The Fellowship of the Ring' (2001), however, his appearance differs from Gollum in 'The Two Towers,' as it was only during the filming of the second film that Peter Jackson decided that Andy Serkis' performance should be reflected in Gollum's creation. Weta Digital specialists had to change Gollum's design, scanning Serkis' face to take his features into account when creating Gollum in the future. This radical change meant that Weta Digital had only two and a half months to redo work that had taken over two years.
- Stephen Sinclair is credited as one of the film's screenwriters. However, he did not work on the screenplay for the trilogy, but was involved in the screenplay for a duology proposed to Miramax, which was later expanded into three films.
- More than 100 models and over 1000 sketches were made to arrive at Gollum's final appearance.
- The horse carcasses were made of polystyrene.
- Since black blood flows in the veins of orcs, their oral cavities also had to be black. To achieve the desired effect, the actors playing orcs rinsed their mouths with a special licorice solution before filming.
- The height of the Treebeard animatronic puppet is 14 feet (approximately 426 centimeters).
- Peter Jackson and Barrie M. Osborne did everything they could to secure Andy Serkis an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. However, according to academy rules, an actor can only be nominated for a role if they appear on screen in person.
- The film earned $100 million in its first week in North American release, $200 million in 12 days, and $300 million in 34 days.
- The end credits list 559 people. However, the extended version of the film includes far more names in the end credits.
- A portion of the miniature Black Gate of Mordor was made from lead.
- Originally, Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke were supposed to play Éowyn and Faramir respectively.
- Andy Serkis agreed to the role of Gollum without fully understanding what he was getting into, as his agent assured him he would only need to voice the character and it would take no more than three weeks.
- The final version of the film contains approximately 800 shots with special effects. The extended version has 960.
- Filming of various miniatures for the entire trilogy lasted 988 days.
- Most of the sets for Helm's Deep were made of polystyrene.
- Cate Blanchett has only three scenes in the film.
- David Wenham was cast as Faramir partly because he physically resembled Sean Bean, who played his on-screen brother Boromir.
- No more than 100 Uruk-hai were ever present on set at the same time.
- Usually, horses for filming are rented, however, the creators of 'The Lord of the Rings' bought horses for the main characters of the film so that they would have time to get used to the film crew.
- The spears for the battle at Helm's Deep were made from cardboard tubes.
- The shot where the camera moves away from thousands of orcs and Uruk-hai largely resembles a similar shot in 'Triumph of the Will' (1935).
- Sean Astin agreed to the role in the film at the advice of his father, John Astin, who had worked with Peter Jackson on 'Meet the Feebles' (1996).
- The 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy ranked 19th on Channel 4's list of 'Best Family Films'.
- The chainmail on the soldiers of Rohan weighed 22 kilograms.
- Peter Jackson drew inspiration for the battle in Helm's Deep from the epic battle at the climax of 'Zulu' (1964).
- The scene on the Dead Marshes was filmed on a car park filled with water, which was also used for filming the entrance to the Caves of Moria in 'The Fellowship of the Ring' (2001).
- 11,000 sandbags were used to build the sets for the Dead Marshes.
- The bodies lying underwater in the Dead Marshes were made of silicone.
- The natural scenery for Edoras was provided by a national park in New Zealand.
- The creators were partly inspired by the figures of John Howe and Iggy Pop when creating the gaunt Gollum.
- The height of the 'miniature' of Helm's Deep was 7 feet (approximately 214 centimeters).
- Several actors had to return to New Zealand when Peter Jackson came up with new scenes.
- The cries of a huge number of Orcs in the battle at Helm's Deep were recorded at a stadium where 25,000 people shouted according to Peter Jackson's instructions.
- Despite the scenes featuring Andy Serkis being filmed separately, he performed several scenes alongside Elijah Wood and Sean Astin so they could get a sense of Gollum's voice, and to give the actors a starting point for their performances.
- The sets for the Battle of Helm's Deep were built in New Zealand over seven months.
- The role of Éowyn was initially offered to Alison Doody, who declined as she had recently had her second daughter.
- Sean Astin shot the short film “The Long and Short of It” (2003) during reshoots in New Zealand, using a high-resolution digital camera (which was also used to film “Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones” (2002)) that he borrowed from the LucasFilm team.
- The main gate to Helm's Deep was so heavy and so well-made that Peter Jackson joked that if they ever had to defend a castle, he would want the guys from Weta to build the main gates.
- Between takes, Brad Dourif continued to speak with a British accent. By the end of filming, when he spoke with his usual accent, Bernard Hill thought the British accent was Brad's native one, and the American accent was fake.
- John Rhys-Davies voiced Treebeard.
- Peter Jackson's children are credited as playing the adorable Rohirrim children.
- Around twenty hours of footage were used to edit the battle of Helm's Deep.
- The map that Faramir and Madril look at also appears in J.R.R. Tolkien's books.
- To increase the number of Rohirrim riders, many men were played by women in disguise.
- Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan spent so much time in the tree (Treebeard) that during breaks between takes they wrote a screenplay. Moreover, they weren’t even taken down from the tree during lunch breaks.
- Alan Lee (concept artist) played a Rohan warrior gathering weapons in Helm's Deep.
- Gimli's chainmail weighed approximately 30 kilograms.
- The reels with the theatrical prints of the film were labeled “Grand Tour”.
- "The Two Towers" became the first sequel to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture when the first film did not win in that category, and the third sequel to be nominated for Best Picture.
- So many extras were used during the filming of the Battle of the Hornburg, and the filming lasted for several months, that almost every extra and main cast member received a t-shirt that read “I Survived the Hornburg.”
- The copies of the films shown in theaters were made from a digital transfer that was pre-cleaned of “noise” and “grain,” making it cleaner-looking than other films playing in theaters.
- Björk was offered to record “The Gollum’s Song”.
- The visualization of scenes with Gollum was so complex and demanding of technical resources that it took up to six hours, assuming the camera angle on Gollum did not change. Therefore, WETA employees often left their computers on overnight to see the results of a particular scene in the morning.
- Visualizing a single frame of Gollum took about eight minutes, while visualizing a single frame of Treebeard could take up to 48 hours.
- According to Andy Serkis, when creating Gollum's voice, he tried to recreate the sound of a cat coughing up a hairball.
- Gollum's pupils reflect his mood. Evil Gollum has narrow pupils, while good Gollum has dilated pupils.
- John Rhys-Davies once lost the tip of his middle finger on his left hand, so a prosthetic fingertip was specially made for the film.
- During one take of the scene where Aragorn swims down the river, Viggo Mortensen nearly drowned after being underwater for too long, but he managed to get out of the water.
- Initially, Bernard Hill was considered for the role of Gandalf.
- Bernard Hill sustained a chest injury during filming.
- The film is dedicated to the memory of Karl Fry, Brian Banggrow and Brent Robb.
- On Miranda Otto's first day on set, Liv Tyler greeted her, saying, "I'm so glad there's another woman in the film."
- A scene featuring Denethor, who first appears on screen in 'The Return of the King' (2003), was cut from the theatrical version. However, the scene was included in the extended edition of 'The Two Towers'.
- A new technology was developed for realistically rendering semi-transparent materials during the creation of Gollum, which was later used to create realistic human skin.
- The miniature of 'Orthanc Tower' was 27 feet tall (approximately 823 centimeters).
- Viggo Mortensen had a tooth knocked out during filming.
- The phrase 'My precious' ranked 85th on the American Film Institute's 100 Greatest Movie Quotes list.
- The phrase 'My precious' ranked 93rd on Premiere magazine's '100 Greatest Movie Lines' list in 2007.
- The role of Éowyn was offered to Kate Winslet.
- After Sean Bean finished filming his scenes and returned to England, he was asked to come to New Zealand to shoot another scene featuring Boromir, which was intended as a flashback in the film. However, the scene was cut from the theatrical release but was included in the extended edition.
- Brad Dourif shaved his eyebrows for the role. Since the filming of his scenes was quite spread out over time, he had to shave his eyebrows five times over three years.
- Bernard Hill spent up to nine hours in the makeup chair to transform into the aged Théoden.
- After Andy Serkis was cast as Gollum, designers had to change the character's appearance to incorporate Andy's features and redo the work, which took about three years.
- The scene where Aragorn first meets Arwen was filmed, but Peter Jackson never found a place for it in the movie.
- When David Wenham was cast as Faramir, he hadn't yet read the books by J.R.R. Tolkien.
- Andy Serkis's passion for rock climbing was very helpful in creating Gollum's movements.
- Andy Serkis drank liters of 'Gollum Juice' (a mixture of honey, lemon, and ginger) to find Gollum's voice.
- Around 200-300 horses were used for filming the movie. Because horses could be injured during battle scenes, both the horse and rider wore a special costume, similar to the one worn by Andy Serkis for his role, and filming took place in pavilions. Afterwards, the horse and rider were added to the battle scene using computer effects.
- When Miranda Otto arrived on set, she was first introduced to the actors with whom she had the most scenes. When she met Viggo Mortensen, she commented on her character's infatuation with Aragorn: "It will be so easy to fall in love with this man!"
- When Legolas speaks with Aragorn before the battle at Helm's Deep, he mentions 300 against 10,000, which is a reference to the Battle of Thermopylae, where 300 Spartans killed 10,000 Persians.
- Initially, Peter Jackson wanted to cast either Daniel Day-Lewis or Russell Crowe in the role of Aragorn.
- New Line Studio wanted the film to begin with a prologue narrated by Kate Blanchett's character, which Peter Jackson strongly opposed. Ironically, the studio had rejected Peter Jackson's proposal a year earlier to open the first film of the trilogy with a prologue narrated by Galadriel (Kate Blanchett). Eventually, the studio agreed to a prologue at the beginning of the first film.
- The Battle of Helm's Deep took four months to film. Filming took place only at night.
- Initially, Arwen (Liv Tyler) was supposed to be included in the Battle of Helm's Deep. This element was present in the original Miramax script, which aimed to condense three books into two films. Tyler had even begun training for the filming of fight scenes, however, the authors decided to exclude her character from the battle and more closely follow the book 'The Two Towers,' in which Arwen does not appear. However, Arwen still appears in this film in scenes that were written based on the appendices to J.R.R. Tolkien's book.
- During the filming of the scene where Gollum eats fish, Andy Serkis chewed on a fish-shaped lollipop.
- In the panoramic shots where Legolas, Aragorn, and Gimli run after the orcs, all three actors were injured. Orlando Bloom had a fractured pair of ribs, Viggo Mortensen – a broken toe, and Brett Beatty (John Rhys-Davies' stunt double) – a knee injury.
- Among the refugees in Helm's Deep, you can spot Elijah Wood's sister and Viggo Mortensen's son. Philippa Boyens' (one of the screenwriters) son played the boy handing Aragorn his sword.
- Barry M. Osborne (executive producer) played a Rohan soldier throwing a stone at an Uruk-hai in the Battle of Helm's Deep.
- Costume designer Dana Henn can be spotted among the people dressed in chainmail in Helm's Deep (look over Aragorn’s right shoulder when Legolas says, “They’re frightened. I see fear in their eyes”).
- In the scene where Gamling (Bruce Hopkins) and Théoden (Bernard Hill) prepare for battle (Gamling delivers a speech), Bruce Hopkins’ sons, Tom and Joe, are sitting at the entrance to the room with their backs to the viewer.
- Andy Serkis voiced three Orcs arguing with each other in the scene at the edge of Fangorn Forest.
- The scene where the Uruk-hai thrust their spears into the ground before the battle was added to the film after Peter Jackson noticed the stuntmen plunging spears into the ground when the command “cut” was given.
- Shortbread cookies were used as the elven lembas bread that Sam and Frodo eat at the beginning of the film.
- The trailers for the film feature a scene where Éowyn prepares to attack an Uruk-hai. This scene is absent from both the theatrical and extended versions.
- During the filming of the scene in the cave where Faramir raises the Ring on his sword, David Wenham was afraid of injuring Elijah Wood, so a fencing double stood in for him.
- The title of the film is spoken in each film of the trilogy. In this film, Saruman says: “Who now has the strength to stand against the armies of Isengard and Mordor, the union of two fortresses?”
- The number of deaths in the film: 468.
- When Merry and Pippin are carried on the backs of Uruk-hai, Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan were actually carried on the backs of two stunt performers dressed in enormous costumes to create the effect of a height difference.
- Once, when Bernard Hill was in England, a woman approached him and told him that her child had recently died, and that parents should not bury their children. The conversation so strongly affected Hill that he asked for the phrase to be added to the film's script.
- In the scene where Aragorn is carried to the riverbank and Arwen appears to him, Liv Tyler was originally supposed to deliver her lines in English. But since Liv really liked the Elvish language, and both characters and the actors spoke it, she asked Peter Jackson to translate the dialogue into Elvish.
- Gandalf's line, 'The battle for Helm's Deep is over, the battle for Middle-earth has begun,' is a paraphrased quote from Winston Churchill's speech of June 18, 1940: 'The battle for France is over. The battle for Britain has begun.'
- To film the scene where Gollum crawls and lunges into the water for a fish, Andy Serkis was actually in icy water (a heavy snowfall had occurred the night before filming, which melted on the day of the shoot).
- Viggo Mortensen broke two toes when he kicked a metal helmet near the Orcs' campfire. That very take made it into the final film cut.
- From the very beginning, it was planned that the final scene of the book "The Two Towers" (Frodo and Sam versus Shelob) would be included in the third film.
- When Frodo and Sam are in Osgiliath, Sam says, "We shouldn't even be here." This phrase was deliberately added to the film to smooth over the discrepancies between the events in the film and the book. In the book, Sam and Frodo never went through Osgiliath.
- At the very beginning of the battle in Helm's Deep, when the Uruk-hai begin to raise ladders to the walls, there is one berserker sitting on top of each ladder, ready to jump into the enemy ranks, but in the next shot, several ladders are already standing against the walls, and no berserkers are visible among the elves, and the elves, standing in formation, have only prepared for hand-to-hand combat.
- The film is based on the novel The Lord of the Rings (1954-1955) by J.R.R. Tolkien.
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