Super Grover

Trivia: Many of the major shots depicted in the movie are duplicates of Alan Lee's illustrations, in the LotR books, that had been published years before. In many shots, the actors were positioned in the same poses, as the drawings in the books. One example is, when Frodo pulls Gollum's head back and holds Sting up to his throat. (00:10:40)

Super Grover ★

Trivia: Parts of the Rivendell scenes were shot as pickups, after filming was done. Sam in those shots is a much thinner hobbit, because after the final wrap, Sean Astin lost the weight he had gained to play Samwise Gamgee. (01:28:45)

Super Grover ★

Trivia: At Helm's Deep, the one-eyed man who shouted, "Fire" after Theoden gives the order for a volley, really is missing an eye; it's not a CG effect. Director's commentary, extended DVD. (01:04:15)

Super Grover ★

Trivia: Haleth, son of Hama, is played by Calum, son of Philippa Boyens. When it was time to do the ADR for the movie, Calum's voice was much deeper by then, so another young boy's voice was dubbed to say these powerful lines, "...The men are saying we will not live out the night. They say that it is hopeless." Director's commentary, extended DVD. (00:56:40)

Super Grover ★

Trivia: When Sam's cooking the rabbit stew, Sam says, "Lovely big golden chips with a nice piece of fried fish," and Gollum spits. Andy Serkis is very proud that something of his is on screen, because it is his spit we see, not a CGI like the rest of Gollum's body. Appendices of extended DVD. (01:42:20)

Super Grover ★

Trivia: Elijah Wood describes this as "spontaneous, violent love." Apparently Viggo Mortensen and some stunt men enjoyed greeting co-workers by 'head-butting' each other. One night he persuaded stunt man Sala Baker to head-butt Orlando Bloom, who jokingly swears he saw 'white light', after their heads smashed together. A bright red mark on Bloom's forehead was not appreciated by the make-up artist the next day. Mortensen was amused because Bloom had the "perfect, pale Elven complexion." Appendices, Extended DVD.

Super Grover ★

Trivia: John Rhys-Davies is missing the end of his middle finger on his left hand due to a farming accident as a child. The make-up artists made artificial, gelatin fingertips for him to wear in the movies. Davies one day, cut the tip in half, put 'blood' in it and closed it up. He went over to Peter Jackson (unaware of the gelatin tip) and said, "Boss, I've had an accident, look what happened". Jackson saw a small cut, but Davies bent the tip back and it split open, gushing.

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Trivia: The Warg scene that includes the infamous shot of Legolas leaping onto the horse, was filmed on the same day that Orlando Bloom fell off his horse and cracked his rib. He landed on a rock and Gimli's scale double (Brett) fell on top of him. So the filming crew could not film Bloom actually jumping onto his saddle, because of the injury. Later in post-production, about six months before the release of "The Two Towers," Bloom had grown a beard, for the filming of "Ned Kelly" (2001). He was not permitted to shave, which meant he could not do the pickups for this scene in "The Two Towers," so the CG animators at WETA created a CG Legolas to do the actual springing onto the horse. (00:10:35)

Super Grover ★

Trivia: Andy Serkis (Gollum) did the voices of three Uruk-hai and Orcs in the scene outside Fangorn. Some of the lines he says are, "We ain't had nuthin but maggoty bread for three stinkin' days," and "Why can't we have some meat. What about them? They're fresh." (00:28:40)

Super Grover ★

Trivia: It is Christopher Lee's voice mixed with Ian McKellen's that is heard when Gandalf speaks while he's hidden by the white light in Fangorn Forest. It is also Lee's voice heard when King Theoden is speaking to Gandalf, while he is still under Saruman's power. Confirmed on the commentary.

Super Grover ★

Trivia: The filming of the Battle of Helm's Deep was so long and grueling (months), that by the end of the shoot, the actors, crew and extras had T-shirts made up that read, "I survived Helm's Deep," but with the letter "m" crossed out.

Super Grover ★

Trivia: During the filming, Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn) and Orlando Bloom (Legolas) would rib each other quite a lot. Mortensen would tell Bloom to go brush his long, blond hair and get another manicure, because the Elves are so prissy. Bloom would call Mortensen a dirty human (which is entirely true as he rarely bathed during filming) and say that at least the Elves live forever (which is entirely false and is based on a popular misconception of how long they live).

Super Grover ★

Trivia: When the Ring speaks to Aragorn, the subtitles say, "Aragorn, Aragorn, Elessar." However, when listening to the words spoken, it sounds like the Ring says, "Aragorn, Aragorn, bless us." Even on the audio commentary, Elijah Wood (Frodo) says, "I love that the Ring actually speaks to Viggo, as it tempts him, 'bless us', that's amazing, I didn't pick that up until the third time I saw the movie." The other three Hobbit actors (Sean Astin, Dominic Monahan, and Billy Boyd) seemed to concur. (01:17:50)

Super Grover ★

Trivia: Jude Law's character, Maguire, was based on Arthur Fellig, who photographed bodies at crime and fire scenes, then sold them to the tabloids. The photos shown in Maguire's apt are real crime scene photos and some were taken by Fellig himself.

Super Grover ★

Trivia: Adult Simba's singing voice is that of Joe Williams, who is the lead singer of ToTo and son of John Williams, the Star Wars composer.

Super Grover ★

Trivia: Pumbaa is the first Disney character to be flatulent in a Disney film. (00:45:45)

Super Grover ★

Trivia: Both the TV show M*A*S*H (1972) and the film M*A*S*H (1970) were based on the experiences of Dr Richard Hooker. In 1968, he authored, MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors. Subsequently he refused to watch the TV show, feeling it was too liberal.

Super Grover ★

Trivia: M*A*S*H the TV show lasted 8 yrs longer than the actual Korean War did.

Super Grover ★