Stills from the filming and interesting facts about the film "The Lord of the Rings. The Two Towers" (26 photos)

After the success of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, many were eagerly awaiting a sequel. It finally came out in 2002. The film turned out to be no less spectacular and pleased most viewers.



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1. The original script for the film (all parts) was revised a huge number of times, thanks to the fact that the director and other members of the film crew came up with interesting ideas. And the actors themselves who played the main characters also proposed many interesting ideas that eventually ended up in the film.

2. To play the old and drugged King Theoden, actor Bernard Hill had to spend several hours in the makeup chair. On certain days, applying makeup took 9 hours.



By the way, Bernard Hill was originally considered for the role of Gandalf for the first film, but the role, as we all know, was given to Ian McKellen.

3. To give Golum his distinctive raspy voice, every day Andy Serkis drank a mixture of lemon juice, honey and ginger, which he himself called “Golum Juice.”

4. The Kingdom of Rohan was created based on medieval Scandinavia, so that the viewer could feel something associated with the Vikings and all that.





5. The Ents we see on the screen were created not only with the help of computer graphics. A huge animatronic puppet measuring approximately 4.2 meters in height was created to film certain scenes with the chief ent, Treebeard. It was on this doll that Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd, who played Mary and Pepin, sat. Moreover, they were not removed from there even during the lunch break.



By the way, Treebeard himself was voiced by actor John Rhys Davies, who played the dwarf Gimli in all three parts of the film.

6. In the first part of The Lord of the Rings, the character Golum appeared only in the background, and his initial design was slightly different from what we saw in The Two Towers, and Andy Serkis himself was involved only in the voice acting. In the second part of the film, it was decided to “revive” the character with Andy Serkis’s performance, as well as add his facial features.



Golum was filmed in a very interesting way. Initially, the character scenes were filmed separately, with Andy Serkis wearing a white suit to portray the actors. After this, the materials were handed over to the animators so that they could understand how to work further.



After that, the actors repeated the same scenes, but without Golum, but only with empty space.

Well, then Andy Serkis was dressed in a suit with sensors and individual scenes were filmed with him, after which they “pulled” Golum onto his movements and inserted him into scenes with live actors.



7. Viggo Mortensen, who played Aragorn, wanted to do all the stunts himself. And of course, there were some injuries. During the filming of one of the scenes, he was hit in the teeth, as a result of which a piece of his front tooth broke off.



Peter Jackson immediately sent Viggo to the dentist, which the actor obediently did. And as Mortensen himself said, when he came to the dentist, he was dumbfounded, because he thought that a homeless person had come to see him. The fact is that Viggo went to the dentist directly in the Aragorn costume, without changing clothes.

Well, another scene is known to many. When Aragorn kicked the helmet, he let out a heart-rending scream and then fell to his knees. This was not planned in the script, but Peter Jackson liked this improvisation. True, this improvisation happened by accident, since after hitting the helmet, Viggo Mortensen broke his toes. Experiencing unbearable pain, he screamed heart-rendingly, but did not leave the image. But what a cool shot it turned out to be.



8. Orlando Bloom, who played Legolas, also decided to keep up with his colleague, as a result of which he broke his rib after falling from a horse.



8. At the "MTV Movie Awards" the film "The Lord of the Rings" st.was a laureate in the category "Best Virtual Character". Naturally, we are talking about Golum.

It was planned that Andy Serkis himself, who played this character (motion capture) and voiced him, would give a fiery speech, but at that time the actor was in New Zealand filming the third part of “The Lord of the Rings”, so he could not attend the award ceremony.



But the filmmakers decided to do something better. They recorded a message of gratitude from Andy Serkis, after which Golum himself burst into the studio, snatching the award from the actor, saying that he received this prize. Overall, it turned out to be very funny.



By the way, Dobby from the film “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” could have received this award, but in the end Golum beat him.

But Andy Serkis was never nominated for an Oscar, despite the fact that Peter Jackson tried his best to push the actor who played Golum into the Best Supporting Actor category.

He was refused due to the fact that according to the rules, one can only be nominated if the actor plays a living character and not a virtual one.

9. Filming of the legendary battle at Helm's Deep took place over four months. Of course, this could have been done faster, if not for one BUT. Since the battle took place at night, this scene had to be filmed only in the dark.



Moreover, this scene involved the involvement of a huge number of extras. But the most interesting thing is that after filming ended, almost every member of the extras received a T-shirt with the inscription “I survived Helm’s Deep.”



In total, approximately 20 hours of footage of the Battle of Helm's Deep was filmed. After that, a long and painstaking work was carried out to put everything together and select the most important and interesting scenes. Naturally, a lot had to be sacrificed, because it was necessary to meet the timing.

10. Viggo Mortensen speaks five languages, and in general he simply loves learning foreign languages. Therefore, he himself asked that his character speak Elvish as much as possible.



11. The director's cut of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers lasts more than 4 hours, while the theatrical version, which we all watched, lasts about 3 hours.

A lot of interesting and, I think, important scenes were cut from the film. For example, the Director's Cut shows a flashback where Boromir talks to his father Denethor, saying that Faromir (Boromir's brother) loves him.



And in the final version, Sean Bean (Boromir) did not appear at all, not counting the flashbacks from the first part. But Sean Bean specially returned to New Zealand only to film this episode.



Also, the scene with the murder of Saruman at the hands of Grima Wormtongue was not included in the theatrical stage, which I personally consider a big omission. How could the death of such a significant character as Saruman be removed from the theatrical version?



12. David Wenham did a great job as Faromir, but he has his looks to thank for being cast in the role. The creators felt that he was somewhat similar to Sean Bean, who played Boromir.



13. The scene in the swamp of the dead was filmed in a parking lot that was filled with water. It was there that the scene of the entrance to Moria in the film "The Lord of the Rings. The Fellowship of the Ring" was filmed.

Well, the underwater scenes, like in the first part, were filmed without a drop of water. Elijah Wood was blown with a fan to make his hair flutter, and then they applied an underwater effect and, of course, slowed down the scene so that the hair moved more slowly.

Well, the corpses that the main characters saw in the swamp of the dead were made of silicone.

14. As in the first part of the Film, Peter Jackson played a small role. It is he who throws the spear during the Battle of Helm's Deep. Also, his children again played in this film. But this time they did not play little hobbits. and Rohan children.



In addition, Elijah Wood's sister (Frodo) and Viggo Mortensen's son (Aragorn) appeared among the extras among the Helm's Deep refugees.

15. When Miranda Otto, who played Éowyn, first saw Viggo Mortensen, she told Peter Jackson that it would be very easy for her to portray her character's crush on Aragorn.



Liv Tyler was overjoyed to see Miranda Otto on set, commenting, "Finally another woman on set."

16. During the filming of the film, approximately 200 real horses were used. But during the battle scenes, the filmmakers decided to play it safe so as not to injure or frighten the animals. Therefore, some scenes with horses were filmed on the pavilion. The animals and their riders were fitted with motion-sensing suits, after which they were digitized and added to the film.

17. With a budget of $94 million, the film “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” grossed $936 million, which was almost 10 times the budget. It was a success.



18. The film “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” was nominated for an Oscar in as many as 6 categories, including best picture, which is quite rare for sequels. But in the end, the film only managed to win two statuettes, namely for “best sound” and “best visual effects.”

19. Few people noticed, but there is one detail that reveals Golum, or rather his current state. These are his eyes, or rather the pupils. The evil Golum has narrow pupils, while the good and naive Sméagol has dilated pupils. This especially stands out when he's talking to himself.



20. Remember the screams of the army of thousands of orcs? In fact, it was not the extras who screamed, and no effects were applied to these screams. Peter Jackson and his team specially went to the sports stadium, where they recorded the enthusiastic screams of several thousand fans.

21. For the scene of the army of Rohan arriving at the battle at Helm’s Deep at dawn, not just extras were involved, but real riders who knew how to stay in the saddle. But since it was not possible to find so many men who knew how to stay in the saddle, they had to involve women in the filming, having previously made them up and put artificial beards on them.



22. In the original book, Sam and Frodo did not go through Osgiliath, whereas in the film we see this scene. To make sure that fans of the book were less likely to express their dissatisfaction with the film's divergence from the original source, Peter Jackson decided to smooth it all over with one phrase that Sam says: "We weren't even supposed to be here."

23. Even before filming began, actor Bernard Hill spoke with a certain woman who had recently buried her son. The woman told him that no parent should have to bury their children. The actor was so impressed that he asked Peter Jackson to insert this phrase into the film, especially since in the story King Theoden actually buried his son.



24. Before the Battle of Helm's Deep begins, Legolas tells Aragorn that 300 men cannot stand against 10,000 orcs. Of course, this is a reference to the novel "300 Spartans", where 300 Spartans fought with a ten-thousand-strong Persian army.

25. Golum’s phrase “My precious” has become so popular that it has found its way into various tops of the most iconic phrases in the history of cinema. And of course she went viral with memes.

26. The height of the created miniature of Helm's Deep was more than 2 meters.