Christopher Lee, who plays Saruman, recalls an incident which left him rather baffled. A fan walked up to him and asked if Dracula [one of Lee's well-known cinematic characters] and Saruman were to fight each other, who would win? Lee was flabbergasted. He said, 'I just looked at this man. What a ridiculous thing to say. I mean, really, it was absolutely idiotic.'
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Saruman's Orcs are busy tearing down trees for firewood. In the second shot of this scene you will notice that one of the Orcs in the central foreground falls on his backside as the tree hits the ground. A few shots later, the same group of Orc's are pulling down the same tree, just filmed from a different angle. You can see the Orc falling down once again, this time on the left hand side, behind a burning brazier. See more...
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The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) - 71 trivia entries
Directed by Peter Jackson, starring Billy Boyd, Cate Blanchett, Christopher Lee, Dominic Monaghan, Elijah Wood, Hugo Weaving, Ian Holm, Ian McKellen, John Rhys-Davies, Liv Tyler, Orlando Bloom, Sean Astin, Sean Bean, Viggo Mortensen (add more)
Christopher Lee, who plays Saruman, recalls an incident which left him rather baffled. A fan walked up to him and asked if Dracula [one of Lee's well-known cinematic characters] and Saruman were to fight each other, who would win? Lee was flabbergasted. He said, 'I just looked at this man. What a ridiculous thing to say. I mean, really, it was absolutely idiotic.'
According to the Guinness Book of Records, the Lord of the Rings holds the record for the greatest number of false feet used in one movie: 60,000.
When the Hobbits enter Bree, right after the wheel of the carriage passes in front of them, there is a man you see to the right who's holding a carrot and burps. That is Peter Jackson making a cameo appearance.
After Stuart Townsend was fired, Viggo Mortensen was convinced by his son, Henry, to take over the role of Aragorn.
Viggo Mortensen wasn't originally cast as Aragorn. Two weeks before shooting, Peter Jackson realized that his first choice for the role (Stuart Townsend) was too young and decided to offer the role to Mortensen.
While filming the trilogy, Viggo Mortensen got so into character, that during a conversation, director Peter Jackson referred to him as "Aragorn" for over half an hour, and Mortensen didn't even realize it.
When Merry and Pippin have just taken the dragon firework from Gandalf's cart and are in the tent tossing it back and forth, Pippin shrieks when it goes off. Apparently, Peter Jackson had told Billy Boyd it would only spark and fizzle, so he was fairly surprised when it shot off in his hands. He talks about this in the commentary on the DVD.
Lawrence Makoare, the actor who plays the Uruk-hai leader Lurtz, later plays The Witch King of Angmar in The Return of the King. He also plays Gothmog, the orc commander in ROTK, plus several other Uruk-hai and orcs throughout the trilogy.
When filming "Fellowship," the actors playing the Hobbits required hours of work just to get on their Hobbit feet. It was so long and terrible that Sean Astin (Sam) counted the amount of times they had to put their feet on when it never showed up on camera in that day of filming. The final count was 50.
The Orc blacksmiths beneath Isengard are the WETA workshop staff who made the weapons for the film.
When running away from the Balrog, Boromir is the first to reach the bottomless stairs and Legolas pulls him back to safety. When this piece was shot, there were many retakes, and each time Sean Bean would get pulled back by Orlando Bloom, Bean would land back onto Bloom's soft lap, while Bloom would slam back onto the hard steps with the full weight of the two of them. As a result, Bloom had bruising on his backside and legs, for some time. Bloom joked, "I gave Sean a few beatings for that, I can tell ya." Cast commentary, extended DVD.
When the four Hobbits are in the woods running from the Ringwraiths, they run onto the boat at Buckleberry ferry and go to Bree. Merry, Pippin and Sam get on alright but Frodo has to jump. The first time the filmmakers shot this scene, Elijah Wood jumped right over the ferry and into the water on the other side.
In all the close-up shots of Galadriel, you can see a reflection of a ball of white Christmas lights that was held up near the camera. The filmmakers did this to make her eyes look deeper and more complex.
Peter Jackson's son Billy (seen listening to Bilbo's troll story) is the only hobbit in the movie that didn't need a wig.
The actors who played the members of the Fellowship all got the Elvish symbol for "9" tattooed somewhere on their bodies, apart from John Rhys-Davies (who plays Gimli) who sent his stunt double instead.
5000 cubic metres of vegetables and flowers were grown a year before filming started to make the Hobbits' village.
At the end of the shoot, Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh gave each, Elijah Wood (Frodo) and Andy Serkis (Gollum/Smeagol), one of the gold rings used as the "One Ring" in the films.
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.
Alan Lee (a Tolkien artist and conceptual designer with John Howe) has a cameo as one of the nine men who received a Ring of power in the Prologue.
When Frodo is leafing through Bilbo's Book in Rivendell, a page with dwarven runes is shown. The runes translate thus: "Stand by the grey stone when the thrush knocks, and the setting sun with the last light of Durin's Day will shine upon the keyhole." This is a reference to the map in "The Hobbit" and the runes tell of the secret entrance into The Lonely Mountain.
You may also like: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King | The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers | Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl | Twilight | The Dark Knight
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