Lord of the Rings trivia

[Memnoch]

DID YOU KNOW ?
==============

• Stuart Townsend was originally cast as Aragorn, but was replaced with Viggo Mortensen after four days of shooting due to creative differences.
• Ian Holm, who plays Bilbo Baggins, was the voice of Frodo Baggins in the classic BBC Radio adaptation of Lord of The Rings in the 1970s.
• New Zealand's army was cast as extras for large battle scenes in the film, but was forced to back out due to having to serve as peacekeepers in East Timor.
• Producer Tim Sanders left the project after principal photography had commenced.
• When the trailer was released on Internet on 7 April 2000, it was
  downloaded 1.6 million times in the first 24 hours.
• Elijah Wood donned hobbit-forming breeches and a flowing shirt and took to the hills for his LOTR audition tape. He even recruited buddy George Huang, writer and director of the Hollywood satire Swimming with Sharks (1994), to direct him.
• For high-tech tasks, a computer program called MASSIVE made armies of CG orcs, elves, and humans. These digital creations could 'think' and battle independently - identifying friend or foe - thanks to individual fields of vision. Jackson's team could click on one creature in a crowd scene of 20,000 and see through his "eyes". Different species even boast unique fighting styles.
• The hobbits needed to appear about three to four feet tall - tiny
  compared with the seven-foot Gandalf. This was often accomplished using forced perspective, placing McKellen consistently closer to the camera than Wood in order to trick the eye into thinking McKellen is towering.
• Viggo Mortensen lost a tooth while filming a fight sequence. He went to the dentist on his lunch break and had it patched up, and returned to the set that afternoon.
• Directors Cameo (Peter Jackson): As the belching peasant, outside the Prancing Pony Inn in Bree.
• Christopher Tolkien, son of the author of the Lord of the Rings,
  disowned his own son Simon Tolkien for supporting the making of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.
• The nine members of the Fellowship got a small tattoo, the elvish symbol for '9' at a tattoo parlor in Wellington, New Zealand, to commemorate the experience of the movie. Ian McKellen won't tell where his tattoo is.
• More than 1,600 pairs of latex ears and feet were used during the shoot, each 'cooked' in a special oven running 24 hours a day, seven days a week. There was no way of removing the feet at the end of the day without damaging them and so each pair could only be used once. The used feet were shredded to prevent a black market in stolen hobbit feet but apparently Dominic Monaghan (Merry) kept a pair.
• Christopher Lee reads the Lord of the Rings book once a year and is the only member of the entire cast and crew ever to have met Tolkien.
• Dominic Monaghan (Merry), wore a fat suit made of foam. He drank 3 litres of water a day so he would not dehydrate.

[J'aran]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Memnoch:

• For high-tech tasks, a computer program called MASSIVE made armies of CG orcs, elves, and humans. These digital creations could 'think' and battle independently - identifying friend or foe - thanks to individual fields of vision. Jackson's team could click on one creature in a crowd scene of 20,000 and see through his "eyes". Different species even boast unique fighting styles.

<hr></blockquote>

Cool. They should release that as a game

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Memnoch:

• Christopher Tolkien, son of the author of the Lord of the Rings,
  disowned his own son Simon Tolkien for supporting the making of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

<hr></blockquote>

Isn't that a bit harsh?

[ 01-18-2002: Message edited by: J'aran ]</p>

[Sir Exxon]

<font color="gold">Hehe, lots o' things there I didnt know. Funny.</font>

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Memnoch:
[*]Ian Holm, who plays Bilbo Baggins, was the voice of Frodo Baggins in the classic BBC Radio adaptation of Lord of The Rings in the 1970s.<hr></blockquote>
<font color="gold">Now, was that just a freakin' coinsidence or what?</font>


see ya!

[ 01-18-2002: Message edited by: Sir Exxon ]</p>

[Legolas]

Yes to all [img]smile.gif[/img]
But then, it's me you're asking

Cool - thanks Mario (I can call you Mario after all these months, right?)

[fable]

Ian Holm, who plays Bilbo Baggins, was the voice of Frodo Baggins in the classic BBC Radio adaptation of Lord of The Rings in the 1970s.

Now, was that just a freakin' coinsidence or what?

Nope. [img]smile.gif[/img] His performance was considered one of the greatest successes of the radio series, and became, in a sense, "immortalized." It was natural to give him a quick screen test, and cast him in the role in the film.

[Scholarcs]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Memnoch:
[*]New Zealand's army was cast as extras for large battle scenes in the film, but was forced to back out due to having to serve as peacekeepers in East Timor. <hr></blockquote>

I dont believe this one, our army isnt big enough to fight orcs. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Barry the Sprout]

The radio part just proves it really. Even Ian Holm's voice gets typecast as a short person (he first made his name over here playing the lead in the original version of "The Borrowers" which I think was later a film with John Goodman, basically in the Borrowers he played someone 6" high).

[Tancred]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Barry the Sprout:
The radio part just proves it really. Even Ian Holm's voice gets typecast as a short person (he first made his name over here playing the lead in the original version of "The Borrowers" which I think was later a film with John Goodman, basically in the Borrowers he played someone 6" high).<hr></blockquote>

Also that the man who wrote the screenplay for the film Lord of the Rings, Brian Sibley, was also the man who adapted the book for the radio play. Perhaps he suggested Ian for Bilbo?

[Tancred]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Memnoch:
DID YOU KNOW ?
==============

• Viggo Mortensen lost a tooth while filming a fight sequence. He went to the dentist on his lunch break and had it patched up, and returned to the set that afternoon.

<hr></blockquote>

Even more dedicated than that... Viggo lost the tooth, spent a minute or so making sure the blood wasn't too bad, and had his tooth superglued in so they could continue the scene. THEN he went to the dentist! and THEN that afternoon, as you say, he came back!