Original subtitles

[narrator] The future of "The Lord of the Rings'" production

was on the line.

The realization came to everyone

that New Line could go under.

What do we do now?

The idea was to do a huge press event in Cannes

and then this huge party

to pre-sell the international distribution rights.

Huh.

[narrator] Everything hinged on an epic 20-minute sequence

in the Mines of Moria

that had been shot in just seven days.

They wanted to really show the world

how "Lord of the Rings" was gonna look on screen.

But this film was gonna be something really exciting.

[man] And then say, you know, "You can have the films,

but you gotta give us money up front

and you have to book all three films."

[narrator] New Lines' fate now rested in the hands

of Weta's post production.

There were time constraints.

It was very short order.

You only got one chance to get it right.

[narrator] But even with the dark cloud of dwindling funds

hanging over them

and key cast and crew now on the French Riviera...

[Mahaffie] We didn't stop filming.

If we don't succeed, it won't be because we haven't put

every last ounce of energy into this.

[narrator] ...through accidents...

Sean got, like, 16 or 20 stitches.

[narrator] ...a director

hell-bent on achieving his vision...

Cast had got bigger, the crew had got bigger.

[narrator] ...production was already sailing

unchartered waters.

-Three films. -Three films.

Three films at once.

Don't you see this is madness?

It was always going to be a lot of anxiety.

[narrator] Now with the release of "The Fellowship of the Ring"

only seven months away, and a shaky financial future,

would Peter Jackson's epic

become just another failed film project?

A just question, my liege.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[narrator] In Wellington, New Zealand,

the clock was ticking for Weta Digital.

Time was fast running out

to complete the Mines of Moria sequence

to the standard required before its screening.

We couldn't show anything that had green screen

because we all know that film reviewers can't look

at green screen and understand what that shot's supposed to be.

[narrator] To bring

the Mines of Moria to life

in such a short time would require

a large cave-troll-sized effort.

But within it...

[Osborne] Peter saw an opportunity.

What happens often in visual effects is,

the visual effects team want as much time as they can for R&D

and they don't really want us to get into

starting to do shots until they feel confident

and feel they won't be embarrassed.

So, he used this as a tool to force them

to get into production. [laughs]

[narrator] And then, with

the sequence almost completed,

a last-minute suggestion from an unlikely source

made the schedule even tighter.

One of the assistant editors, a guy named Peter Skarratt,

who I really admire quite a bit, he came to me and said,

"You know, this is great, but there's a problem

because you haven't introduced the characters.

Introduce the characters before we see the cave-troll sequence.

And you haven't given us a lead out where this is going,

like, a teaser that gives some sense

of what the shape of the movie's gonna be."

So, Peter added those.

He took the suggestion, added that.

[narrator] Added was scene setting up the Shire

and the Hobbits, along with some of the principal villains

and, of course, heroes.

Along with snippets of "Two Towers"

and "Return of the King"

and a few battle scenes thrown in for good measure.

They made it in time for Cannes. It was really great.

[narrator] They packed it up

in the most secure package they could find --

Dean Lyons' carry-on.

So, I carried a hard drive to France.

It wasn't, like, something we could send.

It was way too important.

[narrator] With the air mail safely delivered...

Everything was riding on this.

[narrator] ...the real work began.

[Osborne] Bob Shaye took a gigantic risk.

Peter hadn't done anything of this magnitude.

There wasn't a huge movie star in the film.

We had distributors from Europe, from Asia,

Australia, from all, all over.

Half the Shire's been invited.

And what we were asking, very upfront, a lot of money.

Even if the first one did work,

they still had to pay for the other two.

[narrator] So, on May the 11th, 2001,

distributors and the world-wide

press sat down

to decide the fate of "Lord of the Rings."

And that room full of people lost their minds.

[screaming]

[growling]

[cheers and applause]

Aah!

And people went nuts.

I get the chills right now, even remembering that.

It was brilliant.

You work very hard on something,

you're not quite sure how it's gonna look.

It was a pretty exciting moment for all of us

that were able to see that footage.

I thought, "Wow, this is gonna blow people's minds."

I've never seen anything like this.

[narrator] The Mines of Moria

sequence in particular

had people begging for more.

A lot more.

That whole sequence is so much of the essence

of what this franchise is about.

It looks beautiful, it's intense, it's emotional.

Gandalf!

What they did in that room was, they blew everybody's mind

in the middle of the Cannes Film Festival,

where you're there to see high-minded art

from around the world by the greatest filmmakers working,

20 minutes of "Lord of the Rings"

stole the oxygen of that entire festival.

The thing that at least my friends were talking about were,

"This looks exactly like I imagined it,

this looks exactly the way it was described in the book."

You work very hard on something,

you're not quite sure how it's gonna look

and getting to see that footage was an eye-opener.

I think we realized that we were part of something

that was at a higher level of anything that we'd done before.

[Osborne] I decided to sneak into the theater

and just sit down anonymously behind three British reporters.

One of them turned to the other one and said,

"Gee, I thought Tolkien was gonna be boring."

And I knew then that we had a film

that was working really, really well.

[narrator] But perhaps no one was quite as elated

as the foreign distributors.

Distributors came out with tears.

I remember, I think it was Samuel Hadida

went up to Mark Ordesky

and, like, grabbed him and started kissing him.

I mean, they were just thrilled and just stunned

at what they had seen and the potential of the film.

[narrator] And after several successful screenings,

they packed it up and went home.

Oh, no, you don't.

[narrator] Just kidding.

They had a huge party afterwards.

♪♪

Basically reconstructed the Shire, everything.

It was phenomenal.

There had never been anything like this

to really introduce these films as something spectacular.

Yeah, it was, it was exciting.

It's a great party at Cannes, lots of people.

I'm sure New Line spent a lot of money on it.

[narrator] $2 million, to be precise.

All the cast where there.

A lot of the key crew were there.

[narrator] Even Peter Jackson got all dolled up

and put on a nice suit.

But he refused to put on shoes and we were like,

"Peter, at least put on sandals or something."

[narrator] But with shoes on or off,

New Line could feel a bit of a spring in Peter's step.

They realized that Peter was a true auteur

and the team around him were delivering something

that was gonna be a lot more than what they imagined.

[narrator] With everyone drunk on Hobbit ale and elvish wine,

New Line's sales department got to work.

We did it. We did it successfully.

And by the end of Cannes,

New Line had closed all the foreign pre-sales.

[narrator] And with that, the party could truly begin.

For some, though, the victories were more than financial.

These were really male films,

but the deals we negotiated were mostly all with men.

And I was very, very proud to be a woman representing this.

My team had a lot of really strong women

and I'm really proud to have been a part of it.

Yeah.

[narrator] And there was a lot to be proud of.

I truly think once Cannes happened,

that's the moment that everybody exhales for the first time.

That was good.

It was maybe the biggest moment of hype

I've ever witnessed and deservedly.

That was so successful that everything changed.

[narrator] With a newly earned hype,

the relationship between Peter and New Line changed as well.

I know that there were worries about the budget blowing out,

that, you know, that the cast had got bigger,

the crew had got bigger. More was being spent.

I think there was an assurance after that footage at Cannes

that this was gonna be worth the money that they were spending.

[narrator] Arriving back in New Zealand,

Peter Jackson and his team got back to work,

albeit with a strong wind in their sails.

The floodgates opened, you know?

But it didn't feel like a completely different movie.

Peter knew what he was doing and he didn't,

even if they gave him three times the money,

he wasn't gonna turn it into something else all of a sudden.

You know? I think he knew he'd found the right language

for the film before they got the cash injection.

A lot of the pressure was taken off of us.

[narrator] But not all the pressure.

We knew we had to have it finished for December that year.

[narrator] With six months till the end of the year,

production kicked it up into high gear.

At one point, we had, like, four or five units

shooting onto the two islands.

And it was like at one point,

we had four Orlandos shooting simultaneously

on four different parts of the island.

[narrator] And if you're wondering

how that was possible...

We had so many Orlando doubles. I think we had seven.

[narrator] All of which would soon become very necessary.

We were filming

and we had nearly finished the, the sequence,

but one of the shots that we had left was aerobatic,

acrobatic of mounting onto the horse.

And he fell off the horse.

He fell badly, and I think he fell onto some hard rocks.

And they were all very concerned that he'd damaged his spine.

[narrator] Orlando was quickly rushed to the local hospital.

But he was fine, he was out the next day.

And he was very sore, but that was it.

Whatever luck you all live by, let's hope it lasts the night.

[narrator] And the production breathed a sigh of relief,

having avoided what could have been a very costly mistake.

Peter's very good. He says, "Okay, quick,

get the Orlando double ready. Who's doing it today?"

You know, nothing's gonna stop us filming,

just have to adjust what we are filming.

[narrator] Even if the injuries were starting to pile up.

It was leaning over them and saying...

Squeal. No one's gonna save you now.

Then they had this sword which were real

and I kinda donged him on the head with it.

He's sort of bleeding just very slightly.

You know, then a few days later, we're doing the next scene

and I get kicked in the face.

Similar thing, they were trying to find

Merry and Pippin and they came upon this encampment

where the Uruk-hai were in.

Aragorn thought that they were dead.

So, he kicked a helmet.

And broke his toe [laughs] kicking the helmet.

[screams]

Which is in the movie, and he kept on going.

He didn't let that stop him

and it probably added to his performance.

But I know [laughs] it was very painful.

[yelling and screaming]

It was an absolute marathon of energy

and draining long days and long nights.

Keep breathing, that's the key.

There was a sense of, "We can't afford to fail.

We've been given this opportunity to film

one of the most amazing pieces of literature

and it's our responsibility

to do everything we can to make it a success."

[narrator] "The Lord of the Rings'"

production schedule was relentless.

Never before had a studio committed

to shooting a complete trilogy in one straight run.

It was a massive logistical challenge.

266 main unit principal photography days

for three movies, but we did have the luxury

of numerous units running at times,

you know, second units, a second, second unit,

blue-screen units, miniature units.

[narrator] But no one was more embedded than Peter Jackson.

For days, Peter would sit at a monitor

and he would call [indistinct] he would look

directly across to another monitor

which was a feed from second unit

and pick up the phone and make performance notes,

continuity notes, whatever it might be.

He had his head around things like I've never seen

anyone juggle prior to, or previously, I don't think.

[narrator] With "The Fellowship of the Rings'" release date

rapidly approaching,

it was time for Jackson to narrow his focus.

[Sauron] The hour is later than you think.

"Lord of the Rings," we always talk about

they made all the films together.

That's sort of a misnomer. There was an extended process

by which all three of those films were made.

But at a certain point, they narrowed

everyone's interest to "Fellowship of the Ring"

because it became very clear --

"This is all ambitious, this is all great,

but we have a movie that has to be in theaters

Christmas of 2001 and it has to work.

And we're terrified."

[narrator] So, Peter focused his attention

on the first film, "The Fellowship of the Ring."

It was important to everyone that the first film worked

and he put most of his energy into that.

[narrator] But his many second units

kept chugging away at the latter two films.

He had second-unit directors

working on Helm's Deep, for example.

The enormity of the battle certainly got my attention.

[narrator] John Mahaffie was now in charge

of the biggest battle scene in the history of cinema,

an intimidating prospect.

Your friends are with you, Aragorn.

The main gaffer, Brian Bansgrove,

who was legendary, said,

"This one's gonna sort out the men from the boys

and I intend to finish it a man."

[Alley] It's kind of legendary

in the New Zealand film industry now

for just the worst, most difficult,

impossible shoot that anyone's ever done.

[narrator] And while there were

many reasons for this,

the first was simply the sheer number of people needed.

We had 200 extras that we could get in close to.

[narrator] That's 200 extras

that would serve as the models for the 10,000 Orcs.

We hadn't really had those sort of numbers of extras

in New Zealand before, so just things like, you know,

"When do we give them the swords?

When do we put the masks on them?"

[narrator] And unfortunately for Matt,

he was the one tasked with figuring it out.

Well, I was in charge of the Orc army,

getting them dressed into their armor

and coming up with different looks.

In fact, the prosthetics guys would say to me,

"This is kind of a hillbilly look,"

or "This is kind of a rock and roll guy,"

which was kind of fun.

[narrator] Which leads to the second reason

why this was such a long, arduous shoot.

The stunt players, they'd be there in their rubber suits,

heads on.

We could film for 15, 20 minutes.

If we didn't stop at that point and take their heads off,

some of them would actually expire through lack of oxygen.

[narrator] And with the battle taking place in the rain,

it was untenable to constantly douse the Orcs in water.

To keep them looking wet, really wet,

there were literally buckets of KY jelly.

So, it was [laughs]

I mean, everyone got over the jokes very quickly.

But, you know, you just slop it on and it stays wet.

[narrator] The result was a mosh pit

of extras covered in latex and lube.

It was a lot of what we call "organized chaos".

'Cause the actual battle scene is chaotic and accidents galore.

[narrator] And no one would know this better

than stunt man Sala Baker

who portrayed many of the Uruk-hai.

Sala Baker, he got hit by one of the horses

and I think we measured he flew through the air 20 feet

before he hit the ground again.

[narrator] With so many swords and weapons,

even the principal cast were bound to get hit.

Viggo was sword fighting and the stunt guy hit

Viggo right across the mouth and broke a tooth.

And the tooth fell out into the mud and muck of the set

and Viggo just picked it up.

[narrator] And walked right over

to the special effects department to see if...

We could just Super-Glue it back on.

[narrator] While they said "No"

to the Super Glue,

they did offer to send him to a dentist.

He said, "No, no, I'm gonna keep going. [laughs]

I don't have to go to the dentist."

[narrator] The battle of Helm's Deep

was turning into an extreme sport.

I said to Peter at one point,

"When Legolas is trying to rescue Gimli,

why doesn't he throw a shield on the ground

and ride it down the stairs like a snow board?"

[narrator] Executed to perfection

by stunt man Morgan Evans.

And if ever I mention to someone,

"Oh, I was double for Legolas in those movies,"

that's the thing they remember, you know?

'Cause it was just so cool and so slick.

[narrator] Jones' unorthodox inspiration continued,

while observing the Uruk-hai performance between takes.

These guys that looked like big, ugly Uruk-hai

with their hats off, they were like a football team

or, you know, for us in New Zealand,

a rugby team that were committed to get across the line.

[narrator] But with the constant start

and stop of production...

the team had to find ways

to stay awake during the long nights.

The boys would stand around and one of them would sing

and then they would starting to dance in these suits

that I had said to Peter,

"Why don't we do, like, the Maori haka?"

Which is a war challenge.

[narrator] Often performed before matches

by the New Zealand national rugby team.

And so, that came in as they started the chant...

...that built up to their moment of their charging.

[growls]

[narrator] This clever addition,

along with several other punch-ups and rewrites

was the third reason why filming the epic battle

took so long.

There's "Two Towers" footage that you can see

that they shot with Arwen at the Battle of Helm's Deep.

[narrator] The remnants of an early script,

which featured the elvish princess more prominently.

She was supposed to come and fight as well.

[narrator] Because if you recall,

she was supposed to be...

A female warrior.

But they took that out because it just kind of

didn't make sense from a narrative point of view.

So, they decided to replace her with Haldir.

[narrator] Not just Haldir, but a whole battalion of elves.

We are proud to fight alongside men once more.

[narrator] Meanwhile, the changes

only extended production on the battle.

We filmed there for a long, long time. All nights.

And you were just basically, you know, waiting

till the sun came up and then you could pretty much go home.

[narrator] Fatigue began to cast its long shadow

over the production.

After about a couple of months, they'd go in

and people were weird, in a funny mood

because they weren't seeing any daylight.

We had one person out there who was threatening

to jump off the set, you know, suicide attempt.

One of the crew became disorientated

and climbed inside the tower.

[narrator] Which, while only a miniature,

was still 40 feet tall.

Fortunately, we were able to assure him

and get him down for help and diffuse the situation

that could have literally been tragic.

It kind of impressed upon all of us

that we needed to look out for each other,

that we needed to be able to be honest with each other

about the pressures that people were experiencing.

[narrator] With a renewed sense of brotherhood,

filming continued.

But there was trouble ahead.

[narrator] The epic battle of Helm's Deep

had pushed John Mahaffie's second unit to the brink.

We'd be in a studio and then the first studio go,

"That's a wrap on Helm's Deep."

And then we'd be doing another studio,

"That's a wrap on Helm's Deep" and by the third time,

it's like, "Yeah, really? Are you sure we're wrapped

or are we gonna do something else?"

[narrator] But the war was far from over

and new challenges emerged with each and every scene.

This particular day, we were to film the sequence

at Minas Tirith.

And my steady-cam operator was away

at a dental appointment.

[narrator] And not wanting to lose the day...

I put on the steady cam, so we roll the camera

and I say, "Action,"

and I'm sort of running backwards through this market

and Peter comes round onto our set and says,

"That's great, let's do this one, we'll try this."

And so we do another take. He goes, "Oh, that's great.

Let's do another, we'll try this."

And it was like, 15 takes later, I'm going, "Ahh." [laughs]

[narrator] It was becoming apparent

that to film this epic story,

it would require total commitment.

I got to do some of the training with a horse called Brownie

for the scene where the horse sits down on Viggo

and lets him get on. It was a scene

that I think Peter was a bit dubious about doing.

He didn't want his horse to sit down on his lead actor's face.

[narrator] Thankfully, his leading man

was up for the challenge.

He would come out after work to ride the horse,

to feed the horse, to groom the horse.

He totally believed that if you were gonna bond with a horse,

you should spend as much time as possible.

That was Viggo. He would live in the field with the horse.

He and the horse were as one.

But it took him months.

He is incredibly dedicated.

And we shot there on the day

and it was kind of the horse did it perfectly.

He's kind of almost like a horse whisperer.

[narrator] While the horses could be tamed,

the same couldn't be said for the weather.

We were shooting in a place called Skipper's Canyon.

It was the scene where Arwen is one side of the river

and the Nazgul are on the other, and we'd filmed the day before

and then there was

an unseasonable fall of snow that night.

It started snowing very, very hard.

And we knew that we had to keep filming with those horses

at another location,

so we literally had to ride them out of there.

Otherwise they would have got us stuck in there for days.

[narrator] With the weather closing in

on one side and a 400-foot drop into the canyon on the other,

the team of wranglers had to work together

to get out alive.

I couldn't see the horse in front of me,

the blizzard was kind of,

the snow was coming straight into our faces.

So, that was a moment where we really had to trust

both ourselves and our mount to get out safely, yeah.

[narrator] But to be honest, each location

tested the ingenuity and resilience

of the New Zealand crew,

including the sleepy town of Twizel.

That whole area in the south island was inhabited by,

you know, millions upon millions of rabbits once upon a time.

[narrator] And fuzzy rabbits

make fuzzy rabbit homes.

And each time we galloped,

the horses would stumble into these rabbit holes

and we had hundreds of people with sandbags

filling in these rabbit holes in between takes

to make it safe for the 300 horses to gallop on.

[narrator] And shooting in the north

was potentially equally catastrophic.

It was a open desert in the middle of the north island.

[narrator] A perfect location

for the Mordor sets.

Well, except for the one explosive detail.

There was mines underground.

[narrator] Luckily, the nearby military base

offered their support.

"So, we're gonna have to be on set to kind of help you out"

and then it was also turned into,

"Well, you guys are military, you guys march.

You guys wanna just be Gondor's army for this scene right here?

That'd be great."

[narrator] So, like, many New Zealanders,

they too decided to pitch in.

And while the horses survived the rabbit holes

and the military survived the minefield,

one hobbit couldn't make it past the sandy beach.

Sean got, like, 16 or 20 stitches.

Quite a big cut.

[narrator] When an errant stick

pierced the Hobbit through his oversized feet.

So, I had to cut the bottom of the foot off,

this blob of clear plasma dropped.

And then Elijah came over with a stick and started poking it.

[laughs]

[narrator] Sean would make a full recovery

and thankfully, he wouldn't have to get wet again.

He could not or would not go in the water.

[narrator] So, green screen DP,

Nigel Bluck,

was tasked with the impossible.

I remember getting that call, "Ah, can you figure out a way

to shoot dry for it?" I had no idea, none.

But I do have a good knowledge about water and being in water,

I've grown up around that, so I just sort of broke it down

and figured out.

We just shot at very high speed,

used a lot of wind to make his skin move as it should.

Put his cape on wires.

It was, you know, very simple.

[narrator] Once again, proving

the ingenuity and resilience of "The Lord of the Rings" crew.

Bare bones, we made things up.

We built things to do things,

we did things in very basic ways sometimes.

And it worked.

[narrator] If production on "Lord of the Rings"

was a logistical nightmare,

then post production was sure to be no easier.

And like all things on this film,

it was complicated in the sense that Peter had a great idea.

He was gonna have three editors.

[narrator] John Gilbert editing "Fellowship of the Ring."

Michael J. Horton editing "Two Towers"

and Jamie Selkirk editing "Return of the King."

And that he would be able to go from one cutting room

to another on all three films

and he could get it all done in a year,

but that was not possible.

[narrator] So, with a rapidly approaching deadline,

Peter Jackson was forced to pivot.

So, we did have three editors

and they were cutting during production.

But he couldn't physically and mentally be so engaged

in all three films at the same time.

[narrator] But given the scope

of Peter Jackson's vision, New Line had doubts

whether he could even deliver the first film on time.

[narrator] "Lord of the Rings" director, Peter Jackson,

wasn't the only one struggling

to juggle three mammoth films at once.

I tried to ignore the other two movies.

[narrator] Editor John Gilbert had to keep his blinkers on.

I saw my movie as a complete article on its own

and I tried not to think about the other two.

I was barely involved.

[narrator] Adding to the complications

was the shift from film to digital.

Peter had a regular editor, Jamie Selkirk,

he'd worked with a lot.

And he was used to editing on film.

But I'd been working on Avid for maybe four years,

I suppose, by then.

[narrator] So, John was hired

for his expertise with this new software, Avid,

that was revolutionizing the film industry

and allowing post teams to edit faster.

I mean, it's an incredibly elaborate task,

making a film like this.

[narrator] Peter Jackson's high shooting rate

meant there was almost an infinite amount of choices.

Some days, I would get so much footage just to view it all

and then try and construct a sequence out of it

and then be ready for the next day's footage

was quite daunting.

[narrator] More than 6 million feet of film

would be shot for the trilogy,

which is how John ended up with a four-hour rough cut.

The film was quite long.

[narrator] Too long.

And there was only one thing for that.

I was concerned about the length at times and I would try

and find things I thought that I could take aside and say,

"This'll be good for the DVD extras,"

so it was a way of saying, "All is not lost."

Because some of them had expensive

visual effects were done

and it becomes a commitment to them being in the film

once they sort of are so extensively worked on.

[narrator] Nevertheless, fitting the whole scope

of Tolkien's Middle Earth into the first film

was a lot of responsibility.

I didn't really care about the fans, to be honest.

I just wanted the film to work

as its own entity and to make sense.

I didn't want you to have to know the books

to enjoy the film.

[narrator] So, John made sure audiences

never lost focus on the main character's journey.

The audience has to run with Frodo.

If the narrative wasn't talking about Frodo or the ring,

it had to be cut.

I will take the ring to Mordor.

[Gilbert] He's a little guy who takes on this huge mission

and I wanted the audience to really empathize with him

taking it on and see his act of courage for what it was.

[narrator] And while Frodo's sacrifice

was something all audiences could relate to,

John and Peter struggled with how to properly

drop audiences into Middle Earth.

[Galadriel] It began with the forging of the great rings.

[narrator] Eventually, having Philippa Boyens write

a near 7-minute-long prologue.

That was a real struggle, trying to find the rhythm of it,

the weight of the various elements.

[Galadriel] Nine rings were

gifted to the race of men.

[Gilbert] And there was a lot of different elements to it,

so it was shot very piecemeal.

[McWeeny] The prologue was something that took shape

over several different iterations of this,

is necessary, I think, in order to drop the world in.

[Galadriel] In the fires of Mount Doom.

But it's also a big ask.

You're asking an audience to absorb

this massive amount of material up front

and you're gambling that the normies,

the people that aren't already "Lord of the Rings" fanatics,

aren't going to be absolutely baffled

by what you're throwing at them.

[Gilbert] It was so important.

We sort of fiddled with it for a long time

to make sure that it was just right.

[narrator] 'Cause while it may be hard to believe,

there were plenty of folks back then

that were unfamiliar with what a Hobbit was.

And so, Peter Jackson figured he could hook

uninitiated audiences with one thing.

Peter wanted there to be something epic

right from the start, rather than we have to wait

for the third film to see the big battles.

It's like, "Let's put a big battle right at the start."

We had elves and Orcs and men

all fighting together in this big battle.

[narrator] Die-hard fans,

on the other hand,

would need something a little more tantalizing.

[Gollum] My precious.

We had very few Gollum shots in the first film.

[narrator] So, they made sure

to include him in the prologue.

A tease of him, 'cause obviously,

they were working on the digital Gollum right until the very end.

[narrator] The prologue also meant

the trilogy would need to establish its storyteller,

the voice of the film.

But who should that be?

At first, it was going to be Frodo.

Then they considered Gandalf.

Ahh, if you can have anyone do a voice-over,

anyone do narration,

just let Cate Blanchett do all of it.

[narrator] Unfortunately, the late call on narrator

meant a late call to Sydney.

Peter and Fran couldn't go.

[narrator] So, they asked

Barrie to supervise.

I was tapped in by phone.

[narrator] And while the Australian actress

recorded her lines from afar,

she definitely didn't phone it in.

[Galadriel] I amar presten.

The world is changed.

I feel it in the water.

I remember, it was breathtaking.

I was just blown away.

Take one was perfect.

[narrator] But without Peter and Fran's feedback,

Cate wasn't convinced.

She said, "Well, I'd really like to know what they think."

And thankfully, Fran became available.

I got on the phone with her.

And Fran said, "Oh, that's perfect." [laughs]

'Cause it was perfect.

[narrator] But what wasn't perfect yet

was the end of "The Fellowship of the Ring,"

which presented a challenge.

It became absolutely important to them to find a note

that they could leave "Fellowship of the Ring" on,

that felt hopeful, that still felt like,

"Yes, there's more story, but this story is done."

[narrator] With post production

on "Fellowship of the Ring" in full gear,

Peter Jackson was still looking to create

a satisfying end that would also serve as a beginning

for part two.

[Gandalf] The Two Towers.

It became very tricky and it was a moving target

that changed several times, even during production.

[narrator] One thing that Philippa,

Fran and Peter could agree on was the need to have a death

before the ending.

You fought bravely.

Eventually, they settle on the death of Boromir.

They settle on that moment.

It is over.

[narrator] In the novel, the death of Boromir

takes places at the beginning of "The Two Towers"

and by moving it up to the end

of "The Fellowship of the Ring,"

it gave the film an emotional climax.

And Peter shot a lot of film for Sean Bean's death scene.

No!

He had some particular ideas about how it would go together.

And some quite impressionistic kind of moments in there

with him fighting on, manfully,

while he's got all these arrows stuck in him.

And Viggo running to him

and them having their little piece of dialogue at the end.

They took the little ones.

-Be still. -And I cut the scene...

I would have followed you, my brother.

[Gilbert] I heard a couple of weeks later

that Peter was very pleased with what I did,

so we didn't go back and mess with it too much.

[narrator] Well, as they say,

you don't mess with perfection.

But one thing that was messed with was the film's finale.

[Bennett] At the end of the day, it was Frodo's story,

so they wanted to end it on Frodo instead of Aragorn.

[narrator] And New Line insisted

on a big action moment for him, in fact, they insisted on this.

Frodo and Sam are in the water,

heading across to the other side.

When all of a sudden, the Uruk-hai pop out of the water

and then they drag Mr. Frodo under

and they wrestle with him in the water.

When the ring falls off his neck

and starts floating down to the bottom,

the Uruk-hai, infatuated with the ring,

swim after it, but then drown.

So, then Sam can pull Mr. Frodo out of the water and hurray,

he's saved, and then they take a big breath,

they go down and get the ring, they come back up.

They get in the boat, they drive to the other side.

Badda bing, badda boom, they're out.

[narrator] And so was that scene.

Because Peter wanted an emotional ending

rather than a Hollywood action scene.

[Busch] If you end a film where someone is thinking like,

"I can stop now, it'd be better for me if I stopped now..."

[Frodo] I wish the ring had never come to me.

"But it won't."

That's the moment where everyone knows that moment,

everyone knows the moment they didn't take that step.

Everyone knows the moment they did take that step.

I think that that's a really powerful thing for people.

Go back, Sam!

[narrator] Peter eventually

convinced New Line he was right.

He will persevere until he's got exactly what he wants.

He's willing to go through whatever it takes

to make the film as good as it can be.

Sam nearly drowning was a difficult scene.

You had to empathize with Frodo...

-Sam! -...and feel for his courage.

That was the key to the end of the story for me.

[Busch] That leaves you with such a gut punch

that it's the perfect stopping point for the first film.

[narrator] With only a few months

before "The Fellowship of the Ring" was due in theaters,

New Line was eager to see a cut.

I think the first screening was in July of 2001.

[narrator] And after the lights

came up in the room,

there was only one thing New Line's CEO, Bob Shaye,

could do.

Bob is an emotional guy and he cried.

He went into the restroom and cried.

I can't say if it was cry of relief

or cry of excitement and appreciation.

[narrator] It was good news for Peter and the team.

[Lyon] They were all excited and celebrating

that they had just gotten the first cut

approved by the studio.

[narrator] But it was only a momentary victory.

There still was a lot of work to be done

because there was a lot of green screen.

[Gilbert] We were supposed to lock the film in August

and we didn't quite make it.

[narrator] To make the tight deadline even worse...

[Gilbert] Peter was recording with the London Philharmonic

at the end of August. -[narrator] So once again,

they had to pivot and think outside the box.

And when Peter flew to London

to work with composer Howard Shore...

We had to set up an editing room in London to continue editing.

[narrator] Thankfully, the score

put the finishing touch on many of the scenes.

Oh, Howard Shore's score was fantastic. I was so pleased.

[dramatic music playing]

Big score for the battle scenes and so on.

I thought he did a fantastic job.

[sweeping music playing]

I think his theme for Hobbinton from the beginning of the film

was something that stuck in people's heads immediately

and I can still hear it playing in my head now if I try.

I think it was an integral part of the story.

[narrator] But just as the score was wrapped up...

[Gilbert] We were in the cutting room

and someone came in and said,

"Oh, well, you should come out and watch this TV,

there's something weird going on."

[narrator] It was the morning

of September the 11th.

[Gilbert] There on live TV right in front of us

as we walked into the room, the second plane hit the tower.

[narrator] With all flights grounded,

they soon realized they'd be staying in London indefinitely.

Meanwhile, new problems suddenly emerged.

I knew we had ratings issues that we were concerned about.

We have a cave troll.

[narrator] The MPAA was concerned

with the amount of blood in the Mines of Moria scene.

Yah!

[Osborne] But we successfully argued

that it's mostly Orc blood, it's all black not red.

So it's not as frightening to people.

[narrator] Thankfully, there were no Orcs in the MPAA.

We basically got our rating.

We had to make a few changes, minor changes.

[narrator] But even the most minor of changes

had New Line concerned.

It was a lot of work. I mean, the deadlines,

everything was so tight. So, so tight.

I think they were probably anxious right through

to the end, really, until the film opened.

I'm sure they were anxious.

[narrator] "The Fellowship of the Ring"

premiered in J.R.R. Tolkien's homeland

on December the 10th, 2001.

[Galano] The first premiere, we did in London

and we did a huge event there.

And then we had a huge screening in Leicester Square.

[narrator] Few could deny

that Tolkien's magic kingdom now had a definitive look.

It was as good as official.

What blew us away and what everybody was saying

when we came out was that's exactly what we'd seen

in our minds when we read the book.

That was Middle Earth, that was "Lord of the Rings."

It just seemed right, it just seemed like,

"Yeah, that's what it should be."

[Galano] I've never experienced anything like that before.

When the film started opening, the numbers that were coming in

from every single country around the world,

that people were just shocked.

All I can say is from the film we saw in July of 2001

to the finished film and what Peter did,

he's a master filmmaker.

I mean, it was just unbelievable.

I remember going to midnight screenings of it.

Like, it was intense.

If you want him, come and claim him.

[Busch] With all the wonderful things I'd heard,

even with all the rumors, and I still walked in

and I don't think I closed my mouth for the entire film.

It was exactly what I'd envisioned in my head.

[narrator] As the film rippled around the world...

-Gahh! -Gahh!

[narrator] ...it became clear

"The Fellowship of the Ring" had not only redefined Tolkien

on screen, but had taken his work mainstream.

[Drout] After the Ralph Bakshi movie in 1978,

it was really still very much a subculture.

Like, you couldn't make a "Lord of the Rings"

reference...

One ring to bring them all.

...and not be flagged as a nerd.

Or just have no one understand what you're referring to.

[narrator] That was now a thing of the past.

One ring to rule them all.

[narrator] But perhaps the film's greatest achievement

was something no one saw coming.

[McWeeny] "Lord of the Rings" had an emotional note

that even if you were a "Lord of the Rings" fan,

I don't think you could have predicted the way

it just pierced pop consciousness.

It wasn't just big, it was massive.

[narrator] For the first time, fantasy was cool.

Fantasy was thought of by everybody that it was a genre

that very few women were interested in

and that was proven utterly and completely wrong.

And that, like that, doubled the size of the audience.

[narrator] "Lord of the Rings" also happened to arrive

just as fandom was searching for a new cinematic dynasty.

"Star Wars" had been nothing but divisive

when it came out in 1999.

Mesa called Jar Jar Binks.

It had broken fandom to a large degree.

"Lord of the Rings" was the opposite

and it really opened the door for a lot of people.

[narrator] The film also put New Zealand on the map.

Now Middle Earth, no longer middle of the road.

We'd gone from this little sort of tiny island backwater

to the center of Hollywood.

And just really gave everyone a sense of pride,

and like, "Oh, wow, we can do this.

We can kick it with the big boys."

[narrator] Proof of that came

at the 74th Academy Awards.

-And the Oscar goes to...

-And the Oscar goes to... -Goes to...

-..."The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring."

[narrator] "The Fellowship"

collected four Oscars.

The success of the first film ensured the biggest project

in movie history could fly.

Now it was a question of how high and how far.

Where do you go from making that kind of art at that level?

Where do you go from there?

There's only up or there's only sideways.

[narrator] Whether the trilogy

would go sideways or even backwards would depend

on more than just a vision.

[McCaffrey] The first movie, obviously, set a platform,

but then in the back of our minds,

we potentially were always going,

"Will two and three be as well received?"

[narrator] That would depend in part on technology.

There's gotta be another way to do this.

[narrator] The only problem was, it didn't exist yet.

New Line was worried about the Weta,

about their capacity to deliver.

[narrator] And the people who needed to create it

had their own problems.

I found out that there was a lot of dysfunction at Weta.

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