Trivia for Squiggle #XXIV
Today's issue of Trivia for Squiggle contains our last installment of Lord of the Rings trivia, focusing primarily on the third film of the series, The Return of the King.
576. SDDS 8 channel decoders list the title of the film that it is decoding on its display. For this film, certain reels were labeled "Till Death for Glory" whereas others were labeled "Bejing Chicken".
577. When Gandalf rides out, using the light of his staff to ward off the fell beasts so Faramir's team can get back to Minas Tirith, you see that Pippin is on the horse with him, even though there would have been no reason to bring him along. The reason is that this scene was originally filmed to coincide with Gandalf and Pippin's arrival at Minas Tirith, but was pushed further back as the story evolved.
578. The battle scenes, which reportedly contain over 200,000 digital participants, are so huge that an extra room had to be built onto Weta Digital's effects facility to house all the computer equipment needed to render the scenes.
579. A normal major motion picture averages about 200 effects shots. This film had 1488.
580. Each of the cast members were given a gift on their last day of shooting, usually a prop that was significant to their roles. Miranda Otto received one of Eowyn's dresses and her sword, Liv Tyler received Arwen's "dying dress", Orlando Bloom got one of Legolas' bows.
581. The dead oliphant carcass used in this film is reportedly the largest prop ever built for a motion picture.
582. The Grey Havens scene had to be shot three times, much to the dismay of the actors, who had to be crying for most of the scene. On the first try, it was discovered in viewing the dailies that Sean Astin was wearing the wrong shirt under his cloak. After shooting the scene a second time, the negatives were inadvertently exposed to light during processing, causing a white haze over the entire day's footage. It was finally captured successfully on the third try.
583. For the scene where Merry and Pippin are smoking their pipes at Isengard, Dominic Monaghan (Merry) had to drink a glass of milk beforehand to keep himself from throwing up while smoking the pipe.
584. Facts and numbers about the trilogy: Over 6 million feet of film shot during production; 48,000 swords, axes, shields, and makeup prosthetics; 20,602 background actors cast; 19,000 costumes made by the wardrobe department; 10,000 crowd participants at New Zealand cricket game who made orc army grunts; 2,400 behind-the-scenes crew members at height of production; 1,600 pairs or prosthetic hobbit feet created; 250 horses used in one scene; 180 computer special-effects artists employed; 114 total speaking roles; 100 real locations in New Zealand used for backdrops; 50 tailors, cobblers, designers and others in wardrobe department; 30 actors trained to speak fictional dialects and languages; 7 total years of development for all three movies.
585. Gollum is missing his left ear lobe. This is due to an air trap in the casting that was made for Peter Jackson's approval of the figure. When looking at the casting, the design team concluded that it should stay that way since it looked like a battle wound that might have occurred during Gollum's past adventures.
586. The Minas Tirith set was built on the same site as Helm's Deep, after the Helm's Deep scenes had been shot and pieces of Helm's Deep were altered and built on top and around the existing pieces for the Minas Tirith set.
587. Even though Saruman's demise appears in the Special Extended Edition of Return of the King (2003), Christopher Lee was (and still is) "not amused" that his character was cut from the theatrical release. In an interview done after the release of the Extended Edition, he acknowledged that the makers gave him several arguments for trimming the scene (pacing and time constraints), but in his opinion, none of them justified omitting such an important narrative element.
588. While filming Saruman's death scene (now on the extended DVD), Peter Jackson tried to tell Christopher Lee how to react and breathe after he was stabbed in the back. Lee, a WWII veteran with British special forces, assured the director that he knew what a man sounded like when stabbed in the back.
589. Andy Serkis's last day of filming was only a few weeks before the theatrical release. On the carpet of the floor of Peter Jackson's house, they filmed the facial reaction of Smeagol/Gollum when he realizes Frodo intends to destroy the ring. The resulting video was e-mailed to Weta Digital so the animators could replicate the shot with the CGI character.
590. The "fall of Smeagol" scene had to be digitally touched-up in two ways. First, Thomas Robins (Deagol) accidentally blinked after being strangled. However, Peter Jackson liked that particular shot so much better than others that he decided to have the Weta Digital crew "freeze" the eyes. Second, in the shot where Smeagol falls on the rocks (just before Gollum begins to narrate), Andy Serkis' legs were considered to be too muscular and athletic, and so they were digitally thinned-down.
591. The opening scene, where Deagol finds the ring and is killed by Smeagol, was directed by Andy Serkis himself.
592. In the scene where Faramir is leaving Minas Tirith, he and his soldiers are riding their horses downhill. Because the streets were paved with smooth bricks, the usual steel horseshoes proved to be too "slick" and the horses were all re-shot with rubber horseshoes.
593. In the scene when Denethor burns Faramir on the pyre, the pyre could not truly be on fire because Gandalf's horse would not go near it. To solve this, the crew reflected a real fire onto a pane of glass in front of the camera so that it looks as though the pyre is burning.
594. To create realistic galloping horses for the largely CGI horseback army, they took some footage of a horse in a motion-capture suit.
595. The movie marks the second time in history that the third movie in a trilogy was nominated for Best Picture, by the Academy Awards and Golden Globes, after The Godfather: Part III (1990) and the only time that a third movie has won the Best Picture Oscar.
596. At 35 letters "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" has the longest title of any Best Picture Oscar winner in history. It surpasses the record previously held by "Around the World in Eighty Days" (1956) which has 26.
597. Peter Jackson purposely avoided filming Frodo's left hand after the Mordor scenes to avoid conflicts as to the positioning of the wound on the index finger. It is only seen twice: when the Fellowship is re-united (the hand is bandaged) and when Frodo is writing his final pages in the Red Book (before he turns back to add the title).
598. The runes on the helmet worn by the Mouth of Sauron, when transliterated, say "Lammen Gorthaur". Lammen means voice, and Gorthaur, which is mentioned in the Silmarillion, means Dread Abomination, another title by which Sauron was known. The complete phrase, "Voice of the Dread Abomination", identifies the speaker as the Mouth of Sauron.
599. The final day of filming on the trilogy actually happened over a month after this movie was theatrically released, and three weeks after the 2004 Academy Awards. Peter Jackson arranged to film one final shot of skulls on the floor in the tunnel of the Paths of the Dead, which was included in the Extended Edition of ROTK. He thought it was funny to be doing filming on a movie that had already won the Best Picture Oscar.
600. In every installment of the trilogy, one character says the subtitle of the film. In Fellowship during the council scene Elrond refers to the nine as the "Fellowship of the Ring"; in the Two Towers it's Saruman who says "The Two Towers" during a voiceover; and finally in this film, Gandalf tells the steward of Gondor and he can't refuse the Return of the King.
“Not at the towers! Aim for the trolls! Kill the trolls! Bring them down!”
576. SDDS 8 channel decoders list the title of the film that it is decoding on its display. For this film, certain reels were labeled "Till Death for Glory" whereas others were labeled "Bejing Chicken".
577. When Gandalf rides out, using the light of his staff to ward off the fell beasts so Faramir's team can get back to Minas Tirith, you see that Pippin is on the horse with him, even though there would have been no reason to bring him along. The reason is that this scene was originally filmed to coincide with Gandalf and Pippin's arrival at Minas Tirith, but was pushed further back as the story evolved.
578. The battle scenes, which reportedly contain over 200,000 digital participants, are so huge that an extra room had to be built onto Weta Digital's effects facility to house all the computer equipment needed to render the scenes.
579. A normal major motion picture averages about 200 effects shots. This film had 1488.
580. Each of the cast members were given a gift on their last day of shooting, usually a prop that was significant to their roles. Miranda Otto received one of Eowyn's dresses and her sword, Liv Tyler received Arwen's "dying dress", Orlando Bloom got one of Legolas' bows.
581. The dead oliphant carcass used in this film is reportedly the largest prop ever built for a motion picture.
582. The Grey Havens scene had to be shot three times, much to the dismay of the actors, who had to be crying for most of the scene. On the first try, it was discovered in viewing the dailies that Sean Astin was wearing the wrong shirt under his cloak. After shooting the scene a second time, the negatives were inadvertently exposed to light during processing, causing a white haze over the entire day's footage. It was finally captured successfully on the third try.
583. For the scene where Merry and Pippin are smoking their pipes at Isengard, Dominic Monaghan (Merry) had to drink a glass of milk beforehand to keep himself from throwing up while smoking the pipe.
584. Facts and numbers about the trilogy: Over 6 million feet of film shot during production; 48,000 swords, axes, shields, and makeup prosthetics; 20,602 background actors cast; 19,000 costumes made by the wardrobe department; 10,000 crowd participants at New Zealand cricket game who made orc army grunts; 2,400 behind-the-scenes crew members at height of production; 1,600 pairs or prosthetic hobbit feet created; 250 horses used in one scene; 180 computer special-effects artists employed; 114 total speaking roles; 100 real locations in New Zealand used for backdrops; 50 tailors, cobblers, designers and others in wardrobe department; 30 actors trained to speak fictional dialects and languages; 7 total years of development for all three movies.
585. Gollum is missing his left ear lobe. This is due to an air trap in the casting that was made for Peter Jackson's approval of the figure. When looking at the casting, the design team concluded that it should stay that way since it looked like a battle wound that might have occurred during Gollum's past adventures.
586. The Minas Tirith set was built on the same site as Helm's Deep, after the Helm's Deep scenes had been shot and pieces of Helm's Deep were altered and built on top and around the existing pieces for the Minas Tirith set.
587. Even though Saruman's demise appears in the Special Extended Edition of Return of the King (2003), Christopher Lee was (and still is) "not amused" that his character was cut from the theatrical release. In an interview done after the release of the Extended Edition, he acknowledged that the makers gave him several arguments for trimming the scene (pacing and time constraints), but in his opinion, none of them justified omitting such an important narrative element.
588. While filming Saruman's death scene (now on the extended DVD), Peter Jackson tried to tell Christopher Lee how to react and breathe after he was stabbed in the back. Lee, a WWII veteran with British special forces, assured the director that he knew what a man sounded like when stabbed in the back.
589. Andy Serkis's last day of filming was only a few weeks before the theatrical release. On the carpet of the floor of Peter Jackson's house, they filmed the facial reaction of Smeagol/Gollum when he realizes Frodo intends to destroy the ring. The resulting video was e-mailed to Weta Digital so the animators could replicate the shot with the CGI character.
590. The "fall of Smeagol" scene had to be digitally touched-up in two ways. First, Thomas Robins (Deagol) accidentally blinked after being strangled. However, Peter Jackson liked that particular shot so much better than others that he decided to have the Weta Digital crew "freeze" the eyes. Second, in the shot where Smeagol falls on the rocks (just before Gollum begins to narrate), Andy Serkis' legs were considered to be too muscular and athletic, and so they were digitally thinned-down.
591. The opening scene, where Deagol finds the ring and is killed by Smeagol, was directed by Andy Serkis himself.
592. In the scene where Faramir is leaving Minas Tirith, he and his soldiers are riding their horses downhill. Because the streets were paved with smooth bricks, the usual steel horseshoes proved to be too "slick" and the horses were all re-shot with rubber horseshoes.
593. In the scene when Denethor burns Faramir on the pyre, the pyre could not truly be on fire because Gandalf's horse would not go near it. To solve this, the crew reflected a real fire onto a pane of glass in front of the camera so that it looks as though the pyre is burning.
594. To create realistic galloping horses for the largely CGI horseback army, they took some footage of a horse in a motion-capture suit.
595. The movie marks the second time in history that the third movie in a trilogy was nominated for Best Picture, by the Academy Awards and Golden Globes, after The Godfather: Part III (1990) and the only time that a third movie has won the Best Picture Oscar.
596. At 35 letters "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" has the longest title of any Best Picture Oscar winner in history. It surpasses the record previously held by "Around the World in Eighty Days" (1956) which has 26.
597. Peter Jackson purposely avoided filming Frodo's left hand after the Mordor scenes to avoid conflicts as to the positioning of the wound on the index finger. It is only seen twice: when the Fellowship is re-united (the hand is bandaged) and when Frodo is writing his final pages in the Red Book (before he turns back to add the title).
598. The runes on the helmet worn by the Mouth of Sauron, when transliterated, say "Lammen Gorthaur". Lammen means voice, and Gorthaur, which is mentioned in the Silmarillion, means Dread Abomination, another title by which Sauron was known. The complete phrase, "Voice of the Dread Abomination", identifies the speaker as the Mouth of Sauron.
599. The final day of filming on the trilogy actually happened over a month after this movie was theatrically released, and three weeks after the 2004 Academy Awards. Peter Jackson arranged to film one final shot of skulls on the floor in the tunnel of the Paths of the Dead, which was included in the Extended Edition of ROTK. He thought it was funny to be doing filming on a movie that had already won the Best Picture Oscar.
600. In every installment of the trilogy, one character says the subtitle of the film. In Fellowship during the council scene Elrond refers to the nine as the "Fellowship of the Ring"; in the Two Towers it's Saruman who says "The Two Towers" during a voiceover; and finally in this film, Gandalf tells the steward of Gondor and he can't refuse the Return of the King.
“Not at the towers! Aim for the trolls! Kill the trolls! Bring them down!”
posted by Scott at 9:28 AM
2 Comments:
588. While filming Saruman's death scene (now on the extended DVD), Peter Jackson tried to tell Christopher Lee how to react and breathe after he was stabbed in the back. Lee, a WWII veteran with British special forces, assured the director that he knew what a man sounded like when stabbed in the back." - Jakson responds by muttering "F*k you" and cuts the scene.
Ah! The true reason! Good job, Squig!
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