'My Precious' from a Hagraven
During 'A Night to Remember', a hagraven named Moira mutters 'my precious' while trying to hold onto a wedding ring the player needs, a direct callback to Gollum's obsession with the One Ring in The Lord of the Rings.
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Knowledge
Page 1 of 5
Smigole Serkis and His Precious Spoon
Somewhere in Blood and Wine there's a note written by a character called Smigole Serkis, mourning the loss of his beloved golden spoon. It's a two-for-one joke, poking fun at both Gollum's alter ego Smeagol and Andy Serkis, the actor who brought him to life.
One Giant 14-Month Shoot
Jackson didn't make these films back to back like a normal trilogy. All three were shot as one continuous production in New Zealand, running for about 14 months, so nothing had to be rebuilt or recast between films.
Special Permission for Edoras
The sweeping shots of Edoras were filmed on protected land inside a New Zealand national park, which meant Jackson's team had to get sign-off from the country's Conservation Society before they could touch the location.
The Bigatures of Isengard
Rather than lean fully on CGI, the crew built enormous scale models they nicknamed 'bigatures.' The one for Orthanc, Saruman's tower, stood a full 27 feet tall on its own.
Nearly Three Years of Miniature Work
Across the whole trilogy, the team spent 998 working days just shooting miniatures and bigatures. Add it up and that's roughly four years of someone's working life spent filming models.
Treebeard's Puppet Had Bike Seats
The animatronic Treebeard puppet was 14 feet tall, and getting Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan up into its hands took so long that during breaks they'd just stay perched up there rather than climb down and back up again.
Fifty Years to Render an Ent
Weta's digital version of Treebeard was so complex that a single frame took up to 48 hours to render. Since he appears throughout the film, that adds up to something like 50 years of computer processing time in total.
Too Fantastical for Jackson's Taste
Jackson wanted a grounded, Braveheart-style look for Middle-earth, but his early concept artists kept drawing things too fantasy-heavy for him. He ended up bringing in Tolkien illustrators Alan Lee and John Howe, who got the tone right almost immediately.
Rohan's Anglo-Saxon Roots
Costume designer Ngila Dickson based the Rohirrim look on real Anglo-Saxon warriors and Migration-era Swedish armour. The Swedish helmets actually had dragons and ravens on them originally, which she swapped for horses to fit Rohan.