The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King [Part 4 of 5]

Em: 00:02:05

Hi, everyone, I'm Em, and welcome to bubble diorama, episode 300, the Lord of the Rings, the Return of the King.

This is the podcast that's all about the history and legacy of Movies yous Know and Movies yous Don't.

I'm glad to be with you, dear listener, here at the end of all things, all things being 300 episodes of a film history podcast that literally just started as a means to bring me some joy at a very dark time in my life.

And it's also not the end, not of this podcast, nor this series of episodes, but it is the final episode of Peter Jackson's outstanding entries into the Lord of the Rings cinematic universe. Which wasn't a thing, but it is now.

And that, my friends, is worth celebrating on a podcast that is purely here to celebrate the wonders of the history of film. Welcome to Verbal Diorama.

Whether you are a regular returning listener, whether you are a brand new listener to this podcast, thank you for being here. Thank you for choosing to listen to this podcast.

I am so overwhelmed, in all honesty, to have you here for the history and legacy of the Lord of the Rings, the Return of the King.

And just really a huge thank you to everyone who has listened to this podcast, continues to listen to this podcast, maybe even will listen to this podcast in the future as well. This podcast has been going now for six years and now I can say 300 episodes of verbal Diorama exist in the world.

And really, yes, that's down to me, to be honest, that is down to me doing them. But it's also down to you guys, to the people who listen to this podcast, because I would not just be talking into the ether for 300 episodes.

I have amazing listeners. I have incredible people who contact me on email and social media.

I know there are people out there who genuinely do listen to this podcast because they tell me that they do. And I do this for me, but I also do it for you as well. And I've done it 300 times. It's crazy. But this podcast means so much to me.

These movies mean so much to me, and having 300 episodes means so much. I'm not going to get teary. I promise. I am starting to get a little bit emotional, but I'm not going to go all teary on you.

I am going to crack on because I've got so much to talk about in this episode. Here we are. It is the 300th episode.

It's the fourth of a five part episode on the history and legacy of the Lord of the Rings, focusing on Peter Jackson's trilogy, but also sandwiched between the two animated versions. They aren't the only two animated versions that exist, but they are the only two that I'm featuring in this series.

's the Lord of the Rings from: 1978

I have visited some of the locations for filming. As I mentioned in the Fellowship episode, I've been to Hobbiton. I've even been at one of the Mountains of Mordor.

But my love for these movies has been nothing compared to the love I have for this podcast for telling these histories and legacies of movies every week. And in many ways this has been my quest, my journey. Something that I had to do.

Almost like a rite of passage for me as a podcaster to push myself to do the biggest possible thing I could think of because even the smallest podcast can change the course of the future. But also, selfishly, I'm also hoping that these episodes maybe will encourage people who haven't listened before to listen now.

That maybe if I push myself to work harder on these than I ever have on anything else, that I could get a few more listeners become a Gimli sized podcast rather than a Frodo size podcast.

I guess all I can ask of you as you're listening right now is that if you have enjoyed this series, if you enjoy this podcast, if you've enjoyed previous episodes, please please please spread the word. Verbal Diorama has lit the beacons. Verbal Diorama calls for aid. Will you be my Rohan? Will you answer?

Spread the good word about Verbal Diorama about what I do. I would be so grateful and it would mean the world to me to have more people listening to this podcast for the 300th episode.

That would just be so awesome.

I promise I am going to crack on now, but if you are new to this series, if this is the first episode out of all of the Lord of The Rings episodes that I've done so far. Let me go through the episodes and whether you should listen to them or not, if you're really that interested.

t episode on the Ralph Bakshi: 1978

What I will say is if this, the Return of the King, is your first entry into the Peter Jackson trilogy of podcast episodes, please go back and listen to the Fellowship of the Ring and the Two Towers because you really do need to have listened to those.

Because obviously that gives introduction to Peter Jackson's part of the story, but also the way these episodes are structured because the movies were all filmed together, the episodes are not really set up as standard verbal diorama episodes. It is one huge self contained story.

This is technically the third of three interconnected stories in five episodes where this is technically the fourth of a five part complete story. I promise that does make sense.

But in the Fellowship it talks about Peter Jackson's vision for the series, his dealings with Miramax, the move to New Line and the various changes he made to the source material, as well as specifics on the Fellowship of the Ring including casting choices and costume design.

The last episode focused on the Two Towers, specifically the Battle of Helm's Deep, the introduction of and technology surrounding Gollum, as well as the production and art design choices for the series. And this episode goes into everything else. So it's, it's a lot.

The rest of the visual effects by Weta Workshop, the makeup and prosthetics, the music across all of the movies by Howard Shaw, how it became one of the biggest Academy Award winning films of all time, and I was going to talk about the everlasting legacy of these movies. However, being honest, I feel like this episode will be pretty huge.

So I am going to move the legacy part to the next episode, which is going to mostly be around the recent anime, the Lord of the Rings, the War of the Rohirrim, and the effect the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit have had on New Zealand's tourism and film industries, the retaining of the rights and the future of the franchise as well. I also want to add a couple of caveats for the huge Tolkien and Lord of the Rings fans who may be listening to these.

Yes, I probably have butchered some pronunciations over the series and I apologize for that. And no, I haven't included every fact, every tidbit, every piece of information that's out there on the Internet. Because there is a lot.

The Lord of the Rings is immense. There is so much information just on Tolkien's novels that don't even relate to the movies and then there's so much information on these movies.

It's just, it's overwhelming. In all honesty, anything I mention, there is a wealth more information out there to elaborate further.

And if you are interested in anything that I mention and you think, oh, I'd really love to know more about the production design on the Lord of the Rings as an example, please do, because it's incredible production design, but there is so much information on the Internet. So if you are interested, please have a look into it further. This series of episodes has been an incredible task.

This episode in particular has been a lot more difficult than most episodes, which was actually unintentional because I didn't realize the huge tasks that I'd left for myself until I came to doing this episode after doing the other two. And by that point you can't go back and change the other two.

But like Peter Jackson, he made the final part the biggest one, so technically I'm just following his lead. Let's jump into it. Sauron's armies grow stronger and this episode is in fear of failing.

But don't worry, the King of the Dead owes me a favour and will probably turn up to give me a hand at editing. No man can kill the Witch King, but luckily I am no man. Here's the trailer for the Lord of the the Return of the King For Frodo.

Em: 00:14:31

Sauron's forces had laid siege to Minas Tirith, the capital of Gondor in their efforts to eliminate the race of Men. The once great kingdom watched over by a fading steward has never been in more desperate need of its king.

But can Aragorn answer the call of his heritage and become what he was born to be? In no small measure, the fate of Middle Earth rests on his broad shoulders.

With the final battle joined and the legions of darkness gathering Gandalf urgently tries to rally Gondor's broken army to action. He is aided by Rohan's King Theoden, who unites his warriors.

Yet even with their courage and passionate loyalty the forces of men, with Eowyn and Merry hidden amongst them are no match for the enemies swarming against Gondor.

Still, in the face of great losses, they charge forward into the battle of their lifetimes tied together by their singular goal to keep Sauron distracted and give the ring bearer a chance to complete his quest. Their hopes rest with Frodo journeying across treacherous enemy lands to cast the One Ring into the fires of Mount Doom.

The closer Frodo gets to his destination, the heavier his burden becomes and the more he must rely on Samwise Gamgee. Gollum and the Ring will test Frodo's allegiances and ultimately his humanity. Let's run through the cast.

Pretty much every single cast member returning from the last movie.

On this one, with a couple more as well, we have Elijah Wood as Frodo Baggins Ian McKellen as Gandalf Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn Sean Astin as Samwise Gamgee Andy Serkis as Gollum Billy Boyd as Peregrine Took Dominic Monaghan as Meriad Doc Brandybuck John Rhys Davies as Gimli Orlando Bloom as Legolas Bernard Hill as Theoden Miranda Otto as Eowyn David Wenham as Faramir Karl Urban as Eomer Liv Tyler as Arwen Cate Blanchett as Galadriel Christopher Lee as Saruman Hugo Weaving as Elrond John Noble as Denethor and Ian Holm as Bilbo Baggins.

The Lord of the the Return of the King has a screenplay by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and Peter Jackson, was directed by Peter Jackson and was based on the Return of the King by J.R.R. tolkien. So this is kind of a big deal.

After two years of attention and acclaim since the release of the Fellowship of the Ring, audience and critical anticipation for the Return of the King was extremely high. Only maybe Star Wars Episode the Phantom Menace had been more highly anticipated.

The culmination of a remarkable trilogy, the scale of which no one had ever seen before, was coming to fruition.

And after two outstanding entries in the trilogy, amassing over 1.5 billion at the box office, 19 Academy Award nominations, and six wins, there was no way this was going to disappoint. Just like this episode, maybe. And in this episode we're going to delve into the stuff that I've not yet managed to talk about.

Basically, there's things that are things that were and some things that have not yet come to pass.

Unsurprisingly, the film version of the Return of the King has several significant differences to Tolkien's original book for pacing, dramatic effect and cinematic storytelling.

Character changes included Aragorn more reluctant about claiming the throne than his book counterpart Denethor, more overtly antagonistic and unstable from his first appearance Eowyn and Faramir's romance given little screen time, as opposed to it being developing in the Houses of Healing after the battle.

This is, of course, after Eowyn's crush on Aragorn finding out he's in love with Arwen, and that love triangle being resolved in the book version of the Two Towers. Saruman is confronted at Isengard after Helm's Deep and dies in the Scouring of the Shire, which is never shown in Jackson's films.

In the extended edition, Saruman dies at Isengard when stabbed by Wormtongue.

Apparently, Christopher Lee's real experiences of military service meant he brought a sense of realism to Saruman's death rather than your typical dead. The army of the Dead could only help defeat the Corsairs at Pelagia, then are released in the book.

In the film, they are brought to Minas Tirith to defeat Sauron's army directly. In the book, Aragorn uses the Palantir to challenge Sauron, but in the film this doesn't happen.

Frodo and Sam's journey has added tension in the movie, including being tricked by Gollum, leading to Sam leaving for a brief period only to return to save Frodo from Shalob. Gollum also actively fights with Frodo in Mount Doom, which also doesn't happen in the books.

The writers felt that simply having Gollum slip and fall was anticlimactic. Originally, it was planned that Frodo would heroically push Gollum over the edge to destroy him in the Ring.

But the production team realized that this would make it look as if Frodo was murdering Gollum, so instead they had Frodo and Gollum struggle for possession of the Ring.

New scenes were added to the film that weren't present in the book, including Denethor attempting to burn Faramir alive while still conscious, Legolas single handedly taking down an Oliphant, Arwen's fate being tied to the Ring, and the extended battle sequences at Minas Tirith and the Pelennor Fields. Now of course, the book includes extensive appendices covering the Fourth Age and characters fates.

There was no way the film could do this, it was already rather lengthy, so instead it uses a condensed epilogue showing only the Hobbits return and Frodo's departure.

As I mentioned in the episode on the Fellowship of the Ring, Christopher Tolkien specifically wasn't happy with these adaptations, claiming they trivialized his father's work, which was more philosophical and politically nuanced with greater emphasis on the declining age and passing of magic. The films are more action orientated, with greater focus on battles and physical confrontation and a clear distinction between good and evil.

In many ways, adapting the Lord of the Rings was always going to be a thankless task. You were never going to please everyone.

While Jackson's changes altered some of Tolkien's themes and narrative structure, his adaptation is still considered one of the more faithful epic fantasy adaptations in cinema, capturing the essence of the story while adapting it to a different medium.

The Tolkien estate doesn't agree, but you adapt an adaptation and this is a beautifully lavish adaptation with such care and attention to detail in every regard.

It's really hard not to love these movies even if you weren't a film history podcast, as well as realising they age like a fine wine because of the care and attention and the reliance on practical makeup effects and prosthetics. And this is a great way to segue into the wonderful award winning hair and makeup.

The team, led by makeup artist Peter King and hair designer Peter Owen, alongside special makeup effects artist Richard Taylor and prosthetic supervisor Gino Azevedo, faced immense challenges in creating distinctive looks for various races and characters. Pretty much every character in these movies wears a wig which were mostly made from human hair.

Over 10,000 wigs and hair pieces were used across the trilogy and were often elaborately braided or in the case of the elves, straight out of a l' oreal hair ad long beards were also fake. Christopher Lee's wig and beard combo took hours to apply each day.

Ian McKellen not only had a long gray wig and beard, but also facial prosthetics on his nose and ears and age makeup also in aged makeup King Theoden before he's broken free of Saruman's curse. The hobbits had large prosthetic feet and ears.

The feet were made from lightweight foam latex over a thin rubber base that couldn't be reused after wearing. Each pair were custom fitted to each actor's foot.

Measurements took up to 90 minutes to apply and extended approximately five inches beyond the actor's real toes.

Each foot was also covered with meticulously applied synthetic hair and painted with multiple layers of silicone based makeup for realistic skin tones. Each hobbit actor had to change their walking style to accommodate the shift in their center of gravity.

And while the soles were thin enough to allow ground feel, they were hard to walk on in tough terrain as sharp rocks could easily break the delicate foam latex. They also couldn't get them wet as this would mat the hair and could dissolve the adhesives.

They worked with special movement coaches to develop a natural looking gait and build tolerance with special exercises to strengthen their ankles and calves. Special boots that mimicked Hobbit feet were used for challenging terrain.

The elves had pointed ear prosthetics and distinctive eyebrows with long flowing wigs, with intricate braids and ornamentation and illuminating makeup techniques to make them feel otherworldly. Dwarfs had prosthetic noses, foreheads and facial hair.

The orcs and Uruk Hai had full face prosthetics with custom teeth and colored contact lenses, plus full body makeup that took three to five hours to apply.

Up to 15 makeup artists work simultaneously during large battle scenes, and those teams developed water and sweatproof makeup techniques for the action sequences. Throughout these episodes. I've talked a little about the detailed set design, the use of dual scale sets and scale doubles.

But what I haven't yet is the vision effects achieved through set design. Basic force perspective involves precisely positioning actors at different distances from the camera.

Characters meant to appear smaller, hobbits and dwarves were placed further away from the camera and characters meant to appear larger.

used in film since the early: 1900

the moon's eye. Fritz Lang's: 1927

Using forced perspective to create the illusion of massive cityscapes and architecture. The film featured elaborate miniature sets combined with forced perspective to create the futuristic city style.

ique, using it notably in his: 1958

For dynamic scenes, the team created a moving platform system where actors and camera could move in precise synchronization. Computerized motion control rigs that maintained proper perspective during movement were used.

Two simultaneous camera rigs moved in precise mathematical relationship to each other. As the primary camera moved, the secondary camera would move at a precisely calculated different speed and trajectory.

This maintained the proper perspective relationship between foreground and background elements. This system could account for dolly moves, pans, tilts and even complex combinations.

It was quite taxing for the actors though, who couldn't interact with each other. And complex shots like Gandalf and Frodo together on Gandalf's cart would often take dozens of takes to get right.

For those shots, two separate carts were built at different scales with each mounted on a motion control rig. As the camera tracked alongside, both carts moved at precisely calculated different speeds.

The background landscape was carefully designed to hide the seam between scales, particularly in Bag End.

Custom built split sets with sections at different scales were positioned side by side with characters performing on their respective set with a precisely aligned dividing line between the sets hidden by careful set design. The two sections were then filmed simultaneously and then seamlessly composited.

The Return of the King would not just feature the return of the actual king, but several more standout scenes and creatures. Shalob, the giant spider was created through a combination of practical effects, puppetry and cgi.

Her inspiration came from several real world spider species.

New Zealand's tunnel web spider for body structure, black widows for the distinctive abdomen shape, huntsman spiders for leg movement patterns, and various tarantula species for the overall hair texture. They wanted Shalob to be biologically plausible and not just something fantastical. And let's be honest, she is absolutely terrifying.

Her practical parts included a full size physical model of Shelop's head and fangs for close up shots, mechanical legs that could be manipulated by puppeteers, detailed practical models of Shelob's eyes and partial body segments of specific shots where Frodo interacts with the spider. Her webbing was Made from a specialized elastic silicon material and was woven filling tunnels and passages, making escape difficult for her prey.

The VFX team created specific light interaction for when webbing wrapped around characters. The digital Shalob contained over 300,000 individual hair strands.

Custom animation systems were developed for her eight legged movement and surface texturing, including translucent areas that showed internal organs in certain lighting, including when she is stabbed with sting. The spider's body realistically glows with the sword's blue light and something I forgot to mention last episode and it was kind of important Horses.

There were many of them in battle scenes, including Helm's Deep, but also just for general riding by both the heroes and the villains. The production employed approximately 70 to 80 horses throughout filming which were trained specifically for the films over several months.

Many of these horses were Andalusians, chosen for their powerful build and flowing manes.

Different horses were trained for specific actions, riding, standing, falling, etc and professional horse wranglers and riders were employed throughout production.

The American Humane association did have concerns over some of the horses treatment, including Demero, the light grey horse that played Gandalf's horse Shadowfax, who was purchased with a known diagnosis of melanoma.

His condition meant he was retired as soon as his scenes for the Fellowship of the Ring were completed under veterinary advice to receive ongoing care.

Demero is not featured in any sequel and was replaced by Blanco and Demero was alive and well on the publication of the American Humane Association's investigation. Some horses were euthanized though due to injuries sustained on set, and four horses died of illnesses.

But then on the other hand, some horses formed such a close bond with their actor that they were then adopted by them, which is what happened with Viggo Mortensen and his on screen horse Brego, played by horse actors Uraeus and Kenny, both of whom Mortensen bought after filming ended. Karl Urban's spear flip while riding was him performing the stunt and it took him ages to perfect it and he did that while the horse was moving too.

He and Miranda Otto performed many of their own riding stunts. Bernard Hill, who played King Theoden, also learned to ride horses for the role and of course the Rahirrim relied on their horses.

The real life horse cavalry was 60 strong, many ridden by professional riders. Digital horses were added to increase the size of the group.

Wetter Digital created hundreds of CGI horses for the stunts that real horses couldn't do, including falls and visible injuries and the scenes of horses being attacked by fell beasts. I mentioned last episode, the massive software used for crowds during battle.

It was also used for horses with horse behavior AI for horse crowd stimulation.

The Nazgul start riding horses and then upgrade to Fell beasts which were inspired by prehistoric pterosaurs, bats, vultures, reptiles and decomposing corpses for their skin textures. The production wanted to avoid comparisons to traditional dragons, but also made them plausibly capable of flight.

Weta Workshop created dozens of concept sketches and paintings and detailed maquettes. Full scale head and neck models for reference and carried out anatomical studies to ensure believable movement.

All nine Fell Beasts would be seen launching from Minas Morgul, then attack Osgiliath and in the Pelennor Fields. And the creature's design evolved significantly during pre production.

Early versions had more dragon like features before settling on the more bat or pterosaur inspired final look. The digital fellbeasts had their own rigging systems for the wing mechanics and physics based simulations for wing membrane movement.

Practical heads were built for close ups and a mechanical book rig was created for shots of the Witch King mounting the creature. Other creatures such as Trolls, the Watcher in the Water, the Balrog, the rest of the Ents, the Wargs and the Mummakil were completely cg.

Each one went through months of creation and variation as sketches before approved designs were sculpted into five foot maquettes and scanned into a computer. Animators then rigged skeletons and muscles before animation and final detailed coloring scanned from painted maquettes.

Along with the creatures, Weta created realistic digital doubles for many miniature long shots. You think Legolas really slid down the trunk of an oliphaunt? Tolkien named them Olifaunts. Gondor calls them Mumak. Mumakil is the plural.

The more you know.

Anyway, these CG human doubles were scanned from having actors perform movements in a motion capture suit with additional details created using zbrush. Speaking of Gondor, I hear the beacons are lit and Gondor calls for aid. And remarkably, many of the beacons were practical sets.

The production team scouted a series of spectacular mounting locations across New Zealand's south island that could represent the Beacon Hills, including Mount Gunn, Remarkable's mountain range near Queenstown, Benohou Range near Lake Pukaki and various peaks in Fiordland National Park. Real beacon fires were constructed and lit on accessible mountain locations. Some mountaintop beacons were physically built as practical sets.

Helicopter crews filmed actual New Zealand mountain ranges for background plates. The first beacon at Amundin was a full scale practical set built on location.

But then digital fires were also used mostly for distant beacons or locations that couldn't be practically filmed.

Mountain ranges were also extended and enhanced digitally or with matte paintings with CGI used to create the appearance of vast distances between peaks. Weather effects and atmospheric conditions were digitally controlled for consistency.

The sequence, which lasts just over two minutes in the final film, took several months to complete, from conception to final composite.

It's considered a signature example of how Peter Jackson's visual storytelling taking what was a brief mention in Tolkien's book and transforming it into a visually spectacular moment that communicates the vast scale of Middle Earth and demonstrating how practical filmmaking techniques can be seamlessly combined with digital technology to create scenes of breathtaking scope and emotional resonance. Oh, and also the army of the Dead, primarily CGI creations with their spectral blue green glow.

They needed to be clearly human, clearly dead, clearly incorporeal base character models were created with detailed anatomy and period appropriate armor. Specialized shader programs gave them their translucent ethereal quality. And each ghost had subtle variations in appearance and armour design.

The King of the Dead was given additional detail and screen presence. The Paths of the Dead was a practical cave set with digital extensions. And the Skull Avalanche combined practical and digital elements.

1000 skulls were created just for this scene. And honestly, we have so much to get through.

I feel like I should have talked about some of these in a previous episode, but I want to focus a bit on the eye of Sauron, because it differs quite a bit from Tolkien's original descriptions in his writings. The eye is primarily metaphorical or spiritual rather than physical.

It's described as the Eye or the Great Eye rather than a literal physical organ, and represented Sauron's awareness, will and attention rather than his physical form. It was a manifestation of his power, something that characters sense rather than see.

It was never explicitly described as an actual flaming eye atop Barador. Peter Jackson, possibly wisely for a film adaptation, chose to create a massive physical eye of fire suspended between two spikes.

The eye is constantly visible, with flames perpetually emanating from it.

When the eye is searching for something or someone, it projects a visible searchlight beam and it can rotate physically to direct its gaze, a distinct primary physical manifestation of Sauron's power. Sauron's physical form is only seen in the prologue. The eye is Sauron in the movies, and it's a permanent fixture of Barad Daw's summit.

To make the eye, they filmed flames practically using specialist lighting and photographed real eyes for reference before combining them with a digital structure created using fluid dynamic simulations. Custom particle systems generated the swirling flames and the Cat like slit pupil was rendered separately with its own animation system.

Subtle pupil dilation and contraction conveyed attention and focus, which became most intense and aggressive as the ring came closer to Mordal. The eye also needed to appear as though it was physically mounted atop the dark tower.

Digital models of Barad Daw were designed with a special platform for the eye. Architectural elements were created that framed the eye like a socket.

And specialised lighting simulated how the eye's glow would illuminate the surrounding tower. The resulting visual became one of the trilogy's most memorable images. A perfect visual shorthand for Sauron's malevolent presence and watchfulness.

And a physical embodiment of what happens once the ring is finally destroyed in Mount Doom. You will notice I'm trying to segue into everything I need to talk about. So let's talk about Mount Doom.

The real world mountain used as the main visual for Mount Doom was Mount Nauruhoi in New Zealand's Tongariro National Park. It's an almost perfect symmetrical volcanic cone that stands at 2,291 meters or 7,516ft.

It is an active stratovolcano and that distinctive conical shape made it an ideal foundation for Mount Doom. But there are restrictions on filming on Mount Nauruhoi.

While Mount Nauruhoi was used as a reference and appears in some distant shots, the production team wasn't actually permitted to film directly on the mountain itself. The mountain is sacred to the local Maori people and filming permission was not granted for the actual slopes.

So instead of filming on the actual mountain, the production used wide landscape shots of Tongariro national park with Mount Nauruhoi visible. They're filmed on nearby volcanic terrain.

To capture the barren landscape of Mordor, terrain I have actually visited, they constructed sets for the base of the mountain and the path leading up to it and used those bigotures I mentioned last episode to for certain angles and close ups.

Many close up exterior shots of our heroes on the slopes of Mount Doom were actually filmed on sets built at Stone Street Studios in Wellington which featured practical rock formations and ash covered ground and were surrounded by blue green screens for background replacement. They also digitally enhanced Mount Doom to make it more menacing with digital lava flows, ash and smoke.

The broader region of Mordor was filmed in the Rangipo Desert. The where the Black Gate of Mordor scenes were filmed and the Taquino ski field where Frodo Sam and Gollum look out over the gates of Mordor.

And the Wakapapa ski field where Isildur cuts off Sauron's finger in the opening scenes of the Fellowship of the Ring, and where Mordor's armies leave Minas Morgul on the Orc road.

And considering this movie is basically Aragorns in name, it's no surprise that the leader of Men also became the de facto leader of the cast, mostly due to his incredible work ethic, his rugged good looks, his complete encompassing of the Aragon character, and literally being the most handsome man in all eternity.

I mean, come on, seriously, men like Viggo Mortensen actually exist in the world, and they adopt horses and break bones for their art and are just apparently the loveliest men.

Bernard Hill and Orlando Bloom shared a makeup trailer with Mortensen, and they formed a club with a name I cannot say because this is a family friendly podcast, but it was basically the Sea Bago Club, which was a gossip and Pass it On club, also featuring Sean Bean and Liv Tyler, and they covered everything from fashion, current affairs and Hollywood.

And what's so wonderful about these movies, and this trilogy in particular, is that the cast maintain a close relationship to this day, regularly appearing at conventions and just being shining beacons of perfect casting, going from heroes to villains.

Peter Jackson's extremely unpleasant experience in dealing with Harvey and Bob Weinstein when the film was being developed at Miramax would lead to that shared executive producer's credit at the end of this film, appearing over a pencil sketch of a man fighting off two oversized trolls. This is no accident. The trolls were designed to look like both Weinsteins.

cted for sexual misconduct in: 2018

I've mentioned on this podcast several times about the stuff that Harvey Weinstein did that was common knowledge in Hollywood at that time, but thankfully he is getting all of the comeuppance that is coming his way. And I have to finish this section with the main character of this movie.

No, not Frodo, not Sam, Aragorn, Gandalf, or indeed Sauron, but the ring itself. The One Ring was created and designed by Jens Hansen's Goldsmiths, AKA the makers of the world's most famous ring.

They're located in Nelson in New Zealand. They created the One Ring used in the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit films.

Jens Hansen and his son goldsmith thorkild Hansen submitted 15 prototypes before the design of the One Ring was chosen. They made more than 40 variations of the One Ring for the movies. After being contacted by the production.

And these rings were scaled for different scenes and size to suit its various owners, from smaller solid gold versions that perfectly fit Hobbit's fingers to the 8 inch ring seen in the Lord of the Rings prologue, spinning and turning through the air.

Should you want your own one ring, which is a little bit oxymoronic, they sell Jens Hansen official replica one rings on their website for just over US$2,000, along with other elvish jewelry, including signet rings designed by Daniel Reeve, the calligrapher for the movie series. Did I say Reeve? That sounds a bit like Reeves. And this is the perfect way to segue into the obligatory Keanu reference for this episode.

And if you don't know what that is, it's where I link the movie that I'm featuring with Keanu Reeves for no reason other than he is the best of men and elves and dwarf and hobbits and everything, basically. Now, obviously, this movie is about Aragorn, son of Arathorn, the King of men. He has a luscious hair and beard combo. And who does that remind you of?

Why, Keanu Reeves, of course, who is actually the King of Men.

And it's just a huge coincidence that these two men are both perfect in every possible way, and they both have the luscious hair and the luscious beards.

And I'm sure there probably was a way that I could officially link Keanu Reeves to this movie, and I have done for the other two by linking the Matrix with these movies. However, I couldn't pass up linking the hair and beard.

Now, for the past two episodes, I've mentioned that this episode I wanted to talk specifically about Howard Shaw's music. And so I haven't talked about the music much at all, apart from Enya's Let It Be in the Fellowship of the Ring.

And Howard Shaw's score is really one of the most epic scores ever created for film. Shaw was so much more than a composer for hire.

He collaborated with Peter Jackson for almost four years, and he wanted the score to be as much of the narrative force as the script, that you could play the tracks back to back and trace the art of the story. And just like in the movie and Frodo's trip to Mordor. Trip. I make it sound like he's booked a package holiday. Frodo's quest to Mordor, I should say.

Shaw was on his own epic operatic film score quest. American composer James Horner and Polish composer Wojciech Killer had been considered to be the composers for the Movie.

oward Shaw visited the set in: 1999

and the Return of the King in: 2000

Jackson and Shaw would meet each year for Jackson to advise on the school, which took six weeks minimum.

The great majority of the lyrics used in the libretto are in the invented languages of Middle Earth, representing the various cultures and races in Tolkien's writings. These languages include Quenya and Sindarin for the Elves, Andunaik and Rahirric for Men, and Khuzdul for the Dwarves.

And yes, I probably have butchered all of those words and I am sorry.

While parts of the score for the first film were recorded in Wellington, New Zealand, virtually all of the trilogy score was recorded in Watford Town hall in London and mixed at Abbey Road Studios for the soundtrack. The score was primarily played by the London Philharmonic orchestra, ranging from 93 to 120 players throughout the recording.

ded. Duncan died of cancer in: 2003

There's also diegetic music too, not composed by Howard Shaw but orchestrated by him, such as Bilbo's Farewell Party, which includes music by Plan9, a group who'd previously worked with Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh.

A few of the diegetic songs are settings of poems by Tolkien interspersed in the text of the Lord of the Rings, including the Road Goes Ever on, sung softly by Ian McKellen when Gandalf arrives in Hobbiton in his farm cart.

The funeral of Theodred in the extended version of the Two Towers was composed by Plan 9 and performed by Miranda Otto playing Eowyn, but the words themselves are not Tolkien's. The series music became the most successful of Shaw's career, earning three Oscars, two Golden Globes and three Grammys, among other nominations.

Some of his themes or leitmotifs, like the Shire theme became individually popular.

ocument it in what became the: 2010

Each composition is unique, memorable and just perfectly encapsulates the scene it is in. I think you can go on YouTube and just listen to 12 hours worth of Howard Shaw score should you want to.

And while there are some standout themes like concerning hobbits, pretty much every single one, it will just take you to that scene in the movie. And I absolutely adore this score. It is genuinely one of my favourites of all time.

December: 2003

December: 2003

Now Some Things Gotta Give also came out the same week and I could have used that as the obligatory Keanu reference because Keanu is so perfect in that movie and you'd never choose Jack Nicholson over him. But I digress and never mind The Return of the King stayed at number one for five weeks and was eventually dethroned. Get it?

King Dethroned in its sixth week by Along Came Polly.

the highest grossing film of: 2003

An Unexpected Journey.

It set opening day records in many countries, including here in the UK Germany, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Greece, Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Mexico, Chile and Puerto Rico in the trilogy's beloved New Zealand, where literally every part of this magical, perfect trilogy came together. The film set opening day, opening weekend, single day, Friday gross, Saturday gross and Sunday gross records with $1.7 million in four days.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy would go on to become the highest grossing motion picture trilogy worldwide of all time with over $2.9 billion, beating other series such as the original Star wars trilogy, and became New Line Cinema's highest grossing release. New Line Cinema took a punt on Peter Jackson's ambitious idea and it paid off in dividends.

It's estimated that the gross income from non box office sales and merchandise has been at least equal to the box office for all three films.

Now, while concrete figures are hard to come by, in that case, the total gross income for the trilogy is could be in the region of $6 billion following New Line Cinema's initial investment of $300 million. And that doesn't even include the returns from tourism, which I'll get into next episode.

Now, not only is this a huge financial success for a trilogy and for a series of movies, and for this movie in particular, it was also a huge critical smash as well. It holds a rating of 94% on rotten tomatoes with a critical consensus reading.

Visually breathtaking and emotionally powerful, the Lord of the Rings the Return of the King is a moving and satisfying conclusion to a great trilogy.

th Academy Awards in: 2004

The film won all of the categories for which it was nominated, and it shares the record for the highest Academy Award wins total along with Titanic, which also stars Bernard Hill and Ben Hur and holds the record for the highest clean sweep at the Oscars, surpassing the nine awards earned by both Gigi and the Last Emperor.

The Return of the King also won four Golden Globes including Best Picture for Drama, Best Director, Best Original Score and best original song, five BAFTAs for best film, Best Screenplay, Adapted Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects and the Orange Film of the Year Award. Two Grammy Awards, nine Saturn Awards, the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Picture.

The entire cast won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Cast Motion picture. Out of 337 award nominations, the Return of the King won 258 awards.

In total, the series received 475 awards out of 800 nominations, making the films the most awarded film series in cinematic history. And fantasy is not historically a genre that does well at big awards ceremonies, especially the prestigious Oscars.

And yet as a trilogy, it received 30 Oscar nominations with 17 wins. There are a couple of reasons cited on the Internet.

For this, the first is just the outstanding technical excellence on screen, the revolutionary visual effects, the groundbreaking motion capture technology for Gollum, meticulous attention to detail in the production and set design, costumes, hair and makeup, Howard Shaw's epic and comprehensive score. It was a level of achievement that the Oscars simply couldn't not recognize. It also carried significant cultural weight.

Being based on highly respected literature with academic credibility, J.R.R. tolkien's work was already considered a classic and not just mere fantasy. It was long thought of as unfilmable.

But Jackson's trilogy treated the source material with reverence and seriousness, avoiding the campy elements that had stigmatized fantasy, but also injecting moments of humor, levity, compassion and romance that ultimately it wasn't just good versus evil, but also how evil corrupts over time, friendship and sacrifice. Filming three massive movies simultaneously was not only impressive, but monumental.

And the fact that the quality remained consistent probably meant there was accumulated goodwill for the trilogy that the Return of the King then received for the entire trilogy, despite the previous two movies also receiving technical recognition.

While it wouldn't lead to a breakthrough of fantasy movies receiving nods at the Oscars, it did open up to future wins by movies like the Shape of Water, Black Panther, Mad Fury Road and Avatar, which were all genre films that aren't the usual Oscar fare.

While no out and out fantasy film has repeated the Lord of the Rings comprehensive Oscar dominance, it suggests that the trilogy transcended its genre rather than permanently changing academy attitudes towards fantasy.

The combination of literary prestige, technical excellence, emotional resonance, and the unprecedented three film achievement created an unique situation that's unlikely to ever be replicated.

And like all of these movies, there is an extended version with 50 minutes of new material, added special effects and music, four commentaries and six hours of supplementary material, plus 10 minutes of fan club credits. The theatrical version is 201 minutes, the extended version 251 minutes.

The series as a whole runs for 9 hours, 18 minutes in the theatrical version and 11 hours 26 minutes in the extended version.

But although long for a film trilogy, this was nothing compared to Tolkien's work which has a circa 660 hour running time for the complete audiobook series. And there was no one who could world build like Tolkien.

He believed in a person tapping into their own beliefs and understandings of the real world to create a rich, diverse fictional world. His primary focus was always telling a good story, but there that story also comes with rich characters, languages, genealogy and history.

It wasn't necessarily something entirely new, but based on the world we live in his own faith.

And those fantasy tropes of good versus evil, the struggle between the light and the dark, and that even good can become corrupted by evil Realism, not fantasy, is the groundwork of this trilogy. Despite the fantasy setting and built in mythology, Peter Jackson and his team didn't set out to make a fantasy movie.

They set out to make something completely real, completely believable, and completely perfect. These movies are exactly what verbal Diorama is here for.

And 24, 23 and 22 years later, they hold up exceptionally well because of the practical work, the bigotes, the makeup and the groundbreaking cgi. These are movies that will stand the test of time that people will be talking about in 80 years time. Like we currently talk about the wizard of Oz.

Timeless perfection. Maybe a little bit less asbestos on the sets and maybe a little bit less carcinogenic makeup, though.

Peter Jackson proved unfilmable material was not only filmable, but that he could create a cinematic trilogy masterpiece with an inimitable legacy that even he himself couldn't match again.

But I'm gonna come back to the Hobbit series very briefly next episode and I am going to leave it there because we do have one more episode to finish this huge five episode series of episodes. That doesn't make sense. I'm gonna go with it. So thank you for listening as always.

I would love to hear your thoughts on the Lord of the Rings, the Return of the King and as always, thank you for your continued support of this podcast. If you want to get involved and help this podcast grow, you can find me.

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So the next episode is the final episode of this five part series and it's going to be primarily on the Lord of the Rings, the War of Thorough Heron, but also on the everlasting Legacy of the Lord of the Rings and basically what came next and what happens next for the series.

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They are Claudia, Simon, Laurel, Derek, Kat, Andy, Mike, Luke, Michael, Scott, Brendan, Lisa, Sam, Jack, Dave, Stuart, Nicholas so Kev, Pete, Heather, Danny, Ali, Stu, Brett, Philip M. Xenos, Sean, Rhino, Philip K, Adam, Elay, Kyle, and Aaron. If you want to get in touch, you can email verbaldioramail.com you can say hi.

You can give feedback or suggestions. I do try and reply to every single email I receive and I do love to receive your emails.

So if you do enjoy this podcast or you're just a big fan of the Lord of the Rings and you just want to point out something that I didn't say, or you just want to get in touch and wax lyrical about Lord of the Rings, then you can email me directly or you can go to verbal diorama.com and fill out the little contact form. And hopefully you will join me next week for the final part of this 300th episode Lord of the Rings extravaganza.

I can't believe this is the 300th episode. I can't believe I've done this 300 times now. But I'm genuinely so grateful for you listening to this podcast and for supporting this podcast.

So thank you very much and hopefully you will join me next week. And finally.