All language subtitles for Icons.Unearthed.S07E02.Finding.the.Fellowship.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-BTN_track4_[eng]

[Graham] Peter Jackson's dream
of making the definitive

Lord of the Rings trilogy
had hit a wall.

Its name was Harvey Weinstein.

[Barrie] Harvey said, "We're
not gonna make two movies,

"we're only gonna make one."

[Graham] Peter's plans
for one of the most ambitious

movie-making projects ever

was disappearing
before his very eyes.

Goodbye.

[Graham] So to pull it off,
they'd need a new studio.

For an independent company,
it's a ferocious call.

[Graham] Making a risky deal...

There had never been
anything like this.

[Graham]...on an epic production...

It really was
a mammoth undertaking.

...with no guarantee
of success.

[King] They had been prepping
and it wasn't going very well.

Noooo!

[Graham] They'd be betting it all.

You mess this up,
you cannot recoup this.

[Graham] And with monumental
challenges ahead of them...

A few of us knew
how much trouble we were in.

...they were on a quest
to bring a vision to life

that to fans around the world
was truly, what's the word?

Precious.

[Graham] With Harvey forcing
Peter and company

to make a single
Lord of the Rings film,

rather than two,
something had to break.

And they realized it cannot be
a Harvey Weinstein movie.

Peter had a very good agent,

who worked out a deal
with Harvey.

They asked if they could look
for a different studio.

[Graham] Though, Weinstein
isn't well known

for being easy
to break up with.

"I'm getting $20 million,

"'cause that's
what I've already invested.

"They had to at least
make two films

"because I'm already offering
to make one."

As well as a 5% back-end cut

of whatever the films
ending up making.

[Graham] If that wasn't
enough...

Peter was,
I know, on a deadline.

They had four weeks
to find a different studio.

Or be locked
into the Miramax format

of what they
were prepared to back.

So they think, "How are we gonna
pitch this to studios?"

[Graham] To a filmmaker
like Peter, it was obvious.

To get a film,
you've gotta make a film.

He spent a week shooting
a little documentary

to show the development process.

Everything that he had
ready to go.

They had been in pre-production
with Miramax for over a year,

so they had built Hobbiton.

[Graham] But more impressive
than a big set

was the little people on it.

Hobbits really are
amazing creatures.

Even the early test footage
was jaw-dropping.

If you do that at scale,
I've never seen it before.

I edited that documentary
for him,

and it was basically a tool
to get the film green lit.

[Graham] But only if he could get it

in front of the right people,

and time was as short as
a hobbit.

Peter only had three weeks left.

[Graham] Just three weeks before Miramax

would have the right
to take his dream project away.

300 lives of men
I've walked this Earth

and now I have no time.

[Graham] Time wasn't Peter's only enemy.

The studios
were proving hostile.

The books, they were old,
and not that they were dated

but they weren't contemporary,

they weren't Harry Potter.

So, there was definite
skepticism

in terms of how could these
be made into the films.

[Graham] And it didn't help
that Peter's last film

wasn't exactly a hit.

At the box office,
it was a disaster.

[Graham] But Jackson did have an ally.

It was this man.

This is God.

[Graham] Well, not that man exactly,

but the people who created him.

He had a special relationship
with Mark Ordesky at New Line.

[Camela] Mark was an executive.

[Graham] And, quite the fan
of Peter's work.

Earlier in his career,
trying to make

a Bad Taste deal with him.

[Victoria] He worked
for a company at the time

called Republic Pictures

and he really wanted
to distribute Bad Taste,

but his boss was like, "No."

[Graham] And so, he left Peter

with a solemn promise vowing...

[Victoria] "One day, I will be something

"and I will not fail you again."

[Graham] True to his word,
Mark organized a meeting

with the head of New Line,
Bob Shaye.

Bob had created New Line
in the 1960s

as a film distribution company
servicing the counterculture.

They started distributing
Reefer Madness.

[Graham] Other titles followed,
but Bob had big plans

to move into movie production.

Bob was a big risk-taker.

[Graham] And in 1982...

They had a big breakthrough with
The Nightmare on Elm Street.

That was what made
New Line films great.

[Graham] Camela Galano
came on board soon after,

starting literally
at the ground floor.

I started with New Line in 1986,
and I was the secretary.

[Graham] But not for long.

I became
executive vice president,

European supervisor,
and then I became

president of New Line
International.

New Line really evolved
over the years.

We made some amazing films.

Movies like, The Mask,
and Dumb and Dumber,

and the Austin Power films.

Hello, hello.

We had done Seven
with Brad Pitt.

What's in the ... box?

[Graham] A renegade attitude was
the key to New Line's success.

Bob Shaye was always a renegade.

[Graham] And at that time,
Peter Jackson needed a renegade

if he stood any chance
of making Lord of the Rings.

[Barrie] They were sitting
around a conference room.

They turned down the lights,
Peter showed the reel.

[Graham] After watching Peter's
documentary,

Bob had only five words.

Well, I don't get it.

[Graham] Bob had a big question
about the whole project.

Bob Shaye slapped his hand down
on the table and said,

"Why would anybody in their
right mind make two movies

"when you could make three?"

[Graham] And luckily Bob agreed
to still film in New Zealand,

ensuring all that hard work
the crew had done

to build the sets
wouldn't be for nothing.

Bob, he believed
in Peter's vision.

He believed in the material.

Obviously, Bob being such
a risk taker, it just seemed

not a natural progression,
but let's just go for it.

[Graham] Peter had got almost
everything he wanted and more.

He had a new partner,

but he also now had
an ex-partner in Miramax,

and it was time
for a divorce settlement.

Harvey Weinstein keeps 5%,
and he also gets

an executive producer credit,
which nobody had a problem with.

[Graham] Peter and his team
had plenty to celebrate.

But now,
it was back to square one.

They had to go back
and re-write everything

and lay out the groundwork

for what the three films
looked like.

[Graham] The scripting task
before them

was almost biblical in scale.

All of Middle Earth has
a long history

of thousands and thousands
of years.

When you do a movie, you need
to jump into the narrative.

All we have to decide is
what to do...

[Graham] While some
characters were cut,

others were expanded on.

They wanted to extend
the character of Arwen,

because it was important to just
bring in some feminine power.

[Barrie] Fran and Philippa had
a very specific idea

that she would be
a female warrior.

That's why she is the elf
that comes and rescues Frodo.

[Graham] Once again, history
seemed to be repeating itself.

[Chris] Originally,
Frodo is wounded,

and an elf called Glorfindel
rescues him.

I go, "We can't introduce
another character,

"there's too many as it is."

So, I changed it to Legolas.

Fie, fie, the enemy is upon us.

And then I see Peter Jackson,
they changed it to Arwen,

I felt a little bit validated
when I saw that, I said "Oh."

[Graham] Changing the roles
of characters is one thing,

but for now there was
a bigger challenge,

how to shoot three epic movies
at the same time.

A task that would fall,
in no small part, on this guy.

My name is Barrie Osborne,

and I was a producer
of Lord of the Rings,

alongside of Peter Jackson
and Fran Walsh.

[Graham] Barrie had experience
with the complex matrix

of film production,
thanks to a complex matrix.

Do you know
what I'm talking about?

Matrix.

[Barrie] I was doing post
on The Matrix.

A friend of mine who had been
on Lord of the Rings

called me and said
they're looking for somebody,

why don't you give them a call,
so I did and they said,

"We'll fly you out
to New Zealand

"and you can meet
Peter Jackson."

[Graham] But this wouldn't be

a simple meet and greet
with the Director.

Peter said, "Hey we wanna go
to a theater to see a movie"

because there was an actor

they were interested in,
which was Stuart Townsend.

[Graham] Peter would dress
for the occasion

and like a true Hobbit.

Peter dressed in his shorts
and his bare feet,

we went downtown Wellington,

and then they offered me
the job.

[Graham] Having accepted the job,

the responsibilities
would begin straight away.

[Barrie] I had just almost
walked in the door

when I got a call from New Line.

They said and how much
do you think Lord of the Rings

is really gonna cost?

[Graham] Before he could attempt
what was at that point

the most expensive back-to-back
movie project in the history

of cinema,
Barrie needed cash

just to keep the train
on the rails.

So, I said from a production

standpoint I'll need another
million dollars,

and she said, "OK."

[Graham] The budget would be set
at $180 million,

but for the studio
like New Line

paying for a production
of this size was a challenge.

[Camela] We were basically
responsible for 60 to 80%.

[Graham] And for an independent,

there was only one way
to do that.

Pre-sell the international
distribution rights.

[Graham] To help pay for
the production and cover costs,

New Line would be asking
international distributors

to commit to not one film,
not even two.

They were committed
to all three.

We could have
potentially wiped out

some of those
independent distributors.

It was a huge thing
for New Line.

It was also a very huge thing
that there were going

to be three films shot
at the same time.

[Graham] And the logic for this
was mainly down to this guy.

Smokin'.

[Graham] Well, not exactly him,
but the lesson learned

after making his movie.

They wanted to do a sequel
to The Mask,

and they discovered that
all the actors

wanted a higher rate

and so they were stuck paying
a lot more money.

Sorry fellas,
waste not, want not.

[Graham] It was a lesson
Bob Shaye never forgot.

Bob Shaye thought,
"Wow this is great.

"We could make a better deal
'cause we'd be offering actors

"a much longer
period of employment

"and we will probably be able
to make a much sharper deal."

I suppose you think that was
terribly clever.

[Graham] But a sharper deal
didn't change the fact

that New Line was
breaking the mold.

[Camela] New Line had done sequels,

but we wouldn't have the benefit

of having shot and released
the first one

before we committed
to the second and the third.

[Barrie] Bob Shaye took
a gigantic risk,

everything was riding
on this movie.

For an independent company,
it's a ferocious call.

[Graham] And it was a call

that would see the studio
risking it all.

That's a one shot thing.

You mess this up,
you cannot recoup this.

[Graham] Shooting three films
at once

was the Hollywood
equivalent of having triplets.

Not with 10,000 men
could you do this.

The gamble they took was
three films,

we green light everything at
once and we just start doing it.

[Graham] It was three times
the usual work,

and the first job
for the parents

of the project was casting.

Pete really did not want to hire
name talent,

even though he did put some
recognizable faces in it.

[Graham] Big stars or not,
if there was to be...

[Galadriel] One ring
to rule them all.

...there first had to be one
actor to carry the franchise.

[Victoria] Pete goes to London,
and he sees

about 300 British actors
for Frodo.

[Graham] Despite his exhaustive
efforts...

It was not going well.

[Graham] ...Peter still had

an entire village
of hobbits to cast,

which would come as
a surprise to Sean Astin.

When his Agent told him
that he was in consideration,

he didn't know
what Lord of the Rings was.

He had not read
Lord of the Rings

when he got cast at Sam,

he read it three times

because he just really
got into his character.

He also had to be
on a particular diet,

because he had to always be
that "fat" hobbit and I'm like,

"Sean, you're gonna
eat extra pancakes."

Lovely, big, golden chips
with a nice piece of fried fish.

[Graham] And for Rosie Cotton,
the hobbit Sam loved from afar,

Sarah McLeod,
who'd collaborated with Peter

on a previous film,
Forgotten Silver.

[Sarah] It was my first time
that I worked with Peter.

I got to play a 1920s film star.

Because it was on a low budget,
it was that real feeling

of camaraderie between everybody

making this project
for little money.

[Graham] This would be role
of Sarah's life.

I loved the character
of Rosie Cotton,

like it really is one
of the roles

that will always be
a stand out for me.

[Graham] To provide comic relief
in a series

not known for its humor
there was...

[Gilbert] Billy Boyd
and Dominic Monaghan

are the two naughty hobbits.

...Merry and Pippin.

They were like these inseparable
little troublemakers.

That was good.

[Graham] Hobbits were one thing,

but the elves were proving
to be a pointy problem.

They were having a hard time
casting Elrond.

[Graham] The elf leader
and Lord of Rivendell.

You have only one choice.

[Graham] Actually, that was
exactly what Barrie thought.

I had worked with Hugo Weaving
on The Matrix.

As you see, we've had our eye
on you for some time now.

And I said, "I think
Hugo Weaving would be

"great for Elrond",
and they agreed.

[Graham] And when it came
to the role of Legolas,

for Orlando Bloom,
the eyes had it.

[King] Orlando Bloom,
he had a bit

of a playfulness
about his eyes...

[Aragorn] Legolas,
what do your elf eyes see?

...and then he read for them
and they went, "Yes, fine, OK."

It was a big break for Orlando.

[Graham] But Peter's choice
for Arwen, Uma Thurman...

I said goddamn.

...wasn't interested
in Tolkien's pulp fiction,

turning Peter down.

But eventually Jackson turned
to Liv Tyler to fill the spot.

Liv Tyler, of course,
she's the daughter

of Steve Tyler from Aerosmith.

If you want him,
come and claim him.

You look at her and you go,
"Yeah I could see elf."

[Graham] For the dwarves,
getting actors to fit the role

was never going to be easy.

[Ra] John Rhys-Davies is
a big guy

and to cast him
in a really short role

was kind of
technically challenging.

Nobody tosses a dwarf.

[Graham] When it came
to the wizards,

Peter had his pick of Britain's
most respected actors,

and one believed he was
the perfect fit.

My old friend.

[Victoria] Christopher Lee
knew Tolkien,

and he really
wanted to be Gandalf.

And if that fails?

[Graham] The prized role
of Gandalf turned out

to be a Battle of the knights.

[Andrew] New Line cinema really
wanted Sean Connery as Gandalf.

Sean Connery ended up
turning it down,

I think that was a relief
to Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh

who were looking for somebody
just a little bit different.

[Graham] Or to be more precise...

Pete just did not want anybody
else but Sir Ian McKellen.

There never was much hope,
just a fools hope.

[Graham] Ian McKellen was cast
as the wizard,

and although Jackson got
his top pick

for the role of Gandalf,

his choice for the role
of Boromir

wasn't as enthralled
by the role.

Amusing but pointless.

[Victoria] Liam didn't wanna be

the guy that died
in every movie,

and he had just died
as Qui-Gon Jinn in Star Wars,

so they got Sean Bean who has
no such issues with dying.

[Graham] Aragorn,
the man destined to be king,

was a role almost destined
to be this man's.

- Bring me the big knife.
- No Ronnie.

[Andrew] Nicolas Cage
was in consideration

for the role of Aragorn.

He was not interested,
ultimately.

[Graham] Instead,
the role was awarded

to the very actor Peter
had taken Barrie to see

when he first visited
New Zealand.

They did hire Stuart Townsend

'cause he was
an up-and-coming actor.

Fran and Philippa
really liked him a lot.

[Graham] And for senior hobbit,
Bilbo Baggins...

[Bilbo] No, thank you.

I was actually asked to go
screen test for Bilbo Baggins.

[Graham] Not just a matter
of who for Bilbo,

a matter of Doctor Who.

Peter is a big Doctor Who fan.

[Graham] In 1987,
Sylvester appeared

as the seventh Doctor Who
and the good doctor

had given Sylvester a good shot
at landing the role of Bilbo.

They screened about a dozen
people and they got down to two.

I didn't know
who the other one was

and then it turned out to be
the amazing Ian Holm,

so he got the part.

And he lived happily ever after.

[Graham] But never fear,

Sylvester will be back
in a while.

In the meantime...

Let's hunt some Orc.

...Peter Jackson was
Orc hunting.

Ooh, they look tasty.

[Graham] Australian actor,
Stephen Ure would tap into

his inner animal during
his audition to play an orc.

Well, I remember it was
about speaking to a hobbit,

and I hadn't even seen
a hobbit before.

And I can remember thinking
that what might look good

is if I was looking at them
with a curiosity

of like a dog and sort of
putting my head to the side

like a dog would do
if it didn't quite understand.

Go on, call for help.

[Graham] Stephen was cast
to play three separate orcs

throughout the series,

but he wasn't the only actor
Peter would tap

for multiple parts
as Kiwi actor, Jed Brophy,

would play many roles.

I play one of the black riders
on horseback.

Give up the halfling.

[Graham] Many, many roles.

Sharku, he's the leader
of the Warg Riders.

They took a little tumble
off the cliff.

[Graham] And more roles.

[Jed] Got to play some Rohanese
in Gondor and Nazgul

on the filmings. I played four
different characters.

[Graham] With the cast coming
together...

- I also got to play an elf.
- [Graham] Right.

But with all the major stars
considered turning them down,

New Line was
nervously contemplating

maybe the biggest
casting question of all.

- Frodo.
- It was not going well.

Where's Frodo?

[Graham] Luckily,
there was one actor

who was ready to start
a quest of his own.

- Elijah Wood.
- And Elijah Wood, I will admit,

we were rooting for early on.

We told him,
you better get in on this man,

you are a hobbit, look at you.

Physically he was perfect for it
and he did an audition,

he shot it himself
and was very proactive

about getting in front of those
people because he wanted it.

[Graham] Elijah's
unsolicited audition tape

was sent to Peter Jackson.

Pete fell in love with his look,
he got the part that way.

I will take the ring to Mordor.

[Graham] The producers
had assembled a cast

from around the world.

Suddenly thrown together

and sent to the very edge
of the map,

the risk was
Lord of the Rings

could turn into
Lord of the Flies.

[Barrie] John Rhys-Davies came
over to me one day and said,

"You know there's a funny thing.
I've done ensemble casts before,

"and either everybody gets along
or they fall apart,

"and it becomes
a miserable experience."

[Graham] Peter Jackson wanted

the biggest film project
in history

to feel just like history.

The year 3434 of the 2nd age.

[Barrie] Peter said to us,

"I don't want this to be
tongue-in-cheek.

"I want this to be like history.

"We're gonna make you feel like
you're living in this world."

That was kind of believable,
amazing, fantastic.

[Graham] The trees
of Fangorn Forest for example.

Were made to have these
beautifully textured limbs

and things for the treetops.

Nobody had even really tried
to build rocks

and fake trees and castles

from the magical writing
of Tolkien.

[Graham] Over in the makeup department,

visualizing a world known only
in the minds

of millions of readers was
a very practical problem.

Obviously there was
no Middle Earth mall.

We had to make everything.

[Graham] But it was smallest details

that brought things
to a halt early on.

What is it?

They had been prepping,
and I hadn't been involved,

and it wasn't going very well.

[Graham] Weta had an ear problem.

The ears,
they looked like small wings,

it was an absolute disaster
actually.

Which this man was hired to fix.

When you see it you go, "No,

"no we're not going
to believe it,

"They're too big.
They should be neat

"and they're sticking out
too much.

"They should sit back
against the head.

"They've got pointy ears,
but we don't really notice it."

[Graham] But the feminine elves

were nonetheless given
a special quality.

He has fallen into shadow.

It was just getting
that etherealness

of her, especially her.

[Graham] Peter concocted
a magic potion of sorts.

I made a special powder
to use on her face

that had a sort of sheen to it.

We gave her contact lenses

just to enhance
the blueness of her eyes.

[Graham] But not all the actors
were enthusiastic

about the efforts to turn them

into Tolkien's storied
characters.

Orlando Bloom,
when we had to turn him blond.

We had to color his hair
a little

'cause it was very dark.

You look terrible.

A bit like,
"Oh God, why can't I be dark?"

[Graham] But getting hair
and make up to look the part

was just the first step.

It's really scary with Peter
'cause you do a test

and then he shouts,
"OK, lace test."

There's lace at the front
of the wig and it's stuck down.

He just zoomed in on it,
and touch wood, it's fine.

Bottom line is Peter has to say
yes to everything.

He won't sign off on anything
unless it's absolutely right.

I passed the test.

[Graham] For the cast,
makeup tests were a different

kind of scary, especially
for those playing the orcs.

You go and have a whole face,
head cast

and you just have to sit there
with your eyes closed

while they pour this stuff
over and let it set.

I think it was also
a kind of audition itself

doing that to make sure

you wouldn't get
claustrophobic and freak out

'cause they knew that
a couple of people did.

[Graham] Each orc was different
and unique,

but there was one orc who was
more unique than the others.

The age of men is over.

There was
a Harvey Weinstein orc.

[Graham] Fashioned after
the Miramax executive,

Peter Jackson
and Weta were looking

to get a little pay back.

It was a particularly fat,
ugly orc.

[Graham] This was one Weinstein
contribution

that would go uncredited.

Fear.

The city is rank with it.

No comment.

[Graham] Not all the wizards

on Lord of the Rings
were on screen.

At Weta Workshop,
special effects wizards

had their fingerprints
on everything,

well, footprints, actually.

My name is Sean Foot,
and I was working

in the prosthetics department,
mostly doing feet.

[Graham] Yes,
Mr. Foot was a foot specialist,

and thanks to his and his team
at Weta's workshop

the pitter patter of hairy feet
was soon being heard

across New Zealand's capital.

I think I've broken something.

They were made of foam latex.

I'd slip my feet into these
hobbit feet.

Then there'd be a long process
of gluing them

around sort of the ankle area.

And then we had little lace
hair pieces

that were sewn up
with real human hair.

They got a little bit sweaty
on the inside.

[Graham] While the art department

had landed on its feet,

Peter had a big problem
when it came to finding

someone to shoot the world
they were creating,

and his most trusted lieutenant
had serious misgivings.

I could see that this was going
to be a mammoth undertaking,

and I said to Pete,
"Look I'm opting out

"because I can see that once
we are sucked into this vortex

"it'll be a long time
before we're spat out again."

[Graham] Peter scrambled to find
a shooter experienced enough

and brave enough
to join the quest.

Peter approached me as a DP.

I had a history of doing
some work with Peter.

[Graham] But that meant little
to New Line.

The studio went,
"Who's this guy?

"He doesn't have enough
big film credits."

So, Pete got onto Andrew Lesnie
as his choice.

[Mahaffie] Andrew had shot Babe,

so that was the credit
that they were looking for.

[Graham] The cinematographer

from the movie,
Babe was hired.

That'll do.

[Graham] But Alun wasn't
getting off the hook.

I was one of his many
second unit cinematographers

on Lord of the Rings.

[Graham] But shooting
a weighty trilogy,

it would be almost as busy as
most Hollywood main units.

Peter needed help.

[Mahaffie] He said, "Look,
would you consider stepping up

"to direct the second unit?"

It's a once-in-a-lifetime,
key decision,

and so you step
through that door.

Bilbo!

[Graham] On the other side
of that door,

the cast was learning
how to fight.

[Barrie] We had a great
sword master

to teach the cast how to work
with swords and how to fight.

Bob Anderson,
he taught Errol Flynn and many,

many other people.

[Allan] His background
is massive.

The original Darth Vader
stunt double,

choreographed
The Princess Bride,

he was the sword master
for that.

Sword master for Highlander.
All about swords.

[Graham] But a real fight
was brewing

with one of Peter's core cast.

[Barrie] Stuart Townsend had
a hard time

accepting certain things.

[Graham] A war of words
was developing.

[Barrie] He didn't wanna
learn elvish,

and the character
called for that.

I'm the faster rider-
I'll take him.

[Graham] Before long,

the situation was
getting hairy too.

[King] Stuart didn't like
the wigs.

I think he said he didn't want
to look like an aging rock star.

[Graham] But Stuart Townsend
was acting like a rock star.

Some actors only want to look
like themselves.

[Graham] And the band appeared

to be having
creative differences.

So in the end we decided
to part ways.

[Graham] Suddenly Peter Jackson
had a hole

at the center of his film,
and its name was Aragorn.

They were hunting around
very quickly

for someone to take
Stuart's place.

[Graham] Deep into rehearsals,

the Lord of the Rings epic was
already deep in something else.

Stuart was leaving and we were
gonna start soon.

[Graham] New Line's Mark Ordesky
received the distress call

from the bottom of the world.

He got a call at 2 a.m.
and they said,

"We've just lost Stuart."

[Graham] Ordesky
had someone in mind.

Mark Ordesky
came up with the idea

to cast Viggo Mortensen.

- No ... way.
- Viggo was reluctant.

[Graham] And that's where
the story would have ended,

were it not for a certain
11-year-old Tolkien fan.

[Barrie] His son said,
"Lord of the Rings is great.

"You have to do this movie."

[Graham] Viggo signed on
just in time for shooting.

[Aragorn] I can avoid being seen
if I wish,

but to disappear entirely,
that is a rare gift.

[Graham] With Viggo on board,

the cast and crew were
staring down

the barrel of 438 days
of shooting.

I think it was the naivety
and the enthusiasm

of this young crew that felt
that we could pull that off.

[Graham] The youthful bravado
was encouraging.

Oi, we're coming too.

[Graham] The scale
of the task was not.

A few of us knew how much
trouble we were in.

I was like, "Oh my God,
how are we gonna do this?"

[Graham] And 9,000 miles away
in New York,

New Line was asking
the same question.

[Drew] You're betting your money

on a film shooting
on the other side of the planet.

[Graham] So,
New Line put a duck

in their far away pond,

dispatching their trusted
executive producer.

Mark Ordesky eventually just
becomes the guy who lives

on that set and is reporting
back to New Line.

The great eye is ever watchful.

[Graham] But the biggest
production in movie history

was a lot for one man
to supervise.

There was the first unit
which was Peter, obviously.

Then we had
the John Mahaffie unit

and we had Jeff Murphy unit.

[Graham] That's three units
shooting three movies.

It was the ultimate production
juggling act.

Sometimes I would go to set
with three different scripts

and three different sets
of story boards

to do snippets
of the three different movies.

You might start your morning
killing someone in movie two.

[McCaffrey] And they'd be alive
in movie one in the afternoon.

You cannot go back.

It really was a mammoth
undertaking.

[Graham] The multi-pronged Rings
production set out

into the field
on October 11th 1999.

And for Sarah McLeod the scale
was starting to sink in.

I still didn't really know
how big it was

until my first day on set,
the dance.

That dance was actually quite
tricky in that hobbit feet,

long toes and some
of it's uphill

and I definitely remember
tripping over my hobbit toes

and then having to compose
myself as I came back down

and did another
little flick of the hands

and carried on with the dance,
smile on my face.

Go on Sam,
ask Rosie for a dance.

[Graham] Viggo Mortensen,
barely off the plane,

went straight into the breach.

Almost immediately on arriving
he had to do a huge fight scene.

So, they have him do
the Weathertop scene first.

He actually says
that he's very grateful

that that's the first scene
that he had to shoot,

because it was more physically

just getting
comfortable in there

as opposed to worrying
about memorizing dialog.

[Graham] Stephen Ure's first
scene saw him going toe to toe

with a knight of the realm.

A real one.

I'd only just met Peter
and Christopher Lee.

[Graham] Stephen would deliver
a whip-cracking performance.

During a scene when
the uruk-hai are being born.

Christopher Lee says,
"Who do you serve?"

and he doesn't answer me
so I start to whip him,

and I whip him a few times
and I hear "Cut!",

and I look around and there's
Christopher Lee holding his face

and I'd whipped him in the face
on my first take

on my first day
on my first scene.

[Graham] Unfortunately,
Stephen's scene went the way

of Sir Christopher Lee's face,
and got cut.

Although,
he should've just been thankful

that he'd left the set
in one piece.

There was a scene
where somebody got stabbed,

and he said, "That's not
what somebody sounds like

"when they get stabbed.
It's more different to that."

And then I found out later that
he was like an SAS assassin.

He was in Special Forces,
he was a commando himself.

[Graham] And Christopher Lee,
now in his 80s,

was in no mood to suffer fools.

[Sean] We were talking
about World War II,

Battle of Britain,
and I couldn't remember

the name of the guy that was
running the RAF at that time,

and Christopher Lee berated me.

And you haven't lived

until you've been told off
by Christopher Lee.

[Graham] Jed Brophy's scene
with Saruman

had him salivating
with anticipation.

No, really.

Send out your warg-riders.

[Jed] I had these
big prosthetic teeth,

and I was so nervous
about meeting Christopher Lee

that I had a saliva build up

which basically,
on the very first take

the teeth came out of my mouth
and flew through the air

and hit Sir Christopher Lee
in the forehead.

[Graham] Fortunately,
Sir Christopher was no stranger

to wayward teeth, he'd made
a fine career out of it.

He was very forgiving.

[Graham] Out in the middle of nowhere,

miles from motion capture
studios,

Jackson was solving visual
problems

using the oldest tricks
in the book.

Some really ingenious
forced perspective

was used by Peter.
In fact, there was one shot

where Frodo is having a cup
of tea with Gandalf

and Frodo is down the other end
of the table to make him

look half the size and the shot
had a little track

on the front of it,
where the camera moved across.

A lot of that came from a guy
called Harry Harrison,

who was the key grip
on the film.

He had a lot to do with building
motion control rigs

that would be tailored
to a shot for a moment.

It was incredible.

[Graham] And with three units
filming simultaneously

it left three times as much
footage to review each day.

I remember one day
I watched six hours of dailies.

Some people would fall asleep
at dailies by the end of it,

including me sometimes.

[Graham] Another daily occurrence

adding to the load
was script changes.

He would say,
"This isn't quite working"

and they'd go and do re-writes.

Everyone got very
used to sitting down

to have their makeup done
and these pages

and they had to learn
these lines now.

[Graham] Script revisions
would abound

for one of the central
characters in the film,

because even though Fran
and Philippa

had wanted the role
of Arwen to transform into...

A female warrior.

...there was one major hitch
in that plan.

Liv hated horses.

I do not fear them.

Liv could not ride a horse.

Ride hard.

Don't look back.

[Graham] One way or another,

this was going to be
a rough ride.

[Graham] Second unit director,
John Mahaffie,

was tasked with capturing one
of the Lord of the Rings'

most dramatic scenes.

One of the first sequences
that I shot

was the ring wraith chase.

Wild horses couldn't hold John
back from his first big test.

The challenges were riding
through the trees at speed.

And he really means
through the trees.

One of the first takes that they
did going through the trees,

they didn't prune the branches
and so there was a lot

of heads hitting the branches.

[Graham] But the rough riding

wasn't John's biggest problem.

Liv hated horses.

[Graham] That was a problem

because her character, Arwen,

needed to ride like the wind.

Liv was very honest about
the fact that being on horseback

was a fairly terrifying
experience for her.

[Graham] Refusing to ride a horse,

Liv had the production
over a barrel.

The solution,
they put her over a barrel.

We mounted her
on a 40 gallon drum,

on the back of an old pickup
and we were bouncing this barrel

and going over
all this crazy country

trying to get these shots
but she applied herself.

[Graham] Liv had applied herself
admirably

as Jed Brophy discovered when
the dailies were screened.

I do remember one day sitting
behind Peter Jackson.

He literally jumped up
out of his chair and said,

"Wow this is gonna
blow people's minds."

[Graham] Liv had managed
to pull off the scene,

but Fran and Philippa
were realizing

they may have
put the cart before the horse,

when it came to
their female warrior.

Liv is not a female warrior.

Why are you saying this?

[Barrie] She's beautiful
and graceful,

but she's not really cut out
to be a warrior.

Eventually,
they started to realize

that they had to revise
the role.

There is still hope.

And they had her as this
ethereal inspiration

for Aragorn, which I think
suited her perfectly.

[Graham] Liv Tyler was not alone
in her phobias.

The challenges
of New Zealand's wilderness

had something for everyone.

What is this new devilry?

Sean Bean, he got caught
between two landslides.

So, he's stuck
in this little town.

We called him and said
"We're gonna send a helicopter."

He was definitely afraid
of getting in a helicopter.

Don't you see that it's madness?

I convinced him
he had to get in the helicopter,

'cause we needed to shoot.

[Graham] But sometimes
it had to be the high road.

[Barrie] We were filming up
on one of the mountain ranges

and the best way to get up there
was by helicopter,

and he refused to get
in that helicopter.

He did walk up there that time.

[Graham] If Viggo Mortensen had
any phobias...

I do not fear death.

...shooting for the newly
arrived actor

wasn't aggravating them.

Viggo, just was totally
committed to the role.

[McCaffrey] Viggo, at times,

used to just like
to stay out on location

and not come back to the motel
at the end of the night.

Viggo was just
one of those actors

that liked to really
engulf himself in the character.

[Graham] In fact,
the more pain the better.

He endured a whole lot
of physical pain

just to be the character.

I mean literally,
when you see close-ups

of his hands,
bloody and gnarled

half of it wasn't makeup.

And I remember one scene
where we were throwing

opponents at him
and he was battling.

He finished up
with the stunt guys

and now there extras
right in his path

and I had to sort of almost
jump in his way and go

stop, stop, stop, stop,
cut, cut, cut!

The stunt people were just
terrified to fight Viggo,

'cause Viggo was just
so into it.

[Graham] But the Danish American
he-man did have a soft side.

One day we were riding
out to location,

there was an incredible
sunrise.

[Graham] Which gave Viggo
the same idea as Barrie.

We've gotta get that on camera.

[Graham] Because even
on The Lord of the Rings,

blue sky beats blue screen.

The movies only employed
the visual effects

where there was no way
any practical effects

could ever do the job.

Blue screen sunsets and things
was never an option.

[Graham] And Viggo was willing
to move heaven and Earth

to shoot heaven and Earth.

[Barrie] It's gonna
be impossible

for me to get the cast
and the crew there in time,

and he said, "Well,
why don't we just sleep

"on location overnight?"

And we camped out overnight

and made a big fire
and then we got up

in the morning early
and got the sunrise

and it was just a lot of fun.

[Graham] Camping
in the New Zealand backcountry

could be romantic.

Blood has been spilled
this night.

[Graham] But it could also
be lethal.

We were filming a sequence where
they had come out of Khazad-dum.

So, we found this great location
on the South Island.

We were filming and
Mountain Safety came over

and said,
"There's a storm moving in,

"you have
to get off the mountain."

We must get off the mountain.

First AD said,
we're gonna have to wrap.

[Graham] But with three films
to shoot and a tight schedule,

Barrie wasn't letting a bit
of weather rain on his parade.

I said, "I'm gonna look
through the script."

And I found a sequence

where Aragorn
and Gandalf were walking.

We hear of trouble in Rohan.

So, I went and found a location,
most of the crew

loaded into trucks,
two people were filming just

walking through the forest
and then later Ian McKellen

came over to me and said,
"You know the moment I knew this

"film was gonna get finished
is when you did that.

"We've actually filmed
something."

[Graham] While his Producer took
advantage of every opportunity

to stay on schedule,
Peter Jackson refused to let

time pressures stand in the way
of what he wanted.

He takes his time and does it

until he knows
he's got what he wants.

So, I can remember
that it was that scene

where I first sort of
turn up and say,

what about their legs?

What about their legs?

And the first assistant
director,

she said, "Look, the next time
you say cut,

"that's gotta be it,"
and he said "OK, fine,"

and he came up to me
and he said, "I won't say cut,

"I'll just say again.
When I say again,

"just step back
and just do it again."

What about their legs?

Just step back and do it again.

What about their legs?

- Finally...
- They don't need those.

...the camera operator said,

"Oh, that's it,
the magazine has run out."

and he said, "Oh, OK, cut."

[Graham] Every extra take,
every chased down sunrise

was more money and more time
on a production New Line

was paying forward
no matter what.

New Line recognized that having
committed and spent the budget

for three movies, they still
would not recoup any of that

until 12 months
after we'd finished filming.

The realization came to everyone
that New Line could go under.

[Graham] New Line needed to sell
more international distribution

to keep the production afloat.

They simply had to go
to the ends of the Earth

to convince distributors,
so they flew them

to the ends of the Earth.

We took them to New Zealand.

We did this wonderful
visit there.

They were able to go on set.

[Ra] I was around building
Minas Tirith

and these buses would pull up,
investment partners would

be sort of shepherded
out of the buses

and shown the spectacular
city that we were building.

Everyone was gobsmacked

and in awe
of what was being done.

And everyone went back really,
really happy.

[Graham] Buyers were excited,
but New Line was nervous

and they were fast approaching
a deadline

that no wizard or magic ring
could make disappear.

We love that you know what
you're doing,

but we have a movie
that has to be in theaters

Christmas of 2001,
and we're terrified.

[Graham] With all three
Lord of the Rings films

dependent on international
distribution sales for funding,

New Line was getting nervous.

These sales took a lot of time.

Because of the money
that was involved here,

we had to really get them
on board.

[Barrie] New Line wanted us
to come up with a sequence

that we could show at Cannes.

[Graham] To attract sales
and keep the production afloat,

a sizzle reel was needed
for distributors.

It was just their proof
of concept for the world

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

[Graham] And Fran,
Peter and company had

just seven days
to complete the work.

There was a huge push put on it
to get it done for Cannes.

[Graham] Suddenly,
the famous film festival

in the south of France became

the center of the
Lord of the Rings universe.

It was made clear,
no one can drop a shot.

You have to get your day's work,

in order for us
to get through this.

[Graham] But which scene
was fail-safe enough

to do the trick in only
20 minutes of screen time?

It was mostly from
the Mines of Moria sequence.

This is no mine,
it's a tomb.

There was a great scene
and it had a bit of humor

with Pippin and Gandalf getting
on each other's nerves.

Fool of a Took.

Gimli being upset
at his forebears

being entombed by the orcs.

- No.
- [Graham] Above all else,

the teaser had to be as epic
as the trilogy promised.

They needed to give this
audience a stairway to heaven.

The Stairs of Khazud-dum.

[Graham] Or a stairway to hell

as long as it was
action packed.

[Mahaffie] Peter basically
took the storyboards

and we were sitting around
a table and just going,

OK, this is this angle,
OK, John that's your angle,

this is the other angle,
this is my angle.

[Graham] Multiple units
were deployed

including John's all-important
second unit

on a hastily
established sound stage.

I was in a particular factory
space that was being converted

into a studio
and in that factory space

were the Stairs of Khazud-dum,

as forced perspective
going up to the ceiling.

[Graham] The film within
the film was even more hectic

than the main production.

Every day was a deadline.

And at end of it a shot
or a sequence of shots

you put your actors in a taxi
to go to another stage.

[Graham] But while actors
could be

shuffled around
from set to set,

complex visual effects needed
to happen just as fast.

They pushed my company
to do temporary shots

for all the green screen,
so what we would do is

we'd put together these
layers of live action footage

and composite them all together.

[Graham] All this at the bottom
of the world in a small city,

with limited facilities.

Because New Zealand only had
a few sound stages,

we had to turn the sets
around overnight.

The crew would come back
in the morning,

- and it'll be brand new set.
- And we completed the week,

but it was just
the most bizarre week

of filming that I can ever
remember being involved in.

[Graham] They had done it,
the sequence was in the can,

but was it ready for Cannes?

They had a lot of what's called,
"CBBs", could be better.

[Graham] Either way,
the time had come and the cast

and crew were setting off
to the French Riviera.

Press were invited
and distributors were invited.

[Graham] And New Line would be
putting skin in the game,

spending $2 million on an event
to coax distributors.

So, New Line was really
risking a lot on this.

Everybody was holding their
breath for Lord of the Rings,

and can somebody
really pull it off?

There had never been
anything like this

to really introduce these films
as something spectacular.

It was a huge risk.