All language subtitles for Icons.Unearthed.S07E06.Journeys.End.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-BTN_track4_[eng]

After a desperate
attempt to avoid directing

the two Hobbit movies...

Mr. del Toro had to move on.

...like Frodo before him,

Peter Jackson
was the ring bearer.

He didn't wanna be there.

It was a burden
only he could carry,

whether he liked it or not.

You direct it, or we go do it
with somebody else.

But with
the pressure of two films

on his shoulders...

Peter was taken ill.

And had to go to hospital.
It was very sudden.

Peter had only just taken
over the direction of it.

They were very behind.

...Peter Jackson was
pushed to the breaking point.

And the news
would only get worse.

Then Philippa and Fran
went to Hollywood to chat.

That chat
was about to alter the course

of the entire project.

There was a rumor going around

that they were
gonna do a trilogy.

Peter Jackson
had reluctantly signed on

to direct
the two Hobbit movies,

but things weren't going well.

A frustrated Peter Jackson had
just axed one of the dwarfs.

"He has to go."

You know, and that was it, gone.

Go away and bother
somebody else!

There's far too many dwarfs
in my dining room as it is.

He was cross,
and you could tell.

English actor Rob Kazinsky

was replaced by
New Zealand actor Dean O'Gorman

to play the role
of Fili the dwarf.

And so, for the other dwarfs,
including myself,

your humble narrator,

we had to make some
fairly large adjustments.

We'd become friends,
all of us.

In the end, you know,
it's Pete's movie,

it's Pete's vision,
and he has to be true to that.

And it was the right decision.

As the shock wave
of this recasting subsided,

with a full compliment
of dwarfs,

we could at least get back on
with making the movie.

A couple of scenes
we had to re-shoot,

but, yeah,
it was fine, you know.

But something
still wasn't quite right.

Yeah, it just didn't seem
to have that family atmosphere

that we had
on the original movies.

The atmosphere was
also tense back in Hollywood

where the studio was keen
to avoid hemorrhaging money

and make a profit,
which is, of course,

the exact reason
why they were making

two Hobbit movies
and not one.

Well, there's always pressure
from studios.

They always want everything done
faster, quicker, and cheaper.

Come on, give us all you have.

Don't look to me.

I have been bled dry.

Yes, but now
"The Lord of the Rings"

was a full-blown franchise
under new management.

Things had changed.

It was more corporate.
Yeah, I think so.

Let's just say
Warner Bros.,

like any major
Hollywood studio,

had a steely focus
on their bottom line.

They're looking
at the profit margin

and they're looking at
how much money

they stand to lose
if it doesn't do well.

What have I seen
for my investment?

Ten years on, there was more
concern about those aspects

than there were about
giving Peter the freedom

to make the films that he might
have ended up making.

But it appeared
that the studios

were making decisions based
less from a Tolkien text

and more from
box-office figures.

"Hunger Games" had come out,
and suddenly,

you know, the powers that be
in Hollywood realized,

"Wow, powerful young women
can really--

we can, you know, pack them in."

It does make the film feel
much more grounded

in the moment it was made.

[McCoy] Hollywood must have said
there's not enough female roles.

A brand-new character

had been written in
to the story--

Tauriel, the captain
of the Elven guard,

an elf of exquisite
grace and beauty

who could also rival Legolas
as a supreme Orc butt-kicker.

I'm Ingrid Kleinig
and I doubled Evangeline Lilly,

who played Tauriel
in "The Hobbit."

But unlike
the strong female roles

in the original trilogy,

Tauriel was absent from
the pages of Tolkien's work.

I know that was particularly
contentious at the time,

especially amongst Hobbit
aficionados, who were like,

"There is no character
called Tauriel in the books.

What are you doing?
You're ruining it!"

But it was a very
male-centric cast.

It was such
a rigorous, specific role

that it wasn't just
the dwarf department

who'd suffered losses.

The ax swung for the elves
as well.

They had, I believe,

been through two stunt doubles
for Evangeline already

that didn't work out.

And at her audition,
Ingrid found out why.

I think they tried
to break me

physically and mentally.

A lot of fight choreography
to learn

in a very short
amount of time

that then had to be filmed
and presented to the grown-ups,

including Evangeline,
for approval.

I know they were looking at
some other people as well.

Ingrid nailed the
audition and joined the cast.

I was told Tauriel was
a female elven warrior.

I didn't know how important
she was to the script,

that she was the only real
sort of female character.

I didn't know any of that.

I was just fighting Orcs,

a lot of them,
a lot of the time.

Evangeline was clear that
she wanted this character

to be strong,
but in a feminine way.

It seemed like
the entire production

had a different take on exactly
how "strong" should look.

Evangeline was that
sort of tiny person--

I mean petite and lovely,

but so easily
completely, like, swamped

if you weren't too careful.

And there was a concept art
drawing that Weta had done

that Peter liked,
and it was a beautiful drawing,

but proportionately, it was
for somebody who was 6'2".

She just didn't have the leg
length or the body length

to accommodate this drawing
which looked great on paper.

So we did go through
a few traumas with that,

I guess, and eventually Peter
just decided to go with these,

like, tiny pencil skirts
that I'd done.

Practically overnight, the whole
lot came back to us to do,

and then we were in a bit
of a rush to do those elves.

And it didn't stop there.

Evangeline and Ingrid
both had to wear

an incredibly long wig

throughout the entirety
of the filming.

The wig.

Beautiful.
Completely impractical.

It sort of came down
to my calves.

The whole premise behind
Tauriel's movement

was that it was
sort of spiraling,

it was always spiraling,

so winding and unwinding
like a corkscrew.

I remember a lot of takes
of just her getting wound up.

You know, with those
double daggers as well,

just like this, you know, you'd
just get caught up in hair.

And there's nothing you can do
and there's no way

you could get out of it.

"Alright, going again for hair."

- Not to mention wire rigs.
- Action!

[Kleinig] So, you've got wires
going everywhere

and you're sort of
trying to flip around,

and the wig's getting
caught in the wires.

Just -- I don't know
why a warrior

would have hair like that.

It was...
an interesting challenge.

Ridiculous.

Utterly ridiculous
and impractical

in every sense of the word.
I just don't...

Anyway, it was beautiful.

But Peter Jackson

was untangling
his own challenges

and putting out fires
wherever he went,

not least
on the colossal Lake-town set.

The designers and the carpenters
had built the roof,

which was sitting
on the floor of the studio

with a green floor

so that the Orcs
and the people fighting them

could go over these rooftops

without them being
seriously high.

Some of them had been fitted
with hinges and hydraulics even,

so that roofs would
crash in on each other.

And I remember one day,
Peter going in and having a look

at a run-through
of the battle scene.

And then he said he wanted
to see it a second time.

And then he said,
"Yeah, doesn't work for me."

Peter won't rush things,
you know.

"This could be more dynamic,"
"This could be more whatever,"

and, "No, I'm not happy,"

'cause it wasn't
dangerous enough.

To increase
the sense of danger,

Jackson now wanted
to shoot from above

on a huge set designed for
shooting from below.

He wanted the camera
to be able to come in

above, not underneath.

Peter Jackson was literally

turning his cast and
crew's world upside down.

We had a day off
shooting other stuff

while they completely
rebuilt the set

so they could take the roof off
and film from above.

It was a tricky time
when things like that happened.

But for Jackson,
the fires only got bigger,

wetter, and colder.

We got taken up to...

We were at the Pelorus River
in the South Island.

That was so much fun.

We get stood on this promontory
looking out,

and Pete sort of goes,
"Stunty, if you can come round?"

And so the stuntman,

you see a stuntman
come around the corner,

and he's got a crash helmet on,
first of all,

and he's paddling
in this barrel, right?

And then he gets
to this small beach

and he does a sort of scuba roll
back out into the water

and then walks out,
and we're all like,

"Fantastic,
that was so good, well done."

And we're looking around
for all our stunt doubles,

you know, and Pete just said,
"So, shall we shoot it?"

"Oh, us?" Right.

And then we were literally led
like lambs to the slaughter

down to this tiny area

where all our barrels
were waiting for us.

Floating in barrels
along one of New Zealand's

most historic
and powerful rivers--

what could possibly go wrong?

They had barrels with a keel,
a steel keel,

and then we had rubber tubing
inside to keep us afloat.

We're in our,
laughingly called, pajamas,

which these sort of dwarfish
big woolen numbers

with our massive boots.

[Maskrey] Those poor guys
in those dwarf suits,

you know, they had
reticulated foam suits on,

but all the prosthetics,
and then you've got to try

and physically get them
in a barrel.

- Hold your breath.
- Hold my breath?

Even if
the fit was a bit snug.

Stephen Hunter,
who, of course, was Bombur,

who had the biggest costume
and the heaviest,

had to be rammed into it
like a cork.

They had safety wires
underneath the water

to try and guide us
into a certain place,

but two of the barrels
went outside of that.

Two of the actors started
disappearing downriver.

It's a real river.

There are waterfalls
and there are rapids downriver.

And they had to send
a speedboat,

basically, to catch them.

But soon,
rogue dwarfs in barrels

would be the least
of our concerns.

Filming on the
South Island's Pelorus River

had come to a standstill.

In the hills, the mountains
behind where we were shooting,

there had been a storm.

The police arrived and said
we had to move on.

New Zealand has

some of the world's
most changeable weather.

We're suddenly told we have
an hour to clear everything out,

and everyone's going, "What?"

And to protect everything,
they always build these

huge structures
of scaffolding and stuff.

It was time to pack out

or be washed out
by the coming flood.

Huge numbers
of scaffolding pipes,

bolted together with platforms,
tents, with costume, wardrobe,

camera gear, sound gear,

and one for the coffee,
of course.

That was very important.

They had fabulous coffee
throughout the entire shoot.

But the coffee
would be cold-brewed

in glacial river water if
the operation didn't evacuate

to higher ground immediately.

And so we packed up,
we got all the crew

and the cast out of there.

And suddenly, within an hour,

it was virtually
like a tidal wave.

It was a torrent.
It was barreling down.

We would've all been
totally underwater.

Indeed,
some of the set was.

A lot of the scaffolding
that was set up for the set

and for the cameras to go on

ended up getting
washed down the river.

This scene had just gone

from being extremely hard
to shoot to impossible.

So, what they did was
they decided

they would build the river
in a studio.

Yes,
you heard that right.

Peter was going
to build a river.

- In a studio.
- Right.

There was, however,
an extra problem.

They didn't have a studio free.

Luckily...

Peter owned an old car factory,
a place called Trentham.

Trentham was an old
General Motors building

that Weta Digital had been
renting as storage space.

So, they built
this entire river.

[Callen] They built rocks
and things in the middle

and they became an island.

They put in gates and things.

It was just -- just amazing
how they put it all together.

The homemade river even had

on-demand rapids,
courtesy of...

Two V8 engines at 5,000 rpm
at each end.

These huge dump tanks to make it
look like the waterfalls.

Oh, that was
the washing machine.

It was insane.

And because it was so turbulent,
it really was...

I'd be going,
"Get another mustache.

That one's gone."

We did lose a wig in there
somewhere.

Someone's wig came off.
We never found it.

We spent a couple of weeks
in the water having fun.

Very hard to get dwarfs
to look scared

when they're, like,
on a Disney Land ride.

It was a little bit like
a sort of a theme park ride

'cause all these things
were bobbing about

all over the place.

Aidan Turner, especially,
could not stop laughing.

He just thought it was such--
And Peter kept having to say,

"Aidan, it's not funny,
you're being attacked by Orcs."

And he was like,
"Yeah, but it's so much fun."

- Well done, Master Baggins.
- Ugh.

There was one day Martin Freeman
had spent all day in the water

and he sort of said offhand,
he said,

"Has anybody actually got out
to go number ones?"

And we're like, "No, we've all
just sat in the water all day."

Of course we had, but we didn't
want him to know that.

'Cause he was such a prankster,

it was nice to get a prank
back over on him.

This rollicking
water-logged sequence

was just the thing we needed.

The barrels were,
when I look back,

such a bonding experience,
really.

Really, really
rewarding work to do.

It was a lot of fun,
despite all the madness.

Went home exhausted, day after
day, couldn't wait for the next.

While the first unit
was finally on track,

the second unit was being
helmed by a director

who needed no introduction.

That was an amazing thing
to have Andy Serkis come back.

It kind of felt like getting
the gang back together.

We hates it!
We hates it forever!

And Andy Serkis would also

reprise his role as Gollum.

He understands what it takes
on both sides of the camera.

He really understands
how to get under actor's skins.

And Andy was really good

at getting a character
performance out of his cast.

Why are you whispering?

-
- Shh!

He's an actor's director,
and such a joy to work with.

Like Peter, he likes actors
to do as much of the physicality

as possible,
so he really pushes people.

Sylvester McCoy
learned that the hard way.

There was another scene where
Andy Serkis was filming,

he was deputy director
at that time,

and they put me on a sledge.

I was up high
on a big rubber ring,

and then on that,
they covered it in green

and then the floor
was covered in green,

and everything
was covered in green.

I was riding along on a sledge
fighting Orcs

that were attacking me,
but there was nothing there.

And there were two green men,

and those green men were shaking
this thing and I was on it.

And at my age,
I had to hang onto the sledge.

Andy said to me,
"More, do more," like that,

and double takes.

And I double-took so much,

I flew off this height
onto the floor.

Now, normally that wouldn't
have been too bad

because there was padding
under the floor as well,

but they'd taken
the padding away

because they wanted to get
a camera angle much lower.

And I flew down
and my bum hit the ground,

the concrete,
and I really felt it.

And my head, as well,
hit the concrete.

As luckily being in New Zealand
where they are some of the best

rugby players in the world,
there was a rugby player there,

and he dived
and caught my head

before the full force of it.

You know, otherwise
I might have been knocked out

or, you know, who knows,
concussed or dead.

Oh, perhaps someone
should call a doctor.

I was in "Doctor Who," you know.

Jackson had proven
that his team could

build anything to get
the practical effects he wanted

and he had a cast willing to do
whatever was asked of them.

Just get used to it.

However,
there was something

he just couldn't achieve
in the flesh.

A lot of my stuff
that I did on "The Hobbit"

actually had to be lost
because of the problems we had.

It was with the second actor
they had playing Azog.

Stephen actually played

two characters in the movies--

a goblin called Grinnah
and an Orc called Fimbul.

[Ure] Yeah, shot quite a few
scenes before they realized

that they needed
to make a change

in the casting
of that character.

That character
was the Orc Azog,

and the actor playing him
was about to lose his job.

The character Azog

was another that was
expanded on for the movie.

But finding the right actor
to play this giant Orc

was proving very tough.

They realized that they needed
to make a change

in the casting
of that character.

The casting wasn't right
the first couple of times.

The problem was that
the actors trying to portray

the enormous Azog were human.

I sort of remember the day
where it became apparent

that we were never
gonna be able to get--

make this a physical thing.

They're massive, massive guys,

and I saw quite a few
different versions of them

where they're trying
to make it work,

but it was just too hard.

It's very difficult to get them
to create this, like, Azog size

and his menacing.

They got someone
who was really big,

but it just wasn't
working for Peter.

Even the biggest men
in the industry

just weren't up to it.

Some of the performers were
monster men,

but then quite often couldn't
move in the way that was needed.

Peter Jackson decided

the only way to get the giant
Orc to fight they way he needed

was via motion-capture
and CGI effects.

There are things that you can do
with mo-cap actors

in terms of battle scenes,
in terms of, you know,

the viscerality

and the fighting stuff
that you can do

that you can't do
with real people.

It's just too dangerous,

or you're just not getting
the performance you want.

You want to do things
practically,

you wanna shoot them
practically,

and there comes
a point at which,

both for the sake of shooting
and also because of pressures

that you're getting
for how things look,

you end up moving to CG.

Azog the Defiler
would be reborn

inside a 3D wire frame.

But for Stephen's
Orc character Fimbal,

it was the most brutal
cut of all.

A lot of the stuff I did just

didn't make it up
onto the screen on that.

It's very, very disappointing.

Along with the advances

in computer-generated
animation,

the super high frame rate
and 3D filming techniques,

the two Hobbit movies
were shaping up to be

potentially quite different
from the original trilogy.

However, the films would soon
have something

very much in common.

It was only halfway through

or near the end
of the second film

that Philippa and Fran
went to Hollywood to chat.

That chat was about to alter

the course
of the entire project.

The more they started to expand
things, the more the studio

started to think about it
in terms of money.

Money that multiple
studios had a stake in,

but only for the first
Hobbit movie.

If we succeed, all will share
in the wealth of the mountain.

Certain studios had a stake
in the first film.

Like, they would get a shared
profit in the first film,

but if they made
additional films,

there wasn't something set up
for them to have a profit.

So there was an incentive there
of if we make two or three,

then we could recoup
some of our funding back

and make more of a profit.

And soon there were
whispers in the wind.

There was a little rumor
going around

that they were gonna do a third.

We all went "ooh"
and kept our fingers crossed.

And they came back,
and there was another one!

We were as shocked as anybody.

I mean, I was so happy

'cause it meant
another film, right?

Like its predecessor,
"The Hobbit" was growing.

There's too many
of these buggers, Thorin.

Didn't make
any difference to us.

We were still gonna film
the content.

Just things
just kept getting added.

It might only be a small book,

but, yeah,
we weren't making a book.

We were making films, and there
was certain license there.

So, the battle
between studios became

"The Battle
of the Five Armies."

And that was the main issue from
the get-go with "The Hobbit"

and why it eventually
became a trilogy.

Peter Jackson, the man

who didn't want to direct
one Hobbit film,

suddenly found himself
in charge of three.

As a movie,
maybe a single movie,

it works as a very simple
children's story.

But the moment you start
to blow it out at all,

structurally it's a weird story.

It doesn't really work
as a three-act structure

in a typical sense.

[Callen] So, when we did learn
that there was going to be

a third one, we were all going,
"Well, how's that gonna work?"

So, he took chunks
and moved them out.

These films start radically
changing on the fly.

I think the first film finished
at the end of the barrel scene

when we leave,
we escape from the elves.

But now that a third
film was being created,

Peter had to figure out
how to end films one and two.

There was a fairly aggressive
reworking of material

during the editing process
on one and two, I believe.

The idea of even what the shape
of three was is something that

really didn't come into focus
until later in that process.

It's really a crazy way to try
and make giant movies.

Suddenly, the deck chairs

were being rapidly rearranged.

You had to be able to be nimble
and think on your feet, and so,

maybe he's one of the few guys
who could do that and survive.

And with
release dates looming,

the Battle of the three movies
was just beginning.

I think fans were
already on edge

because stretching this
into three films

was always looked at
as a cash grab.

The winds of change
blew through the production.

Changing, changing,
changing, changing.

It was a, you know...

Felt a lot more, sort of,
like pressure.

Confirmation
of a third film

in the Hobbit series

was met with skepticism
in some quarters.

It felt a lot more
guerrilla filmmaking

than "Rings," for sure.

And while the
filmmaking was guerrilla-style,

when it came to the stunts,
it was more monkey business.

It was usually us

that were doing these
ridiculously physical things.

As I discovered
when we did this scene.

On action, we have to leap
into the air,

grab the top of the boom,

and pull ourselves up
to escape the molten gold.

And so they arrange
these three, like, booms

that we had to leap onto.

And they were
at different heights.

And I'm like, why are they
giving the 50-year-old guy

the one that's
highest off the ground?

I jump, I grab it,
and I pull myself up.

Something popped in my elbow.

Adrenaline can get you so far,

but eventually,
your body just goes,

"Oh, no, no, you'd better
not think of doing that twice."

It really
bloody hurt, actually.

Although John, who's
considerably older than me,

was really throwing
himself around.

"Okay, John, there's a stack
of stunt mats here.

You're gonna run up there
and do a shoulder roll over them

and go down
the other side."

Very carefully choreographed.

So, I ran at this stack
and I thought

I'm not gonna get over it,
so I just found myself

running into this stack,
and I thought,

"This is ridiculous.
If they're shooting this,

they don't want me
dicking about."

So, I made a real effort,

raced like mad towards it,
rolled beautifully,

but then realized
I'd thrown myself

too far over the mats,

flipped, and missed the mats
on the floor,

hit the concrete floor,

and I really thought
I had broken my ankle.

I just wrapped it up.

I had ice on it
and I kept it wrapped up.

It just hurt like hell
the whole day.

Ah, he's a trouper,
isn't he?

But as the film hobbled
into post-production,

some unexpected problems
started to arise.

"The Hobbit" was
high frame rate, HDR, stereo.

Stereo meant
stereoscopic shooting for 3D,

HDR meant enhanced contrast,
and a higher frame rate

aimed to improve smoothness
and 3D imaging.

Well, they talked about it,
and it went over my head.

I've no idea what they
were talking about really.

They were talking about

changing
a technological standard

that had been around
for more than 80 years.

We were doing 48 frames a second
and normally it's 24, 25.

He actually wanted to do
72 frames a second,

but it was gonna be
too expensive.

First impressions
of a doubled frame rate

suggested those numbers
looked better on paper

than they did on screen.

It leaves you with kind of
a different taste in your mouth,

right,
and Peter's whole thing was,

"People will get used to it.
They'll get used to it."

But that was assuming
fans would even see

the upscaled format
at their local theaters,

which were designed
for regular film.

Warner Bros.' reaction was,

"What theater in the world
is gonna play this?"

And Peter said,
"I have two of 'em--

one at my house
and one at Weta."

That was fine
for movie moguls,

but movie theaters
would need upgrades,

costing from $1,200
to $20,000.

You couldn't bring it
to every single person.

"The Hobbit"
was an ambitious project,

but expecting cinema's
very infrastructure

to bend to its will
was a lofty goal.

People on Hollywood Boulevard
got to see it,

but I don't think in Iowa.

Well, "The Hobbit:
An Unexpected Journey,"

now more aptly named than ever,

had it's world premiere in
Wellington in November of 2012.

Oh, I didn't realize it was
actually the world premiere.

Being in Wellington
for the release of the first one

was just mind-blowing.

You know, they have
the longest red carpet

in history in Wellington.

A tradition started
on "The Lord of the Rings."

And we walked, you know,
several city blocks

with all these
tens of thousands of people.

It just looked very similar
to "Lord of the Rings,"

the same feel, the same look.

Well, actually,
the look was quite different,

but few cared about frame rates
at the premiere.

It was so exciting.

Least of all Sylvester,

who couldn't wait
to get his first glimpse

of his hero scene.

I had a hedgehog
to bring back to life,

a stuffed hedgehog,
I remember thinking,

I'm gonna be the only person who
isn't with all the other actors,

wait till my sons see this,
this will be brilliant.

It's not as if it's witchcraft.

And the scene comes up,
and it's so exciting.

"Oh, now, my son, this is it!"

And suddenly the wizards of Weta
had got hold of the hedgehog

and made it alive and turned it
into this beautiful little thing

and everybody's looking
at the hedgehog

and no one's looking at me!

Upstaging little blaggard.

No one's 100% sure
what happened to that hedgehog.

And when the movie
hit the cinemas,

not everyone was
as excited as Sylvester.

[Busch] Fans were not as happy
about "The Hobbit"

as they were about
"Lord of the Rings."

And some of that, I think,
is baked in, you know.

When you do your first trilogy

and it's great,

it's gonna be really hard

to equal or top that.

The overall general consensus
of "The Hobbit"...

People love Martin Freeman.

People love the scene
with him and Gollum.

Bless us and splash us,
precious!

That's a meaty mouthful.

A lot of CGI mess that sometime
looked really cheap and fake.

A problem
only exacerbated

by Peter Jackson's
newfangled high frame rate.

It was almost unwatchable.
It was crazy.

And audiences recoiled from it.

I actually felt myself, like,
physically recoiling

in some of those scenes
with a high frame rate.

It was very uncomfortable
to watch

and it made me feel
like my eyes were being tricked

and then I started
to get headaches.

Cinemagoers had
a bewildering choice

of alternative formats--

IMAX 2D, IMAX 3D, standard 3D,
and good old regular 2D.

But the damage was done.

With that high of a frame rate,
everything looked really cheap.

On screen, you got
Martin Freeman,

high frame rate, who looks like
an old BBC production

or that, like, someone
videotaped a stage play.

[McWeeny] Makeup looked like makeup.

All of a sudden,
you had a clarity

that ruined the illusion.

It cheapened
the production quality,

where once it was impressive.

It did not work.

It was one of those things
where 3D, I think,

had its big proof of concept
with "Avatar"

and all of a sudden
everybody wanted 3D movies.

It think the reaction
to high frame rate

was a giant "ugh,"

and audiences
did not want more of it.

Well, that could've been worse.

But more was coming...

much more.

You've got to be joking!

The indisputable star
of the second Hobbit movie,

"The Desolation of Smaug,"
would be the dragon himself.

Do you think flattery
will keep you alive?

Well,
it's always worth a try.

Peter needed a strong voice

to bring the gold-loving
dragon to life,

so he opted for not just
another doctor,

but the world's greatest
detective,

reuniting Sherlock and Watson

in albeit rather more dank
circumstances.

Benedict Cumberbatch,
he was offended

because a lot of interviewers
would say,

"When you supplied the voice
for the dragon..."

He'd say, "No, I did much more
than supply the voice."

Well, he also
supplied the body.

He studied, like,
how would a dragon move.

I really don't know
how he did that research.

Perhaps it is time
I paid them a visit.

Like Andy Serkis
before him,

Benedict Cumberbatch
was by no means phoning it in.

Just the commitment,
in terms of physically

him crawling around the floor
like a worm.

It was not just
motion-capture,

but emotion-capture.

It really helped create
and define

those characters, you know.

It wasn't just technicians
animated the character.

Pretty extraordinary.

Impressive.

Benedict's was
the enthusiasm

of an actor fresh to his role.

But three films deep
on "The Hobbit,"

the cast and crew
were flagging.

When we came back
to do the final battle,

I felt like we were just
kind of trying to get

blood from a stone
at that stage.

The final film,

"The Battle
of the Five Armies,"

would prove to be a war
on two fronts

for the production.

We cannot go back.

As it stretched into
that third film

and they took shape
as a trilogy,

the production was
a much longer production

than originally envisioned.

The first front
was practical...

very practical.

Devising new scenes
to fill a third movie,

Jackson's schedule
was growing as crowded

and chaotic
as a battlefield.

There were definitely days
where we wouldn't get to stuff

or there had been a rewrite

and so that scene wasn't gonna
be shot in the same way.

The second front
would be digital.

Weta Digital would marshal
its own small army

to give the five armies
cinematic scale.

Or, as the studio requested...

A little more fighting

and a little less emotion
and talking.

Who's in charge here?

For the actors
on the front line,

it sometimes felt like they
were lost in no-man's-land.

[Kleinig] Peter has Weta Digital.

he has the ability to do
whatever he wants,

so I guess
if you are not seeing that

and you don't necessarily
have that vision,

then it's a little--
can be a little daunting.

In the theater
of motion-capture,

the battlefield was green

and the enemy was invisible.

[Smith] "The Battle
of the Five Armies" felt

like it was more motion-capture
than anything else,

with real-time stuff
thrown in there.

But the actual filming of it

was actually one of the most
enjoyable parts.

"The Battle
of the Five Armies"

would be a battle
of a different kind

for one of its biggest stars.

Would ya consider...

just sodding off!

Billy Connolly
had been cast

as the dwarf Dain Ironfoot

and was clearly
enjoying himself.

We could hear Billy Connolly
laughing

as he's sitting
on this giant pig.

But the Scottish
comedian had been diagnosed

with Parkinson's,
and his illness

was beginning
to impact filming.

[King] The lines, he just kept
forgetting them.

It was a real shame.

He sort of couldn't do it,
through no fault of his own.

I got the feeling
he was really embarrassed,

and felt for him.

Peter loved Billy
in the role,

and refused to recast.

So they recorded
all of Dain's dialogue

and then created a fully
digitalized version

of the character.

And with Jackson
running out of time,

the digital front
would have to be

where "The Battle of the Five
Armies" was decided.

I think Peter always imagined
that we would come back.

He certainly said
at the wrap party,

"I'll see you all next year."

I think that he thought
we would all come back

and actually shoot "The Battle
of the Five Armies" properly

because it was rushed
towards the end.

For the cast,

a long assignment
had finally come to an end,

the closing chapter
in a personal odyssey

as epic as Tolkien's stories.

My last day, I was doing
a fight sequence.

At the end of it,
it was a cut...

and Pete came over.

And I knew it was gonna be
a big moment, you know,

but I just completely
broke down.

I mean, I was sobbing
on his shoulder.

- Yeah.
- For God's sake.

It was fun. That was
a great scene to end on.

- Yeah.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I knew I'd get like this.

-
- Oh, dear.

And Pete was just going,
"Oh, no, it's okay.

It's okay. You'll be alright.
Don't worry."

And I was going...

And so that was really, really
a beautiful memory for me.

You know, in those three films,
training days,

days of filming, all of those
just -- they stand out

as little islands of joy
in it all.

And there were a lot of islands.

It was a little archipelago
of joy for 2 1/2 years.

When I finished doing it,
my last scene,

and Peter made this lovely
speech about working,

and he did this with everyone,
their last scene.

And he said, turned
to everyone and said,

"It was great working
with Sylvester,"

he said, "because I got
to work with Doctor Who!"

He was a big "Doctor Who" fan.

He kept that quiet
for three years.

When the final
installment of "The Hobbit"

premiered in December of 2014,

the world now had
nearly eight hours' worth

of Hobbit movies to enjoy.

I think if fans already
go in knowing

you're stretching this
into three films,

you've already get a strike
against you when you start.

And it is the storytelling.

And I think so much
of the storytelling

in the second trilogy

absolutely smacks of
studio requirements.

I didn't see any reason why
it should've been three films,

other than the studios
just wanted to make money.

Don't underestimate
the evil of gold.

[McWeeny] I don't think
"The Hobbit" is a case

of it got taken from him,

so much as
he went into it thinking,

"I'm making this
for the studio."

But whatever worked
for the studio creatively

ultimately worked for them
financially, too.

Gold.

Gold beyond measure.

They still did well
at the box office.

Obviously, the public
liked it, too.

The "Hobbit" series
made nearly the same

at the box office as the
"Lord of the Rings" trilogy,

despite a muted
critical reaction.

But they're not held
in the same esteem

as the "Lord of the Rings"
movies.

I don't anybody who has

the same sort of emotional
connection to them

that I've come across
time and time again

with "Lord of the Rings."

I feel like "The Hobbit"
is a giant experiment

that, at best,
remains a great curiosity

at the end of this other thing.

Six films,

nearly $9 billion
in box office takings,

25 Oscars, and an uncountable
number of fans

had made "Lord of the Rings"
and the "Hobbit" trilogies

a success as big as
J.R.R. Tolkien's imagination.

Peter Jackson's epic films were
an amazing accomplishment.

Right, how could you do justice
to a fantasy story like that?

Because Jackson
and his team

had achieved the impossible.

I didn't think that the book
could be adaptable.

This is the greatest adventure
story there's ever been.

There's so many creatures
and there's dragons

and there's hobbits and there's
skin-changers and spiders.

It took one
very special visionary

to realize the vision
of another.

The way in which he has created
this open door into Middle Earth

for his viewers is, I think,
the biggest and longest-lasting

legacy of
the "Lord of the Rings" films.

Few films set out
to change the industry.

But "The Lord of the Rings"

and the "Hobbit" trilogies
did just that.

[McWeeny] They were
a proof of concept

for so many different things,

and so many filmmakers
have taken up the challenge

that Peter Jackson laid down
since then.

We were doing something
very special

that was being invented
as we went along.

There were no bounds
to the imagination

or the concept
of what could be made on screen.

It definitely was a game-changer
in terms of

cinematic progression.

They have much
to be grateful for.

I think that made other studios,

other filmmakers realize
what was possible.

James Cameron, for instance,
went and saw "The Two Towers"

and thought, "Ha!

The technology now exists
for me to make my Avatar film."

Where would you be without me?
Gollum!

I think a lot of the technology
that we use today

owes a lot to that time.

By re-creating Hollywood

in the South Pacific...

Called it Wellywood.

Peter never liked that name,
so it never stuck.

...Peter Jackson,

along with his partner,
Fran Walsh...

[Gilbert] Fran is Peter's
number-one sounding board.

It was a great collaboration.

She was essential to it.

[Bluck] The perfect yin
to Peter's yang.

She's a great presence,
and they're a great team.

...they have not only
changed the industry,

they have created a new one.

Everybody said fantasy was passé

when we started
"Lord of the Rings."

Everybody said you couldn't
make this movie in New Zealand.

And we proved everybody wrong.

He created companies there.

Making Weta Digital,
Park Road Post.

Created, you know, sound stages
and visual effects companies,

prop companies.

And thousands of jobs
for his fellow Kiwis.

Half the country worked
on those movies.

It really is part of, you know,
New Zealand movie history.

Let us together
rebuild this world.

Now Hollywood comes to us
in New Zealand.

They use our locations
and our crew and our studios

because they're some
of the best in the world.

That wouldn't have happened
without "Lord of the Rings."

It did have a big impact,
not just on the film industry,

but on the whole nation.

The impact
of the trilogies

actually altered
an entire nation's fortunes.

Peter put our country
on the map.

He's our greatest champion.

New Zealand is kind of known
as Middle Earth.

[McLeod] What I love is that
"Lord of the Rings" is woven

through so many people's lives.

And actually,
even just saying that,

I'm actually getting
chills down my spine.

A tale handed down
from one visionary to another

and embraced
by the cast and crew

on this unexpected
but brilliant journey.

Doing "The Hobbit"
was extraordinary.

I just feel privileged
to have worked on it.

What a gift to have done
Middle Earth

for as many years as I did.

I do remember thinking,
"Wow, this is a film

that I'm gonna be able
to tell my grandchildren about,

and they'll know what it is."

It's a happy Hollywood ending.

I mean, you have to say,
"Oh, once upon a time,

I was in 'Lord of the Rings,'"
you know?