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the lord of the rings:
the two towers
“This is not about effects,” says Alex Funke, who was responsible for photographing the miniatures used on the three films (although some of them were so large they were dubbed ‘bigiatures’). “This is about telling this very beloved, moving story. If you see the effects, then we did the job wrong. This is about doing whatever you have to do to tell the story in such a way that the audience is completely involved with the movie.”
Gandalf (Sir Ian McKellen) returns as 'Gendalf the White'. |
On December 19, 2001, Jackson achieved just that, delivering something quite out-of-the-ordinary - a genuine epic, which pulled off the ultimate triple whammy: satisfying the millions of fans who had voted JRR Tolkien’s original novel the ‘Book of the Century’; enthralling a generation of kids who had never heard of Hobbits; and fascinating adult audiences who might have gone in to the cinema thinking Middle Earth was a place best left to Dungeons and Dragons aficionados and old hippies. After all, the shop in which I bought my first kaftan in 1967 was called ‘Gandalf’s Garden’.
The Urukhai who capture Pippin and Merry |
I was in New Zealand when the film opened and, although the London and New York premieres had already happened, the Wellington opening was the year’s biggest media event. The city was officially rechristened ‘Middle Earth’ for the day; and the crowds were so huge that it took Jackson and his cast half an hour to move down the red carpet to the specially refurbished Dominion Theatre. It had been decorated for the event with several actual LOTR creatures, shipped over from Jackson’s nearby WETA workshop (WETA, in case you’ve ever wondered, is not an acronym but the name of a particularly large and repulsive antipodean insect). Right through into February - high summer in New Zealand, when most people are at the beach - you couldn’t get a seat at the Dominion to see LOTR.
But, for all the enthusiasm with which Fellowship was received, not just in New Zealand but worldwide (it has grossed $860 million - almost four times the reported production budget for all three films), it was only the beginning. Frodo, Sam and Merry were on the banks of the Great River, ready to face the terrors of Mordor, a third of the way through their quest to cast the Ring back into the Cracks of Doom - the only way to prevent the Dark Lord Sauron, who created it, from regaining control and enslaving the world.
Orc chieftain Grishnakh. |
“People are anticipating the next chapter of what happens, because it becomes much more dynamic,” says Elijah Wood, who plays Frodo. “And much more interesting, in my opinion. There are more battles and, of course, you’ve got the inclusion of Gollum, who is one of my all-time favourite characters in literature.”
Below and on the following pages, Preview gives you a rundown of the characters, the locations and the underlying cosmology that holds together The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. The one thing we won’t do is tell you what happens. You’ll have to wait until December 18 for that… or perhaps a little longer: I imagine it will be quite difficult to get in on the first day.
Frodo Baggins, Samwise Gamgee aka Sam,
Meriadoc Brandybuck aka Merry and Peregrin Took aka Pippin…
The Fellowship get separated in The Two Towers. Frodo and Sam (Sean Astin) are forced to accept Gollum (see below) as their guide through the hills of Emyn Muil. “Frodo is suffering a lot the longer he holds the Ring,” says Astin. “Sam always trusts Frodo and appreciates how hard what he’s going through is for him. But just when you thought it couldn’t get any more difficult for the little Hobbits trekking across the vast plains and deserts and volcanic regions of Middle Earth, it gets a little worse for them.”
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