The Lord of the Rings is a set of three fantasy movies: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Two Towers (2002) and The Return of the King (2003). The movies were based on J. R. R. Tolkien's book The Lord of the Rings.

The movie trilogy was directed by Peter Jackson. The screenplay was written by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, and Peter Jackson. It was distributed by New Line Cinema.

These were the first live-action Lord of the Rings movies made. They were filmed in New Zealand from October 1999 to December 2000, and released separately in December 20012003 by Warner Bros.

The movie trilogy 
 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

Cast 

The cast includes:
 Elijah Wood as Frodo Baggins
 Ian McKellen as Gandalf
 Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn
 Sean Astin as Samwise "Sam" Gamgee
 Dominic Monaghan as Meriadoc "Merry" Brandybuck
 Billy Boyd as Peregrin "Pippin" Took
 Orlando Bloom as Legolas
 John Rhys-Davies as Gimli and the voice of Treebeard
 Sean Bean as Boromir
 David Wenham as Faramir
 Liv Tyler as Arwen
 Ian Holm as Bilbo Baggins
 Andy Serkis as Sméagol/Voice and motion-capture of Gollum/Voice of Witch-king of Angmar
 Christopher Lee as Saruman
 Bernard Hill as Théoden
 Miranda Otto as Éowyn
 Karl Urban as Éomer
 Brad Dourif as Gríma Wormtongue
 Craig Parker as Haldir
 Marton Csokas as Celeborn
 Cate Blanchett as Galadriel
 Hugo Weaving as Elrond
 John Noble as Denethor
 Sala Baker as Sauron/"Maggoty-Bread" Uruk/Stunts
 Harry Sinclair as Isildur
 Lawrence Makoare as Lurtz/Gothmog/The Witch-king of Angmar/Stunts
 Paul Norell as the King of The Dead
 Bruce Spence as the Mouth of Sauron
 Joel Tolbeck as Orc Lieutenant
 Nathaniel Lees as Uglúk/Stunts
 Bruce Hopkins as Gamling
 John Bach as Madril
 Bruce Phillips as Grimbold
 Alistair Browning as Damrod
 Jed Brophy as Sharku/Snaga
 Bret McKenzie as Figwit
 Peter McKenzie as Elendil
 Sadwyn Brophy as Eldarion
 Ian Hughes as Irolas
 Mark Ferguson as Gil-galad

Changes from the book 
Compared to the book, the Lord of the Rings movies differed in many ways. The plot and motivation of the characters changed, and parts of the story were cut. A few changes that many consider major include: "The Old Forest", "In the House of Tom Bombadil", and "Fog on the Barrow-Downs", from The Fellowship of the Ring; "Many Partings", "Homeward Bound", & "The Scouring of the Shire" from The Return of the King. These were left out, and other passages changed, because of dramatic flow and practical limits on what could be presented in three movies. The scripts are not exactly true to the story in the volumes of the book, yet have most of its most important elements.

Trivia 
 Together the three movies were nominated for 30 Oscars at the Academy Awards. They won 17 Oscars, 11 of which were for Return of the King.
 The 3 movies cost 281 million dollars to make.
 Much of the filming was done in New Zealand, but some areas were made using computers.
 Each movie has a Special Extended Edition DVD which has a longer version of the movie.
 Together the movies are longer than 11 hours.
 All together the movies have more than 3,500 special effects.
 Each movie was released a few weeks before Christmas in 2001, 2002, and 2003.
 The movies made nearly 3 billion dollars.

Other websites 

 Highlights of the Movie Trilogy : 5.1 MB Medium, and 62.2 MB Large versions (these play best when opened in a new window)
 Official Site of the Movie Trilogy
 The Fellowship of the Ring at RottenTomatoes , IMDb, & Apple Trailers
 The Two Towers at RottenTomatoes  & IMDb & Apple Trailers
 The Return of the King at RottenTomatoes , IMDb, & Apple Trailers
 HarperCollins: UK & Worldwide Publishers of the Books 
 Houghton Mifflin: US Publisher of the Books

2000s fantasy movies
American fantasy movies
New Zealand movies
2000s epic movies
Series of movies
Movies based on books
English-language movies
Movies directed by Peter Jackson
New Line Cinema movies