The Lord of the Rings (movie series)

***The Lord of the Rings*** movie series is a set of three epic fantasy adventure 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*.

Set in the fictional world of Middle-earth, the plot of The Lord of the Rings is about the war of the peoples of the fantasy world Middle-earth against a dark lord known as "Sauron." At the same time they try to destroy a ring which would give Sauron a lot of power if he got it, but the only place to destroy the ring is deep into Sauron's land Mordor.

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.

Jackson returned for a prequel *The Hobbit* trilogy and two more movies are in development: an animated *The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim* prequel movie and a live-action *The Hunt for Gollum* movie.

## Movies 
## Cast and characters 
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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
* Craig Parker as Haldir
* 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
* 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