20 facts you might not know about 'Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers'

As we mentioned in our “Fellowship” piece, so much happened with these movies we couldn’t even fit in every fact about the first film! However, we feel like we can include some of that here, because these three movies aren’t just a trilogy, they are one shoot. Yes, Jackson shot the entire trilogy at the same time. He began principal photography on October 11, 1999 and finished on December 22, 2000. The movies weren’t all shot one at a time, either, so truly this trilogy was a singular, massive undertaking.

Rhys-Davies, who plays dwarf warrior Gimli, also played Gimli’s father Gloin in the first film. The prosthetics required to play the dwarves were brutal on the actor. He had a second role in “The Two Towers,” however, that was likely easier on him. Rhys-Davies voices the Ent Treebeard.

Bloom plays Legolas, a key member of the fellowship and the elf character with the biggest role. To think, originally the actor was gunning for a smaller part. Bloom originally auditioned to play Faramir, who first appears in “The Two Towers.” That role went to David Wenham in this movie.

Serkis is heard and very briefly seen in “The Fellowship of the Ring,” but “The Two Towers” is when Gollum first really makes a splash in this trilogy. The actor is now arguably synonymous with motion-capture acting, but at the time, it was a bold idea, and Serkis had cold feet. Serkis was working on a TV miniseries of “Oliver Twist” when he was approached, and he was skeptical of taking the role. Eventually, he relented, and his career was taken in a whole new direction.

Uma Thurman was offered the role of Eowyn, aspiring warrior and niece of Theoden, but she turned it down. Miranda Otto took the role, and Thurman would later say she regretted turning the part down.

Theoden, the King of Rohan, has quite the transformation in the course of “The Two Towers.” That meant a lot of makeup, though. Perhaps actor Kevin Conway was not interested in that. He was offered the chance to play Theoden but turned it down. Bernard Hill played the role instead.

McKellen played Gandalf in all three films in the trilogy, but he liked doing “The Fellowship of the Ring” the most. Specifically, he said he preferred playing Gandalf the Gray to Gandalf the White. Also, by the way, he evidently based Gandalf’s voice on Tolkien himself.

The director makes a brief appearance in the second film of the series. He is one of the men at the top of the gate during the Battle of Helm’s Deep. His children, and Elijah Wood’s sister, have cameos as well.

The Battle of Helm’s Deep is the centerpiece of “The Two Towers,” and perhaps of the entire film series. When production designer Alan Lee joined the film in 1997, the first thing he was tasked with doing was creating the model of Helm’s Deep. Filming that battle took three months in and of itself and featured 500 extras.

The scenes taking place at Rohan were shot early in the production of the trilogy. During that time, Viggo Mortensen broke two toes kicking an Orc helmet (that shot is included in the movie) and Orlando Bloom broke three ribs falling off a horse. Also, he may not have been an actor, but Rhys-Davies’ stunt double Brett Beattie was key to the shoot as well, of course, and he suffered a dislocated kneecap in Rohan.

Treebeard was rendered in CGI, but there were also practical effects involved. For when the Ent needed to interact with Merry and Pippin, a 14-foot puppet on wheels was built. Bicycle seats were built into the hands of the Treebeard puppet, making it a more-comfortable experience for Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan.

The Gollum voice is an impression a lot of people like to do, but they are only doing it for a sentence or two. Serkis had to do Gollum’s voice for every line in the film, and multiple takes at that. As such, he drank several bottles of what was dubbed “Gollum juice.” This was water infused with honey, lemon, and ginger that helped keep his throat lubricated and his voice intact.

Actors who can cry on cue tend to like to show off that particular parlor trick. Dourif is one of those actors. A tear falling from the eye of Grima Wormtongue was not in the script. Dourif just told Jackson and company it was something he can do whenever he wants, and they decided to just let him go ahead and do it.

Mortensen really got along well with the horse he rides in the film. In fact, he liked the horse so much he bought it from the horse’s owners after the movie and transported the horse to his home. Then, when extra footage needed to be shot in 2002, he had the horse flown back to New Zealand to do so.

The soundtrack for “The Two Towers” was recorded at Abbey Road Studios, made famous by the Beatles. As an in-joke, a photo was included with the release of the soundtrack of Jackson, composer Howard Shore, and two producers walking across Abbey Road like the Beatles did on the cover of the album with the same name. Jackson plays the part of Paul, in that he is barefoot. And yet, nobody has ever started rumors Peter Jackson is dead.

Jackson is fairly faithful to Tolkien’s work, but not entirely. One change is that the meaning of the “Two Towers” of the title is different. In Tolkien’s trilogy, the towers in question are Orthanc and Minas Mogul. Jackson, though, made the two towers of import Orthanc and Barad-dur.

The first film in the trilogy made a ton of money, but it was only the second-highest-grossing film of 2001. With the pump primed, “The Two Towers” took things to another level. All in all, the second film in the trilogy made $936.7 million worldwide. It was the highest-grossing movie of 2002.

“The Two Towers” is the “Lord of the Rings” film the Academy liked the least. It was nominated for Best Picture, but it only got six nominations total. That is the fewest of the three movies by a considerable margin. It’s also the only film not nominated for Best Director or Best Score. The movie did win two Oscars, though, one for Best Sound Editing and the other for Best Visual Effects.

He says it more than once in the series, but Gollum first hisses the words “My precious” in “The Two Towers.” This film is the one recognized by the AFI on its list of the top-100 movie quotes ever. “My precious” came in at 85 on that AFI list, the only quote from the series to make it.

Jackson’s trilogy is famous for its lengthy, thorough Extended Editions, and that’s an entire kettle of fish to dive into. We will note that one significant character is only in the director’s cut of “The Two Towers,” though. That would be Denethor, Steward of Gondor and the father of Boromir and Faramir. Sean Bean’s Boromir, though dead by the time of this film, appears extensively in flashbacks in the Extended Edition as well.

Originally, Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” project was bought as a two-film deal. Then, the project moved to New Line who expanded it to a trilogy. There is a lot left to be said about this massive production, and we will finish it all off with “Return of the King.”