Initial release date: December 18, 2002
Studios: New Line Cinema/Wing Nut Films
Tagline: A New Power Is Rising
Plot: The Two Towers follows the continuing quest of Frodo and the Fellowship to destroy the One Ring. Frodo and Sam discover they are being followed by the mysterious Gollum. Aragorn, the Elf archer Legolas and Gimli the Dwarf encounter the besieged Rohan Kingdom, whose once great King Theoden has fallen under Saruman's deadly spell.
Cast
Eliah Wood - Frodo
Ian McKellan - Gandalf
Viggo Mortensen - Aragorn
Sean Astin - Samwise
Andy Serkis - Gollym
Billy Boyd - Peregrin Took
Dominic Monaghan - Meriadoc Brandybuck
John Rhys-Davies - Gimli
Orlanda Bloom - Legolas
Bernard Hill - Theoden
Chrstopher Lee - Saruman
Hugo Weaving - Elrond
Miranda Otto - Eowyn
David Wenham - Faramir
Brad Dourif - Grima Wormtongue
Karl Urban - Eomer
Liv Tyler - Arwen
Cate Blanchett - Galadriel
Craig Parker - Haldir
John Leigh - Hama
Bruce Hopkins - Gamling
John Bach - Madril
Nathaniel Lees - Ugluk
Writer(s): Fran Walsh/Philippa Boyens/Stephen Sinclair/Peter Jackson
Director: Peter Jackson
Rated PG-13 for epic battle sequences and scary images (179 minutes) (223 minutes - extended edition)
After checking out The Fellowship of the Ring for the first time, I realized that I thoroughly enjoyed it - despite haven't gotten around to reading the books. Just like the first film, I took me a couple nights to get through the extended version of The Two Towers due to my schedule.
And, The Two Towers is definitely an epic continuation and quite thrilling and intriguing.
Once I got through Fellowship, I kept thinking how could Peter Jackson top the amazing work he did with the first film. And, he absolutely nailed it with The Two Towers.
The second part of the LOTR trilogy is absolutely incredible. The Two Towers does have a lot going on, but all of the journeys that the characters go on are electrifying and, at ties, heart-pounding.
The most amazing part of the film is definitely the amazing Battle of Helms Deep. The visual effects are astounding throughout that entire sequence and it just blows you away. The story is amazing and this is one of those rare sequel's that's a complete masterpiece.
And, how did Andy Serkis NOT get an Oscar nomination for Gollum? Overall, great second installment of the trilogy. For the time being, I am putting the trilogy on pause until I have time to get to The Return of the King. I am actually thinking about doing a slate of flicks down the road that are primarily based on books and will likely check out The Return of the King - The Extended Version then. Make sure to keep on checking this site/blog for updates on that!!
Here are quite a few fun tidbits for The Two Towers!
The battle at Helm's Deep was edited down from 20 hours of footage, shot over a 4 month period with the rain machine battering down the cast.
Mortensen was so impressed with the horse his character rode that he purchased him from the owner. The horse was shipped back to New Zealand for the additional shots that were filmed in 2002.
About 200 to 300 horses were used in the trilogy because most of the scenes involving horses are intense battle scenes, where the horses could likely be harmed, a horse and ride were fitted with the same type of suit that Andy Serkis wore for Gollum, and were filmed in the studio doing typical "battle" things, like galloping and rearing up, so the footage could be inserted digitally into the battle scenes. In that way, no horses were hurt.
When Grima Wormtongue sees Saruman's army of 10,000, he's so shocked that a tear falls from one of his eyes. This wasn't in the script. It's something that actor Brad Dourif can do at will, and he and the filmmakers decided that it would work well for the scene.
The Helm's Deep battle took four months to shoot, three months at night, one during the day.
The only trilogy to have all three films nominated for the top 100 greatest films of all time by the American Film Institute.
The set for the Helm's Deep battle scene was built on location in New Zealand out of polystyrene over a period of seven months.
The design for Gollum took over 100 marquette sculptures and over 1,000 drawings to get right.
The theatrical version contains roughly 800 visual effects shots. The extended edition adds another 160 to that total.
Gollum's line "My precious" was voted as the NO. 85 movie quote by the AFI (out of 100).
The Two Towers earned $50 million more than The Fellowship of the Ring.
Weta began animating Gollum in late 1998 to convince New Line they could achieve the effect. Andy Serkis "played" Gollum by providing his voice and movements on set, as well as performing within the motion capture suit later on. His scenes were filmed twice, with and without him.
Originally Gollum was set to solely be a CGI character, but Jackson was so impressed by Serkis' audition ape that they used him on set as well.
Gollum's CGI model was also redesigned during 2001 when Serkis was cast as Smeagol, Gollum's former self, so as to give the impression Andy Serkis as Smeagol transforms into the CGI Gollum.
The original model can still be glimpsed briefly in the first film. Over Christmas 2001, the crew proceeded to reanimate all the previous shots accordingly within two months. Another problem was that the crew realized that the cast performed better in the takes which physically included Serkis. In the end, the CG Gollum was roto-scoped and animated on top of those scenes.
The Two Towers opened in theaters on December 18, 2002. During its opening day, the film grossed $26 million, making it the second highest opening Wednesday, behind The Phantom Menace. It warned $62 million in its opening weekend domestic, becoming the 5th highest opening weekend of 2002, behind Austin Powers in Goldmember, Attack of the Clones, Chamber of Secrets and Spider-Man. The film then made $101.5 million during its 5 day opening.
The film went on to gross $339.8 million in North America and $596.9 million internationally for a worldwide total of $936.7 million against a budget of $94 million. Following the subsequent re-issues, the film has grossed $343 million in North America and $606 million internationally, for a worldwide total of $949 million.
Like its predecessor, The Two Towers was released to universal critical acclaim and is widely considered to be one of the greatest sequels in cinema history.
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