LOTR Details...

[Greyhawk_DM]

'Lord of the Rings' details


7: Total years of development for all three movies.

1,600: Pairs of prosthetic Hobbit feet created.

114: Total speaking roles.

20,602: Background actors cast.

48,000: Swords, axes, shields and other weaponry used.

15,000: Costumes made by wardrobe department.

42: Tailors, cobblers, designers and others in wardrobe department.

3 million: Feet of film shot during production.

100: Real locations in New Zealand used for backdrops.

250: Most horses used in one scene.

2,400: Behind-the-scenes crew members at height of production.

10,000: Crowd participants at New Zealand cricket game who made orc army grunts.

200: Handmade orc masks created.

180: Computer special-effects artists employed.

30: Actors trained to speak fictional dialects and languages.

40: Languages J.R.R. Tolkien’s books have been translated into.


Thought this was interesting...

 

[kengar]

Is this from a Harper's Index?

 

[Greyhawk_DM]

Is this from a Harper's Index?

I got the info from an article on the MSNBC website.

Also I read somewhere else that they wanted to take all the armor, swords etc...and put in a museum to preserve them dedicated to the LOTR movies. So far the Tolkien estate, specifically Christopher Tolkien refuses to let them use the LOTR name etc...
Apparently he hated the PJ movie version of is fathers "sacred" work.

 

[Greyhawk_DM]

Some other interesting facts about WETA digital during production of LOTR's.

The Wall of Fame


Meet the real star of Lord of the Rings - a 1,600-box server farm.

Gollum is real. So is Shelob. And Middle-earth did exist - just a long, long time ago. At least that's what Weta Digital, the visual effects house behind The Lord of the Rings trilogy, wants you to believe. Its mantra for the final installment: photorealism. The Return of the King, which opens in theaters December 17, will feature almost 50 percent more f/x shots than The Two Towers and will be composed of more data than the first two movies combined. Churning out scenes like the destruction of Barad-dûr and the Battle of Pelennor Fields (with thousands of bloodthirsty CG Orcs) took 3,200 processors running at teraflop speeds through 10-gig pipes - that's one epic renderwall. What else went into making Frodo's quest look so good? By Weta's account, more than you might think.

WETA BY THE NUMBERS
HUMANPOWER
IT staff: 35
Visual f/x staff: 420


HARDWARE
Equipment rooms: 5
Desktop computers: 600
Servers in renderwall: 1,600
Processors (total): 3,200
Processors added 10 weeks before movie wrapped: 1,000
Time it took to get additional processors up and running: 2 weeks
Network switches: 10
Speed of network: 10 gigabits (100 times faster than most)
Temperature of equipment rooms: 76 degrees
Fahrenheit Weight of air conditioners needed to maintain that temperature: 1/2 ton


STORAGE
Disk: 60 terabytes
Near online: 72 terabytes
Digital backup tape: 0.5 petabyte (equal to 50,000 DVDs)


OUTPUT
Number of f/x shots: 1,400
Minimum number of frames per shot: 240
Average time to render one frame: 2 hours
Longest time: 2 days
Total screen time of f/x shots: 2 hours
Total length of film: Rumored to be 3.5 hours
Production time: 9 months

 

[KenM]

So far the Tolkien estate, specifically Christopher Tolkien refuses to let them use the LOTR name etc...
Apparently he hated the PJ movie version of is fathers "sacred" work.

Hated it all the way to the bank I bet. Hypocrite.

 

[Welverin]

Hated it all the way to the bank I bet. Hypocrite.

He had no say in it, over it, nor any control over. Makes it rather hard for him to be a hypocrite about it.

I'd bet even now if he was capable he would go back in time to prevent them from being made.

 

[kengar]

Hated it all the way to the bank I bet. Hypocrite.

The Tolkien estate didn't see a dime from the movies.* JRRT sold the film rights to the Hobbit & LOTR back in the 60's to Saul Zaentz Co. (Tolkien Enterprises)

*Directly. I'm sure book sales went up due to the films and they saw some royalties from that.

 

[WizarDru]

The Tolkien estate didn't see a dime from the movies.* JRRT sold the film rights to the Hobbit & LOTR back in the 60's to Saul Zaentz Co. (Tolkien Enterprises)

*Directly. I'm sure book sales went up due to the films and they saw some royalties from that.

Is that his main beef with it? That he's not getting money out of the deal (and let's be clear, sales of the books have sky-rocketed since the first movie came out*)

I've seen a good deal of argument on his motivations, and I'm still not clear what they are. Tolkien negotiated the original deal, and I could see how they'd still feel the sting of the Bakshi version...but three oscar-winning or oscar-worthy films have now been produced. Setting aside the question of faithfulness, why is he so irritated by it. JRRT must have resigned himself to seeing his original work somewhat mangled when he signed the deal.

Did CJRT think that his father was conned? Are they still bitter after all this time? Are they afraid that people will stop reading the books in favor of the movies? Time has shown that adaptions rarely stop people from reading the original source material. Quite the opposite, in fact.

 

[kengar]

Is that his main beef with it? That he's not getting money out of the deal (and let's be clear, sales of the books have sky-rocketed since the first movie came out*)

I've seen a good deal of argument on his motivations, and I'm still not clear what they are. Tolkien negotiated the original deal, and I could see how they'd still feel the sting of the Bakshi version...but three oscar-winning or oscar-worthy films have now been produced. Setting aside the question of faithfulness, why is he so irritated by it. JRRT must have resigned himself to seeing his original work somewhat mangled when he signed the deal.

Did CJRT think that his father was conned? Are they still bitter after all this time? Are they afraid that people will stop reading the books in favor of the movies? Time has shown that adaptions rarely stop people from reading the original source material. Quite the opposite, in fact.

I don't pretend to know Chris Tolkien's mind on this subject, but I don't think the issue is financial. The estate owns the rights to other works of his father's (most notably the Simarillion) and could certainly make money licensing that for things like games, movies, etc.

JRRT's estate is very jealous of the man's works and I honestly believe it is an emotional issue for his children as well as the belief that any distortion of the original writings is somehow an insult to the memory of the man.

That's just my impression, of course. I could be wrong.

 

[Storm Raven]

Is that his main beef with it? That he's not getting money out of the deal (and let's be clear, sales of the books have sky-rocketed since the first movie came out*)

From what I understand, his beef is that film versions are being made at all. He is apparently of the opinion that the books are literary creations, and should remain that way and have no other form.