The Lord of The Rings franchise, which started with Peter Jackson’s 2001 film The Fellowship of the Ring, rocked the film industry in the early 2000s. Based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy novel of the same name, the trilogy grossed nearly $3 billion at the box office and won several awards, including 17 Oscars. It continued with a prequel series, The Hobbit, which also received the same reception as its predecessors.
However, the work behind the scene included the efforts of the whole cast, crew, and even the extras used in the film. The Oscar-winning director was highly impressed with the cast and the extras of the 2002 film The Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers. And as a way to commemorate their hard work and contribution, he gifted everyone a t-shirt.
Peter Jackson’s Helm’s Deep Survival T-Shirts
Sequel to Peter Jackson’s 2001 film The Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers starred an ensemble cast including Elijah Wood and Karl Urban. It follows Frodo and Sam, who are joined by new allies to defend Isengard. The sequel was a commercial and critical hit and was very well received by the audience as well.
While everyone loved the movie, filming one of the scenes was not easy either for the filmmakers or for the actors and extras involved in the filming. The grueling filming of Helm’s Deep battle went on for months, and one of the stars of the film, Orlando Bloom, described it as a “nightmare.”
The shoot for one of the most incredible battle sequences reportedly took four months to finish, which needed hundreds of extras, stunt performers, along with cast members working a 14-hour shift. And once it was all done, the director decided to gift the extras a shirt that said, “I survived Helm’s Deep.”
The t-shirts, which were distributed in two versions, would later go on to become an emblem, for the people who worked as an extra on The Two Towers. People would recognize the t-shirts, and it even led to forming friendships all across New Zealand.
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Building Helm’s Deep Took Months
The construction of Helm’s Deep for Peter Jackson’s 2002 film, started months before the filming of the battle started. The builders and decorators involved in making the set settled in the Wellington region of New Zealand’s North Island. Dan Hennah, the supervising art director and set decorator, shared the harsh nature of the place and how it was an “incredibly hard place to work.”
“A quarry by its nature is really harsh,” he shared. The location was considered suitable as it was the only place where Helm’s Deep could be built, and the owners of the quarry were also willing to allow the production for a year. While it took months to prepare the set, cast, and crew for the battle of Helm’s Deep, the outcome was worth it, as it is considered one of the most incredible battle sequences in the history of cinema.
The Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers is available on Max.
Source: IMDb
