Production Companies New Line Cinema, WingNut Films, Lord Dritte Productions Deutschland Filmproduktion GmbH & Co. KG (in association with), The Saul Zaentz Company (licensor) (d/b/a Tolkien Enterprises)
For the Black Gate, which Hennah describes as "the Berlin Wall times 500," a full-size set was constructed on the soundstage to represent the highest point of the gate, to allow live shots of patrolling Orcs; and for Gandalf’s confrontation with the Mouth of Sauron, the base of the gate was also built into a full-size set. The totality of the Black Gate was filmed in miniature.
Though miniatures were created for the steps of Cirith Ungol and the entrance to Shelob’s lair, crucial scenes between Sam and Frodo required full-size sets. The sequence ultimately was created by weaving the two techniques.
At a pivotal moment in Aragorn’s quest, he makes the choice to go through the Paths of the Dead to awaken the disgraced soldiers entombed there. Realism was the guiding factor in creating these sets. "When you walk into a place and you can feel that its spiritual element is foreboding; that’s what we were trying to create in the Paths of the Dead," comments Dan Hennah. "This is an area where you tread cautiously."
Alan Lee’s concept for the Paths of the Dead envisioned huge rock structures that would spectrally shift and change into massive cities where the long undead soldiers live out their days. A large exterior set was built in Deerpark Heights, near Queenstown, with a huge black orb marking the entrance. The production team carved destroyed buildings, consisting of several stairs, doors, towers and domes, in the black polystyrene walls. For an avalanche sequence that takes place in the Paths set, Weta churned out thousands of synthetic human skulls.
Movie Database
In Theaters
