Unreleased deleted scenes from the trilogy etc

malickfan wrote:(I don't think there's a thread on this)

As Figgs mentioned the other day there is apparently alot of unreleased deleted scenes lying around somewhere, so I thought I'd  do some digging and start a thread about it for those interested/seeking an excuse to wind up Petty.

For starters check out this slideshow (some of these are from the trading card game tie in, or concept art):

https://s729.photobucket.com/user/grammaboodawgs/slideshow/?albumview=slideshow

I've found a few links on youtube with bits and bobs (there's probably some overlap I was too lazy to watch all of them)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca123C7631U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_k8RTKGlg0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybiAMHT7HvA&feature=youtu.be


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKxdGLLl4ls

The other day I mentioned a deleted scene from Fellowship involving Haldir in the script, I've found the link (since it also contains the full ring verse recited by Elrond, which I know to be filmed, I've pretty sure this scene was too)

http://www.fempiror.com/otherscripts/LordoftheRings1-FOTR.pdf

INT. COUNCIL CHAMBER, RIVENDELL - DAY

IMAGES from the PROLOGUE: the RINGS being given to the ELVES,
DWARVES, and MEN.

ELROND (V.O.)
Three Rings for the Elven-kings
under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their
halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark
throne
In the Land of Mordor where the
Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all. One
Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all
together and in the darkness bind
them,
In the Land of Mordor where the
Shadows lie.

CLOSE ON: FRODO opens his hand ... the RING lies in his palm. He
looks up.

ANGLE ON: ELROND addresses the COUNCIL...

ELROND
Strangers from distant lands ...
friends of old. You have been summoned
here to answer the threat of Mordor.
Middle-Earth stands upon the brink of
destruction. None can escape it. You
will unite ... or you will fall. Each
race is bound to this fate ... this one
doom...


INT. CERIN AMROTH, LOTHLÓRIEN - DAY

ANGLE ON: SAM and FRODO sit on one of the many platforms in the
trees at CERIN AMROTH. SAM suddenly looks up and around, with a
puzzled expression. He rubs his eyes.

FRODO
What is it?

SAM
It’s an odd thing, Mr. Frodo. It’s
sunlight and bright day, right enough.
I thought that Elves were all for moon
and stars. But this is more Elvish than
anything I ever heard tell of. I feel
as if I was inside a song, if you take
my meaning.

HALDIR
(from behind them)
You feel the power of the Lady of
Galadhrim. Would it please you to
climb with me up Cerin Amroth?

WIDE ON: FRODO and SAM follow HALDIR up a long series of
platforms until they reach the pinnacle of the trees.


(CONTINUED) 138.


CONTINUED:

ANGLE ON: FRODO and SAM approach the edge of a high platform and
look out in wonder.

HIGH WIDE SHOT: MIDDLE EARTH stretches out for miles and miles
to the NORTH. Far to the NORTH, a shadow lingers over the FOREST
OF MIRKWOOD.

ANGLE ON: HALDIR points the HOBBITS’ gaze to the dark cloud.

HALDIR
There lies the fastness of Southern
Mirkwood. It is clad in a forest of
dark fir, where the trees strive one
against another and their branches rot
and whither. In the midst upon a stony
height stands Dol Guldur, where long
the hidden Enemy had his dwelling. We
fear that now it is inhabited again,
and with power sevenfold. A black cloud
lies often over it of late.

PAN ON WIDE SHOT: From ORTHANC to the WEST across the
magnificent view to MORDOR and BARAD-DÛR in the EAST.

HALDIR (CONT’D)
In this high place you may see the two
powers that are oppose one to another;
and ever they strive now in thought,
but whereas the light perceives the
very heart of the darkness, its own
secret has not been discovered. Not
yet.

ANGLE ON: HALDIR leaves the high place. With a final look, FRODO
and SAM follow.

INT. CERIN AMROTH, LOTHLÓRIEN - DAY

CLOSE ON: A SMALL GOLDEN FLOWER in someone’s hand.

(The other two scripts are on the site, but I haven't checked those)



There were also a couple of threads on TORn I saved the links to earlier (not sure if Figgs etc can actually acess the site anymore, so I copied the gist of them):

From Wikipedia:
Dialogue from the Council of Elrond, such as Gandalf explaining how Sauron forged the One Ring.[10]
An attack by Moria Orcs on Lothlórien after the Fellowship leaves Moria. Jackson replaced this with a more suspenseful entrance for the Fellowship. Much of the lost footage can be seen as promotional material on the FotR theatrical DVD and tie-in books, documentary footage on the Extended Editions, and Trading Cards.
More Arwen footage, including a flashback scene of her first meeting with a beardless Aragorn (seen in the Two Towers teaser).
Faramir having a vision of Frodo becoming like Gollum.[13]
Famous footage of Arwen at Helm's Deep, cut by Jackson during a revision to the film's plot. Foreshadowing this sequence were scenes where Arwen and Elrond visit Galadriel at Lothlórien (seen in The Two Towers teaser trailer). The scene was edited down to a telepathic communication between Elrond and Galadriel.[13]
Théoden speaking to the troops in the armoury, prior to the Battle of Helm's Deep.
Éowyn defending the refugees in the Glittering Caves from Uruk-hai intruders.[21]
An unknown scene displayed in The Two Towers preview of Éomer lowering a spear while riding his horse.
A line of dialogue during the death of Saruman, in which he reveals that Wormtongue poisoned Théodred, giving further context as to why Wormtongue kills Saruman and Legolas in turn kills Wormtongue.[citation needed]
A conversation between Elrond and Arwen in a library in Rivendell, after Arwen decides to wait for Aragorn. Elrond leaves saying "I cannot protect you anymore." [22]
Aragorn having his armour fitted during the preparations for the Battle of the Black Gate. This was the final scene filmed during principal photography.[16]
Sauron fighting Aragorn at the Black Gate. A computer-generated Troll was placed over Sauron due to Jackson feeling the scene was inappropriate. Sauron is also seen in a beautiful form as Annatar, giver of gifts.[16]
Also at the Black Gate sequence, Pippin was seen in the trailer holding a wounded Merry, a scene which takes place after the Battle of the Pelennor Fields upon Pippin discovering Merry under the mûmak.
Further epilogue footage, including that of Legolas and Gimli, as well as Éowyn and Faramir's wedding and Aragorn's death and funeral.[23]



Sala Baker spoke once at DragonCon about a scene of Sauron melting gold over the fires of Mt Doom and letting it form around his finger as the One Ring.
An unknown dress exists for Arwen in much of the promo material: here
Arwen at Rivendell with Aragorn, seen by Frodo (this dress)
Arwen on the bridge at Rivendell -- Elrond: "I can no longer protect you."
Arwen hugging her father from her 'death bed'
There were rumors of Eowyn helping to deliver a baby in the Glittering Caves
Alternate lines for Merry & Pippin as Pippin leaves for Gondor
There is one image of Aragorn taking possession Saruman's palantir from Gandalf at Rohan
A line from the trailers: "Every path you have trod, through wilderness through war, has led you to this. Become who you were born to be." Not sure where it belongs.

Extension of the forging of the One Ring, including Sauron using his own blood to meld with it.

Lots of shots of Gil-galad fighting.

The incineration death of Gil-galad. (That's why Saruon's hands are still smoking as he reaches for Isildur.)

Aragorn and Arwen looking down from a balcony at Frodo and Sam in the gardens at Rivendell. Arwen and Frodo share a significant glance.

Bilbo having dinner at Rivendell with Elrond and Gandalf.

A caucus of Elves the night before the Council of Elrond with debate on whether or not an alliance with Men is feasible. Elrond states the alliance of Elves and Men 'is over'. Legolas scolds the Elves for not assisting the race of Men with their fight against Sauron.

Faramir discovering Boromir's horn cloven in two as it washes ashore.

Three nights worth of Merry and Pippin being guarded by the Uruk-hai.

Shots of Arwen and Aragorn frolicking in the past.

Rivendell Elves arriving at Lothlorien. Followed by a big council scene with Galadriel, Celeborn, Elrond, Arwen, and Haldir, and the decision to send Elves to Helm's Deep .

Saruman claiming he will soon become 'more powerful than the Lord of the Rings himself'

Eowyn with bloody hands about to slay an Orc in the caves. The lead-in scene of her delivering a baby (thus the blood on her hands) may or may not have been filmed.

Further shots of Gollum travelling to Mordor with the hobbits, including him ordering not to stop on a certain road and extensions to the cooked rabbit scene

Sam discussing the changes occuring to Frodo *with Gollum* while the Ringbearer is asleep

Gimli exploring the caves under Helm's Deep with Legolas.

Aragorn conversing with someone at night while lying down in a Rohan camp.

Bilbo discussing his departure of Rivendell with Elrond and Arwen.

Lots of chase to the ford footage.

Lots and lots and lots of battle scenes.

A list for ROTK

Alternate Pipe-weed scenes at Isengard. Just alternate takes; the idea is that whole "haha, Pipe-weed sounds like marijuana" crud; hey, Tolkien himself directly denied that it was marijuana, and that he just calls it "Pipe-weed" because using the native american word "tobacco" wouldn't make sense in an Old World setting. So the cast, however, thought the implication was funny so Merry and Pippin have an alternate take in which they act a lot more "stoned" (I'm angry they even did this but happy they didn't use it). Another take was them acting really drunk from the alcohol they found. The take that exists in the final film they describe as "halfway between stoned and drunk". This isn't really a deleted scene; ignore it.
They said that "at this point we don't think the audience cares about Theodred or Wormtongue" so they cut out the "Wormtongue poisoned Theodred". Of course, they joked that it would be restored in a 25th anniversary edition.

The scene where Gandalf and Aragorn are talking at Meduseld and conclude that "Frodo is alive" was shot literally over 20 times; over 20 alternate takes exist. They did this because it was one of those big "acting/drama/pathos" scenes, you know? Ultimately I think they tried too hard and the scene simply doesn't have the impact they thought it would, because they just kept trying to get a nuance in there. At any rate, once on a TV special hyping ROTK, I saw an alternate take in which Gandalf's response is actually "that FRODO LIVES"

The original planned openning of ROTK was a tracking shot starting at the Paths of the Dead, then rushing across the fields and crashing into Edoras, where Aragorn wakes up from the nightmare, then comes to Eowyn, at which point the "Eowyn great wave" scene begins in the finished film. They replaced it with the Smeagol baiting a hook with a worm scene, because they said they didn't want to get in the habit of starting each film with a big action scene. They seem to have spent a lot of time laboring over how to do the Army of the Dead, and Peter Jackson is on record as saying he hated the idea of the Dead Army as too fantastic. Yeah....well MAYBE, you should have used them attacking the Corsairs and then the southern army of Gondor joining Aragorn....instead of cutting them out and just using the Army of the Dead as "magic scrubber bubbles" to quickly finish the Battle of Pelennor Fields!!! Think about it: all of the time they spent "hyping the tension of "will the Army of the Dead help or not?""...could have been cut and just added in two minutes of showing Gondor's southern army rallying to Aragorn. Yikes.

I'm not sure if they filmed this: when Pippin looks in the Palantir, instead of just seeing him writhe in pain, we'd actually see Pippin meeting Sauron on the "astral plane" i.e. Pippin having a vision of himself in a room with Sauron; Pippin would be in a tight cage and Sauron would be yelling at him using his lines from the book. But they thought it would be "too tricky to dramatize" so they cut it.
A scene was filmed of Legolas talking to Treebeard at Isengard about the passing of the Elves; talking about how win or lose against Sauron, the Elves and Ents are dying out. As they said, "another scene to be restored for the 25th Anniversary Edition".

Many Arwen scenes were originally intended for TTT but got shuffled around; they rewrote these alot, as you know, struggling with Arwen as a character.

There is an entire "Missing Rivendell Library scene" - PJ said they should just HINT at it to intentionally tantalize us fans, and not reveal what's in it EVER, in order to make it the quote "Mythic Lost Library Scene". At this point they joke about intentionally engineering "lost scenes" by intentionally losing stuff they have saved that never saw the light of day. (grrrrrr.....). most of use have been able to piece together that this is probably the scene we've seen pictures of with Arwen getting a book about the Paths of the Dead from the Rivendell Library; as a narrative device to explain what the PotD are. I think this ties into the "mostly abandoned" "Arwen is dying" plot thread (ugh). 1- why would Arwen of all people be dying? Grief about Aragorn? They don't explain it well 2- They simply do not follow up on it at all even in the EE. Essentially it was an abandoned plot thread but they left one or two incongruent scenes into the final film. I think it was at this point in ROTK when they probably realized something like "Arwen just isn't that active of a role in the story, Eowyn is the primary female role in the story, and any attempt to increase Arwen's role feels so artificial we usually have to cut them" is what I think.

Okay, while I'm on the subject they explain their crazy "Arwen is dying" theory: something about being one of the youngest of the Eldar means that, when she chooses to be mortal, and loses the grace of the Eldar, she is "more vulnerable to the evil of the world" -- this is rubbish. On top of not being a sound theory.....they physically did not explain it well within the movie, or even "follow through" on it; you get the idea that they were going to have a lot of "Arwen dying" scenes but realized they didn't work so cut most out, so those few remaining made no sense.

As we all know, Pippin is with Gandalf when he rescues Faramir because originally that would have been their entrance to Minas Tirith (when they thought there wouldn't be enough time for 3 films) but later got more time to expand their entrance. Problem was they didn't have time to refilm that scene so it stayed as it was. They said this was an idea they had for a long time.

Btw, they didn't include the sons of Elrond or Beregond or Prince Imrahil (who was in earlier drafts) because they felt that this late into the story they shouldn't be introducing new characters.
Btw, Peter Jackson is quoted in the commentary as saying verbatim, "When in doubt, have a laugh with Gimli" (shudder)

In the books, officially the only way to kill an Oliphaunt is to stand in front of it and shoot it in the eyes. Scenes of this were actually shot/fully developed as a CGI scene. However, they didn't use it, or other scenes of Oliphaunts rearing and roaring and being shot full of arrows, because after watching it they felt it looked too much like animal cruelty...reminding people of the infamous stuff about mistreatment of circus animals, etc. They didn't want people siding their sympathy with the Oliphaunts and Haradrim. They later even changed what the Oliphaunts sound like so if you notice, they don't bellow and trumpet like normal elephants; they just emit a low growl which is actually a distorted lion-growl. Again, I think it amazing that a full CGI scene (worth thousands of dollars) was created then cut; but I doubt this will ever see the light of day.

***BTw, there's a point at which Peter and Fran start making the infamous "why don't they just fly an Eagle to Mount Doom?" "The movie would be shorter" joke and start giggling idiotically......then Philippa Boyens (our hero) angrily, angrily shouts "WHY THE HELL DOES EVERYONE ALWAYS SAY THAT?! THE FLYING RINGWRAITHS WOULD ATTACK EAGLES TRYING TO GET INTO MORDOR! MORDOR HAS FLYING CREATURES TOO!".....well TORNsibs, this really shut up Peter and Fran, who basically couldn't argue with the logical explanation Philippa pointed out...and just went "umm.....yeah, I guess so". Ironically, Peter and Fran learned nothing (people who say that stupid joke never seem to absorb this)....so they actually SAY THE JOKE AGAIN at the Black Gate scene, at which point Philippa again corrects them pointing out the Flying Ringwraiths.

In the film, you actually see the Two Silent Watchers statues at the gateway to Cirith Ungol. A scene of these sentient statues letting out a scream warning that Sam has passed through WAS filmed, and cut simply for pacing issues. "Another scene for the 25 anniversary edition".
That whole thing where they tried to re-edit the "Sam gives Frodo the Ring back" scene into something else but its so subtle I don't think people really understood what they were trying to change.
As stated before, the final scene of filming was Aragorn suiting up into Gondorian armor, while in the main court hall.

Epilogue scenes: you've all scene the info on this; what happens to everyone; Legolas, Gimli, etc. I'm unsure about the Aragorn/Arwen wedding, but the Faramir/Eowyn wedding scene was a GIGANTIC set piece involving many costumes and elaborate design (of course thrown in the for girly fangirls, but hey I want to see what designs they came up with) : Ngila Dickson, who won Oscars for her costume work on LOTR, said that officially her favorite costume design in the ENTIRE trilogy was the "Eowyn wedding dress". We know literally NOTHING about this dress (other than that is is "beaded") we've never seen a picture or design sketches.
***Throughout the film, they joke about "that's for the 25th anniversary DVD" but increasingly treat the concept more seriously. They point out the one EE line where Gimli and Legolas say that the Elves and Dwarves cannot help because "war already marches on their own lands". They say they would have loved to show fighting at Lothlorien and Lonely Mountain, as the War of the Ring is a world war, but they had 3 reasons they didn't which I think are reasonable: 1- it would have taken A LOT more screentime. 2-It would have been a LOT more expensive (logically, that many new sets and full fights scenes would have been pretty expensive). 3-with what screentime they DID have they felt they should focus the narrative on the main front of the war at Minas Tirith, instead of introducing lots of plot elements they didn't couldn't devote the full amount of time they deserved to do them justice (makes sense). The writers get into this discussion where they realize that scenes at Lothlorien and Lonely Mountain wouldn't involved any of the current main cast members, and thus could be shot in "really late pick-ups" 25 years from now for the"25th anniversary DVD" - if you think about it, they filmed lots of "pick ups" and some, notably the final few shots such as "skulls rolling in Paths of the Dead" for ROTK EE....were filmed AFTER ROTK had already won an Oscar! They treated it as a joke concept at first, but as they discussed the logistics involved and that "it really wouldn't involved any of the current cast members so we could film it decades from now and it wouldn't really matter" because they wouldn't run into that "the cast members have obviously aged" problem. Then they talk about the logistics of it and such and realize they could quite conceivably film NEW scenes at Lonely Mountain and Lothlorien, the fans would like it, it's entirely possible. Nothing solid, but the IDEA is there.

(I definitely remember other deleted scenes being mentioned on the Director and Writer/Cast commentaries, but I don't have the time or enthusiasm at the moment to sit through 11 hours of film...twice. There are transcripts of the commentaries online, but alot of the sites I've seen them listed on look kinda dodgy, so if anyone wants to check this, do at your own risk)

So whilst there's enough footage to get excited/angry about, it seems there might be some difficulty for the filmmakers to get hold of the footage.

Digging around in my old stack of EMPIRE magazines I came across this nugget (EMPIRE Issue 248 February 2010, page 142). Part of an Article/Interview with Jackson about the then non existent Blu Ray Release it's obviously rather out of date and may not be relevant any longer-but interesting none the less:

And sparking hope in the hearts of those for whom the myriad hours of extras available just aren't enough, Jackson mentions the possibility of even more exhaustive material. "I have a couple of ideas for a new documentary. We shot and uploaded seven million feet of film to the Avid in New Zealand, and when we finished Rings we said to New Line. 'Why don't leave that here, under lock and key with a dust cloth thrown over it, so we can go back in later?' They said, "No send it all back" and wiped the drives, even though we begged them not to. So to do another documentary, they're going to have to re-digitize all that 35-mil footage, which is in LA now, frame by frame. Which they seem very reluctant to do". So there you have it: all that candid behind-the-scenes material and filmed-but- abandoned footage (perhaps including Arwen's appearance at Helm's Deep and Aragorn's early years). hidden somewhere in Burbank waiting to be discovered like the One Ring itself. But don't hold your breath. "That'll probably turn up on what they call 'the big box set'-the Lord Of The Rings films and the two hobbit films," says Jackson."So it's still four or five years away."

This corroborates with this I found on Costa Botes weblog (he directed the feature length making of's included with the special editions of LOTR and the Blur Ray set) regarding future behind the scenes documentaries

http://costabotes.com/making-of-lord-of-the-rings/

...So with the creative and practical help of our indefatigable editor Jason Stutter, we ended up taking 1000 + hours of footage and turned it into not one, but three feature length verite style docos. Note – this was in addition to the 18+ hours of content originally asked for. The final delivery was closer to 20 hours – comprising some 200 self contained stories and vignettes on every aspect of the trilogy’s gestation, from Hobbiton to Mordor and back again. This material resides on a dusty shelf somewhere in the New Line archives...

Ignoring the issues with the studios as far as I can tell, alot of the deleted scenes were to do with redundant storylines cut in post production, even if they were to turn up in a future box set, I don't think they ever be reinserted into the films, this would obviously also depend on whether Jackson felt it was worth doing (he did note on the AUJ commentary he was tempted to insert Thrnaduil, and the new 'Bilbo finding the ring' sequence into FOTR, prvoding the old version was still accessible) but I feel certain the studios would be tempted to put some of this stuff in a 'big box set' of Rings and The Thorin whilst they can still make some money out of it.

It's amazing how much info is on the internet even ten years later.

(I should of course point out, I was only 11 when ROTK came out, so I have no idea how accurate or trustworthy any of this actually is)
Excited? Annoyed? Indifferent?