Cut LotR Scene Almost Turned Frodo into Middle Earth's Most Hated Creature
Frodo's overarching goal in The Lord of the Rings is to carry the One Ring to Mount Doom and cast it into the fiery crack where it was forged, to destroy Sauron, whom it keeps bound to the world, once and for all.
Aside from sheer danger and physical difficulty of the journey, Frodo also has to withstand the corruptive influence of the Ring eating at his body and mind. And for much of the journey, he has to deal with a living example of what can happen to him – Gollum, who once too was a Hobbit, Smeagol, but after possessing the Ring for centuries got utterly warped into a monstrous, if pathetic, creature.
The parallels between Gollum and Frodo's condition as the small party approaches Mordor, and the Ring's influence grows more oppressive, exist even in the final version of Peter Jackson's movie trilogy. Gollum is clearly an illustration of what could happen to someone completely falling under the Ring's power.
But there was a scene, which wasn't included in either the theatrical or the director's cut of the movies, which made the parallels more literal.
Its existence is revealed in behind-the-scenes footage of the trilogy's home release, and it was supposed to take place during the sequence in The Two Towers, when the Hobbits are captured by Faramir's men, and Frodo starts gradually losing control, acting protective of the Ring, ostensibly for the sake of keeping it from Faramir.
His "Gollum transformation" was supposed to be vaguely similar to Bilbo's brief but frightening outburst from the previous part of the trilogy – he would have gotten sharper teeth and brighter eyes, while growing overall more sickly and pale and acting with certain Gollum-like mannerisms.
Pictures and brief shots of Elijah Wood in makeup for this sequence do exist, but ultimately it was cut.
The scene where Frodo nearly walks right to a Ringwraith, as if hypnotized, was ultimately used to a similar effect.
It is also unclear whether the transformation was supposed to be truly physical, or merely showing Faramir's perception of Frodo. As for the reasons for its removal, it might be speculated that its one-off nature might have been considered distracting. It is also possible, that it was seen as not ameliorating, but aggravating what already was perceived by many fans as a major problem in The Two Towers, particularly its theatrical cut – Faramir having no clear reason to ultimately let the Hobbits go, given his characterization in the movies.