This LotR Battle Scene Nearly Sank Peter Jackson's Epic Trilogy
Peter Jackson went against all the odds and took a risk, and that risk was a justified one.
Large-scale battles in fantasy movies are as integral to this genre as orchestral music or elaborate scenery.
Battles in such movies always serve as climaxes where the fate of entire states or even humanity is decided, so it's important to stage them correctly.
The principles of creating large-scale battles in the movies remained unchanged until the release of The Lord of the Rings.
It was The Two Towers that changed the rules of the game and showed that battles could be filmed differently.
The central battle in the trilogy is the Battle of Helm's Deep, which became the most difficult for the film crew to realize. Peter Jackson set out to create a scene that would set the industry standard for quality, and he succeeded.
However, one of the most epic battles in the history of cinema would not have taken place if it were not for Jackson's perseverance.
The director planned to make the Battle of Helm's Deep the climax of the second movie, with a running time of 40 minutes. But such a long scene required a big budget — a huge one, in fact.
Naturally, this did not sit well with New Line executives, who wanted to cut the scene. But Jackson insisted on it and the filming began as planned.
The costs and risks were so high that the studio sent one of its executives to the set to monitor what Jackson was doing.
At one point, he had to deliver a not-so-pleasant message to the director from studio head Michael Lynne that he was going to sue the director and mortgage his house to cover the overspending.
To which Jackson replied: "Just tell Michael Lynne that I'm shooting this f****** film and I'm doing the best job I can".
Jackson was a stickler for the end result and shot the battle scene exactly as he saw it.
The Battle of Helm's Deep took four months to shoot, three and a half of which were spent shooting night scenes: Jackson wanted the lighting to look natural, so the entire crew had to work after sunset until dawn.
The temperature was very low at that time, and the extras had a hard time — their armor did not protect them from the cold and damp.
Despite the fact that the shooting was difficult and exhausting for absolutely everyone involved in the process, from the studio heads to the extras, the director managed not only to effectively complete The Two Towers, but also to shoot what arguably ended up being the best battle of the trilogy.