Movie director Peter Jackson discusses the third part of his epic trilogy...
All of the storylines we have followed, the journeys that these characters are taking -- what they care about, what they've been fighting for, even what some of their friends have died for -- lead to The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
None of these characters is going to come out of this story unchanged. They'll never be the same again. The Return of the King is the most emotional of the three films.
You have a massive war on an external level, and on an internal level you have two little Hobbits, Frodo and Sam, on their hands and knees literally crawling up a mountain. The relationship between those two characters is the heart of the movie.
The past seven years my life has been consumed with writing, directing and producing The Lord of the Rings trilogy. It has been an exhausting journey, not unlike that of our fictional protagonists, Frodo and Sam; there has not been much sleep, no time for a normal life and there were days when we all wondered if we would make it to the end.
Two years of pre-production were followed by two hundred and seventy four days of principal production, which in turn have been followed by three years of post-production.
Each stage of the process of making these films has presented unique challenges; I remember asking myself, whenever things got particularly hard, would I rather be doing something other than making The Lord of the Rings?
And the answer was always no.
This is because I have been lucky enough to work with some of the most talented cast and crew any filmmaker could wish for, anywhere in the world.
Through the long years of production it was apparent that we all had one thing in common: a great and enduring love of the books, which in turn, resulted in an unfailing commitment to do our best work on these films.
Professor Tolkien once observed that "the Pot of Soup, the Cauldron of Story, has always been boiling, and to it have continually been added new bits, dainty and undainty."
I am happy to let these films go off into the world and for them to become whatever this generation, or future generations, make of them. Whether my contribution is ultimately judged 'dainty or undainty,' it has now been made.
The trilogy is truly out of my hands now and in the hands of those for whom these films were made; the people who love these books and who have always loved film.
