The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

Cate Blanchett as: Galadriel
Directed by: Peter Jackson
Selected Cast: Elijah Wood, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Sean Astin, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Bean, Orlando Bloom, Liv Tyler, Ian Holm, Christopher Lee, Andy Serkis, Hugo Weaving & John Rhys-Davies
Written by: J.R.R. Tolkien & Fran Walsh
Release Year: 2001
Genre: Action / Adventure / Fantasy
MPAA Rating: PG-13

An ancient Ring thought lost for centuries has been found, and through a strange twist in fate has been given to a small Hobbit named Frodo. When Gandalf discovers the Ring is in fact the One Ring of the Dark Lord Sauron, Frodo must make an epic quest to the Cracks of Doom in order to destroy it! However he does not go alone. He is joined by Gandalf, Legolas the elf, Gimli the Dwarf, Aragorn, Boromir and his three Hobbit friends Merry, Pippin and Samwise. Through mountains, snow, darkness, forests, rivers and plains, facing evil and danger at every corner the Fellowship of the Ring must go. Their quest to destroy the One Ring is the only hope for the end of the Dark Lords reign!

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Quotes from Cate Blanchett

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Quotes from Others

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Quotes from her Character

• Galadriel: “The world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it. It began with the forging of the Great Rings. Three were given to the Elves; immortal, wisest and fairest of all beings. Seven, to the Dwarf Lords, great miners and craftsmen of the mountain halls. And nine, nine rings were gifted to the race of Men, who above all else desire power. For within these rings was bound the strength and the will to govern over each race. But they were all of them deceived, for a new ring was made. In the land of Mordor, in the fires of Mount Doom, the Dark Lord Sauron forged in secret, a master ring, to control all others. And into this ring he poured all his cruelty, his malice and his will to dominate all life. One ring to rule them all…” (read full quote.)

• Galadriel: “I know what it is you saw, for it is also in my mind. It is what will come to pass, If you should fail. The Fellowship is breaking, it has already begun. He will try to take the Ring, you know of whom I speak. One by one, it will destroy them.”
Frodo: “If you ask it of me, I will give you the One Ring.”
Galadriel: “You offer it to me freely? I do not deny that my heart has greatly desired this. In the place of a Dark Lord you would have a Queen! Not dark but beautiful and terrible as the Morn! Treacherous as the Seas! Stronger than the foundations of the Earth! All shall love me and despair! I have passed the test. I will diminish, and go into the West, and remain Galadriel.”
Frodo: “I cannot do this alone.”
Galadriel: “You are a Ring-bearer, Frodo. To bear a Ring of Power is to be alone. This is Nenya, the Ring of Adament. And I am it’s keeper. This task was appointed to you, and if you do not find a way, no one will.”
Frodo: “I know what I must do, it’s just that… I’m afraid to do it.”
Galadriel: “Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.”

• Galadriel: “We shall not meet again, Elessar.”

• Galadriel: “The Quest stands upon the edge of a knife. Stray but a little, and it will fail, to the ruin of all. Yet hope remains while the Company is true.”

• Galadriel: “For the time would soon come when hobbits would shape the fortunes of all.”

• Galadriel: “For you, Samwise Gamgee, Elven rope, made of Hithline.”
Sam: “Thank You M’Lady… Have you ran out of those nice shiny daggers?”

• Galadriel: “I give you the light of Eärendil, our most beloved star. May it be a light for you in dark places, when all other lights go out.”

Trivia & Facts

• Filmed in New Zealand (view all.)

• Won 4 Oscars. Another 76 wins & 84 nominations (view all.)

• Also known as ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’.

• Cate starred in the movies The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) with Elijah Wood as well.

Cate also starred in the movies The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) with Billy Boyd.

• Cate and Billy Boyd also starred in the movie Stories of Lost Souls (2005), but they appeared in different short films.

• Cate also starred in the movies The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) with Dominic Monaghan.

• Cate also starred in the movies The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) with Sean Astin.

• Cate also starred in the movies The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) with Ian McKellen.

• Cate also starred in the movies The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) with Viggo Mortensen.

• Cate also starred in the movies The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) with Sean Bean.

• Cate also starred in the movies The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) with Orlando Bloom.

• Cate also starred in the movies The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) with Liv Tyler.

• Cate also starred in the movies The Aviator (2004) and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) with Ian Holm.

• Cate also starred in the movies The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) with Christopher Lee.

• Cate also starred in the movies The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) with Andy Serkis.

• Cate also starred in the movies Little Fish (2005), The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) with Hugo Weaving.

• Cate has also starred in the play Hedda Gabler (2004 & 2006) and the TV Series Bordertown (1995) with Hugo Weaving.

• Cate also starred in the movies The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) with John Rhys-Davies.

• Read about the alternate DVD versions at IMDb.

• In an interview Cate gave to Fox Television Network, she admitted blushingly that she had accepted the role of Galadriel, the Elf Queen, in The Lord of the Rings trilogy because she always wanted to appear in a movie wearing pointed ears.

• After completing work on the Lord of the Rings trilogy in the role of Galadriel, she kept and bronzed her elf ear prosthetics.

• Cate’s role as Galadriel required her to film for only a month.

• Pregnancy changed Peter Jackson’s vision of the trilogy. Originally, he wanted to cast Lucy Lawless as Galadriel and Uma Thurman as Arwen. Unfortunately, both actresses became pregnant after being asked to read, and the roles were filled in by Cate and Liv Tyler, respectively.

• Anthony Hopkins, Kate Winslet and Alison Doody turned down roles in the trilogy. Winslet and Doody was offered the part of Eowyn.

• Later in the early in pre-production of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) were Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke set to play Eowyn and Faramir. Scheduling conflicts prevented this, but it meant that these two parts were finally cast relatively late into production.

• When the fellowship is departing from Lothlorien, Galadriel is seen riding in the swan boat across the river. If you look into the background to the left of the screen, a crew member can be seen crouching down and looking about.

• Originally the narration at the prologue was to be spoken by Elijah Wood, but it was felt that the information imparted had little bearing on the character of Frodo. Ian McKellen also recorded a narration but once again it was felt that Gandalf wasn’t the right character to speak it. They eventually settled on Cate as Galadriel, as it emphasizes the timelessness of the elves.

• Galadriel’s home at Lothlorien was the largest miniature set built for the trilogy.

• Peter Jackson did a “Director Cameo” and can be glimpsed outside the Prancing Pony holding a carrot. Originally it was supposed to be a pipe, but after a couple of puffs, he felt sick and went for the carrot instead.

• The original cut ran four hours and thirty minutes.

• The film stayed in the US top ten grossing films for 13 weeks.

• In August 2002 the DVD release set a UK record when it chalked up sales of 2.4 million.

• The total crew amounted to over 3,000 people of which approximately over 300 were in the art department alone.

• The overall budget for all 3 films was $300 million. Add another $200 million for the publicity and marketing of all 3.

• The three films were filmed simultaneously.

• Miramax was the first studio to express an interest in Peter Jackson’s interpretation of the books but wanted to do it all in one film. Jackson refused, leaving him with four weeks to find another studio for funding, touting the project as two films. Calling upon his friend Mark Ordesky, who was an executive at New Line, a pitch was set up with New Line President Robert Shaye. His only quibble with the presentation was that it had to be three films.

• The Tolkien estate was never in favor of Peter Jackson’s film adaptation but seeing as Tolkien signed the rights away in 1968 for $15,000, there was nothing they could do about it. Tolkien’s grandson Simon came out in support of the production and was disowned by his relatives. Tolkien’s son Christopher Tolkien later retracted any opposition.

• The climactic fight scene was shot in the middle of a heatwave, with temperatures in excess of 100 degrees. Many of the actors playing the Uruk’hais had to be carried off the set with heat exhaustion.

• It is estimated that filming of the trilogy pumped about $200,000,000 into the New Zealand economy. The New Zealand government even created a Minister for Lord of the Rings, whose remit was to exploit all the economic opportunities the films represented.

• Large amounts of hair had to be imported into New Zealand for all the wigs. They found some women in Russia who were cutting their hair and selling it to film-makers.

• The Elvish language lines spoken in the film are not just quotes from the book, they were derived from Tolkien’s own limited dictionary of that language. Dialect coach Andrew Jack used actual recordings of Tolkien reading his books to guide the actors’ pronunciation.

• New Zealand’s army was cast as extras for large battle scenes in the film, but was forced to back out due to having to serve as peacekeepers in East Timor.

• When the trailer was released on Internet on April 7, 2001, it was downloaded 1.6 million times in the first 24 hours.

• John Rhys-Davies, who plays Gimli the dwarf, is the tallest of the actors who play members of the Fellowship. He is 6’1″ / 185.4 cm. And he originally auditioned for the role of Denethor.

• Elijah Wood dressed up in breeches and a flowing shirt and went out into the hills to shoot his audition tape. His friend George Huang, directed the video.

• Dominic Monaghan originally auditioned for the role of Frodo. Jake Gyllenhaal also auditioned for the part.

• Warwick Davis, Timothy Spall, Bill Bailey and Robert Trebor auditioned for the role of Gimli.

• Other actors who was considered or auditioned for the role of Gandalf were Patrick McGoohan, Sam Neill, Joan Astin (Sean Astin’s father), Bernard Hill, Tom Baker and Sean Connery was, at one point, offered the role for Gandalf, but he turned it down due to reportedly “not understanding the story”.

• When Christopher Lee and Tolkien were in correspondence, Tolkien gave Lee his blessing to play Gandalf if there ever was a film version of Lord of the Rings. Years later, Lee campaigned for the part of Gandalf in this production, but was offered the part of Saruman instead. Lee, who wanted to participate in the project anyway he could, accepted the role of Saruman. Lee is the only cast and crew who has met Tolkien and he also reads the books every year.

• Ian McKellen hadn’t read the books when he was first approached by Peter Jackson to play Gandalf. It was Jackson’s enthusiasm for the project that won him over. McKellen later based Gandalf’s accent on that of Tolkien himself.

• While Christopher Lee was always Peter Jackson’s first choice for the role of Saruman. Jackson did consider Tim Curry, Jeremy Irons and Malcolm McDowell for the role.

• Ian Holm was always Peter Jackson’s first choice to play Bilbo Baggins.

• Orlando Bloom originally auditioned for the part of Faramir. He was called back and subsequently cast, instead, as Legolas. Bloom landed the role of Legolas two days before he finished drama school.

• Peter Jackson’s first two choices for the role of Aragorn were Daniel Day-Lewis and Russell Crowe. Day-Lewis turned down the role of Aragorn and Crowe was excited about the prospect of being involved with a major motion picture in New Zealand, but couldn’t commit due to scheduling conflicts in America.

• Stuart Townsend was originally cast as Aragorn, but was replaced by Viggo Mortensen after four days of shooting because Peter Jackson realized that an older actor was needed. Robin Atkin Downes and Jason Carter also auditioned for the role of Aragorn.

• Although David Bowie was said to be keen on playing Elf Lord Elrond, the part went instead to Hugo Weaving.

• Kevin Conway was originally cast as Theoden but decided to work on the film Gods and Generals (2003) instead. Later on he part went to Bernard Hill.