[HairOfTheDog]

The director readily admits that of his three films, Two Towers departs most from Tolkien's work. "We were aware that we were making films for the hard-core Tolkien fan base as well as everyone else," says Jackson, who co-wrote the script with Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh. "In the beginning, it was a difficult tightrope to walk, but then we sort of abandoned thinking about it. If we make a good film, we'll be forgiven, whatever the crimes we commit to the book." Arwen, the beautiful elf played by Liv Tyler, doesn't appear in the book. But in the film, Jackson has love scenes between her and Aragorn? A romance based on an appendix that Tolkien later wrote about their doomed relationship.

The love scenes were added last summer. Though most of the trilogy was filmed during the initial shoot, which began in 1999, Jackson has done additional filming for both Fellowship and Two Towers. Even after six weeks of reshoots last summer, the filmmakers felt they were still missing a scene that tied all of Two Towers' story lines together.

I poo poo'ed earlier reports of this! Said it wasn't true... I trust it is not too much (it did get a PG-13 rating after all)

Me, I was gonna be thinking about sex enough without it! :~D

[ican'tbelieveit]

Oh there you go heating up a perfectly cold Sunday afternoon.

[LinnieBeth]

Hair, do you remember which thread had the pic of the Nazgul riding the Fell creature?

I've spent a fair amount of time looking on other sites- because I couldn't remember which FR thread it was on.

[maquiladora]

Hey Hair, time for a cold shower? Hehehe... ;-)

I wonder if Viggo knows how many millions of female admirers he must have. Lucky guy!

[BenLurkin]

I think Arwen is gorgeous. They can't put too much of her on screen to suit me.

The director took enough libeties with the first release to convince me he was indeed intersted in successful marketing (e.g. the variance from the book's descriptions of orcs) over slavish faithfulness to Tolkien.

I thought it was OK, and I hope that my satisfaction with his work will continue.

[ksen]

Aren't the "love" scenes supposed to be flash-forward to Arwen and Aragorn when they are married and he dies, and she goes to Lothlorien and dies?

I think Elrond is using that to convince her to leave Middle-Earth with him instead of giving up her immortality and staying with Aragorn.