The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers celebrated its 20th anniversary this week. To mark the milestone, the CEO and creative director of the props company behind the film series published a heartfelt note on Facebook reflecting on the milestone.
Richard Taylor of Weta Workshop, who won four Academy Awards for his work on The Lord of the Rings film series, specifically discussed Two Towers’ epic Helm’s Deep battle sequence. He shared a photo of himself standing atop a rock structure next to the main Orc, saying he feels a range of emotions thinking back on that day.
“It really does seem like a lifetime ago. I had climbed up on the rock to do final makeup and armor checks for the actor who about to deliver their ‘big moment.’ The first Assistant Director was sharing some thoughts that I was to pass onto the actor. I had stopped what I was doing and was intently trying to hear over the rumble of the army that was spread out below us. It causes me a unique mix of emotions seeing these photos again, as I recall the sense that I had standing up there looking down on this incredible scene, from this unique vantage point, and feeling somewhat in awe of the moment,” Taylor said.
Taylor went on to say he cannot remember who snapped the photo, but he’s fortunate that it exists so he has another nice memento of his time working on the film.
“The thing I will say though, is how immensely fortunate I feel that I’ve done a job that has offered moments like these. It will never lessen; how special these moments have been for me,” Taylor said.
Taylor won four Oscars for his work on Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings series, though all of his wins came for The Fellowship of the Ring and The Return of the King. After The Lord of the Rings, Taylor won an Oscar for Jackson’s King Kong in 2005.
The next Lord of the Rings movie is the animated film The War of the Rohirrim, which is set to hit theaters in 2024. Meanwhile, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 is filming now.
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