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GAME · 2023 · GERMANY

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum

12 archived facts 3 topics

Gollum, the ring-obsessed creature at the heart of The Lord of the Rings, took shape through Tolkien's rewrites, a Beowulf model and a groundbreaking CG performance by Andy Serkis.

12 Interesting Facts About The Lord of the Rings: Gollum

Interesting Facts (9)

  1. #001

    In the 1937 first edition of The Hobbit, Tolkien wrote Gollum as a cheerful character who wanted to give Bilbo the ring as a reward for answering the riddles correctly.

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  2. #002

    Tolkien modeled Gollum on Grendel from the Old English poem Beowulf, who is called a shadow walker and is also said to speak in the third person.

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  3. #003

    The launch was so poor and bug-ridden that Digital Trends could not score the game at first: persistent crashes kept it from being reviewed until a day-one patch arrived, a first for the publication.

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  4. #004

    The "Precious Edition" bundled concept art, a compendium, the soundtrack and extra voice acting in Sindarin. It cost $70.00 at launch and drew a negative fan response for charging players more for more authentic voice work.

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  5. #005

    Online reviewer Skill Up set out to review the game but abandoned the attempt halfway, finding it far too broken and bad.

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  6. #006

    After the overwhelming negative reaction, Daedalic Entertainment closed the entire development studio, which now focuses only on producing games rather than trying to make them.

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  7. #007

    Days before release, on 23 May, full footage of the game leaked onto YouTube and was taken down several hours later.

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  8. #008

    The game contains no fighting and no action, despite the developers calling it an "action adventure".

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  9. #009
    Contains a major spoiler — show

    Peter Jackson initially shot a scene in which Frodo angrily pushes Gollum, ring and all, into the fires of Mount Doom, but dropped it because it would have made Frodo too unlikeable.

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Production Story (2)

  1. #010

    The effects team had designed its CG Gollum before Andy Serkis was cast; after seeing his expressive performances, they decided to overhaul Gollum completely.

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  2. #011

    To capture Andy Serkis's performance, the team devised a technique called combination sculpting that tracks 964 different facial points, and had to finish it in record time because production was already underway.

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Behind the Scenes (1)

  1. #012

    Early in the trilogy's shoot, the actors filmed on location with a stand-in, while Serkis later performed his scenes alone on a sound stage against green screen.

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