For the ''LOTR'' trilogy, Jackson's cast and crew had to endure 15 months of shoots, then return to New Zealand for even more filming this past summer. ''The second movie was always the most complicated in the writing stage,'' 21-year-old star Elijah Wood says. ''It was the most difficult of the films to infuse with heart, so it was great to go back and make it more emotional.''
Here's what moviegoers will see when ''The Two Towers'' opens Dec. 18: The Fellowship has scattered. Hobbits Frodo (Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin) struggle on to Mordor to destroy the evil Ring, accompanied by Gollum, a creature degenerated by his former ownership of the bauble. Hale 'n' hottie Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), extremely attractive elf Legolas (Orlando Bloom), and sure-he-has-a-good-personality Gimli the dwarf (John Rhys-Davies) set out to find problem-prone hobbits Merry (Dominic Monaghan) and Pippin (Billy Boyd), who were nabbed by the fiendish orcs at the end of ''Fellowship.'' They get swept up in wars brewed by Saruman (Christopher Lee), the wizard who had the break-dance battle with Gandalf (Ian McKellen), of whom you haven't seen the last, despite his fatal plunge in ''Fellowship.''
Jackson admits that of the three films, he took the most liberties with the ''Towers'' story lines. For one thing, he amplified the can't-end-well romance between mortal Aragorn and age-defying elf Arwen (Liv Tyler). ''There is no happy outcome!'' Jackson says. ''I'm very pleased with that story. It's been one of the tough ones because there's so little of it in the book.''
In fact, in the second book, Arwen isn't there at all. Of her ''Towers'' scenes, Tyler says: ''They focus more on the simple feelings of [Arwen's] being left behind and feeling in love and torn. This movie's more into that part of the relationship. It doesn't get that deep into it. There are men with swords to be seen! Who wants to hear about love? There are heads to chop off!''
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