Filming the Lord of the Rings Trilogy

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The (2002), and Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The (2003) were filmed simultaneously. The back-to-back shoot lasted a record-equaling 274 days, in 16 months – exactly the same time as taken for the principal photography of Apocalypse Now (1979).