10 Amazing Behind The Scenes Stories From The Lord Of The Rings

One of the things that made LOTR so captivating was the insistence from Peter Jackson to make things appear as authentic as possible - a hard task when you have trolls and fellbeasts on set. But where possible, he used prosthetic make up, miniatures and huge groups of extras, to sell a scene, rather than relying on CGI.

So when he had the task of putting the famed Ride of the Rohirrim to screen, he wanted as many actual galloping warriors in frame as possible. In an instance of life imitating art, a call was put out across New Zealand for every able bodied horse rider to muster just outside the town of Twizel, and take part in the Charge of the Pelennor Fields.

Over 250 riders originally took up the call - many of whom were women, and had to be disguised with fake beards. After a week they were down to 150, but those who remained camped out on the plains for several weeks with their horses. They spent their time rehearsing, training, and partying, before taking part in one of the greatest battle sequences in cinema. Sounds like a pretty sweet gig.