Before Peter Jackson and his team took on the crazy task of adapting a thousand-page fantasy epic for the big screen, "The Lord of the Rings" was always called an "unfilmable" book. It was too long, had too many characters, would cost too much money. Despite this, Jackson and New Line did the impossible and released some three pretty faithful, pretty long (and pretty great) movies. If you havent gone through the books yourself, you might not realize just how much of the Tolkein legedarium is either missing or altered. Tons of characters, lines, locations, and implied events were lost on the way from page and screen. Even though some of the following appeared in SOME way, it hurts more than a Morgul Blade that well never get to see their original versions (until Jackson re-shoots new material for an super-super extended-extended edition, of course).
5. Old Man Willow
From: The Fellowship of the Ring
In the movie: The two Hobbits Frodo and Sam are sent on the road to Bree by Gandalf, who says hell meet them there after he attends to some wizard affairs. After being joined by two fugitive friends and evading some Black Riders, the four little Hobbits make it to Bree without further incident.
In the book: In the book, the road to Bree is a lot longer and covers three whole chapters. In the first of these three, Frodo and his friends journey into the Old Forest, a mysterious wooded labyrinth and home to one notorious Old Man Willow. Once arriving at the unassuming willow tree, the Hobbits begin to feel drowsy. While resting against the trees roots, Merry and Pippin get ensnared by them and are trapped beneath. Sam and Frodo are mondo worried that their friends have disappeared and try figure out a way to get them out. Luckily, this dude named Tom Bombadil comes along and sings, causing the nasty tree to relax and release the imprisoned friends. Then they go to Tom Bombadils house and party with his hippie wife.
Why It Would Have Been Awesome: The Old Man Willow scene might not sound that exciting for an action scene, but we can put faith in the hunch that good ol Pete would turn this up to 11 and turn Old Man Willow into a branch-swinging, Hobbit-swatting, unstoppable jerk. Not only would it be cool to see a tree battling Hobbits, but it would be a great opportunity to illustrate the wonders (and dangers) that lie beyond the Shires borders. This scene was included in some capacity in the film, making in little homage-appearance in the extended cut for The Two Towers. Instead of Old Man Willow swallowing up Merry and Pip in the Old Forest, an unnamed tree does so in Fangorn Forest. Treebeard is given Toms place in the scene.