Bear said:
Cheers. That’s all I could find as well!
I remember, around the time the third film came out, reading that several Mt. Doom endings had been filmed, although I have no solid evidence to back up whether this actually happened. For one of the big things I’d love to change would be to have Gollum’s demise as it is in the book. I appreciate PJ wanting to make the ending a little more Hollywood cliff hanger-esque (quite literally), but I adore Tolkien’s ambiguous, even fatalistic, end.
If any extra footage does make the light of day then I’ll happily integrate it into the finished product but in the mean time I’ve made a start to the editing and am so far very happy with the progress.
There were several endings filmed. Some footage can be found on the EE DVD, but it's incomplete (bluescreen and such) with Jackson yapping over it. There were three endings:
1.) Matched the book. Cut because they figured audiences would find it more humorous than dramatic. As much as I hate to say it, I agree. It may work in print, but when acted out, it would definitely look like a Homer Simpson moment. "D'oh!"
2.) Frodo deliberately pushes an inattentive Gollum into the pit, either out of anger at Gollum's betrayal or in an attempt to destroy the Ring. Cut because it made Frodo look like a murderer. I agree once more. It would be totally out of character, especially since Frodo is supposed to be lucid again.
3.) The one we saw. Frodo's struggle isn't to push Gollum over, but simply to get the Ring back. This fit with the power the Ring is supposed to have when this close to Mount Doom, and avoids the suspiciously convenient deus ex machina of Gollum tripping into the pit. Probably the best way to go, but you could argue, of course.
