Peter (cont.): [Farewell to Faramir] Likewise, this is another scene that was more of a denouement scene that we felt –. You can, sort of, see from what we are, you know, looking at now how many, kind of, denouements we actually had. One of the problems of having multiple storylines is that you, sort of… to want to wrap each of them up, so we did film these little conclusions to each of the storylines, and felt that we didn’t really need any of them in the theatrical version. In fact, this one here sort of serves the main purpose of setting up the threat that they face in Film Three, doesn’t it, really? The dark terror that dwells above Cirith Ungol.

Philippa: Yep. This is exactly what this is about.

Fran: [at same time as Philippa] Mmm.

Philippa: Which is good to put it in the DVD, because when you think about it, you know, in the theatrical version, Film Three was a year away, so what was the point of, sort of, talking about something that people weren’t going to see for a year? but this DVD is coming out, what, about a month or six weeks before the release of ‘The Return of the King’, so it’s a great opportunity just to set up where they’re going and what that actually means: it’s – they’re going to a very, very bad place. [in an American accent] A very bad place for Frodo and Sam.

Philippa: Yeah.

Peter: [American accent] Stay tuned. (beat) [normal accent] Going in the sewers under the River was a way that we could get them across the River, because we had this problem with Osgiliath that the goodies are on the other side of the River, and Frodo and Sam need to get across the River to carry their journey on, and so we didn’t want them to go on boats or anything, so we created this concept of a sewer-tunnel that, sort of, goes underneath. (beat) A little moment with Sam and Gollum here. It prefigures the next scene with Gollum in the sense that this shows how he’s duopolistic: he’s pretending that nothing’s wrong, but when we see him in the subsequent scene, which was in the theatrical version, we can see just what a pretence he’s putting on here.

Philippa: Well he’s quite wretched in that scene, and I don’t think he has come to a decision.

Peter: No, he works it out on screen, [Philippa: Yeah.] doesn’t he? Within the course of the scene.

Philippa: It’s a little bit of an olive branch, in a way, to make the fact that the one person who’s always mistrusted Sméagol – the last thing you hear in this movie has been Sam saying, “That’s very decent of you, very decent indeed,” which is, like, “No, Sam! Don’t! Don’t! What’re you doing? You can’t trust this guy.”