Checked out "Lord of the Rings : The Two Towers" last night and must say I was pretty impressed, even from the standpoint of someone who has never read the books. Anyway, apparently there was a tiny bit cut from the film – according to Entertainment Weekly.

What was the most painful thing to cut from this one?

Not a great deal was cut. There’s not very much [extra footage] with Frodo and Sam because there’s so much of Gollum in each of their scenes, and because those shots are so difficult to do, you don’t really do Gollum unless you absolutely know that it’s going to be in the movie. [We cut] the whole scene where Merry and Pippin drink the Ent draught. I’ll definitely put that on the DVD because it’s so funny.

What about filming ”The Hobbit,” Tolkien’s prequel to this trilogy?

I can honestly tell you that [New Line has] never, ever discussed it with me. I’ve never had a single ”Hobbit” conversation with anybody from the studio, and I’ve been working with them for five years now. But I know they’ve picked up the ”Hobbit” production rights as part of the ”Lord of the Rings” package — essentially to keep anybody else from making a ”Hobbit” film. The last thing that New Line wanted was to be spending all of this money on ”Lord of the Rings” movies, and then have a cheesy ”Hobbit” film get put out that somebody else makes.

Would you consider doing it eventually?

It would be a difficult decision. Difficult in the sense that I have other films that I want to make. I have three or four other ideas that I’m looking forward to doing one day. It would also be tough for me to think of somebody else doing it. But on the other hand, I’d like to pay 12 bucks and go see the ”Hobbit” that somebody else made and avoid ME doing all the work.

Thanks to Coming Soon