Principal photography for The Lord of the Rings film trilogy began in 1999.
The large-scale shoot started on 11 October 1999 in New Zealand and continued for roughly 14 months. Peter Jackson and his production team filmed the three movies together rather than completing one film entirely before starting the next, an approach that helped maintain continuity across the interconnected story.
The trilogy was filmed primarily in New Zealand, using locations across both the North Island and South Island. Sets, miniatures, costumes, visual effects, and extensive location work were developed for the combined production. Additional filming and reshoots took place after the main photography period.
This date is easy to confuse with the release years: The Fellowship of the Ring premiered in 2001, The Two Towers in 2002, and The Return of the King in 2003. The films’ back-to-back production was one of the most ambitious undertakings in cinema at the time.