Welcome to Director Watch! On this AwardsWatch podcast, co-hosts Ryan McQuade and Jay Ledbetter attempt to breakdown, analyze, and ultimately, get inside the mind of some of cinema’s greatest auteurs. In doing so, they will look at their filmographies, explore what drives them artistically and what makes their decision making process so fascinating. Add in a few silly tangents and a fun game at the end of the episode and you’ve got yourself a podcast we truly hope you love. On episode 100 of the Director Watch Podcast, the boys are joined by AwardsWatch Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello to discuss the next film in their Peter Jackson series, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002).

Once The Fellowship of the Ring released into theaters, and became the biggest film of the year, audiences didn’t have to wait too long to go back and continue the journey in Middle Earth as the winter of 2002 brought the second chapter of The Lord of the Rings to the big screen. Continuing the events of the saga just after the separation of the fellowship, our heroes venture off into three separate but vital storylines for the ultimate destination of destroying the ring of power and saving Middle Earth from a dark war. Though the middle chapter, many, including Ryan, hold The Two Towers as their favorite entry into the trilogy, one with heart, action, and a new, game changing character in Gollum that makes for one of the most important villains in modern film. Ryan, Jay, and Sophia break down their thoughts on the film, the revolutionary work on Gollum, casting what ifs, the introduction to the Kingdom of Rohan and its incredible characters, why Jay doesn’t think Legolas isn’t that cool, what the gang was like in high school, space missions, favorite type of potato, and so many more thing about and not about the film. It’s the 100th episode and it’s a damn good one.

You can listen to the Director Watch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 2h54m. The guys will be back next week to continue their series on the films of Peter Jackson with a review of his next film, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. You can rent it via iTunes and Amazon Prime rental in preparation for the next episode of Director Watch. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: MUSICALIFE, from Pond5 (intro) and “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).