Horde Of The Rings

Showing true devotion to the films that have shaped the past three years of film history, thousands upon thousands of fans waited patiently for hours in the wet and cold yesterday for the final premiere in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. And the biggest crowd in UK premiere history - some 10,000 strong - was rewarded for their efforts with an almost full turn out of the cast and crew for The Return of the King with everyone from Peter Jackson and Liv Tyler to Viggo Mortensen, Billy Boyd and Sir Ian McKellen making the trip to London's Leicester Square. Unhappily though for the hordes of Orlando Bloom and Elijah Wood fans who had been waiting for almost ten hours to see their hero, Bloom and Wood couldn't make last night's premiere due to filming commitments. But the absence of these two wasn't enough to dampen the enthusiasm that met the stars as they arrived. 'This reception is just amazing,' beamed director Peter Jackson. 'I hear people have been here since five o'clock this morning and that's pretty touching.' 'The fans are so sweet,' added Liv Tyler. 'We've had the most incredible time going around these premieres. We were all really tired today and falling asleep in the car on the way here, but then we opened the car door and it was like "Wow!"' Full Premiere Report and Empire's Review We'll have a full premiere report, including a behind-the-scenes account of last night's mammoth Rings party up on the site later on today, so make sure you check back for that. In the meantime – if you'd like to know what Empire's reviewer thought of the final part in Jackson's epic journey, click here