Gandalf winter, they crossed "under" the mountains through the Mines of Moria, though only Gimli the Dwarf was enthusiastic about that route. In Moria, they discovered that the Dwarf colony established there earlier had been overrun by orcs. The Fellowship fought with the orcs and trolls of Moria and escaped them. At the Bridge of Khazad-dûm, they encountered "Durin's Bane", a fearsome Balrog from ancient times. Gandalf faced the Balrog to enable the others to escape. After a brief exchange of blows, Gandalf broke the bridge beneath the Balrog with his staff. As the Balrog fell, it wrapped its whip around
The Lord of the Rings (film series) negotiate with Saul Zaentz who had held the rights to the book since the early 1970s, pitching an adaptation of "The Hobbit" and two films based on "The Lord of the Rings". Negotiations then stalled when Universal Studios offered Jackson a remake of "King Kong". Weinstein was furious, and further problems arose when it turned out Zaentz did not have distribution rights to "The Hobbit"; United Artists, which was in the market, did. By April 1996, the rights question was still not resolved. Jackson decided to move ahead with "King Kong" before filming "The Lord of the Rings", prompting Universal