12-04-01

ProudFEET! Tehanu @ 8:30 pm EST We can reveal the name of another character actor in FOTR: Noel Appleby. ProudFEET! I happened to be talking to Kiwi actor Noel Appleby recently, and it turns out that he played a character called Everard Proudfoot in the opening Shire scenes. The name confused me at first - there's an Everard Took mentioned in the book, but the only Proudfoot we know of is Odo. Nevertheless, Noel Appleby's line was to shout out "ProudFEET!" as per the scene at Bilbo's party. Noel's is one of those familiar faces in Kiwi film - I remembered him playing Ulf in Vincent Ward's The Navigator, in which role he was awarded Best Supporting Actor

TORN Digital Goes All Access Xoanon @ 6:16 pm EST Peter Orphanos, the producer for TORN Digital was recently invited to the press junket events in NYC. While he was there he saw a screening of the film (review to come soon) and met most of the cast! Peter will have a full report soon, but here are a few tidbits for you to enjoy! - All the cast seemed incredibly humble, they knew they are involved in something bigger than themselves. - Peter Jackson revealed that he is almost done editing The Two Towers, and WETA are about 80% complete with regards to digital effects. - Liv Tyler said that Viggo Mortensen was extremely adamant about adding lines from the appendix and ensuring that the lines were ver batum. - Ian McKellen was extremely proud to be involved with the entire event. - Elijah Wood seemed as cool and approachable as ever. - Much more to come soon!

12-02-01

LOTR:FOTR Commercial During SNL Xoanon @ 2:17 am EST Tolkientheo writes: I Don't know if anyone has reported this yet but between 10:40-11:10 CT at a commercial break during Saturday Night Live tonight, I saw what was in my opinion the best of all of the FOTR tv spots. It couldn't have been more than 30 seconds long. It began with (bear with me, saw it once, went by really fast) the shot of the trail in the forest during hobbit lunch break, than Frodo giving his "get off the road" line. Then I thought it showed a shot looking at expansive middle earth landscape from atop the misty mountains but close to the snow. You then see the chained ring being lifted in front of the camera. Next a few shots from previous trailers (battling orcs, uruk hai) than a shot of what looked like an exhausted Borormir in the forest looking RFG saying "Do you really think we stand a chance?" Than some more shots than one that stands out in my memory is one of the Cave troll attacking legolas - looks like the same part shown on Quest for the Ring w/ the troll attacking using the chain, only this time it was a shot from behind Legolas and the troll almost looked as if it was climbing up to the balcony part (not sure) then the music quickended and the trailer ended with a blur of dozens of shots - none of which lasting more than a second long - One of the shots I saw had to have been Saruman's lair, it was raining.

11-28-01

Peter Travers: LOTR Is #1 Xoanon @ 10:31 pm EST A fax came across my desk today from Disney Publicity, with Peter Travers' 2001 Top Ten List on it. I couldn't believe my eyes, however, when I saw what the #1 movie is... you guessed it: Lord of the Rings!! This is a huge development! I frankly wasn't expecting this kind of critical response, and Peter Travers is a very well-respected critic. This list will be in the December 27th end-of-the-year double-issue of Rolling Stone, which hits newsstands on Dec. 7th. Here is Peter Travers complete top ten list... 1. Lord of the Rings 2. Ali 3. The Royal Tenenbaums 4. Shrek 5. Vanilla Sky 6. Moulin Rouge 7. Black Hawk Down 8. A Beautiful Mind 9. A.I. 10. Ocean's 11 Here is another confirmation of this through Ringer spy Beorn Jr.: Hi, this is my first spy report to a website so I'm sorry if it comes out sounding all strange.... I am just SO excited by this news. I believe what my source tells me, but who knows until we really see it in print? My friend (who was one of the people working with New Line) told me that Peter Travers, prominent movie critic for Rolling Stone magazine, had seen a very early screening of "Fellowship of the Ring" over a week ago..... like way before anyone else did. He was so blown away by it that he declared it BEST PICTURE OF THE YEAR. And that's not all...... the early Oscar buzz has started to change a lot since the screenings this week! People are reacting with more and more enthusiasm so that now New Line is beginning to realize what they've got on their hands! Looks like a whole big campaign for Oscar voters will soon kick in. I double-checked with my friend who is a director and he said it's true, Travers' praise of the film will soon be out in Rolling Stone. Can you imagine the other large critics from Time, Entertainment Weekly, and of course Roger Ebert doing the same thing? What will happen next??!! I can't wait to see this movie even more!!! Maybe we finally will have a fantasy movie that will rock the critical establishment and bring Tolkien the due praise he deserves for writing the greatest story ever! :-) Beorn Jr.

More Cave Troll Action Xoanon @ 8:28 am EST From: Tony This morning NZ Breakfast TV showed footage from inside the WETA workshop of the construction of a 'scale' model of the Cave Troll which attacks the Fellowship in Balin's Tomb. This thing was HUGE. The Cave Troll was on it's back and WETA guys were clambering all over it sculpting the legs and the torso - one guy looked like he was using a chainsaw. The head looked just about finished, and it looked AWESOME! They also showed what looked to be about a six foot model of the same thing, with it's arms above it's head holding a weapon aloft. But the six foot model - and the workers - were truly dwarfed by the 'scale' model. The finished Cave Troll is going to stand outside the Embassy Theatre for the NZ premiere of FOTR - can't wait!

11-25-01

More On PJ Cameo Xoanon @ 3:00 pm EST An insider during the Bree scenes sends us this letter: I see you have the good oil on Peter Jackson's cameo. I can vouch for the accuracy of this as I was an extra in the film. As a life long Tolkien fan it was a great thrill to be an extra I can tell you. PJ plays a man bystander as the hobbits come into Bree . It is dark and pouring with rain - the hobbits come scuttling into Bree and are somewhat over whelmed by their first sight of man sized houses. Originally Jackson was smoking a long pipe but couldn't get it too light. After standing round for ages and a couple of takes it was not particularly realistic for someone to be in the rain smoking any way. So instead he grabbed a big carrot. That's the orange thing he is holding in the photo on your site. [More]

11-22-01

More On FOX's: Quest For The Ring Xoanon @ 11:49 am EST From: Sharon: Here's the updated info on the FOX Special FOX SPECIAL: QUEST FOR THE RING UNLOCK THE SECRETS OF "THE LORD OF THE RINGS" IN AN ALL-NEW SPECIAL 'QUEST FOR THE RING' THURSDAY, NOV. 29 ON FOX QUEST FOR THE RING will introduce the audience to the fabled and mystical plot of "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, based on the legendary novels by J.R.R. Tolkien. FOX takes viewers behind the scenes to preview New Line Cinema's adaptation of "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy with this special Thursday, Nov. 29 (8:00-8:30 PM ET/PT) on FOX. (SP-0227) (TV-G)

11-20-01

@Doscovery Canada Talks LOTR Xoanon @ 11:18 pm EST From: James @discovery.ca, the science new journal show on the Canadian Discovery Channel just ran a segment on Lord of the Rings, filmed at the Casa Loma exhibit, which examined the story and the film from an archeological point of view. At the end of the segment, Jay Ingram (the host) announced that they were working on a five-part series of segments on Lord of the Rings which will feature discussions of the languages, geography, and races in the novel, and the special effects in the film. Unfortuantely, I'm not sure when this series is to start. Ingram said "Monday, Dec. 13", but Dec. 13 is a Thursday... The show's web site is here. It features video clips from the previous day's show, so the LotR segment may appear tomorrow.

11-17-01

New Decipher Images Xoanon @ 12:21 pm EST Morgoth1970 sends along these great images from the Decipher Collection (www.decipher.com). Take a look at Legolas in what looks like Moria and Rosie Cotton! Sam you lucky Hobbit you!