3-24-03

Ending The Return of the King.
Tehanu @ 8:10 pm EST
A couple of comments have come in about this. Nathalie writes, "I saw in a french magazine named ONE today that Liv Tyler is going to follow in her father's footsteps and that she would be singing the song we'll find at the end of ROTK, when the credits roll. It's supposed to be called Arwen's song and Liv is supposed to sing it in elvish!" Dion found this: "While reading through Ian McKellen's "Grey Book", I found a small but interesting tidbit that confirms the report on the ROTK ending you posted on 3-18-03. Mr. McKellen writes in his entry of 8 August 2000: "For Bilbo's last scene, Ian [Holm] wore a latex mask of wrinkles and scrawn before sailing away to the distant Havens where Tolkien's good people achieve their rest. It was an odd experience because Galadriel was with us but Cate Blanchett was not -- more scope for film magic to add the genuine Elf Queen who goes voyaging with Bilbo and Gandalf at the end." [Grey Book]

Valerie noticed, "The calligrapher for the movies trained Ian Holm to write for "Concerning Hobbits", and that he trained Elijah Wood as well. Well, in the book " The Lord of the Rings: The Making of a Movie Trilogy", on page 54 there is a picture of what at first appears to be Bilbo writing his book at the beginning of the Extended FOTR, but upon closer inspection is really Frodo! And for these reasons: a) he is wearing different clothes, b) his hair is darker, and c) the room is a lot tidier!"

And Micaela wrote, "Concerning the ending to ROTK, I'm still a newbie to the fan and film sites. So I'm doing a lot of poking around. So I was surprised to find this Q&A with Peter address the concern. Herewith: what Peter himself said about the ending:

"The fans at THEONERING.NET ask... Everyone has their favorite scene in LORD OF THE RINGS; what's yours and why?

Peter Jackson: "I think my favorite scene of Lord of the Rings is really the end, the Grey Havens, at the very end of film three. To me it's a culmination of the entire story, it represents what it is to give and what it is to lose - that is all encapsulated in that one scene, and I think that it's probably the most powerful part of the entire story."

Joanna added one more detail, "but in watching the commentary with Peter Jackson and the other writers on the fellowship of the ring extended DVD, one of them, either Fran Walsh or Philippa Boynes mentioned that Galadriel is the first and LAST to speak in the films and mentioned "last" being in the third movie. Of course things could have changed since then but I just thought that this was very interesting and could mean that she maybe mentions what happens to the fellowship beyond their parting?!"