Another year down the road and another Ring*Con come and gone. For the third year running, fans and…
Continue ReadingAnother year down the road and another Ring*Con come and gone. For the third year running, fans and guests from some 30 countries over the world gathered in Bonn, Germany for what is know to be Europe’s biggest Lord of the Rings-convention. And like any good ‘sequel’ it delivered on everything it should have: it was bigger, drew more visitors, got the big-name actors and was (in my humble opinion) better as well. [Full Report!]
Another year down the road and another Ring*Con come and gone. For the third year running, fans and guests from some 30 countries over the world gathered in Bonn, Germany for what is know to be Europe’s biggest Lord of the Rings-convention. And like any good ‘sequel’ it delivered on everything it should have: it was bigger, drew more visitors, got the big-name actors and was (in my humble opinion) better as well.
For the third installment organizers managed to sign an impressive list of actors to attend; experienced conventioneers Lawrence Makoare and Jorn Benzon; first-timers Jarl Benzon, Sandro Kopp, Paul Norell and Thomas Robins; Ring*Con-veterans Mark Ferguson and Craig Parker and topliners Billy Boyd and Bernard Hill, the latter of whom only signed up after the rather late cancellations of Karl Urban and John Noble due to work commitments.
All of them as well as almost a dozen Tolkien-experts and lecturers and four music bands made their way down to the Maritim Hotel-slash-conventioncentre in Bonn, for the third and probably last time home of Ring*Con. Because next year installment of the convention has already been announced, but will move to a different hotel in the nearby town of Fulda. But more on that later.
Programming has always been the things that made Ring*Con so immensely popular. Combining actor-panels and q&a’s with lectures from experts and enthusiastic fans, workshops, and impressive dealer and gaming-area’s. And this year was no different from that, with an amazing 10 events going on at the same time at a certain point during the weekend.
And because there was so much going on at any given time the convention floor hardly ever seemed crowded, even though numbers were higher then last year (and obviously the year before). The only times when things looked extremely busy were when guests filled up and left the main hall for key events like the opening and closing ceremony and the Billy Boyd and Bernard Hill-panels.
That this year would have a higher number of attendees compared to last year became obvious of Thursday with more visitors choosing to check in the hotel the day before the convention started, despite an ‘easy’ afternoon of programming on Friday with a couple of (German) lectures and panels from the Benzon-brothers and Sandro Kopp, the latest actor/extra to have joined the convention-circuit and certainly one to keep an eye on. Of course this early excitement might have had something to do with the pianobar…
Long lines filled the lobby before doors opened on Friday, and when they did visitors did not rush to the main hall to reserve a seat, they did not flock into the dealer area or into some of the lectures; no, they went and did something else. They are a loyal bunch those Ring*Conians; they all rushed towards the pre-registration desk for next year and by the end of the weekend 700 people had booked tickets for next year, most of which did so on Friday. Booked without knowing the venue (which has yet to be build) or any of the starguests or even what exactly they’ll get for their money.
Things picked up in the afternoon with the first ever convention appearance on Paul Norell (The King of the Dead). And although he admitted to being very nervous (and it showed, especially in the beginning) he turned out to be a wonderful, charming speaker who had some interesting stories to tell about working with Peter Jackson (and discovering the many, many ways in which someone can turn and look into the camera) and the two years (!) that seperated the filming of both camera-angles in the scenes he shares with Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas. Also, did anyone know Paul Norell is one of the two Easterlings that can’t find Frodo and Sam in front of the Black Gates in The Two Towers? Well, now you do.
After his panel came the opening ceremony (a mixture of stage and screen performances) and the introductions of all the guests followed by the highlight of that day: Billy Boyd’s first q&a. He couldn’t make the opening ceremony (missed it by mere minutes) because his flight was delayed but was rushed into the Maritim right on time for his scheduled 8 p.m. panel. Unfortunately he was at a total loss as far as why he was on stage so it took a few minutes for him to understand what he was supposed to do. After he was briefed and his panel got underway there was a slight scare for those hoping for, well, questions and answers because the first few questions seemed to be along the lines of ‘sing us a song’ (buy the dvd) or ‘I just want to say you look really great and I’m glad you are here’. It all turned out alright though and Billy was as charming and funy and not to mention mischievous as ever.
The first day ended with a q&a with Lawrence Makoare and a part q&a part comedyshow by Mark Ferguson and Craig Parker. Being in attendance for an amazing third time Mark and Craig are Ring*Con-favorites with the downside that we’ve all heard their stories by now. They found a clever solution for that though; taking questions for the first half of their panel and fooling around for the second. The format is known: they’ll tell a story one word at a time followed by an interview with a visitor who answered in German which then had to be translated by Craig (something they apparently made up a few minutes before going on stage) but it is always funny nonetheless.
Saturday was the conventions busiest day; lots of programming and lots of visitors. Fresh out of breakfast visitors were treated to the first Bernard Hill q&a. Much can be written about Bernard but fact remained that his session was funny and interesting and he scored points with remarks as ‘they should have made six movies’, ‘Hobbits are a nasty race of midgets’ and ‘we couldn’t have the Rohirrim singing in battle, it would be like some kind of scene from Monthy Python’s Life of Brian wouldn’t it?’
The main part of the day was reserved for the first autograph session. Visitors who had bought the three-day package (and they were legion) got most of the autographs for free and only had to pay an amazingly low 10 euros for those of Billy Boyd and Bernard Hill so obviously interest was high. But the autograph session left a gap in programming from noon till 5 and that was hard to fill. Unlike last year there was no real ‘high profile’ programming like the WETA-demonstration and it was something like that that was missed in those hours and in the second signing session on Sundaymorning. WETA-people are obviously busy and John Howe apparently had to bow out due to other commitments, but perhaps next year…
The evenings programming was some half an hour delayed because close to 1400 people were rushed through in the first autograph session (impressive numbers indeed, though unfortunately it meant no hobnobbing with the stars but there were plenty other occasions for that). The delay also meant Craig Parker and Mark Ferguson had to cut their second panel short as well, but they had plenty on their plates anyway as they also had to host the auction and costume contest (yes there was a costume contest but I avoided it this year so I can’t complain about it).
Very unsurprisingly the costume contest went on for longer then expected meaning that Billy Boyd’s panel started later and lasted slightly shorter then was planned. The same can be said for the other panels that evening; Thomas Robins (who made his debut and did an excellent job at it) and Paul Norell but that was okay as it prevented the much seen (or heard) embarrising silences you sometimes get when noone has a question. None of that this time around though, as a matter a fact all the q&a’s during the weekend were interesting, the questions were good and there was little to none ‘does anyone have another question… noone?’ coming from the stage. Also, and that was perhaps even more surprising there was very little ‘I have a present for you, can I come up and bring it’, ‘tell us about Orlando/Viggo/someone else’ or ‘please reenact this or such scene for us (even though you were not in it) and can I join in?’ coming from the audience. This of course once again shows that those Ring*Conians are not also very loyal but also genuinly interested in what the actors have to say, and are not so much asking questions for their own pr.
Sunday’s autograph session caused the program to be delayed for a bit as well, but no harm done there. In fact the time was well spent talking to New Zealand-native but German-born Sandro Kopp. Sandro (one could argue he has some blink-or-you’ll-miss-them scenes in the movies, but at least he had many of them) is a self proclaimed “very, very lucky guy” who not only got some work on the set but who also happens to be a very talented artist who’s work has interested Richard Taylor (with a possible job at WETA in the future) and recently got him drawing alongside the likes of John Howe and Alan Lee. And a possible book of his artwork made on set might not be far off, so be sure to check out this website for more on Sandro in the near future!
Bernard Hill’s second panel started of the final track schedule of the weekend, followed by Thomas Robins, who really turned out to be the positive surprise of the weekend. And he had stories as well, having worked with PJ before on Heavenly Creatures (although his one scene with Kate Winslet was cut, or so he says) and Forgotten Silver. Lawrence Makoare finished it off with a panel featuring his many wonderful Viggo Mortensen and PJ-imitations and some unexpected disco-dancing! After that it was time for the closing ceremony, once again a great mixture of stageperformances and video’s including a swordfighting demonstration with cameo’s from Thomas Robins, Paul Norell and Lawrence Makoare and some comedy from the runner-up of Germany’s version of Star Search or whatever they call those talent searches nowadays; unexpected fun for those that understood a bit of German!
Much like writing this report the entire weekend flew by and to be honest I’ve been to conventions where that certainly wasn’t the case. And yes maybe this was because sometimes during the weekend I figured it would be better to go for a swim or have a drink in the bar with some friends instead of being on the convention floor. But to be honest that is, perhaps more then other things, what Ring*Con is all about: enjoying yourself, relaxing and drinking beer. Err.. I mean hanging out with friends.
It was hard to find any flaw in last years convention and it was even harder this year. Delays in programming (and the waiting around that came with it) were annoying but also the only glitches in the organisation that I noticed. And that is probably the thing that sets Ring*Con apart from other events: their organisation is top notch. The man behind that is FedCon’s Dirk Bartholomae who with his key crew must have done at least 15 conventions and practise makes perfect.
Some doubts as to how smoothly this years Ring*Con would run arose after German Tolkien Society Chairman Marcel Buelles and Herr-der-Ringe-film.de webmaster Stefan Servos announced that they wouldn’t be involved this year, but none of that transpired. Of course that might have been because they were still working; doing lectures (on Sunday morning nonetheless, a very difficult time), taking care of lecturers and whatnot. It just shows the devotion these two have to Ring*Con after being the spiritual fathers of the first installment in 2002.
A devotion that can also be found in the visitors, many of whom have attended all three installments of the convention. Like I said; they are a loyal crowd, they are a smart crowd and they are a growing crowd.
And rightly so, because so far the organisation hasn’t let them down. They keep prices very reasonable, programming very interested and they keep on lining up the big names. Brad Dourif the first time around, John Rhys-Davies last year and now Billy Boyd and Bernard Hill. Obviously the successes they had in the past have generated some good gossip in the convention-circuit and for next year even bigger names are expected amongst the lineup.
They will no doubt get some good promotion from this years guests, none of whom could find something bad to say about the event and all of whom seemed to have had a good time. It was the first convention for people like Paul Norell and Thomas Robins and it’ll be hard for them to find one to top it.
More visitors are also expected and noone will really mind that either. Ring*Con 2002 was a wonderful event which had a small and almost intimate feel to it with the actors roaming the conventionfloor freely and hanging out in the bar at night. That has certainly changed over the years and now we are at a point where it is getting slightly surreal (and this is going for all conventions by the way) to the point where none of them can walk around without being asked for photographs and even the Master of Ceremonies (the ever excellent Marc B. Lee) is signing signatures every other yard. Everyone seems to be a star and thus they are almost forced to distant themselves from the main convention areas. But its a win-win situation; a convention that draws lots of visitors can offer more money to bring in the bigger names.
Competition, for now, need not worry though: according to Bartholomae a copy of Ring*Con cannot easily be put together somewhere else as the German event relies heavily on its volunteers (many of whom have worked together on several conventions). And actually that’s a pity. In this world where there’s a convention every other weekend we could do with some more quality and some less quantity.
Because lets face it folks; there’s some conventions out there that don’t compare to Ring*Con. Events that are all about autographs are fine if you enjoy lining up all day for one little scribble, but do they really offer that much more? Conventions like Ring*Con are at least worth every penny you pay for it, keeping you entertained almost 12 hours a day. In fact, its not so much a convention; its more like an experience.
And I’ll go out on a limb and say it: it is the best Lord of the Rings-convention experience out there.
Next year the organisation will face a very tempting challenge: a sparkly new location in the form of the Esperanto Hotel in Fulda, Germany. Bigger location, presumably a bigger number of attendees and bigger names… Blimey, that sounds like a successful sequel, wouldn’t wanna miss it for the world!
Want more pictures from this event? Well, mine aren’t extremely good but you can find the ones above and some others with more little stories from the weekend in this gallery here!
From Deseret News: Movie magic is the theme this month at the Woodbury Art Museum in Orem’s University Mall with “LOTR” fantasy art by the Hildebrandt brothers and “Favorite Flix” by the Society of Illustrators. Both exhibits will be on display from Nov. 5-23, with a free opening reception for the public on Friday from 6 to 8:30PM. The museum, sponsored by Utah Valley State College, is free and open to the public Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and Wednesday from 10AM to 8PM Call 426-6199 for information.
Tinuvielas writes: RingCon 2004 in Bonn, Germany is once again over and the 3000-odd fans have left Europe’s largest Fanstasy and LotR-convention with the usual feeling of melancholy, discarding their often elaborate robes, ears and wigs and discussing in trams and trains on their way home. [More]
You can also take a look at Irascian’s report from the same Con! [More]
Tinuvielas writes: RingCon 2004 in Bonn, Germany is once again over and the 3000-odd fans have left Europe’s largest Fanstasy and LotR-convention with the usual feeling of melancholy, discarding their often elaborate robes, ears and wigs and discussing in trams and trains on their way home. Even though this year the RingCon was organised by FedCon only, without the participation of the German JRRT-society and the German website herr-der-ringe-film.de, the mix was about the same as last year:, and as successful: elaborate costumes; the fans putting up three great processions (of Gondorians, wandering Elves, with lights and all, and a funerary march of the Rohirrim, including a dead Theoden on a bier.); workshops, lectures, live music (Schelmish, Battleore, the Irish Folkband Glendalough, Eve & the Breeze); picture- and autograph sessions with the guest-stars; games; and last but not least arts-, video, costume and performance-contests.
For those who haven’t been able to participate, I’d like to give a short (or not so short, lol) account of some of the things that were going on, including a transcript (from memory, so there may be minor errors in phrasing) of the major points of the panels held by Billy Boyd and Bernard Hill and a summary of some of the more interesting talks held by German JRRT-experts.
1. Videos
First, there were three hilariouis video-productions to be seen, which hopefully will appear somewhere (???) on the net soon.
For one, there was a video to the music of “we will rock you”, sung by a children’s choir (!) and showing lots of orc-fighting sequences. Below and above the film ran a blood-red banner, which halfway through suddenly read (in German and English, and pretty ugly letters:) “The orc children’s choir “Dead Earth” greets the troops and wishes them success for their campaign against the evil human hordes! – pause – kill them all, daddy!” (this last to a pic of Gothmog…)
Then we had some wonderful parody-commercials. Outstanding: “Elrond’s fashion studio”… can’t really remember the other ones, but I’m sure others will!?
Finally, the best of all: A video to the German song “Männer” by Herbert Grönemeyer, the text of which basically plays with all the prejudices people have about men, illustrated by scenes from the Trilogy: “Men run against walls” (Helm’s deep!); “they smoke pipe” (Gandalf and Bilbo sending the pipe weed ships into the air), “they are constantly ‚electrified‘ (meaning: under current, active; Pip holding the palantir); “they always hang on to the telephone” (Saruman and the palantir); “they are very thorough” (Gimli jerking his axe lodged in the head of the dead orc…); “men can do anything” (Aragorn listening, his ear close to the ground); men are solitary warriors (Aragorn on his horse alone, riding towards Edoras”); “men are being ‚made men‘ early in childhood” (Pippin taking his arms; Aragorn and the kid at Helm’s deep); “men build rockets” (Saruman filling his bomb). This all ending in the refrain-question: “When exactly is a man a man???” – to the pic of Eowyn taking off her helmet! J
2. The panels
Secondly, the above mentioned panels – for some (P) the main reason to come to RingCon.
Apart from the major stars Billy Boyd (“We have a hobbit in the house”, as moderator Marc B. Lee put it…) and Bernard Hill (both were confirmed rather late, after Karl Urban and John Noble had cancelled… not a bad substitute, if I may say), there was the by-now famous Craig Parker (“Haldir”) / Mark Ferguson (“Gil Galad”)-duet, hilarious as usual. Any who have seen them on stage know they are as gifted a pair of stand-up comedians as any, and they were greeted with roaring applause at their third appearance at RingCon. In fact, they‘re now so much of an institution that many fans wondered why it was Marc B. Lee that moderated the whole thing instead of them….
To give an idea of the level of intimacy reached between them and the audience, I’ll refer a slightly, ahem, slashy joke they made in their usual word-by-word story (they always tell a story starting from a chance word from the audience, the two of them talking together, each uttering a single word in turn… this year, it was about “Frodo going on a quest for… a “Reibekuchen”, which is a German potatoe-food, fried, sweet, fat and with lots of applesauce…). Pretty much at the beginning, they went: “Frodo – jumped – out – of – Sam! (roaring laughter in the audience) – ahem, the cushions”. Don’t remember which of the two actually made the slash-joke and tried to look contrite…
Other panels were held by Jarl and Jorn Benzon (Glorfindel / the much admired Rumil), Lawrence Makoare (Lurtz, Gothmog, Witchking, now almost as much an instituion at RingCon as Craig and Mark), Paul Norell (King of the Ghosts, who was VERY sympathetic and moved to be part of the Con), Thomas Robbins (Deagol, who started his panel with a hilarious pantomime of his one and only scene in RotK) and Sandro Kopp, to his knowledge the only German who acted in the films. He’s a very refreshing, natural and sympathetic guy (not to mention the fact that he’s pretty attractive…) who‘s had nine different roles in the pickups. On his second panel, he was even appearing barefoot and in costume, wearing a beautiful grey elven robe (tied with a pin above the knee, which kept slipping, rofl). Besides, he’s an artist and on request gave a powerpoint illustration of the wonderful drawings of principal and minor actors he did during the shooting (and which can also be admired on his website). One of the funnier things he told and which I hadn’t heard before was the distinction used on set of the “Tunten”- (i.e. “effeminate, gay”) Elves, the “Jaws Elves” (at Helm’s deep) and the “Floating Elves” (the robed ones, who kept stumbling over their costumes).
Other panels were held by Jarl and Jorn Benzon (Glorfindel / the much admired Rumil), Lawrence Makoare (Lurtz, Gothmog, Witchking, now almost as much an instituion at RingCon as Craig and Mark), Paul Norell (King of the Ghosts, who was VERY sympathetic and moved to be part of the Con), Thomas Robbins (Deagol, who started his panel with a hilarious pantomime of his one and only scene in RotK) and Sandro Kopp, to his knowledge the only German who acted in the films. He’s a very refreshing, natural and sympathetic guy (not to mention the fact that he’s pretty attractive…) who‘s had nine different roles in the pickups. On his second panel, he was even appearing barefoot and in costume, a beautiful grey elven robe. Besides, he’s an artist and on request gave a powerpoint illustration of the drawings of principal and minor actors he did during the shooting. Those can also be admired on his website. One of the funnier things he told and which I hadn’t heard before was the distinction used on set of the “Tunten”- (i.e. “effeminate, gay”) Elves, the “Jaws-elves” (at Helm’s deep) and the “Floating Elves” (the robed ones, who kept stumbling over their costumes).
ATTENTION: HERE BE RotK-EE SPOILERS (which I have marked in the text, so you can skip these paragraphs)
1. Billy Boyd
Supposedly, Billy’s plane was late, so that at first he wasn’t present at the opening ceremony. However, just when the crown had voiced their disappointed “ooh..”, Marc B. Lee announced that “we have a hobbit in the house!” and positively thrust BB on stage, where he stood alone, somewhat stiff and apparently at a loss at what exactly he was supposed to do. After putting this question to the equally confused audience, he retreated backstage, telling everyone to “wait a minute”. When he came back, he seemed better informed and told abt. the plane, and his luggage being lost, etc.
Now I’m not quite sure if this was intended to be a joke, referring to last year’s troubles with John Rhys Davies arriving late, but I AM sure that it wasn’t true, because I’ve heard backstage people say that Billy’d been waiting behind the curtains all along. So if it was a joke, it didn’t go off very well… it also made for a somewhat weird beginning of the first panel, which was not bettered by the first questions, which revolved around “Ohhhh, Billy, we’re so happy to have you here!”, “Billy, your scottish accent is so cute!!!” and “Could you sing for us???” (which he flatly denied – understandably so, given the rather cool atmosphere of the panel at that point. A good question, but not a good time to ask it). A lot of people were surprised that, unlike the “secondary” actors, and quite unlike what you’d have expected from this actor from his DVD specials appearances etc, he really seemed quite tense and reserved at first.
The first “serious” question was about Dom supposedly being sick after smoking a pipe of pipeweed. In answer, BB talked about how the actors got to choose their own pipe shortly before shooting began, which was a special moment for him; about how Dom really got sick once after smoking that pipe; and about himself trying to get used to it and even liking it (though he is a non-smoker), so as to be able to portray the hobbit enjoying his pipe. In the end, he said, he found he really did enjoy it, so much so that he became wary: “you don’t want to become addicted to that…”
SPOILER
Asked about new Pippin-scenes in RotK-EE, he told about Pippin having a scene where he has to pee, and mentioned the confrontation between Gandalf and Pippin and the Witchking, which we’ve known about for a while.
Somewhere along, he told the story where John Rhys Davies “ordererd everything on the menu for everyone – and ate it!”
A very nice question went sort of: How come that, unlike the other hobbits, Pippin has a scottish accent? In answer, BB said that the Tooks lived in a different part of the Shire, had a clan-like social structure and that the word “took” in fact has the meaning of “club” in Scottish, which fitted, since the Scots invented golf.
SPOILER
Later on, BB told how they had “in fact filmed Pippin inside the palantir”, i.e. standing in a circular room on fire, confronted by Sauron. Which was very cool, but looked too Sci-Fi, so it was decided to drop the scene.
2. Bernard Hill
BH was very relaxed on stage, sitting on a chair, wearing a black leather jacket (if I remember right) and munching an apple during both panels, which sometimes made for mumbling answers. Quite sympathetic! He also has a very nice voice, allthough I’ve heard people say that unlike John Rhys Davies, he doesn’t totally “fill the stage”.
Asked abt. his first scene, he said that it was Theoden arriving at Helm’s Deep; his second scene was “Theoden striding around with – what’s the guy’s name – Aragorn – on the battlements.” This forgetting of the other LotR-character’s names became a running gag.
What he liked abt. Helm’s Deep: “Everything”. It was night shots, cold, dark, wet, miserable, he got several scars etc etc., and that’s exactly why he liked it. “We got bashed arond a lot, which was fun.”
Asked abt. his recent experience of filming in Africa and the difference to New Zealand: “Africa was hot and full of bugs – New Zealand was not.” He then went on to describe the giant insects and cockroaches the size of his hand (!) found in Africa, doing an hilarious turn of giant beetles the size of his hand hitting a window behind him, and lying winded on their back.
His favorite battle speech: “Ride now, ride now, ride through ruin and the world’s ending – death!: Can’t get better lines than that. Really special stuff” (applause, of course…)
His favorite actor: Marlon Brando, the first screen actor who acted “real” on the screen. Also, different performances that impressed him, for example John Malkovich in the West End play “Burn This”.
Asked to tell some anecdote about Viggo, whom he shared a trailer with, he says the trailer was “their world”, they had parties, they had a wine cellar… there are lots of storys; I should write a book.” But he doesn’t tell one.
He then launches into half telling, half enacting the anecdote about the most difficult scene he had to do in RotK (which he’ll tell again in his second panel, in almost the same words, so it would seem he’s told this story before): It‘s the scene with Theoden cluttering the spears of his Rohirrim before the attack of the orcs on the Pelennor fields. This was his idea, “which pissed Peter Jackson off, but he had to admit it was a good idea in the end”. However, BH being lefthanded, he made Theoden lefthanded, which created major problems in the scene because PJ made the king ride from right to left over the screen. BH therefore had to hold his sword with his right (the wrong) hand. BH is used to holding the reigns in that hand, and to pulling the sword from the scabbard on his right hip with his left (at this point he explains why one mounts a horse from the left: “the only ones who ride horses are the people with a sword who kill other people”, and they usually have a long and cumbersome scabbard on their left hip, while they can swing their right leg over the horse easily”).
Anyway, in the scene in question he now has to get his sword out of the scabbard (“the heavey hero-sword, because the light-weight-aluminium sword was no good”: it would bend when hitting the spears, and “that would not be a good sign for the king riding to the enemy with a limp sword”) in front of 250 crew and 250 extras (“many of them women; if you’ve ever seen a woman with a beard, your in the middle of New Zealand and far from your wife, which is sort of exciting”), with a skittery horse called Percy beneath him (“I already got rid of one horse because he wouldn’t do it, and this one wants to go, this is fun!”), holding the reigns with a heavy, unwieldy glove (acts this with the microphone), with a helmet that keeps coming down his nose and impairing his sight (claps hand over his face to show”) and a “tortoise shell of mail” and “all kind of crap all around me” AND with a live microphone, so he knew PJ would hear him mutter: “f***ing director – stupid scene”. He finally get’s his sword out (he mimes all this, which is hilarious): “It’s in the wrong hand!!!”. So he has to change the sword from one hand to the other, which he eventually manages and then “let’s go – Percy’s off!”. However, there’s no chance to change the sword back again, which explains (all of the above) why in some scenes Theoden wields his sword with the left, and in others with the right hand.
PJ, it seems, didn’t think these incongruencies mattered. BH: “I’m leaving Edoras on a white horse, and I arrive at Helm’s Deep on a brown one. But PJ said, ah well, no one will notice…” (huge laughter from the audience…”).
In his second panel, BH is asked (first question) to perform “The horse and the rider”, but declines: “this is not what I was asked to do” (possible, but John Rhys Davies DID do Treebeard’s voice on stage).
Asked abt. his feelings about Theoden grieving over Theodred, he says in his opinion, the relationship between Theoden and Theodred was too little elaborated on, which made it difficult (as an example, he quoted PJ who’d seen and disliked R. Scotts “Gladiator” because “it was a film without a heart” since the relationship between the Gladiator and his family is never elaborated on).
Asked about outtakes, he tells about a scene which didn’t make it in the film, in which he was delivering a heroic speech in blue slippers (it took 20 minutes to put on the boots of his costume, and he had just taken them off when he was informed that this scene was added… it was a scene after the dialoge between Legolas, Aragorn and Gimli at Helm’s Deep when they discover there are only a few able men there, and the rest too old or too young. In that context, Theoden was talking abt. “only a hundred in whom the blood of Rohan flows”, and about the history of Helm Hammerhand.
Asked abt. how they filmed the aging process, BH tells that they asked him to do it backwards initially, which he couldn’t do: “how do you act backwards?”
And about his conception of Theoden: “All human beings are the same, they all go to the toilet, they all have their insecurieties… so beneath all this royalty, Theoden is insecure… these dynamics are very important.”
The most challenging scene: “Every scene with Viggo. Working with Viggo is a pain.” Why? “Because Viggo is a pain to work with. He has an opinion about everything. He never shuts up, and as far as I know, noone has ever convinced him he’s wrong.”
Fitting Final Quote for tonight – hope you have enjoyed!
From DVDtown: Today – We have put ten completely new screenshots online from the upcoming Extended Edition of “Return of the King.” Remember the place you saw these first and enjoy! [More]
