‘Legend of the Seeker’ Seeks LOTR Glory on TV

October 27th, 2008 by xoanon Comments Off

Inkibus writes: Juts thought you might be interested in the upcoming New Zealand/Auckland filmed fantasy series premiering next Saturday; ‘Legend of the Seeker’ based around Terry Goodkind’s novels. Aside from the NZ locations. it employs some familiar LOTR faces; Bruce Spence, Jay Lagalia, and Craig Parker among them. It’s reportedly being helmed by Sam Raimi, who collaborated famously with the ‘Xenia’ series, which employed much of the pre-LOTR production team. www.legendoftheseeker.com

New Zealand actors settle out of court with New Line

October 8th, 2008 by MrCere Comments Off

Good friend, good actor and good man Bruce Hopkins has checked in with some news regarding a financial settlement with New Line. In an exclusive he gives us the lowdown. Here it in his own words:

“Gidday,

I trust you are well amidst the heady brew of global financial markets and looming elections!

I wish to inform you that 16 mths after a lawsuit was filed in the Superior Court of Los Angeles, against New Line Cinema, on behalf of 15 NZ actors who played various featured roles in the Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, the action has been settled out of court.

Tolkien Flashback August 10th – 16th

August 17th, 2008 by admin | Discuss | Comments Off

Another week, another great FLASHBACK from Ringer Diedye. This week’s flashback details the events that took place in the Tolkien universe between August 10th and August 16th. This is a weekly feature that Diedye posts in the forum, so if there is ever a time we don’t post it on the homepage of TORn, make sure to check the Main board in our forums. Click on the link below to transported in time!

Discuss »

More about Bruce Hopkins, Christopher Tolkien, Howard Shore, J.R.R. Tolkien, LotR Production, Peter Jackson, Production, Today in Middle-earth, Tolkien, Tolkien Family

Actors’ lawsuit against New Line has ‘absolutely nothing’ to do with Jackson’s

June 11th, 2007 by MrCere Comments Off

The suit filed by fifteen New Zealand actors over money possibly owed them in a contract dispute involving merchandising has nothing at all to do with New Line’s famous dispute with Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson according to the actor who instigated the action.

Bruce Hopkins – Gamling

New Zealand actor Bruce Hopkins (Gamling) informed TheOneRing.net exclusively that the whole suit came about because of a clause in his contract that he took seriously enough to bring to the attention of a lawyer.

The process started when Hopkins, aware of a clause in his contract that provided a percentage of merchandising, approached entertainment lawyer Phillip Rosen in Los Angeles and then on legal advice approached other actors who would have a similar contractual clause. After Rosen’s efforts with New Line, the case was taken on by Henry Gradstein, a notable entertainment lawyer who has handled notable royalty accounting cases.

As hard as it may be to believe, this has absolutely nothing to do with Peter and New Line or their current situation

- Bruce Hopkins – Actor (Gamling in LOTR)

“I am a well known litigator who has championed the cause of the little guy,” Gradstein said in a phone interview.

“We thought that case was a just cause. When you have a cause that’s the right cause, and it is fair – it’s a David and Goliath story no doubt.“

A studio insider that spoke to TheOneRing.net on condition of anonymity had an entirely different view of things.

“New Line bet the house on this film and they put literally hundreds of millions of dollars directly into the New Zealand economy.“

“I personally believe all the people associated with this film have been fairly and adequately compensated for their time and effort and that includes Peter Jackson. To sue the studio because the film was as successful is just plain greed.“

The whole process started after Hopkins’ interactions with Lord of the Rings fans, not the powerful film director.

“Quite honestly it was getting out to fan conventions where I saw the dedication of the fans and the amount of merchandise that was being dealt with, that I began to want some indication of how this reflected in terms of the merchandise clause I had in my contract. There were no other residual clauses in the contract so this stuck out for me,” said Hopkins.

Initially his cast mates were slow to join the suit, fearing professional retribution.

“Many of the actors were cynical and almost not interested, and yes, a number of them feared being blackballed, not just by New Line but by local production companies, as well as being ridiculed locally,” Hopkins said from New Zealand.

The story broke when Variety did a story based on the lawsuit filed May 30, in Los Angeles County Superior Court. The lawsuit asks for profits based on the actors’ character’s licenses which were swallowed up by accounting, including “gross participation” fees.

According to Gradstein the legal action will take “about a year” to resolve and the contract is pretty clear. He said in such contracts there is often a provision for a distribution fee but such a provision was not present in the contracts in this case, although New Line reportedly still deducted a significant amount of money.

“The expenses will always be approximately 104 percent (of the income). It’s Hollywood accounting,” Gradstein said in a story by Associated Press.

The expenses will always be approximately 104 percent (of the income). It’s Hollywood accounting

- Henry Gradstein – Entertainment Lawyer

“The contract is so clear,” Gradstein told TheOneRing.net.

Hopkins suspects that the other actors aren’t eager to have their names associated with the press coverage the story is getting.

“If anything, being in New Zealand heightens the chances of being struck out (of acting) as it were. We are a small industry down here and there is little work to go around most of the time so to risk being blacklisted here is a death knell to surviving as an actor locally.“

New Line has a company policy of declining comment on existing litigation.

According to Gradstein each of the actors stands to make different amounts of money in the lawsuit, according to sales of each character’s image.

“Bruce headed the group of actors, Phil Rosen, spent time getting New Line trying to agree so when it was clear that wasn’t going to work they came to me,” Gradstein said. “It took persistence to get it (the case) to me. They did their due diligence.“

According to Gradstein his firm accepts about one of ten cases offered to it.

The suit is at least the third over profits from New Line’s Lord of the Rings films.

Jackson’s own lawsuit against New Line over profits from DVD sales on the “Fellowship of the Ring” DVD went public when Jackson released a letter through TheOneRing.net detailing why the potential “Hobbit” movie was not going to be made by him in the near future.

Producer Saul Zaentz and his Tolkien Enterprises reached settlement with New Line for about $20 million before that dispute reached the legal system.

Actors join to sue New Line over LOTR merchandising

June 1st, 2007 by MrCere Comments Off

Variety is reporting that New Line is getting sued again over Lord of the Rings profits, this time by a group of Kiwi actors. The actors feel that some questionable accounting has made it impossible to ever get paid a “5 percent of net revenue” clause outlined in contracts from merchandising based on characters they portrayed. The lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court Wednesday.

This sounds similar to the contentions of Peter Jackson that New Line is participating in unfair accounting practices that keep talent from getting paid. Jackson and New Line are famously litigating over money on that front, although a New Line official said last week at the Cannes film festival that he thinks it will be settled. Lots of news stories are circulating that New Line’s new fantasy film “The Golden Compass” is being marketed as LOTR IV.

Those filing the lawsuit aren’t Hollywood stars but the names will be familiar to TORnados: Noel Appleby, Jed Brophy, Mark Ferguson, Ray Henwood, Bruce Hopkins, William Johnson, Nathaniel Lees, Sarah McLeod, Ian Mune, Paul Norell, Craig Parker, Robert Pollock, Martyn Sanderson, Peter Tait and Stephan Ure.

The full Variety story can be found right here.

Bruce Hopkins on the Air

April 19th, 2006 by xoanon Comments Off

Our pal Bruce Hopkins writes: Just letting you know, if you are up and about at 10pm tonight or tomorrow night tune into Radiolive (100.6fm in Auckland and around the late 90s in most other areas of the country, or online at radiolive.co.nz), I have been asked to fill in for the regular host, so will be doing talk back from 10pm -1am. Tune in and give me a call 0800-723-465, take part in Chance Of A Lifetime, sing a song on air!!! Or just have a chat.

Bruce Hopkins Website Update

March 22nd, 2006 by xoanon Comments Off

Bruce Hopkins writes: I am just wanting to let you know that on my web site there is now a link to a photo gallery of absolutely stunning shots from the theatre show I was in at the recent Wellington International Arts Festival The Holy Sinner. The Holy Sinner had Cliff Curtis (Bringing Out The Dead, Three Kings, Runaway Jury, Blow) in the lead role. Also in the show were Cameron Rhodes (Farmer Maggot), and Ian Hughes who was a featured Gondorian in ROTK. LOTR’s Grant Major was the designer of the show. Cheers, and all the best for whatever is going on in your life.

By the way while in Wellington I called in for 5 minutes, as that was all the time I had before having to be at a show, to say hi to Tehanu, Vic James, Suzie Knight and a Red Carpet Tour group, who were having dinner at a nice restaurant up from the Embassy Theatre. It was wonderful to meet another group of LOTR enthusiasts. [More]

Bruce Hopkins Interview

March 15th, 2006 by xoanon Comments Off

Michaela Fülöp writes: I would like to offer you an interview I did a few days ago with Bruce Hopkins for FantasyPlanet.cz. As we have it on our website in Czech, of course, I thought it might be nice if people could read it worldwide in English on TORN. I think the interview is very nice, funny and brand new so hopefully you will like it and put it online.

Interview with Bruce Hopkins for FantasyPlanet.cz

Bruce Hopkins, the one and only Gamling from LOTR trilogy, was so kind to find a few minutes to answer some questions from Czech fans!!! I have been collecting these questions for this exclusive interview from readers of the FantasyPlanet.cz website. Find out how Bruce remembers LOTR shooting, what´s he up to and much more!!!

1. I understand that the Gamling role was originally a much smaller part. Then PJ liked what he was seeing and made it bigger. How did you find out? Did he tell you he was going to expand your role?
I was approached by Phillipa Boyens on about the 3rd night of what was going to be about a weeks work for me in the last days of Helms Deep, she informed me that they liked what I was doing and how I worked alongside Bernard Hills King Theoden, so the decision had been made to put me in more scenes with him. As you can imagine, I was a very happy chappy!!!

2. What was it like working with Bernard Hill?
It was wonderful to work with Bernard. Within the first few nights of working with him, I discovered that he was the actor who had first made me aware of how powerful acting can be, about 20yrs earlier. I was still a dancer at that time and got hooked on a british television series called ” Boys From the Black Stuff”. I remember watching an episode and this particular character called Yossa Hughes, was so powerful he made me cry and I found it incredible to think he was just pretending ( acting ) and yet it was effecting me so powerfully. It turns out that actor was Bernard Hill!!! I was blown away to think I was standing beside him all these years later and we were about to defend Helms Deep!!!, and middle earth!!!, very cool.

3. Since I am an Orlando fan: I know scenes are shot out of order and sometimes actors that appear to be in the same scene together actually were not during filming. Were you ever on call for the same scene with Orlando and if so, what was Orlando like between takes?
I had the real pleasure of working not only with Orlando, but also Viggo, Ian McKellan, Bernard and a number of the other actors. Legolas comes to Rohan with Gandalf to enlist us in the cause, so we did quite a lot of filming on the same sets. Between takes Orlando, again like all the core cast, was wonderful. Lots of humour was always present with those guys. One of my first major impressions of Orlando was finishing working on my first day with him, he had the long blonde hair of course. Then after we had all had our make up and wigs removed, I couldn’t believe it he stepped out of his make up bus and was sporting a black Mohawk!!! When I was waiting to be introduced by Peter Jackson to the crowd at the end of the red carpet for the world premier of Return of the King in Wellington, I called my 13 yr old daughter on my cell phoned. She had said to me that I had to tell Orlando that she and her friends loved him!!! ( along with 90% of the worlds female population ) after to handing the phone to a couple of he other actors, Viggo handed it to Orlando and I stood there absolutely loving it as Orlando chatted away to my daughter for about 3-4 minutes. Not only a bloody stunning looking man, but a real nice guy.

4. Did you find the whole New Zealand filming experience as thrilling as the other cast members appear to have? Why?
Yes I found it as thrilling as the others. I have travelled alot around NZ, as I used to be a professional dancer and the dance companies I was in would tour alot. So I was already familiar with the stunning beauty and variety of landscapes and locations. However I was still as stunned by some of the places we worked in. In particular the location for Edoras. One day we turned up and as far as the eye could see everything was coated in freshly fallen snow. In fact the snow had to be melted off the mountain that Edoras sat on before we could start filming!

5. What is your opinion of Peter Jackson not only as a director but as a person? Would you work with him again if the opportunity arose?
I would work with Peter Jackson and Fran any day, just let me know when to turn up!!! He was astounding. The scale of what he was doing would have made most people very prone to a lot of stress. If Peter was stressed, I never witnessed it, and I spent about 50 days working under his direction. Truely inspiring.

6. Orlando was pretty young and inexperienced when he took the role of Legolas. Was he as professional and easy to work with as the older and/or more experienced actors?
I came onto the production after they had been working together for 9 months ( basically half way through the principal shooting ), by that time all of the actors, including Orlando, were such professionals it sat it was awesome to behold and to be a part of.

7. Did Bernard Hill play a big part in the expansion of your role or was PJ already thinking of it?
I really do not know the answer to that question. I think maybe Bernard had been part of the decision to create a role for someone to command the armies of Rohan, but as I say I really do not know.

8. Do you still talk to anyone from the LOTR cast or crew? (e-mail, meet, phone, co-operate on some future project etc.)
Just the Kiwi contingent. I am working with Cameron Rhodes who played Farmer Baggins at the moment. The NZ acting scene is reasonable small so we see each other a few times each year. When I get to visit LA I usually catch up with Sala Baker and have caught up with Elijah, Billy and Dom. I actually had a surf with Billy and Dom one time in LA, that was cool, crap surf but cool to hang with them. I also literally came across Brad Dourif as I was walking along Hollywood Boulevard one day.

9. Were Viggo and Bernard really as comic as everyone makes out?
Yes!!! They were a great combination. Still could be very serious but also knew how to have lots of fun, as did everyone!

10. What happened with Gamling after the battle on Pellenor fields?
As I say, gamling was not written in the original script so there was no ending for his character. I would have loved to see him beside Eomer at the coronation, or having a great death ( like Haldir ) at Pelenor, but there was no room for writing in scenes that were not needed by that stage. So in my world Gamling retired to a ranch in Rohan, where he was bathed daily by scantily clad beauties, while being feed grapes and other such delights as he drank fine mead and had his aching body massaged under the heavens.

11. Have you ever thought about moving from New Zealand? What would you miss most?
The open environment, the glorious ocean and stunning mountains.

12. What was the atmosphere on the set of Xena series? And working with Lucy Lawless and Renee O’Connor? Do you still talk to anyone from Xena?
Half NZs acting population had roles on various Xena and Hercules episodes, so yes I see many of those people still. I rarely see Lucy as she is based in LA mostly these days. I caught up with Kevin Sorbo at one of the LOTR functions in LA in 2003 and I caught up with Rene at the 10th anniversary Xena convention in LA last year. The atmosphere on the Xena and herc stes was very cool. It was the first real big time production to ever come and set up for a length of time in NZ and when ver you got to work on it you felt privileged. You were also working with people such as Ngila Dickson and Grant Major, who of course went on to become academy award winners for LOTR. Eric Grundeman, who was the producer for those shows was a truely wonderful human being. So it was a great time in the NZ film/TV industry.

13. Would you like to go back to the dancing? What did you like most about it?
I am so grateful to have had the years I did as a dancer. No I don’t really wish I could go back to it. I did do a national tour 6 yrs ago with a company called Black Grace, who took Broadway by storm last year. That was a great way to sign off from my dancing days. It was 12 yrs after I had stopped dancing and started acting!!! And my body was in hell but i absolutely loved it. I had to take pain killers each day just to be able to get to work but it was stunning. I just loved to be lost in the moment of dancing, the challenge to get it right but also the joy of taking your body to extremes.

14. What was the most life changing experience in your life?
Becoming a father, which happened three times in the space of 4 years!!!

15. Who’s the person you most admire and why?
Peter Jackson, for living his life doing what he loves doing. The same can be said for Edmund Hillary ( who with Sherpa Tensing was the first to ascend Mt Everest ), Kelly Slater and all the other surfers who make their living surfing, etc.

16. Since he is currently considered as a very good actor how do you remember Ryan Gosling?
He was a lovely young guy who seemed genuinely grateful for the chance Young Hercules gave him. I enjoyed working with him alot, he was focussed but also able to have a good time.

17. Are there any scenes with Gamling that didn’t make it to the movies? If so, could you describe them?
I am pretty pleased to say most of my stuff made it. A couple of lines did not get through, but the scenes were still there. There was a one scene that got made up on the spot basically, where Gamling comes into the caves behind Helms Deep to tell Eowyn that they must take the people deeper into the mountain. When gamling gets to where Eowyn is, she looks up from where she is helping a woman give birth. Gamling is totally tongue tied and has to look away. It was a pretty strange scene to be doing and as i say was made up at the end of a day of filming. I’m happy it did not make it as i don’t think I did a great job of acting that scene.

18. Could you characterize every member of the Fellowship or every actor that you worked with on LOTR with one or two words?
Ian Mckellen………graciously noble
Bernard Hill………wonderfully real
Viggo…………….mesmerisingly enigmatic
Orlando…………..playfully charming
Billy…………….joyous and truthful
Dom………………mischevious and gleeful
Elijah……………genuine and angelic
John Rhys Davies…..powerful and commanding
Sean Astin………..truely aware
Karl urban………..focussed and dedicated
Miranda…………..committed and gentle

Who am I to summise these people, truely they were all wonderful in my experience with them.

19. Is there any role that you dream of?
I got to play Macbeth a couple of years ago, so another challenge along those lines would be great.

20. Do you prefer theatre or tv/movies? (as an actor)
I love it all. At the moment I am working on a theatre piece, which is best described as physical theatre. It is like film but happens on stage. I am working with my creative gurus, Mike Mizrahi and Mari Adams of Inside Out Productions.

21. Could you describe what would make a perfect day for you? (what would you do, eat, etc.)
Big fruit salad for breakfast and a couple of strong long black coffees. A couple of hours in the surf. Film some scenes for a movie, go for a sunset sail on a yacht, then sit around drinking red wine, maybe smoking a joint!!!, and looking at the star filled heavens above, sitting with friends around a fire by the beach.

22. Do you know if they are still trying to make the Hobit movie or any part of the Sillmarilion?
No I don’t have any information about that.

23. Are the actors and creators thinking about any sort of “LOTR tour” around the world? (perhaps on some aniversary occasion like 5 or 10 years after ROTK premiere or something like that) Would they consider coming to Prague or close to Prague?
It would be a something I am sure various people would have considered. Maybe even more of a personal gathering of the actors and production personnel, but who knows.

24. How do you remember working on Xena, Herc, Young Herc, Back 2 Back?
Yeah it was great although the reality was that each job was usually a few months apart, unless you were core cast.

25. I think that in the episode The Last Stand from Cleo 2525 you were most sexy of your entire film carier. How do you remember this character and how it felt to kiss Vicky Pratt?
It was cool playing Jake. The post production people actually embraced the character of Jake Lawson and made a saying out of the phrase….” No…. I’m Jake Lawson” That was cool. Getting to kiss Vicky was a nice bonus, although her boyfriend was directing that episode!!!

THE END

PS from Bruce: If you want to, you can tune into a talk back radio show I do. You can go to www.radiolive.co.nz. I do a show from midnight Saturday till 6am Sundays with my mate. We call ourselves Des and Les. It would be great to have people tune in around the world!!!

Be sure to visit Bruce´s official website at www.bruce-hopkins.com and also www.indipact.com!

New Project Monaghan Auction

December 17th, 2005 by xoanon Comments Off

Fanie from Project Monaghan writes: We’re announcing our latest auction: A beautiful Air New Zealand Middle Earth Poster signed by Dominic Monaghan and Bruce Hopkins. All of the proceeds from the auction will go to TreePeople, an environmental care non-profit organization that Dominic Monaghan supports. Huge thanks to Dom and Bruce for their autographs, and to Elisa for the photograph. To view the auction, just visit this link. [More]

More Fellowship Festival Goodness

August 30th, 2004 by xoanon Comments Off

Parn from go-to-sleep.net sent along her collection of images from the Fellowship Festival that took place last weekend in London. Take a look at some of the people who attended, Alan Lee, John Howe, Karl Urban, Lawrence Makoare, Bruce Hopkins, John Noble, Gino Acevedo and the always adorable Sarah McLeod! [More]

Hopkins Joins DragonCon Crowd

August 18th, 2004 by xoanon Comments Off

Satarina writes: Bruce Hopkins has just been added to the guest list for DragonCon 2004. [More]

Theoden and Gamling the Old: A Reprise?

August 14th, 2004 by Tehanu Comments Off

Bruce Hopkins aka Gamling the Old pointed out that since both he and Bernard Hill will be at the Fellowship Festival in London later this month, this would be a rare opportunity to see both of them actng together. Rumours are that some lucky fans may get to be involved in some interactive drama with them – but this is only a RUMOUR at this point. But if you want another reason to book a ticket to the Festival, just remember – every ticket purchased enters you in the draw for a free trip to New Zealand to tour LOTR locations – courtesy of Red Carpet Tours.