This story comes to us thanks to the wonders of the wireless world and the internets. Early this afternoon I received a call from a rabid Ringer Diamond T letting me know about a CNBC reporter (possibly at the SXSW Film Fest) who dropped a bomb during an interview about the future of 3D movies. He claims to have heard ‘Rumblings’ about New Line (Warner Bros.) releasing LOTR in 3D! Take a look (or rather listen) at her phone video (sent to my phone, downloaded, then uploaded to YouTube…gotta love the web).
Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson needed to view what seven film crews were shooting. His solution: push the envelope on videoconferencing technology. In the pitch-black night of the New Zealand winter, Duncan Nimmo, information technology manager of 3Foot6 Ltd., and his two-man crew hoisted heavy equipment—including spools of military-grade fiber-optic cable, a battery pack, wireless computer modem and an eight-foot-high antenna—up Mount Ruapehu in Tongariro National Park. They had followed worn goat tracks up the slope, and were high in the clouds. A snowstorm threatened to blow them off the mountain. [More]
AICN writer Quint writes: Quint here with a chat I had recently with a man by the name of Michael Pellerin. Michael is the dude most directly responsible for those amazing LORD OF THE RINGS Extended Edition DVDs and has also recently contributed to that fantastic documentary on the 1933 KING KONG DVD as well as providing all those weekly (or bi-weekly as it was during the filming) Production Diaries for Peter Jackson’s KING KONG. I met Michael on one of my last days on the set of KONG. He’s a big fan of the site and even though the pressure of recording DVD material as well as cutting material for the online Production Diaries was obviously stressing him out I could still tell that he was in his element, doing what he loves. [More]
Alan Sampson of Wellington’s Dominion newspaper was allowed to conduct a thorough investigation of the animal-training techniques used in The Lord of the Rings.
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“To listen to LOTR horse trainer Dan Reynolds, you would think horse training was simple. It’s just a case, he says, of walking them around the ring, then encouraging them toward the trainer with a tap on the backside or a crack of the whip. At least to start with. It has to be more complex, of course. But Reynolds can be forgiven for not giving away too many secrets. “Every horse is different,” he says.
“Some need a gentle, some a firmer, hand. Stallions are the hardest because they have other horses on their mind.” The precise tricks of the trade must remain secret, but after a public smear campaign alleging mistreatment by trainers, it is good to see Reynolds and the rest of the team at work.
Even assuming the worst, that a good front is being put on for a reporter, the horses on show seem well cared for and clearly respond to good treatment. An impressive team of experts is on hand. The owner of the stables at Te Horo is race-horse owner and pre-trainer Chris Rutten; horse coordinator is Stephen Old, who runs the annual 100 kilometre Extreme NZ Horse Ride, which raises money for multiple sclerosis; and wrangler is Dave Johnson, known for his stagecoach carnivals and his Clydesdales. But the man at the helm of the tricks training is Reynolds, a laconic hard-bitten Texan who looks like he’s been doing his work forever.
“Dad was an animal trainer…I started riding when I was two,” he drawls. “When I was older, I did rodeos from Texas to the northwest, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, California.”
Reynolds wasn’t a mainstream performer - he was the character doing the trick roping, the trick riding, the horse tricks. In the 1940’s he confesses, he did some child work in the movies, alongside such luminaries as Gene Autry, Roy Rogers and Robert Mitchum, the first two at least, noted cowboys. The work that followed provided an impeccable background for his present position. Reynolds recalls having trained, among other things, giraffes, elands and elephants. He’s run Wild West shows in the manner of Wild Bill Hickok. He’s trained horses in numerous movies including DANCES WITH WOLVES, OUT OF AFRICA, GHOST AND THE DARKNESS and TALL TALE.
He’s also practised his craft for seven years at Universal Studios. Watching him at the Te Horo stables, it’s apparent that the key is persuasion: the horses are neither fed sugar nor punished. They are, however, clearly in good condition and have abundant pasture to play in. The horses are certainly not ill-at-ease and Reynolds says firmly that “tripping and hitting are a no-no.” It seems unlikely that mistreated horses have been hidden from view; there are only about 70 of them at Te Horo.
At some big battle scenes yet to be filmed, more than 200 horses - to be transformed by computer into thousands - will be gatheredtogether at a South Island site. But the 200 will be found from hunt and riding clubs and the like, and put through their paces relatively close to filming. The ones going through the complex training now are the comparatively few “name” horses that will be identifiable when PJ’s mammoth production hits the screen. A splendid white animal is identified as Sfax (Shadowfax), the grand steed of wizard Gandalf. At a light crack of a Reynolds’s whip, it rears majestically. Next on view is warrior king Aragorn’s horse, ridden on film by Viggo Mortensen, who is filling the shoes of axed Irish actor Stuart Townsend. Then there is quest leader Frodo’s (Elijah Wood) pony, his hobbit sidekick Merry’s (Dominic Monaghan) pony, even elf princess Arwen’s (Liv Tyler) horse, not to mention the dark, dark horses that will be ridden by the evil Ringwraiths.
According to Reynolds, most of the tricks he has to coax from the horses are quite simple - such as when a horse has to make its own way to a cave and run away again at the required moment. The most difficult trick to date has been getting a horse to rescue a wounded Aragorn, nuzzling the body, before helping him to safety.
The trick of keeping more than 200 horses in their Rohan battle lines, to act on command, has yet to be tested. Now, here are some secrets: having long suspected that body doubles are in action for some of the actors and actresses, it is nice to have confirmed that there are riding body doubles. Local woman Jane Abbott, for instance, will be Liv Tyler - at least in riding shots. Somewhere there’s a character who fills in for Gandalf. A young Wellington woman is known to have been acting as a double for Cate Blanchett, the elf queen Galadriel, who arrived in Wellington earlier this month.
At Te Horo, it turns out there are also doubles for horses. The filming plays all sorts of optical tricks, mixing and matching small or big ponies and horses to dwarf or exaggerate characters such as hobbits and wizards. Watch out for the giant Clydesdales, as high as 17 hands (1.7 metres), that play a variety of roles from battle steeds to Gandalf’s cart horse. The latter also has a double, a Welsh pony that will pull at an identical cart for scale shots. Expect to see Frodo on a regular horse, not a pony, to accentuate his small size.
But why stay with horses? The Te Horo team also has deer, sheep, rabbits and ferrets. All have important parts to play in THE LOTR. As do pigs and ducks and goats and cockroaches. If the purists want to glimpse a breach of Tolkien authenticity, they should look to the smallest characters. You can guarantee that nowhere in the trilogy is there a mention of a weta. PJ’s version will have the peculiarly NZ insect emerging from the dark in places of great evil.
How do you train insects? Cockroaches can be chilled. Spiders and wetas can be moved by blowing at them through a straw, and by shaking a false ground underneath them. But the trick that has attracted the most attention has to do with the horses or, rather, with avoiding them: a barrel with springs is used to simulate a galloping rider in close-up shots. On the screen it may be difficult to tell just what is real. Ultimately, the magic of LOTR may be the triumph of illusion.”
Very big thanks to Tiggy for that transcript!!!
Recieved this from a fan of the site who tried to audition. Let him tell you the rest…
Well the day dawned bright and blue and still and just as pretty as can be and off we went to Alexandra. Joined the queue at 11 a.m. and had fun? People watching and trying to remember what it is to be patient. Got in the door around 12.30 p. m. - filled in the form and had ourselves measured and pictured and all finished by 1 p.m.
What was good about it? Well you seldom see such a cross-section of humanity all in one place in Central Otago and they were all very well behaved (no queue jumping and no bitching). The staff were civil, efficient and good natured.
What was bad about it? Probably the thing which was worst - by the time I came to filling in the form all I could really think about was “when can I get some lunch?” But then I am a bit of a slave to my stomach… I suppose I could have thought of more things which would have marked me as valuable to the film if I had been concentrating more. Timing is everything!
On the whole I was glad to have put my name down to play a small part in what for me is a very significant story. Lets all get behind this movie and make it live up to the book.
This is not what you”d expect. Miramar. Solidly working class, rows of compact, pre-World War II bungalows and a smattering of state houses on broad, flat streets that give way to knots of disused factories. Soccer Ñ not rugby Ñ is the game of choice and on winter Saturdays a thick fringe of supporters jostle at the edges of Miramar Park Ñ home of the Miramar Rangers Ñ as planes, climbing from the airport, roar overhead. There is none of the raw sectarian divisions described in Denis Edwards” just-published 1950″s memoir Miramar Dog, just a kind of suburban monotony. Perhaps it is the anonymity of Miramar that suits Peter Jackson. Secrecy surrounding The Lord Of The Rings has reached paranoid levels. Few interviews are granted with Jackson and those that are almost exclusively conducted over the telephone. Those privileged enough to gain entry to Jackson”s Miramar-based special effects company Weta Ñ where the lion”s share of the work on models for The Lord Of The Rings is being done are required to sign a two-page, legally binding non-disclosure agreement. (Which makes our job here a challenge Ð E.) When North & South sought access to those parts of Weta”s inner sanctum not involved in The Lord Of The Rings Ñ including Jackson”s lavish 200-seat private cinema built in the style of early screen palaces permission was refused. Jackson, who has earned a reputation for being difficult (not according to artist John Howe, who described him as quiet, un-pushy, unobstructive, willing to listen, but certain of his decisions.-E.) said that there were some things the public did not need to know about. Instead, to interview Weta”s directors we were ushered to a bare, dimly lit boardroom devoid of any interest. Jackson himself would only be interviewed over the phone, ostensibly to “save time”, and when we protested the one-time photo engraver told us we were lucky to be granted an interview at all. Welcome to Hollywood, Miramar-style. Sequestered behind the tightly shut doors of Miramar”s shabby warehouses is Jackson”s multimillion-dollar film empire. In Para Street, hard up against the hills that divide Miramar from Seatoun, an old homestead that is the headquarters of Jackson”s small production company Wingnut Films can be glimpsed from the street. No sign marks its existence, just a blunt warning: Private Property, No Trespassing. Over the hill are the well-heeled seaside suburbs of Karaka Bay, and Seatoun, favoured residence of much of the film and television industry including Jackson. (So where did we get the idea he lived in Christchurch? Whoops. My money is on Seatoun.- E.) In Weka Street in the suburb”s north, Weta Ñ the crux of the industry spawned by his success Ñ and the Jackson-owned Camperdown Studios are housed in a 65,000 square foot former pharmaceuticals factory. In Stone Street, near the narrow cutting in the hill which shields the suburb from Wellington”s airport, the 1.7 hectare of the former Taubman’s paint factory awaits transformation. The sprawling jumble of empty buildings is the latest addition to Jackson”s portfolio of property in Miramar. “It’s a huge punt,” admits Jamie Selkirk, Jackson”s genial partner and director of Weta and Camperdown Studios. A freelance producer and editor who has worked with Jackson since the 1987 spoof Bad Taste, Selkirk is also a shrewd businessman. He says the $3 to $4 million he estimates has been invested in buildings in Miramar (including the work required to convert them into concrete-lined, sound-proof studios) is unprecedented in Wellington. “Auckland has got no real big studios, it’s got a whole lot of warehouses that Hercules and Xena use but we’re trying to create a purpose-built facility.” The Jackson camp are relying on other Wellington television producers and filmmakers to pick up the slack after filming on the last of The Lord Of The Rings is completed at the end of 2000. “We”re crossing our fingers really,” says Selkirk, “We”re hoping that by doing The Lord Of The Rings it will say to the world that we can make movies down here.” “Wellington, in my opinion, doesn”t have a magic formula about it which makes it the place that you have to make films, I just think it”s a great place to live,” Jackson chirrups down the phone from across town. “This perception that if you”re really serious about making it in the movies you’ve got to go and chase work, you’ve got to go to LA, cos that’s where it all happens Ñ if I”ve done anything it”s simply to say, “Surely you don”t have to do that, surely if I”ve got a good idea for a film and I want to make it then they”re going to be happy enough to come here and make it” and that”s proved to be the case. “You know there are advantages to being in the US,” he continues. “You certainly get access to money and actors of star status and crews that have worked on 50 or 60 movies, you have alot of access to gimmicks and toys that you don”t get here, but the Kiwi attitude to filmmaking is something I prefer. The film industry here is all about working with people you”ve worked with before and it”s really like a group of friends getting together for a few months and making a movie.” According to another local producer Ray Thompson, the depth of talent and “can do” attitude of actors, technicians and filmmakers here is reminiscent of Hollywood in the 1920s. While Jackson has been the lynchpin of Weta, the tenacity of his friends should not be underestimated. Weta was formed in 1993 with Selkirk, prosthetics specialist Richard Taylor, animator and computer technician George Port and the late Jim Booth, to buy a $100,000 computer used to create special effects for Heavenly Creatures. Weta creates puppet-like creatures and computer-generated special effects for films, as well as shows such as Xena and Hercules. In the lead-up to Lord Of The Rings, due to start filming in October, the company is employing 160 people. Weta”s success is rooted in its ability to overcome the tyranny of distance: technology has blurred the gulf between Miramar and Los Angeles.
Now, we aren’t talking Cindy Crawford here. Tehanu slipped me this juicy tidbit about an artist named John Howe, now he’s done some LOTR art before, if you don’t know him you probably know his work. Apparently Howe was at a Sci-Fi convention in NZ and let slip that he and the art team have built a 7-metre-high model of Barad-Dur out of plasticine for LOTR. This was later confirmed to Tehanu from sources that wish to remain nameless but are working with said art team. Now we here at LOTR News have not gotten any pics yet, but
Can you possibly imagine a 7 foot tall statue of this! For those that have no idea where Barad-Dur fit’s into LOTR this is what I could find Barad-dur: The greatest fortress-tower on Middle-earth during the Second and Third age of the Sun was Barad-dur in the evil land of Mordor. Called the Dark Tower by Men and Lugburz by Orcs, it was built after the first millennium of the Second Age by Sauron, with the power of the One Ring.
This is a great scoop picked up by none other than Tehanu herself. She tells me that she went to dinner with some friends and other people she didn’t know, the topic turned to Lord Of The Rings and after weeding out the useless people at the table, (Hey! Those are buddies of mine! -Tehanu) Tehanu found a lady with tons of great news:
I hurled myself into that conversation, and got talking to a woman, she knows tons of actors and film people, some in Wellington. We raved on and ignored everyone else for hours. SO:
1.The rumour about Sean Connery being involved is still going strong among actor circles here, she at least believes there is a strong possibility that it’s true. Gandalf?
2.VOICES: She’s heard that the Hobbits will have something like a Yorkshire country dialect; the Dwarves will be more cockney, the Men will be American (OUCH!) and the elves slightly Irish (NOT comic-leprechaun Irish, just a faint lilt.) The wizards will be very BBC English. I reckon this is worth putting in as a speculation on the website.
3.Now I’m pretty sure Fiordland is a location, will send pics soon. My friend said “White Island.” It’s as active as hell, steaming fumaroles everywhere, and it’s far enough offshore that it would be difficult for sightseers to get to. Great Mordor location.
4.We decided that we both wanted to drive down to Matamata and Hinuera to look for Hobbiton. We will do this later this month. Aerial views. That seems like a completely wild suggestion, I don’t know here well enough to know if she really means it. But we will at least drive down!!!
5.She knows somebody who was auditioning for Gimli.
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-Tehanu) Tehanu found a lady with tons of great news:
