Cristian Lupsa writes: Tolkien’s masterpiece, “The Lord of the Rings” was first printed in Romania between 2000-2001 with the “Return of the King” hitting the book stands in September 2001. [More]
Month: February 2002
From: Cristian Lupsa
Romania ready to hobbit!
Tolkien’s masterpiece, “The Lord of the Rings” was first printed in Romania between 2000-2001 with the “Return of the King” hitting the book stands in September 2001. There wasn’t much fuss about the work itself thus not many were drawn to the book. The ones who did, were probably sucked in by the Sunday Times Review that was quoted on the cover: “There are two kinds of readers: those that read Lord of the Rings and those that are about to do it”.
Hobbits, dwarfs, trolls, orcs have an incredible potential to conquer Romania, as the country’s mythology would provide plenty of space for them to run around. When the movie was officially released on February the 8th, I was there to see it. Tolkien had already been in my mind for a while, and such a grandiose epic is something you just can’t miss.
I was a bit surprised that although advertised, the movie wasn’t hyped up as much as it should have been – in relation to the book – and I was wondering if people would come and see it. The theatre was full when I arrived there 30 minutes earlier. The ticket line was impossible to tackle so for the first time I bought a ticket from some impromptu salesmen. The normal price of the ticket is 50.000 lei – still a lot of money for a movie in Romania [around 1.80 dollars]. I paid the “black market” ticket sellers 80.000 lei for one! But I had to see the movie!
Probably very few of the people at the theatre that night had read the book. I was one of them. And discovering every character and even some of the phrases in the book was a giant satisfaction. Not everyone in the room seemed thrilled as there is a part of the Romanian audience has the bad habit of commenting every scene in order to get the others laughing at their stupid jokes.
They applauded when Aragorn slit the big-ass Orc’s throat and looked happy to have seen the movie everyone makes such a big fuss about. I wondered how many made comparison’s with the book. I wonder how many went home to analyse some of the scenes. Probably Tolkien is yet to earn his Romanian “hobbit-lovers”.
I am one. Soon, others will follow.
In races for the Oscars and the Producers Guild of America awards, the issue of which producers would be listed in connection with nominated pics has been an intriguing subplot. [More]
Sanders left out as arbitration picks three
The producing business is producing a few headaches this awards season.
In races for the Oscars and the Producers Guild of America awards, the issue of which producers would be listed in connection with nominated pics has been an intriguing subplot.
The PGA tapped three producers Wednesday as Darryl F. Zanuck Producer of the Year nominees for New Line’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.” Frances Walsh, Peter Jackson and Barrie M. Osborne made the cut, while Tim Sanders, who produced Jackson’s previous pic, “The Frighteners,” did not.
Move came a day after the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences said the names of those nommed for “Rings” are “to be determined,” because its rules limit producer nominees to three per pic.
Sanders served as more of a creative producer than a line producer, exiting the project midway through its years-long journey to the screen, say those connected to “Rings.” Osborne, a Hollywood veteran whose credits include “The Matrix” and a stint as production VP at Disney, was brought on later in the process to lend his expertise to the high-stakes “Rings” effort. The film’s official Web site features photos and bios of Jackson, Walsh and Osborne, but nothing about Sanders.
This is the third Oscar race to be contested under the three-producer rule implemented after “Shakespeare in Love’s” onstage thank-fest. It is the first time a best picture nominee has had a credit scramble, though categories such as visual effects have seen many such deliberations.
“This is a credit-driven industry, so the limit causes a lot of difficulty,” said AMPAS spokesman John Pavlik. “If we allowed 15 nominees, there would be a 16th wanting to be mentioned.”
The Acad said Wednesday that it was up to New Line to trim the “Rings” list to three, contradicting New Line’s earlier assertion that it is an “Academy matter” that the Acad “is in the process of resolving.”
If the company cannot settle on a trio by next week, then the 23-member executive committee of the Acad’s producers branch would be convened, Pavlik said. The committee would arbitrate by conducting an investigation into the precise nature of each producer’s contributions to the film.
The PGA and New Line refused to say whether Sanders’ name had been submitted to the guild.
The new animated feature category also listed two nominated pics whose credits were TBD: “Monsters, Inc.” and “Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius.” Unlike the best pic category, toons can list only one “key creative” person, except in pics that have two “co-equal” creatives.
Pavlik said both pics had submitted two names as co-equals, but the Acad balked.
The PGA had originally announced last month that “Rings” and four other pics — “A Beautiful Mind,” “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” “Moulin Rouge” and “Shrek” — were candidates for the Zanuck prize, along with 15 TV contenders, but without any producer names.
Appeals allowed
The PGA, which has been campaigning for tightened credit rules since 2000, subsequently determined which producers would be credited for each nominated pic or TV show and then allowed appeals of the decisions. Two such appeals were entered and one was granted, but the org did not disclose the identities of the appellants.
Other PGA-nominated producers announced Wednesday: Brian Grazer and Ron Howard for “A Beautiful Mind”; David Heyman for “Harry Potter”; Martin Brown, Baz Luhrmann and Fred Baron for “Moulin Rouge”; and Aron Warner, John H. Williams and Jeffrey Katzenberg for “Shrek.”
In the TV series categories, the number of producers listed was far more extensive, with 31 names attached to the five shows up for the Norman Felton Award in drama series and 26 names for the five shows up for the Danny Thomas Award in comedy series. The seven nominees for “Frasier” include the late David Angell, who died Sept. 11 on one of the planes hijacked by terrorists.
However, the David L. Wolper nominations for longform TV included only a dozen producers for the five shows.
The PGA also announced that Bradley Whitford and Jane Kaczmarek will serve as hosts of the PGA Awards, to be presented March 3 at the Century Plaza in Los Angeles.
Mark writes: LOTR:FOTR has just overtaken Harry Potter in Australia and moved into 3rd place on the all-time list. [More]
LOTR:FOTR has just overtaken Harry Potter in Australia and moved into 3rd place on the all-time list. The list as it stands is:
1. Titanic $57.633 million AUD
2. Crocodile Dundee $ 47.707 million AUD
3. LOTR:FOTR $41.605 million AUD
4. Harry Potter $41.329 million AUD
5. Star Wars: The Phantom Menace $38.797 million AUD
This is listed in the box office section of the Movie Marshal website www.moviemarshal.com