The Figwit site has moved to a bigger-bandwidth location. Here it is, Figwit Lives! They have some fresh news…a photo of Figwit’s father, who plays Elendil, for starters. [More]
Month: May 2002
I always love people that combine their passions creatively. Retelling LOTR in LEGO is one example. This fly-fishing guide to Middle-earth is another. The fishing journal is particularly delightful.
News from CherryC: New Line Cinema revealed it was in negotiations with British playwright Tom Stoppard to take the ‘His Dark Materials’ trilogy by Philip Pullman to the big screen. This is good news for lovers of seriously brilliant fantasy. Look’s like LOTR’s success has thrown that door wide open. [More]
[Omigod, I love this new server….posting news is such a BREEZE! *Muah*muah*muah* to all of you who set it up!!!]
There’s an article here on EmpireOnline that says that the playwright and screenwriter Tom Stoppard is in negotiations with New Line to write the screenplay for “His Dark Materials,” the fantasy trilogy by Philip Pullman. This is great news for fantasy fans.
So, it seems that New Line is committing itself to intelligent fantasy – a genre that has barely existed up until now and least of all within the major movie production houses. Is the success of Peter Jackson’s version of The Lord of the Rings the reason for this sudden faith in the intelligence of fantasy-loving audiences? New Line is not alone in this – the Sci-fi channel engaged LOTR screenwriter Philippa Boyens to turn Ursula Le Guin’s first three “Earthsea” books into a screenplay.
Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy is a great story and in my opinion it’s destined to be a fantasy classic – well, you can read what I think about it in the Tehanu’s Note about it. It’s also a controversial book, and I’d be interested to see if the film-makers try to tone down some of the philosophy in it. Their interest in Tom Stoppard for the screenplay seems to suggest that they are not. Apart from his witty lighter works like the “Shakespeare in Love” screenplay or his famous riff on Hamlet, “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead,” Stoppard has written a number of plays centring on tough ethical and philosophical issues, such as “Arcadia,” “Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, and “Professional Foul.” These are plays about scientists, philosophers, and political dissidents. It’s hard to imagine Stoppard taking an intelligent book like Pullman’s and dumbing it down into mere eye-candy.
Here’s a biography of Tom Stoppard listing his major works.
Ringer Spy Flinch sends along these great pics from the Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn) book signing event, attended by our very own Quickbeam and other friends we made at The One Party last March! [More]
Taniwha writes in again with nothing more than a little ‘Jamb’ sign…but to us LOTR fans it is quite possibly the coolest thing in the world! More LOTR filming!
“I Finally found a JAMB sign that wasn’t somewhere totally dangerous to photograph, but got a really bad shot of it due to reflected light. These were heading FROM Miramar to the motorway (or at least as far as the Mt Victoria Tunnel) but I lost the track then – probably led back to wherever the Ent was coming from, which could have been Centreport…”