I received a mysterious email from a spy that is new to me. He or she sent me a few details on the new TTT trailer! I’m not vouching for any of this, but if it is true it sounds VERY good! Take a look!
– Begins with the encounter between Rohan soldiers and the three hunters, Eomer asks them what they are doing, Aragorn answers that they are looking for two companions. (cut to the shot of Merry and Pippin)
– Shot of Merry and Pippin kidnapped by Orcs
– Eomer lets them go, and tells them to be wary
– See a very brief shot of Gandalf’s battle with the Balrog in the caverns under Moria (a blast of fire, and Gandalf flying towards the screen)
– See and hear dialog between Gandalf the White and the three hunters in their first encounter (as Gandalf appears, Legolas and Gimli both kneel down, Aragorn in disbelief begins to talk with Gandalf)
– See various shots of the two towers, a very nice shot of the lidless eye, and Saruman giving a pep talk to the millions of orcs standing in front of one of the towers (this cgi was stunning)
– Elrond tells Aragorn that his people are passing, and that he should let Arwen go (actually he sternly insists… )
– Elrond tells Arwen that there is no more hope, Arwen tells Elrond that there is still hope (I am assuming it is hope for her marriage to Aragorn)
– Gandalf tells Theoden about Saruman’s schemes
– Theoden asks Eowyn to lead the others to Helm’s Deep
– Eowyn questions Aragorn about Arwen while walking
– Shot of Gandalf riding through a hall on Shadowfax
– Brief shot of Arwen in Helm’s Deep
– Shot of Sam yelling “Frodo… No!” and Frodo (voluntarily or under a spell?) falling face down into a pit
– Shot of Sam laying by someone (presumably Frodo) and weeping
– Shot of Gollum‘s back, crouching and talking with Frodo and Sam
– Shot of Treebeard’s bottom half (while running, he picks up either Merry or Pippin, and he is HUGE! compared to the little hobbit).
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Tom Shippey, author of “Tolkien: Author of the Century,” gave a talk at Illinois Central College and Ringer spies Cully and Chiri were able to report on it for you. [More]
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Tonight at Illinois Central College, we had the honor and privilege of listening to Prof. Shippey give a lecture that compared the original books to PJ’s movie.
We are both sort of amazed by what he had to say. He was humorous and interesting; he brought up both good and bad points of the film translation. To both of our surprise, he wasn’t a ‘purist’. In fact, he poked fun at those who watched the movie while “hissing through clenched teeth” and writing details down in notebooks. He also jabbed at movie-fanatics a bit, but it was in good fun.
He did mention three things he did like about the movie. One of the major points was how he loved the ending of the council of Elrond and how Frodo said “I will take the ring” three times in that scene. He commented on how that brought Tolkien’s uses of suspense and silence back into the very visual form of the film.
Another thing he liked was the movement of Gandalf’s line from chapter 2 into the Mines of Moria and then replayed at the ending. He read directly from the book on this (and several other occasions), “So do all who lived to see such times, but it’s not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”
Oddly, he LIKED Arwen. He did comment on her “Xena: The Warrior Princess”-ness. But he felt it was a good way to tie her in and that it was inline with Tolkien’s portrayal.
Some of the things he didn’t like were how everything was ironed out. He mentioned that part of the story was how the characters were physically and mentally bewildered, and that the voice over kind of took out the confusion. “The characters and the first time readers,” he said, “have no clue what is going on. The second time readers do know what is happening, but then they are even MORE aware that the characters don’t know what’s going on.”
He also felt things were adapted to fit audience pressures – such as Narsil not being carried on Aragorn’s person. And the line “Let’s kick some orc” really seemed to bugger him. [I think this is a misquote and they mean the line “let’s hunt some orc,” – I heard Shippey mention that line, correctly quoted, at DragonCon – Tehanu] The intensity of the line he compared to “Let’s kick some ass.” — which is probably true. (What I though was kind of cute was how he made all the little kids in the audience cover their ears before he uttered what he believed to be the equivalent to Aragorn’s line.)
Despite living over here in America, he still has an accent. I thought he sounded a touch like Sean Connery, Cully thought he sounded like Sir Ian McKellen… which is really kind of weird… 🙂
He said the movie was good and he would have to see how PJ would handle all the intertwining of the plot threads. He also commented about buy this movie and the director’s cut, and TTT and TTT’s Director’s cut and so on and so forth.
They did mention that they were going to have him back (or try to) after TTT comes out – I think the date they mentioned was March 25th. And if all goes well, we shall try to email you a summary on what he thought about it then!
Thanks to Ringer spies Cully and Chiri for that report!
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Another look at Tolkien, LOTR and Peter Jackson’s adaptation in the light of Catholic beliefs. [More] Thanks to Mayflower for the link.
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The Japanese official site has updated with great news: a hundred fans will get the chance to be on the Japanese Premiere, which probably will have a few actors of the film present, like the FOTR premiere. To join the campaign, you must have the “Passport to Middle-earth,” that comes in the FOTR DVDs. The site says that on the day of the DVD release (October 2nd) they are going to update with instructions to join the campaign.
Thanks to Elenah for the news!
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It’s a spoof [c’mon, I don’t have to tell you that, do I? Oh hang on, there were all the people who didn’t realise that SomethingAwful.com is a parody site…] OK, CNNN is a parody site too. Enjoy. [More]
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