Asfaloth writes:

I found this great interview with our friend Philippa Boyens in the latest issue of Creative Screenwriting magazine. (Bill Condon is on the cover. BTW – Bill Condon is the talented writer/director who made the film “Gods and Monsters” starring Sir Ian McKellen.)

In the interview Phil discusses the collaborative effort she shared in writing “The Lord of the Rings.” The article focuses on “The Two Towers,” but includes information about FOTR and “The Return of the King.”

If you haven’t read the book yet, there are some serious spoilers in the article. Philippa explores the differences between the book and the films, and comments on her approaches to character development. She even discusses “The Empire Strikes Back.”

Noro Lim!

Asfaloth

Random_Hobbit brought this bit of news into Barliman’s a short while ago: “My dad and I just went to Best Buy, and as we were walking in, there was an announcement that LOTR had just sold out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” “…some guy had JUST bought the last copy in front of us.” Upon further query to the distraught hobbit, it seems that their local store had indeed sold out of all copies of the extended edition, both regular and collector’s versions! So if you are in the Los Angeles area, you may have to do a bit of hunting for a copy. Good Luck!

Ringer Spy Brian sends along a track from the Two Towers Score! Take a listen to ‘The Riders of Rohan’!

Take a listen to this! (64kbps mp3, 4:36 minutes)

Updated! Thanks to Ringer Spy Maquiladora on the boards, we also have alternative copies of The Riders Of Rohan and Forth Eorlingas for your previewing pleasure!

These have been taken from Classic FM, a UK radio station which is previewing tracks on a day-by-day basis. These are both 160kbps mp3s, 4:03 and 3:09 mins respectively. Warning that all three files suffer from some serious digital artifacts.

Update 2: Ringer Spy Russtavo has been able to provide an improved version of The Riders of Rohan. The filesize is 3.7Mb.

Ringer Spy GullyFoyle has also been hard at work, and as a result we have a higher-quality version of Forth Eorlingas for your listening pleasure. It’s 6.0Mb in size.

The duration is 4:02 and 3:13 respectively.

If you like what you hear, don’t forget that you can pre-order the soundtrack from Amazon.com. Both the standard edition and ‘limited edition’ will be available and shipping from December 10th, 2002.

And remember to tune into Classic FM because they’ll be previewing tracks every day this week!

If there’s a date we could pick to hold the mantle of ‘International day of the Geek’, November 12th should be it. I’ve just returned from a short trip to the local Future Shop (think, Pep Boys without the Pep). I picked up the FOTR: Special Edition Gift Set, complete with Pillar of Kings bookends and my very own copy of the Fellowship. [More]

We went right to the source, Sir Ian McKellen himself, and asked him if he’s been tipped to play Dumbledore. Find out what he has to say here! [More]

After Christopher Lee (Saruman) has come out and specifically denied rumors that he is to play Dumbledore in any future Harry Potter films, all fingers started pointing at another LOTR star, Sir Ian McKellen. If you want confirmation on something, go to the source, so we did just that.


In a recent phone interview with McKellen (while staying in Vancouver to finish up X2), I asked him point blank about playing Dumbledore, and he expressly denied being asked about the part, being approched or even considered for it.

On the contrary he’s planning on staying in Vancouver for a while and work with some local talent, then off to England.

Watch this space for the entire interview with Ian McKellen (Gandalf) next week!