James Brown writes: Tonight’s One News bulletin here in NZ had a very cool story, which I thought might be of interest, on the $2-million LOTR exhibition which opens at the Te Papa museum in Wellington this Thursday. Not sure if you will have heard about this exhibition, but it looks amazing. It will be at Te Papa until the end of February, then it will be touring science museums around the world for the next 2 years.
The story had some fantastic shots of some of the props and models in the exhibition, including a huge cave troll maquette, Sauron’s armour and the Hobbiton mill ‘bigature’ from Frodo’s vision in the Mirror of Galadriel. I can’t be the only one who has noticed that the spiky millwheel looks an awful lot like the infamous wizard-kebab picture. If this is a hint that we will get to see the scouring of the Shire in ROTK, I for one won’t mind if the details of Sharky’s death are altered slightly. The coolest shot, though, was an extreme close-up of the Boromir model we saw go over the Falls of Rauros. It’s an amazingly detailed and lifelike model. The skin colouring and texture is eerily convincing. And I’m pretty sure I remember Richard Taylor saying in the DVD commentary that the model was made in a hurry at the last minute. Wow. I can’t wait to see the exhibition.
The story was preceded by a little piece about how our Prime Minister is a big fan of FOTR, but still prefers the books. Here’s a transcript:
There’s been high praise from many quarters for the Lord of the Rings movies, but today the Prime Minister announced she prefers the books. Helen Clark, who’s also Minister of Arts and Culture, says good as Peter Jackson’s films are, no movie can do justice to a great piece of literature.
CLARK: ‘The definitive impression of Lord of the Rings will always be for me what I read in 1967.’
Helen Clark says she makes it a rule never to see a film when she’s read the book. But she made an exception for the first Tolkien movie, and will see part two this week.
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Atheryn sends in a letter to TORN stating that while he enjoyed the two recent LOTR specials aired in New Zealand, he felt that the second episode painted a rather dangerous picture of his country, read on! [More]
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Atheryn writes: If you’re like me, you probably just finished watching the two features on New Zealand that were shown on the Travel Channel a little while ago (“New Zealand: The Royal Tour” and “Secrets of New Zealand”). Being a New Zealander myself, I just thought I’d make a comment, particularly in regard to the second feature.
“Secrets of New Zealand” depicted New Zealand as being a country teatering on the edge of nationwide disaster – that is simply not the case. It is true that New Zealand has volcanoes and experiences earthquakes from time to time, but not in the way that was made out. The truth is, as far as I can remember, Mt Ruapehu (Mt Doom in LOTR) has only erupted once in my lifetime, and that was in 1996. Most of the earthquakes I’ve experienced in my time were very small ones – usually so small you don’t even notice them. It is true that the waters between the North and South Islands (The Cook Strait) are rough sometimes, but when they are, the interisland ferries simply don’t make any crossings until it is safe. While the programme did show a lot of the natural caution-points New Zealand has, it did over-dramatise them severely – so please, if you have any desire to come to New Zealand for a holiday, whether it’s to visit LOTR locations or simply to relax, don’t let this programme scare you away. New Zealand is just as safe as any other holiday destination out there.
Cheers,
Atheryn
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Mehunt writes: Great site you have! The latest issue of the New Yorker features a cartoon titled “Tolkien Characters that Never Made it out of the Author’s Notebook.” [More]
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Paul Badali, owner of Badali Jewelry and a Tolkien fan who has been making The One Ring since long before Peter Jackson’s movie, has made a generous donation to TheOneRing.net’s Line Party efforts. Thirty rings are in the mail to various line party leaders around North America to be used as giveaways for Midnight screenings and one may be coming to a line near you! The rings are designated for TORnados who sign up and attend a line party event. It isn’t too late to join a line party so sign up today! [Badali Jewelry] [Line party]
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Xoanon here with some great news for Montreal area Ringers. I’ve just received word from the folks at Guzzo Cinemas that they are reserving an entire cinema for my line party! This private screening begins at 9PM with a pre-party starting at 7:30 with raffles, free food and pool, and more! Take a look! [More]
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