By PETER M. NICHOLS
In content and promotional impact, “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy is a multifaceted machine. Last August “The Fellowship of the Ring,” the first of Peter Jackson’s three films, was released on DVD with a fair-size list of extras. In November a much-extended special edition appeared with 30 more minutes woven into a movie that already ran 178 minutes, and with many more extras to examine every aspect.
Increased length is usually a mistake. In this case it was a triumph: “Fellowship” was the consensus DVD of the year. That success, of course, did no harm to “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers,” the second part of the trilogy, which opened in theaters in December and eventually earned $339 million at the box office.
This week New Line began the routine all over again with a “Two Towers” DVD (and in deference to the 50 percent of households without a DVD player, videocassette). An enlarged special edition, with more than 40 minutes added into the movie, is scheduled for November release. On Dec. 17, the third film, “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” is to open in theaters.
“One of the key differences this year is the amount of awareness,” said Matt LaSorsa, senior vice president for marketing at New Line Home Entertainment. That attests to the growing influence of DVD, in this case Mr. Jackson’s all-enveloping use of it as a part of the movie-making and promotional process.
But why buy a “Towers” DVD now when a bigger one is coming along in less than 90 days (albeit at a $39.99 suggested retail price versus $29.95 for the first version)? The answer depends on how much DVD you’re looking for; the two releases are intended for two audiences, and features don’t repeat themselves.
The current DVD has the 179-minute movie that played in theaters. “It’s for people who don’t like to sit through an even longer film,” Mr. Lasorsa said. Behind-the-scenes documentaries probably tell moderate fans all they want to know about the making of “The Two Towers.” For those interested, these features also describe the making of the much more elaborate November DVD edition and offer a preliminary look at the making of “The Return of the King.”
For rabid fans the November disc will have the 215-minute extended version and added material describing it and the trilogy as a whole.
The three movies were shot in New Zealand during an 18-month period beginning in 2000. From then on “Rings” movie-making and DVD production have proceeded at the same time on an integrated production line.
On the discs, actors taken back to New Zealand reshoot scenes for “The Return” and do interviews and commentary for both “Towers” DVD’s. Mr. Jackson moves from editing the third movie to working on the DVD’s of the second and back again.
Much of the reshooting for “Return” and the expanded “Towers” is to heighten the personalrelationships in films heavy on battle. Like many other directors, Mr. Jackson says one of the pleasures of DVD is being able to reassure actors that scenes cut to shorten theater running times can be put back on disc.
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ATLANTA – One of the featured events at Dragon Con is constant parade of costumes. Sure the convention’s official Masquerade is spectacular but the real show is the floor of the convention’s two hotels. The creativity on display is head turning and pathway clogging. TORn managed to photograph a great number of costumes (hopefully posted soon) but even then we have just scratched the surface.
Lord Of The Rings fans can rest easy knowing that “our people” represented very well. The front entertainment page of the “Atlanta Journal Constitution” featured a group of fearsome orcs led by LOTR fan Brian Wolfe from Orlando. In addition, the teaser at the top of A1 that day also showed an orc, enticing readers to go inside.
Wolfe and his spectacularly nasty crew has been a LOTR fan for years. “I read the books. We saw the Hobbit on TV and watched it all the time as kids.” Even among all the amazing costumes the crew of nine, a couple out of costume when TORn caught up with them, really were among the very elite.
Wolfe works in Orlando as a make-up artist at Universal Studios and calls the Peter Jackson films their collective favorite movie, and that is among film lovers. “These were something better. They set the standard. Like most good Tolkien fans he was awaiting the DVD at midnight and is a frequent visitor to TheOneRing.net. In the past Wolfe has done costumes based on Spawn, Mortal Combat and “musical” theatrical group Gwar. The friends have attended DCon for five consecutive years and travel from Florida, New York, North Carolina and anywhere else they need to in order to attend.
A group pictured in a fan report on TORn worked on their getups for seven months, all in anticipation for DCon. Julia (part of the Tolkien costume panel) and her husband Kevin – shown here as part of a group of friends – were also show-stoppers. Everybody from Klingons to Laura Croft wanted pictures with the group.
Toby Markham from Chicago attended Dcon in an amazing Sauron costume made by his own hand. “I always do Star Wars,” he said. “The year I wanted to do something different.” When fully suited up, Markham could only see out of the nose of his mask. “People get out of my way,” he said. He is considering redoing his mask to allow for a flap on the back. His work is done in gapaxio for the detail and in aluminum in the broader pieces of armour. It goes without saying that once inside, it gets a bit hot.
More subtle were the extravagant Elvish gowns and sewn materials that dotted the fandom landscape. Explore the TORn scrapbook for an abundance of examples. TORn’s official complaint: Where were the Hobbits people? There were a few but as a fandom we are pretty Elvicentric.
Saturday night was the official masquerade took a Lord Of The Rings introduction on video calling itself “The Masq of the Rade.” Masters of Ceremony George Takai and Walter Kronig of Star Trek fame were funny, partly because they were so unaware of the content of most of the costumes and stumbled over many of the names, descriptions and hand-writing.
“Our” oft-mentioned Balrog with wings was in the official contest along with Nessa of The Valar and a trio of friends who were unfairly escorted off the stage by rotten storm troopers. The very good “twilight nazgul” with her own duplicate scream barely walked on stage when the troopers ended the fun. An Arwen also played part in a spoof along with Star Wars, Harry Potter and the Matrix. Arwen got to chase the HP people off the stage while the Matrix people were riffed on for cashing in.
Other highlights included the three faerie godmothers from Disney’s “Cinderella”, a perversion of my beloved “Monsters Inc.”, Harvey Birdman, Aku and Samurai Jack from Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim, the “most fearsome monster from 1978” Dungeons & Dragon’s mindflayer (which won “best sci-fi”?!?! How is D&D sci-fi?!?!). There were also quality Borg, a wonderful 3,000 feather “Snow Queen” from the book of the same title and a rendition of stage play Grease’s “Summer Nights” by a macabre group including Frankenstein and his bride.
Without a doubt, the most amazing costumes, in or out of the show was the complete monster group from Maurice Sendak’s children’s book “Where The Wild Things Are.” As they slowly paraded onto the stage, the audience gasped, then clapped, then stood, then cheered. Hopefully between dead batteries and camera problems TORn will have a glimpse posted soon. The same group floored the public at the Hyatt later, putting security into a panic. Quite a spectacle. [More Masquerade Costumes]
For a comprehensive look at Dragon Con images, go to their homepage (http://www.dragoncon.com) and click on “Links And Photos” in the left column where the con posts photo links of all kinds at the con, eventually including TORn’s coverage.
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The Treasury is delighted to announce that John Rhys-Davies, the actor who portrays Gimli the Dwarf in the immensely popular Lord of the Rings trilogy of films, will attend the Island’s Minters, Pobjoy Mint Ltd, Kingswood, Surrey on Wednesday 3rd September to launch a spectacular series of coins which show many of the main characters from the films including the character he plays himself. John Rhys-Davies is a resident of the Island and as such it is most fitting that he should strike the first coin. [More] [Order the Isle of Man coins]
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Ringer Spy Vincent Smalls is has his ear to the ground at Anvil Studios in England. He knows all…he sees all…and hears all…well kinda..check this small but exciting report! Return Of The King is in its fifth and penultimate week of audio work at Anvil Studios. Peter Jackson is reportedly very pleased with its progress. Apparently Jackson has been on site for presummably the whole period, and he was seen with Viggo Mortensen a week or two ago wandering into Anvil. Work should be completed on the final print of the film by 12th September!
More to come!
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Ingrid writes: Here is an update on GQ Men of the year awards. Orlando Bloom (Legolas) won Best Actor award at the annual awards show last night. [More]
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Anthony writes: I thought you might like to know that BBC3 will be hosting ‘Battle of the Books’ this Thursday (September 4th). It will be LOTR versus ‘Treasure Island’, check listings for time. [More]
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