White Lady Eowyn, from the TORN message boards writes: I wanted to let everyone know what a wonderfully nice man that Brad Dourif is! I had the wonderful pleasure of seeing Mr. Dourif at two panels; not just his Lord of the Rings panel, but also the one from the XFiles guest stars. [More]
Month: September 2003
This is White Lady Eowyn, from the TORN message boards.
I wanted to let everyone know what a wonderfully nice man that Brad Dourif is!
I had the wonderful pleasure of seeing Mr. Dourif at two panels; not just his Lord of the Rings panel, but also the one from the XFiles guest stars. For those unfamiliar with his appeaance on that show, he played condemned serial killer Luther Lee Boggs, a man who channeled the thoughts of another killer. He also channeled the spirit of Scully’s recently deceased father.
The XFiles room, by far, was the better one to see him at, due to the smaller size of the room. It held only about 50-75 people, whereas the Centennial Ballroom holds upwards of 1500, I’m sure. It was closer and more intimate, and this allowed for more observation of the man, closeup.
For lack of a better word, the man actually looked like a normal human being, not the strange and unusual characters he has played not only in Lord of the Rings and the XFiles, but a myriad of other television shows, over the years. The long, Wyatt-Earp looking mustache that he is sporting is due to the fact that he is filming a Western series for HBO entitled “Deadwood”, in which he plays a doctor.
During the Lord of the Rings panel, someone asked him if he remembered the last “normal” person that he played in the movies or onscreen. And he honestly could not remember. Mr. Dourif was personable and humorous during the whole panel.
Someone ( Goldilocks Took I believe, from TORN’s message boards) asked him what he thought the motivation was behind Wormtongue’s tear, during the sequence at Isengard from “The Two Towers”. While he was answering about Grima’s possible traumatic childhood, a loud rumble of thunder from an approaching storm shook the room. Without missing a beat, he looked up to the ceiling and stated something like, “Or maybe there were -other-motivations.” Everyone in the room laughed. The loud sound of the rain a few minutes later also caused him to pause and ask what the sound was, reminding all of us after we answered that he had been living in LA, and they didn’t get rain like that there!
One point that stirred the Tolkien fans that were present in the XFiles panel was Fellowship of the Ring, and its lack of major Oscars. A fellow attendee asked him what he thought of this. While trying to be diplomatic, and reminding us that he really does enjoy the films so far, he stated that he believed that the version that went into the theaters did not deserve an Oscar. Mr. Dourif said he enjoyed the Extended Edition much better, and he felt the longer version of The Two Towers would be a much better film, as well.
When asked sort of the same question in the Lord of the Rings panel, he (wisely, I believe) did not directly answer the question, but basically said, “Forget the Oscars”, much to the crowd’s delight.
After the panel, he very graciously allowed people to take pictures and speak to him, and he even complimented my Eowyn replica dress that I wore to the Con for the whole weekend. Sunday night, while most of the Lord of the Rings fans were in the lobby of the Hyatt in their costumes for picture opportunities, he stopped by and chatted with the fans and others, allowing anyone and everyone to get their pictures made with him. Unfortunately, I missed this, due to entering the Masquerade.
Overall, I was very impressed with him, both as an actor and as a person (despite his jetlag, that left him fumbling for words at times somewhat).
Take a look at a section by section breakdown of ‘The Two Towers: Extended Edition’ DVD. Due out in stores on November 18th. [More]
The Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers Platinum Series Special Extended DVD Edition
Discs 1-2: The Feature
FEATURE (208 mins)- A new version of the second installment in the epic trilogy! The film includes over 40 minutes of never-before-seen footage incorporated into the film, made especially for this video release:
- Widescreen (2.35:1) version of the Special Extended Edition
- Dolby Digital EX 5.1 Surround Sound
- DTS ES 6.1 Surround Sound
- Four audio commentaries by director and writers, the design team, the production team and the cast featuring more than 30 participants including Peter Jackson, Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Orlando Bloom and Academy Award winners Richard Taylor, Howard Shore, Randy Cook and many more.
Discs 3-4: The Appendices
Two discs with hours of original content including multiple documentaries and design/photo galleries with thousands of images to give viewers an in depth behind-the-scenes look at The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers:
Disc 3
- Adapting the book into a screenplay & planning the film
- Designing and inspiration for locations in Middle-earth
- Storyboards to pre-visualization
- Weta Workship visit- see sculptors in action as they create the weapons, armor, creatures and miniatures from the film
- Atlas of Middle earth: Tracing the journey of the Fellowship
- An interactive map of New Zealand highlighting the location scouting process
- Galleries of art and slideshows with commentaries by the artists
- And much more!
Disc 4
- Sending actors to battle- preparation for sword fighting
- Principal photography: stories from the set
- Digital effects including motion capture and “Massive” (a program to create armies of Orcs)
- “Bigatures”- a close-up look at the detailed miniatures used in the film
- Galleries of behind-the-scenes photographs and personal cast photos
- Post-production- editing it all together
- Sound design demonstration
- And much more!
The Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers Collector’s DVD Gift Set
The following contents will be presented in packaging illustrated by famed artist, Alan Lee:
- 4-disc Platinum Series Special Extended DVD Edition of The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers
- Collectible Gollum polystone statue created by Sideshow Weta
- “The Evolution of Gollum” exclusive:
- Bonus DVD on the Weta Workshop and how the Gollum statue was created, featuring interviews with Peter Jackson, Richard Taylor, the cast and more!
- A printed companion piece showing how Gollum evolved from pencil sketch to sculpted maquette to digital character
The Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers Special Extended VHS Edition
2 Cassettes
FEATURE (208 mins)- A new version of the second installment in the epic trilogy! The film includes over 40 minutes of never-before-seen footage incorporated into the film, made especially for this video release:
- Widescreen (2.35:1) version of the film
- Stereo Surround Sound
We’ve seen Aragorn on his horse in battle before, but this un-doctored image has so much more ‘power’ to it than those ROTK promo pics. Take a look at this shot of Aragorn in battle, with the mountains behind him! [More]
SA writes: Publisher’s Lunch reports that Sean Astin has a deal to write a memoir of the filming of LotR.
The Publisher’s Lunch website does not have anything about Sean’s memoirs, however it does sound interesting! Remember all the little people Sean! Well..