Hengist writes: In a new book by Richard Cohen called “By the Sword” the author describes (amongst other things) the history of screen swordplay. He obviously devotes some time to Bob Anderson and includes the following snipet about Liv Tyler, which says a lot about Bob Andersons techniques and about Liv Tyler.

“He [Bob Anderson] was laughing at the fate of Liv Tyler in The Lord of the Rings. Cast as the young heroine, Arwen, she had bridled at the notion of rehearsing for a fencing scene. An angry Anderson told her he was going away for a while, leaving her with his assistant. He told her he’d give her one chance to shoot the scene on his return before giving it to the director for his approval. “When I came back I could see a gleam in my assistant’s eye: she did the best fight sequence I’ve seen a girl do!”

Buy “By the Sword” on Amazon.uk Today!

Greg Wright’s latest feature is up, and there are some new monthly items that will be regular: Email of the Month, a guest article, and this month an interview with John Rhys Davies. [More]

Greg Wright’s January column has been posted on Hollywood Jesus, available at the URL below. It begins, “Go back and re-read the sequences related to Pippin and the palantir, and I think you’ll find something pretty striking: that Jackson does a better job of dramatizing Pippin and his relationship with Merry than does Tolkien… But finally, the big lesson for Tolkien is that there simply are things bigger than us that we can’t grasp, that we can’t control; and that, if we meddle with them, we may be placing ourselves in grave danger… The point is not that these things are necessarily evil in themselves; but that, like the palantir, we can’t always be sure of the powers behind such things, whether good or ill –” [More]

Also, coverage of “The Lord of the Rings” at Hollywood Jesus is expanding for 2004!

In addition to Greg Wright’s usual ongoing series of monthly features, HJ will be adding three new monthly features as well — something new every week!

First, Greg will be presenting a series of guest features from writers and ministers who have followed the work at Hollywood Jesus. The guest list includes Jeffrey Overstreet (Looking Closer), Cliff Vaughan (Ethics Daily) and Regina Doman (Caelum et Terra) among others. This month’s debut column: The Voice of Saruman is a look at the significantly missing episide in Jackson’s movies — is contribued by Brian Overland, a prolific writer of technical books and movie reviewer (The Door).

Also debuting today is the E-mail of the Month feature, highlighting some of the more interesting (and controversial) correspondence that courses through Greg’s PC.

Debuting next Wednesday is a series of interviews with cast and crew of Jackson’s epic film series. The first of Greg’s entries in this series is The Wolf in Wolf’s Clothing: An Interview with John Rhys-Davies. The ever-colorful creator of Gimli for the screen is his irrepressible self in this discussion of our generation’s “supreme challenge.”

Thanks to Dayna for this one: “The website somethingawful.com has a feature this week that should appeal to Lord of the Rings fans with a goofy sense of humor. Their photoshop forum people contributed pictures that mix LOTR with vehicles.” [More]

Unless Peter Jackson makes a big-screen version of The Hobbit at some point in the future, Andy Serkis has only one more chance to be nominated for an Oscar for his performance as Gollum. That chance comes Jan. 27, when this year’s Academy Awards nominees will be announced. [More]

When the members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association made “Cold Mountain” the front-runner for the group’s annual Golden Globe Awards, which will be announced during an NBC special on Sunday, they were playing favorites a trifle prematurely. [More]