When Lord of the Rings (LOTR) began filming, large Hollywood-style production was introduced to the small filmmaking community of Wellington, New Zealand. Until this big budget film, sound teams had been small and understaffed. Extensive changing and updating of soundtracks had not been a widespread or common activity due to cost and time constraints upon the filmmakers. Projects were generally locked off and completed by the time sound postproduction began. That all changed when, in the first year of production, Fellowship of the Ring went through 50 versions before completion. Scrambling to keep up with the rapidly changing edit became the main focus. Creative sound track making became secondary to just keeping the movie in sync. [More]
Month: November 2004
LOS ANGELES – Humphrey Bogart, Arnold Schwarzenegger (news – web sites) and Jack Nicholson are competing in a war of words. The American Film Institute (news – web sites) is surveying Hollywood types for the top 100 quotes from U.S. movies, with contenders including Bogart’s “Here’s looking at you, kid” from “Casablanca,” Schwarzenegger’s “I’ll be back” from “The Terminator” and Nicholson’s “You can’t handle the truth!” from “A Few Good Men.” The quotes range from the first full sound feature film with Al Jolson (news)’s “Wait a minute, wait a minute. You ain’t heard nothin’ yet” from 1927’s “The Jazz Singer” to creepy creature Gollum (Andy Serkis) hissing “My precious” in 2002’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.” [More]
Getting stranded on an inhospitable island with a bunch of nefarious characters and a blood-thirsty beast that lurks in the bushes has turned out to be a good thing for Dominic Monaghan. The British actor acquired cult fame status by playing the hairy-footed Hobbit Merry Brandybuck in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. And now his smoldering portrayal as tortured rocker Charlie on ABC’s “Lost” (tonight at 8) has positioned him as one of the hit show’s breakout stars. [More]
Suzanne writes: The One Man Lord of the Rings, written and performed by Charles Ross, directed by TJ Dawe. 40 characters. 3 masterworks. 3600 seconds. One Man to do it all. Master-Impressionist, Charles “One Man LOTR” Ross, rockets you across Middle-Earth in this one-hour tour-de-force. Performed at the Roxy movie Theatre, your ticket price includes a screening of the multi-Oscar winning film Return of the King. Please note 7:00 showtime for performance. Advance tickets available at CURIOUS COMICS by phone at (250)383-2663.
Ringer Spy web nomix writes: “Fans of Bruce Hopkins may be interested to know that the film 1Nite will finally be screened in both Auckland (Nov 28th, 29 at the Rialto) and Wellington on 30th November (at the Paramount). I caught the screening at the Auckland film festival and can honestly say that this movie stays with you. Ok, its obviously shot on a very small budget, at times the colour and sound suffer… BUT… the acting performances are universally good!” Also, Bruce Hopkins and Cameron Rhodes can be seen in the musical ‘A Christmas Carol’ as of last week. Head for more information over to Bruce-Hopkins.com!
Ellen writes: Here is a link to the Big Book Auction. They are auctioning books owned by celebrities for the LEPRA charity, and there are two LOTR actors participating, Ian McKellen (Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver) and Bernard Hill (A fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry). [More]