Expect plenty of swooning from film fans when Viggo Mortensen arrives in Sydney next week to promote his new film, A History Of Violence. Mortensen’s quick trip to Australia is set to take in Sydney and Melbourne, but there’s no word yet on whether he’ll jet across to New Zealand where he filmed The Lord Of The Rings trilogy. Mortensen (or “Aragorn”, as he is affectionately known among Rings fans) is not scheduled for any official promotional duties across the Tasman, but insiders have suggested the actor is considering ducking over to the country where he spent three years filming with Peter Jackson. The area surrounding Wellington is particularly dear to Mortensen’s heart because of the time he spent working there. [More]
Month: February 2006
New to DVD this week is Sean Bean’s ‘North Country’. A fictionalized account of the first major successful sexual harassment case in the United States — Jenson vs. Eveleth Mines, where a woman who endured a range of abuse while working as a miner filed and won the landmark 1984 lawsuit. [more]
The San Diego Symphony Summer Pops will present the local premiere of “The Lord of the Rings Symphony” – composer Howard Shore’s epic adaptation of his movie soundtracks featuring orchestra, chorus and vocal soloists as well as illustrations from the Tolkien books. As if that isn’t enough to lure fans, the July 20 concert coincides with Comic-Con, the hugely popular event held at the San Diego Convention Center, adjacent to the Pops’ site at downtown’s Embarcadero Marina Park South. “We’re almost positive that ‘The Lord of the Rings Symphony’ will be a sellout,” says San Diego Symphony executive director Edward B. “Ward” Gill. “It should be a blockbuster.” [More]
Henery Gee writes: Just to let you know that I’m still on the road promoting my book ‘The Science of Middle-earth’ here in the UK. I’ll be at the Brighton Science Festival on 23 February and the Cambridge Science Festival on 18 March. For full details you can visit my website henrygee.org.uk.
As you probably know, The Science of Middle-earth started life in the ‘Green Books’ section of TORn. Tom Shippey chose it as his book of 2005 in the Times Literary Supplement, and in the New York Review of Science Fiction said that it was “the most unexpectedly Tolkienian book about Tolkien that I have ever come across”.
Order ‘The Science of Middle-earth’ on Amazon.com today! [US] [CA] [UK]
Be sure to tune into FOX tonight at 9PM EST to catch a new episode of “24” with Sean Astin. Sean has joined the cast of the hit show in it’s fifth season, he plays a savvy government agent who has taken control of ‘CTU’ the Counter Terrorism Unit.
Oscar-winning writer, director, and producer Peter Jackson has already left an indelible mark on Hollywood with his epic Lord of the Rings trilogy, which stands out as one of the best marriages between cutting-edge special effects and J.R.R. Tolkien’s rich narrative. Jackson’s most recent project, the big screen re-make of King Kong, resulted in another successful melding of entertainment — this time between the linear film and the video game that bears Jackson’s name in the title. Not since Enter the Matrix has there been such collaboration between a Hollywood director and a video game based on his creation. Like the Wachowskis, Jackson has been a gamer all of his life, so he brings gaming sensibilities to the table in his interactive collaborations. Jackson hand-picked Rayman creator Michel Ancel to spearhead the King Kong game because he had been impressed with his critically acclaimed, but commercially unrecognized adventure game, Beyond Good and Evil, several years ago. [More]