On Sunday, June 8th, TheOneRing.net was proud to be part of the premiere episode of the ‘Fictional Frontiers’ radio show. This show, which focuses on pop culture and the artists/creators behind it, is streamed online at the WNJC 1360 AM, Philadephia website every Sunday at 11AM ET. TORn will be continuing to provide a Tolkien segment on a bi-weekly basis, with our next show on June 22nd. Hope you can join us! If you would like to read the transcript of the Radio Interview, Ringer Elven has kindly typed it up and it appears on the full page view of this article (use the link below to read the full article)! [Fictional Frontiers] [Press Release]Thanks to Deleece (Elven) for sending in this transcript of Calisuri’s recent appearance on ‘Fictional Frontiers with Sohaib.’
Torn Radio Fictional Frontiers 8th June 08
Presenters email address: sohaib@fictionalfrontiers.com
WNJC 1360 AM
Chris (Calisuri): Hi Sohaib – Hows it going?
Sohaib: Hey Chris – Good to hear from you, thanks for calling in on Fictional Frontiers.
Chris (Calisuri): No problem, glad to be here.
Sohaib: So, I actually talked about the TheOneRing at the beginning of the show, because, this is a new program and I think a lot of our listeners are huge Lord of The Rings fans, and as the weeks are going to be moving forward – with respect to the films – I think you’re going to see more and more fans interested with what’s going on with the two new Hobbit films ..
But before we get to that, I thought you could maybe talk a little bit about the TheOneRing.net. So its www.TheOneRing.net and I thought people who are not familiar with the site – and I don’t know why they wouldn’t be, to be honest with you – but ….
Chris (Calisuri): (laughter) Thats very flattering …
Sohaib: No, I mean that. Its the premiere website – it’s been features in Entertainment Weekly, Time magazine, you name it – its a media hub, and I’m telling you, I know that people in the industry, actually people in the film industry actually go to your site as a source of their information as well, but can you give us a little bit of history of the TheOneRing.net, and also the motivation behind the formation of it?
Chris (Calisuri): Well sure! The TheOneRing is all about community – really. I mean, back in the late 90’s I was a huge fan, and still am a huge fan of Star Wars and specifically TheForce.net and I found myself, while in college, checking TheForce.net every 10 minutes possibly, you know, about the prequels and everything. And I just happened to be like “Where’s the website for the Lord Of The Rings”? – and I look around and I happened to find Mike – who’s been on the show previously – Mike Regina … and I found his website, and it was really really ugly (laughter)
Sohaib: (laughter) When Mile comes on here, I’ll let him refute that claim .. (laughter) .. if you don’t mind Chris (laughter)
Chris (Calisuri): (laughter) He better just back that up ’cause it was pretty bad … and so I contacted him and told him, Hey, Im a beginning web designer would you like us to make a site kind of thing and he had Erica Challis who was in New Zealand as a spy, then I had a friend Bill – William Thomas from Chicago, who was doing server stuff, so the four of us combined to make the TheOneRing.net . So we’re the owners of the TheOneRing.net and we still are today – which is pretty unusual for a lot of fan websites that get really big and successful because there’s a lot of in-fighting, there’s a lot of the Hollywood attitude, and I think it helps – we’re not in Hollywood –
Sohaib: Right …
Chris (Calisuri): … and so its been pretty great for these, it almost going to be ten years soon ..
Sohaib: wow …
Chris (Calisuri): and I feel old now ..
Sohaib: (laughter)
Chris (Calisuri): But thats how the TheOneRing started, and really, we have a great staff. I really have to give them a shout-out because one of the things I don’t think people realize this, the TheOneRing is a completely not for profit entity in that none of us make any money from the site at all …
Sohaib: Right ..
Chris (Calisuri): … so none of the owners, none of the staff that help, make any money… the only thing you could consider being a perk of being part of the TheOneRing as a staff member is maybe you could go to DragonCon, or something, or maybe you might get to go out to dinner on the TheOneRing ….
Sohaib: (laughter)
Chris (Calisuri): Or (err) a hotel stay at ComicCon which , you know, can be significant …
Sohaib: Oh yes …
Chris (Calisuri): So you know, those kind of perks .. and then obviously you know (Ive got to get that out there) cause so many people think we’re run by a corporate entity, and this is our full time jobs …. all of us have real life jobs … I in fact work as full time web master of SideShow Collectables ..
Sohaib: Right – Right – Right …. I might talk a little about that as we go through too .. as um, for those of you who are fans of any movie collectable, or movie memorabilia – that SideShow Collectables is an amazing amazing site, and Chris is the master behind that as well.
Chris (Calisuri): I really appreciate it, thats very flattering, again – you turning me red here.
Sohaib: (laughter)
Chris (Calisuri): So yeah, we all have full time jobs in all our staff – everyone from our message board moderators to our chat room moderators and the people who go out and do our panel discussions and do the reporting and everything – everyone has a full time job. So to have the TheOneRing be as effective and functional as it is, is really a blessing, and we really thank all of our staff, and all those people who make it work behind the scenes, its really something special, and I hope they realize – and Im saying it publicly here for them – I hope they realize how special they are for helping us.
Sohaib: Oh yeah, I’m sure they do. I hope you were able to hear the introduction to the show, because one of the things I really want to focus upon here with Fictional Frontiers is not just the projects themselves, but also the motivations and the goals behind the projects – and like you said at on the onset – I think that you were a true fan of these films and again, it’s a passion, it’s not a website made for profit – so you’re trying to bring something to the community of fans out there and again, it’s an incredible endeavor.
Chris (Calisuri): Yeah, I mean really – My main motivation was being a huge Tolkien fan. You know, I read the book, oddly enough, until we started the TheOneRing – I read the books every year – every Summer – since I was like 8 – so its was that impactful in my life, and it really Tolkien in general had an impact in so many people’s lives, that we thought it was just (you know) if we can, then we have the skills and ability to do it – why not try to make a community that all Tolkien fans can come to and feel part of …
Sohaib: Right ..
Chris (Calisuri): One of the other great things about the site *cough* – excuse me, its the allergies in western Pennsylvania are pretty bad this time of year ..
Sohaib: (laughter) Oh no, I know, I know … I think Im experiencing it this morning as well. My producer thought it was too cold in the studio, I gave her the thumbs up ‘I’m OK’, but isn’t that right, in the Gladiator arenas, ‘thumbs-up’ means you’re supposed to be executed.
Chris (Calisuri): (laughter) .. I think that’s right (laughter)
Sohaib: Ok .. we wont go there, we wont go there ..
Chris (Calisuri): (laughter) … One of the other things about the TheOneRing is that we try to keep it a family friendly site – we want all Tolkien fans from all backgrounds, all ages, to participate. We have a great Message Board, a great Chat Room, in fact people are in the Chat Room right now while we’re on the show – its meant to be a family friendly site – we keep politics out of it – I think that’s a real important thing that we learnt over the years – we’ve really kept politics out of the site – cause there’s a lot of the Lord Of The Rings cast who are political, so we might report everything about anything related to Tolkien – even (you know) what Viggo Mortenssen ate for breakfast yesterday – but, we make sure we don’t alienate any of our visitors from the site with politics or content that isn’t appropriate for a family audience, So that’s a critical part of the success of the TheOneRing as well.
Sohaib: Yeah, I noticed that as well. It’s funny that you mention that as well – because I think it’s one of those things that sort of goes unnoticed unless it’s actually brought up, and I’ve been visiting your site for years, and obviously, as you mention, with the political slants of a lot of the cast and the crew of the film, you might find information about their political agendas on other websites, but on your website I don’t recall a single time that I saw anything about anything related to politics of the cast, and now that you bring it up, I think that’s very laudable actually.
Chris (Calisuri): Well its deliberate, and its important when you go to a website that your passionate about, and the contents of the website that has nothing to do with politics, then all of a sudden you get there and there is some political message that you might not believe in, or offends you or something – what’s worse than that …
Sohaib: Well Chris you know there’s not enough political talk right now, obviously, right 😉
Chris (Calisuri): (laughter)(laughter)
Sohaib: Maybe you could consider it ….
Chris (Calisuri): (laughter) .. there’s not enough outlets …
Sohaib: … not enough outlets, I mean we need more political talk on talk radio ..
Chris (Calisuri): (laughter) … yeah, like I need a bullet in my head … (laughter)
Sohaib: (laughter)
Chris (Calisuri): Yeah, so I mean that’s the TheOneRing. Its really about the community. Some of the highlights in the past have just – we look back and like ‘How did we possibly do these things’ … the 3 Oscar parties we had for Lord of The Rings …
Sohaib: Can you talk a little about that – I just want to show how – again you bring up the community feel of the website – but it also parallels the community feel of even the cast to a certain extent , and the crew and the efforts there … talk a little bit about the Oscar parties ….
Chris (Calisuri): Yeah ..
Sohaib: Hopefully there’ll be two more, too, but we’ll get into that later ..
Chris (Calisuri): Well, we plan on doing Oscar parties for the Hobbit film, hopefully they merit that .. Hopefully we can almost guarantee that, the great thing about the Oscar parties were that we wanted to bring in .. we wanted to have a party for fans – accessible to all fans – with a ticket price that anyone could afford – to come to Los Angles, on Oscar night – within a mile, actually less, within an eighth of a mile of the actual Oscar ceremony, and participate in the success of the films, in the excitement of the community, and what we had – the first year was probably the most special in that we were totally amateurs in running a party – and all of a sudden cast and crew from Lord Of The Rings are showing up at our party – you know – mingling with the crowd.
Sohaib: (laughter)
Chris (Calisuri): You know Richard Taylor handing Oscars to fans – fans holding Oscars and taking pictures with Richard Taylor. You know, Peter Jackson coming upstairs, Ian McKellen shooting pool – this experience no fan could ever expect, is what we had our first year, and that made it so much more challenging from a security standpoint, and a fan stand point – I mean we’re not looking to appease the celebrities or appease the A list, we’re looking to appease the fans cause that’s who we are, because we have passion, just like they do.
So the second party we did at the same location – we had to secure things a little more, but it was just as much of a success. And then the 3rd Party was just overwhelmingly successful from a fans perspective in that we had a huge auditorium … and you know, if you’d have been there it was just insane, and Im sure people can look at google and on the TheOneRing and see the report of just the fans just glowing over this one experience. You’ve got to bring that to this community – I mean I don’t thinks it’s been done in any fan community before …
Sohaib: Well its funny, because you bring up the fan community and I mentioned it just as a side joke, as fans – I hope you didn’t let Ron Howard in that first year because he stole the Oscar from all of you…
Chris (Calisuri): (laughter) I’ll tell you a little funny ‘Behind the Scene’s’ .. As one of the main people organizing the Oscar party, because I was in Los Angeles at the time, and I had some really strict rules (Sohaib Laughs) that turned out to really dumb rules, you know cause ‘total amateur’ … (Sohaib Laughs) I refused to increase the ticket price for fans … I was like there’s no way, if I want to go to this party, I cant afford a $300 ticket – its not possible – how is that for the normal fan, the non wealthy fan, the non wealthy fan, the guy or girl who just want to come and enjoy themselves, how is $300 going pay .. its not possible ….
Sohaib: Right, No thats true ….
Chris (Calisuri): So to make it accessible to everyone, I insisted on a low ticket price … and not many people noticed, but the TheOneRing went into debt $100,000 after that ….
Sohaib: Oh My God … wow ..
Chris (Calisuri): as a result of my dumb decision, (Sohaib Laughs) but we got a great party out of it, and ultimately we were able to pay that debt after a while with support from our sponsors … you know, after the party was great success but I looked at Bill Thomas .. (Sohaib Laughs) .. who is in Chicago who does our books (laughter) and like errr, yeah, we’re kind of short (laughter).
Sohaib: Its one thing to be fan friendly, but then you might have thought, err, maybe I should have ….
Chris (Calisuri): So I can also say that (laughter), you know, we have to look at this realistically, we can’t be in that kind of situation again after another Oscar party. You know I think ultimately … we even turned people, we turned celebrities away at the door … like you mentioned Ron Howard … for the last party we actually, if a celebrity wanted to come to our party they had to pay the full ticket price (Sohaib Laughs) – like for their whole entourage etcetera – of course that didn’t mean the movie cast, and crew for the movie .. like for example, I don’t know …
Sohaib: Right .. (laughter)
Chris (Calisuri): LL Cool-Jay wanted to come in and its “Sorry you cant come in unless you pay”, so … we really tried to make that fan friendly, and I think it was an accomplishment for our whole team and I don’t want to sound like we have an ego about it, but I really .. you look back and you see a community of passionate people and they have to pull off what the LA Times called the best Oscar party of the night.
Sohaib: WOW – that says alot, and its funny because , as you say, now you’re a Star Wars fans as well, and I know they’ve had these Star Wars celebrations for quite a few years, and I’ve talked to quite a few fans who attended these celebrations throughout the country , and unfortunately what they’ve told me is that they end up being very corporate affairs – they really feel they’re overwhelmingly mismanaged, and lot of them come back feeling that they just weren’t what they could have been – and I understand there are quite a few Star Wars fans out there – but at the same time – you’re website seems it really geared towards – and that shouldn’t be your website, but all your effort s with regard to that – everything is geared towards the fans, and when it’s geared towards the fans – and when its geared towards the fans even if, say for example, I know you away a couple of people, at least they know that you’re working for them, not for someone else.
Chris (Calisuri): Exactly.
Sohaib: That’s tremendous. And for those of you who are interested, Chris has been kind enough, because he actually is as I say, the Mastermind behind Sideshow, we actually have some give-aways for you callers or actually if you like you can actually email me sohaib@fictionalfrontiers.com – so if you’re a little shy today, the TheOneRings going to be on again in two weeks so we’ll be giving you another couple of opportunities – but you can email me and I’ll send you out one of the Sideshow Cards that Chris has been kind enough to give us as prizes – honestly, ask my wife, I’ve spent quite a bit on Sideshow, I don’t think she likes your company that much any more Chris …
Chris (Calisuri): (laughter) .. Most significant others of our customer base, dont’t quite appreciate the rooms of collectables …
Sohaib: Ah, yes, yes, and because they’re of such high quality – every-time I go on your site, the SideShow site, I always tell myself “I don’t think I should visit Sideshow”, cause every time I end up going there I end up making one or two purchases, and the one thing about Sideshow, for those who are not familiar with the site, with quite a few of the items there you can pre-order, so that gives you enough time to actually get enough money together to actually make the payment (laughter) on the items, so that’s even more of an incentive to want to order something and I think its a wonderful option on your site. But my wife would probably disagree (Chris Laughs) and that’s what I was saying, she might not think they were prizes she might think they’re something other than that .. (Chris laughs)
Chris (Calisuri): Thats very true (laughter) very true .. (laughter)
Sohaib: You don’t have to worry about that, well at least I hope you don’t have to worry – I don’t know what the perks are …
Chris (Calisuri): Well, in the old days when we were about only 20 people, we usually got a lot of the stuff free – but not anymore.
Sohaib: Not any more.
Chris (Calisuri): Not even close to ‘any more’. I have a collection of the original SideShow/WETA series 1 collectables here in my office, but you know, you’ve got to have money to buy this stuff. You know, Im not anymore wealthy than most people (laughter) .. so, I get the select few items , but in talking about SideShow, they’ve obviously been a great supporter of the TheOneRing, the reason I work at Sideshow, is the TheOneRing.
I was in California unemployed in the Summer of 2001 – we moved from Pennsylvania from California – my future wife and I – she was going to school – and I was really cocky thinking “I’ll just get a get a job when I get out here” (laughter) (Sohaib laughs) – and then September 11th happened, and I was unemployed for a good 4/5 months and we’re at the point of like OK, we might have to go back to Pennsylvania, too expensive to live out here in California – and just at the last second, in an attempt – because I knew most of the business side of the TheOneRing – Sideshow, with Sideshow and Sideshow WETA, when they were together as an entity wanted to sponsor the TheOneRing, and our costs at the TheOneRing were going up, our server costs and hosting costs, so we were looking at that as a real possibility .. it just so happened at the meeting with them, they’re like “What do you do normally”, and I’m like “Well I’m not really doing anything” and so they hired me as their webmaster, they hadn’t had one – (laughter) – so since 2001, my first day was Christmas Eve 2001, Ive been working there and Sideshow has been a huge supporter of the TheOneRing – we have so many contests with them – I guess it’s sort of a bias because I work there (laughter)
Sohaib: Yeah, I know I mean ….
Chris (Calisuri): and Im in charge of marketing, its a lot of marketing stuff, so I can usually get us some cool prizes and stuff …
Sohaib: Like I said, its to me the premiere collectable Movie site online, and its like, you have so many licenses – I’m telling you, if you’re a fans of anything – Star Wars, Hellboy, Preditor, Terminator, you name it – even, I think you have Reservoir Dogs
Chris (Calisuri): Oh yeah – there are a lot – Theres so many licenses now …
Sohaib: It seems like every license is there … But Chris, I guess what I wanted to talk about a little bit over the next 10 minutes or so is “What’s going on with the Hobbit Films” or the Hobbit (I guess) Bridge Films I guess you could say that ..
Chris (Calisuri): Tell me one thing first. Did Mike review the WETA chat?
Sohaib: No he didn’t, and Im going to give him a pass because obviously for those of you who are ..
Chris (Calisuri): He’s slacking in this – come on just tell him he’s a slacker (laughter)
Sohaib: (laughter) (laughter)
Chris (Calisuri): He’s wife is expecting any second (laughter)
Sohaib: Exactly. He’s an excused slacker – believe me, I had a son last year, so Ill give him the benefit of the doubt this time and Mike, if you’re listening, you’ll have plenty of time to review anything that Chris’s said (Chris laughs) unless Chris decided to not let you back on and then we’ll have you both on – and we can have …
Chris (Calisuri): An argument on the radio show or something .. (laughter)
Sohaib: I can guarantee you the ratings will probably be higher than the debates (Chris laughs)
Chris (Calisuri): One quick thing, obviously Mike – if you are listening, hope everything’s going great – I’m sure it is – and very shortly, he’ll be a father, and Im sure hes going to be pretty excited about that, so congratulations in advance Mike.
Sohaib: Yeah, our prayers are with you Mike.
Chris (Calisuri): So he hasn’t had a talk about the chat – so let me go over some of the really key things that came out of this Peter Jackson Guillermo del Toro chat that was hosted by WETA – and I mean there’s some significant information that came out that’s really great – just loads of information … so what do we know …. up front – First film is the Hobbit – pre production 2009 – filming 2010 – released Dec 2011 – on the anniversary of the Fellowship of the Ring release – the 10th Anniversary …
Sohaib: Make your Oscar reservations now before ….
Chris (Calisuri): (laughter) Exactly (laughter) .. and the second film, they refer to it as F2 – it’s not going to have a name for a while according to Peter Jackson – we have the pre-production also 2009 – they’re filming these films together like they did with Lord of the Rings, in 2010, and then that one will release in December in 2012
Sohaib: Ok so one year apart ..
Chris (Calisuri): Just like they did with Lord Of The Rings …
Sohaib: Its good they didn’t choose a title like “Attack of the Dwarves” or something (Chris laughs) Im just kidding George if you’re listening. Because we’re Star Wars Fans its like if you’re a member of a particular ethnic group and you can sometimes say certain things about you’re own ethnic group
Chris (Calisuri): I agree (laughter) we’re Star Wars Fans can so we can say that to each other … (laughter)
Sohaib: and we love Star Wars, So we can get away with it – please George understand .. (laughter)
Chris (Calisuri): (laughter) One of the other interesting notes that Guillermo brought up was someone asked about the rating – and he thought Pans Labyrinth –
Sohaib: I saw a part of Pans Labyrinth, some of it, not all of it – its an incredible film, its a masterpiece ..
Chris (Calisuri): Ah visually, it blew my mind. You know, some of the scenes.
Sohaib: I actually talked to Doug Jones yesterday, I met him yesterday – we have a segment we’re going to be running with him in the next couple of weeks . He was actually the Faun and the Pale Man in Pans Labyrinth …
Chris (Calisuri): Right.
Sohaib: But watching it, most of the film I watched it – certain portions of it I had my hand over my eyes (laughter)
Chris (Calisuri): Totally Totally! So these though are probably studio mandated, but the movie would need to be PG13. But what Guillermo said right after that was like it will be an intense PG13. I would expect the same, just as the Lord of The Rings Films – I mean – somehow Return of The King had a PG13 rating with severed heads being thrown over walls …
Sohaib: Right …
Chris (Calisuri): (laughter) So I think … it’ll errr …
Sohaib: … and human heads no less, they weren’t errr …
Chris (Calisuri): Yeah, they weren’t Orcs .. (laughter)
Sohaib: They weren’t orcs or Urak-hai or what have you. They were actually human heads – Gondor’s soldiers, Gondor’s best men were flying over the walls of Gondor (laughter) – and it got a PG13 ..
Chris (Calisuri): Hey wait, we might be spoiling it for some people who have never seen the movies .. (laughter)
Sohaib: Ah, OK – You’re right. The producer here Karen – one of the heads here – she’s actually just watched Fellowship for the first time – She loved it – I’m not going to say anything else – no more hints at least not from my end …
Chris (Calisuri): Another great titbit of information that came out from this chat was that the writing team of Boyens and Walsh are back with Peter Jackson he and Guillermo – so you’ve got basically four writers and they talked about how important it was to have Guillermo involved in the writing process cause it makes for that much better a movie.
Sohaib: I agree, I agree wholly
Chris (Calisuri): and then there is other great news – Confirmed returning cast – Ian McKellen as Gandalf – Andy Serkis as Gollum – anybody from the original films that is written into the script, within reason and fits, will be asked back.
Sohaib: Is that true that Viggo has been approached already, I don’t know if that has been confirmed …
Chris (Calisuri): It hasn’t been confirmed – but this conversation pretty much was clear on the fact that anybody involved in the first films and were able to do it and they worked out all the details would come back. So I think that’s very encouraging for consistency.
Some other casting things we know – Ron Perlman’s going to be in it in some capacity –
Sohaib: Oh OK – fantastic.
Chris (Calisuri): He’s not going to voice Smaug – at least thats what Guillermo implied at this point – you know things can change – I see him as Beorn or something , you know like a big bear guy (laughter). So I can see that as his role … (laughter)
Sohaib: You bring up Ron Pearlman’s as part as Smaug – if you remember in the Two Towers – again this is not a spoiler – but John Rhys-Davies actually was Gimli, but then again when they couldn’t find the exact voice for the chief ent, they actually had him do the voice for him as well …
Chris (Calisuri): Right – Treebeard.
Sohaib: So he could actually do that as well – so obviously anything could happen as you stated, in post production ..
Chris (Calisuri): and we have the same supporting crew back, like Allan Lee and John Howe – we have Howard Shore’s going to do the soundtrack … I mean these are all confirmed things.
Sohaib: I have a quick question – I don’t know if you’re privy to that information, but I know Howard was doing the score for Kong, as the Rings filmed progressed I thought you were seeing something akin to George Lucas and John Williams sort of that pairing, where they were going to work on every single project – and I know that Howard was working on the King Kong soundtrack until a month before, and I guess Peter didn’t feel the score was going the right way ….
Chris (Calisuri): They basically had an artistic difference there was no like blow-up or anything like that ..
Sohaib: Ok so they were fine. That’s why I was concerned. In my mind – and again, Im a huge John Williams fan – but I think Howard Shore, I think his score for the Lord of The Rings films, I would say it maybe the best score I’ve ever had the pleasure of hearing or listening ..
Chris (Calisuri): Yeah. That’s amazing, and its touring the US, Europe by now by the way, and if you get a chance to go see it … its just …
Sohaib: Oh I saw it live in Pittsburgh – I went to the Howard Shore Lord of The Rings Symphony in Pittsburgh a couple of years ago …
Chris (Calisuri): Im getting shivers thinking about when I saw it at the Hollywood Bowl ..
Sohaib: Oh you saw it at the Hollywood Bowl? My friend Steve is going to be so envious (Chris laughs) He says you have to see any – because John Williams does the Hollywood Bowl show every year – and he said it is the definitive location to actually hear ….
Chris (Calisuri): It was really, really impressive … I mean like I said, I don’t think we’d see confirmation of him being back if there was a real blow-up over Kong. I just comes down to creative differences I think. Not everything is going to work perfectly all the time between people -it’s just not possible – even in relationships (laughter) – you know I mean, nothings always exact, like you agree 100% so …
Sohaib: Thats right, its Iike I spoke to a couple of the artists over at the Wizard World convention a couple of weeks ago, and actually Greg Hielderbrandt I spoke to him particularly about this, and he told me he thought the creative differences were actually going to end up being most positive for the overall production – because it’s the epitome of brain storming – when there some conflict there often artists produce their greatest works ….
Chris (Calisuri): Exactly – you can just skate through things without productive feedback – I’m a graphic designer slash web designer, and you can’t expect everyone to love it. So these are really good things. Other things he talked about, specifically about the talking animals in the Hobbit – you know – how they’ll handle those without looking too cheesy – I personally think a Narnia animal stuff looked a little cheesy to me.
Sohaib: I wasn’t a real fan of the production design on that ..
Chris (Calisuri): So right, so how to do that – and grabbing people like – you know, just the average viewer who like Lord of The Rings Movies – but never really experienced any talking animals – how they’re going to do handle that …
Sohaib: right – right
Chris (Calisuri): So he’s gotta – he’s going to do it – but he also says its not just going to be Smaug at the end all of a sudden talking … by the way there’s a slight spoilers – you know “Smaug at the end” there – is a slight spoiler (laughter) although …
Sohaib: I’d call it a mini spoiler ….
Chris (Calisuri): So there’s talking – they’re going to have address that – I thought a great way would be something along the lines of the original Star Wars trilogy …
Sohaib: Right – The sub titles ….
Chris (Calisuri): I mean how cool would that be – I mean, that’s my personal preference …
Sohaib: How different would the Phantom Menace experience with Jar Jar been with sub-titles, he might have very well been the most annoying character in the history of film – but – I love you man but unfortunately.. kids loved him obviously everyone else didn’t – but had there been sub-titles i think it would have made a very big difference I think personally.
Chris, like we have one minute left, is there one last titbit of information you could probably provide our listeners until you or Mike are going to be back on in 2 weeks.
Chris (Calisuri): Ah, the last bit of great news is that they’re definitely going to have 13 Dwarves.
Sohaib: OH!
Chris (Calisuri): So theres no cutting of any dwarves …. so thats pretty much where I can catch up with … and OH … James McAvoy …
Sohaib: Oh yeah I was going to ask you about that ..
Chris (Calisuri): Quickly – that rumour – you know- it’ just a total rumour from Showbiz site – that you know, who knows if they just threw out there … but basically Guillermo said in an interview that that was not the case – he’s not the confirmed one …. or anything like that, but everything’s up in the air so you never know …
(tape change) Chris talks about the Bilbo fan poll on the TheOneRing.net for people to vote.
Sohaib: So Chris – thanks for calling in, and for those of you who are interested in anything related to Lord Of The Rings films – please please visit the TheOneRing.net – you will not regret it – there is such a wealth of information not just about the films but the books as well – and visit Sideshow Collectables as well – and again I can be emailed at sohaib@fictionalfrontiers.com for those of you who have particular questions for Chris and Mike when he comes back in the near future. Chris?
Chris (Calisuri): Thank you
Sohaib: Thank you
Chris (Calisuri): Alright! Talk to you soon!
Sohaib: Take Care.
Transcript by Deleece Cook (Elven) for the TheOneRing.net
