HOLLYWOOD giant Sir Ian McKellen offers tips to up and coming hopefuls. The Oscar-nominated superstar, who treads the boards tonight alongside Patrick Stewart in Waiting for Godot, made a secret visit at the People’s Theatre, Newcastle, yesterday. Sir Ian was given a tour of the Heaton-based theatre where he stopped by to watch rehearsals for forthcoming John Godber play Teechers. Sir Ian McKellen offers tips to acting hopefuls
Month: April 2009
From thebookseller.com: J R R Tolkien will move into the digital age as HarperCollins begins selling his Lord of the Rings series as enhanced e-books.
As The Bookseller went to press, the publisher said it was planning to issue Tolkien’s entire back catalogue as e-books, beginning with the Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Hobbit and The Children of Húrin from today [20th April]. The e-books will include the maps and runes contained in the traditional print books and will be on sale at waterstones.com, harpercollinsebooks.co.uk and tolkien.co.uk. Waterstone’s will have a dedicated author page featuring the e-books from today.
David Roth-Ey, director of digital business development, said that the launch was the “most significant e-book initiative” the publisher has done so far. He said: “This is something that the fans so clearly wanted. Releasing Tolkien in e-books is something that has long been a goal of ours and we wanted to create high-quality legal versions of these books. It was a long -process—with the maps and runes, it’s slightly more complicated than [digitising] your average thriller.” HC turns Middle Earth digital
The producers of The Radio City LOTR Concert and the Official Fan Committee are pleased to present a weekend packed with LOTR happenings! Scheduled events include:
- The official release of Doug Adams’ new book The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films
- Pre-concert talks and post-concert signing sessions with Howard Shore and Doug Adams
- Discussion with Tolkien linguist David Salo, who translated all choral lyrics for The Lord of the Rings scores
- Illustrator/artist Colleen Doran talks about her work
- The Hobbit films preview/discussion – Join fans for a chat!
Serkis’ most critically acclaimed roles have been Sméagol/Gollum, in The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy (200103) and the title character in the 2005 version of King Kong, in which he provided the voice and movements for the CGI characters. Also in Peter Jackson’s King Kong, Andy Serkis played the ship’s cook. His performance as Gollum is ranked #10 on Premiere’s “100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time”.
His acclaimed work on the trilogy set off a debate on the legitimacy of CGI-assisted acting. Many critics felt Serkis should have been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance, since the movie used his voice, body language, and facial expressions. There is the argument that some of his CGI actions were partially, or in some cases fully animated, without his own movements, but the same can be said for actors in a traditional movie involving CGI. Some believed (incorrectly) that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences ruled that he did not qualify because he never physically appeared onscreen. There is no such prohibition, however, and in fact Serkis appeared onscreen as Sméagol/Gollum in the third film, The Return of the King. He also voices the Witch King of Angmar in aforementioned film, although he is not credited. More about Andy…
We really haven’t said much about Karl Urban in Star Trek. He plays Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy, and based on some reviews, he plays him well.
Take a look at this scary as heck ‘Trek Yourself’ feature..enjoy!
From empireonline.com: A couple of days ago we brought you the first look at Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret Of The Unicorn. Now we’ve got another treat for you: the first look at Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones.
Based on Alice Sebold’s book, the film follows Susie (Saoirse Ronan) a 14 year-old girl raped and murdered by her neighbour. From heaven, she watches her family deal (or not) with her death, and watches her murderer as he tries to hide the evidence. First Production Still from ‘The Lovely Bones’!
UPDATE: USA Today has just posted an interview with Peter Jackson about ‘The Lovely Bones’: Peter Jackson has made his name with big-budget, special-effects-heavy films such as the Lord of the Rings trilogy and King Kong. He tackles a more personal story with the adaption of the book The Lovely Bones. The director discussed the film, out Dec. 11, via e-mail with USA TODAY. More…