Christopher Frank Carandini Lee CBE, CStJ (born 27 May 1922) is an English actor and singer. He initially portrayed villains and became famous for his role as Count Dracula in a string of Hammer Horror films. Other notable roles include Lord Summerisle in The Wicker Man (1973), Francisco Scaramanga in The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), Count Dooku in the Star Wars series, as well as Saruman in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. Lee’s most important role, according to him, was his portrayal of Pakistan’s founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah in the biopic Jinnah (1998). Lee has performed roles in over 220 films since 1948. Along with Rock Hudson, Lou Ferrigno, Vincent Price, Sterling Hayden, Vince Vaughn and few others, he is, at 195.6 centimetres (6 feet, 5 inches), one of the tallest leading actors of all time.
Lee was born in Belgravia, England, the son of Contessa Estelle Marie (née Carandini di Sarzano) and Lieutenant-Colonel Geoffrey Trollope Lee of the 60th King’s Royal Rifle Corps. Lee’s mother was a famous Edwardian beauty who was painted by Sir John Lavery, as well as Oswald Birley and Olive Snell, and was sculpted by Clare F. Sheridan. Lee’s maternal great-grandfather had been an Italian political refugee who sought refuge in Australia; his great-grandmother was Australian opera singer Marie Carandini. christopherleeweb.com
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Celebriel forwards news that Andy Serkis has teamed up with UK production company Screen East to assess feasibility for a motion capture studio in the UK. He said in the announcement, “We believe that currently in Britain there is no centre of excellence that matches the capacity developed by Weta Digital in New Zealand, which has been a key resource in delivery of productions such as The Lord of the Rings, King Kong, James Cameron’s forthcoming Avatar and Jackson and Spielberg’s highly anticipated Tintin.” More..
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Sir Ian Murray McKellen, CH, CBE (born 25 May 1939), is an English actor of stage and screen, the recipient of the Tony Award and two Academy Award nominations. His work has spanned genres from Shakespearean and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction. He is known to many for roles such as Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings film trilogy and as Magneto in the X-Men films.
He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1979, and knighted in the 1991 New Year Honours for his outstanding work and contributions to the theatre. In the 2008 New Year Honours he was made a Companion of Honour (CH) for services to drama and to equality.
In 1988, he came out as gay and became a founding member of Stonewall, one of the United Kingdom’s most influential LGBT rights groups, of which he remains a prominent spokesman. www.mckellen.com
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The June 1st issue of Time, our friend and director of “The Hobbit,” Guillermo del Toro, talks about TheOneRing.net. In the magazine’s regular feature “Short List,” (page 63) where the movers and shakers of the world talk about what folks do in their spare time, he says, “TheOneRing.net is a great community where intelligent, articulate dissenters argue about fascinating minutiae–and not just about fantasy.”
Thanks GDT! We happen to agree and coincidentally a bunch of us were saying the other day that we think you are intelligent, articulate and a dissenter when it comes to following old, tired movie formulas, so now we are even except that Time freaking magazine will not be quoting us about you. Sorry! That really is mighty kind praise from a guy who made cool flicks like “Cronos,” “The Devil’s Backbone,” and “Pan’s Labyrinth.”
Not only did our message board folks post about it here but Ringer spy ToroFan wrote in to our news desk about it. The deep undercover spy asked if its the first time to make it into . . uh . . . Time. That is a pretty legitimate question ToroFan, thanks for asking. The equally legit answer is: Nope! There are at least three other occasions. Continue reading “It’s about ‘Time’ – GDT gives TORn prominent props”
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Peter Jackson has confirmed that The Hobbit, to be shot in Wellington next year, will be one continuous movie in two parts and not two self-contained films. When the project was announced in late 2007, the plan was for two films to be shot back-to-back. The first film would be based on The Hobbit in its entirety, or, some of the story would spill over into the second film which would also be based on author JRR Tolkien’s other writings to create a direct link to The Lord of the Rings. But Jackson, who is also an executive producer on the project, said The Hobbit would now take up all of both films. “We decided it would be a mistake to try to cram everything into one movie,” he hold British film magazine Empire. Hobbit: One tale in two parts
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Last week, Sideshow Collectibles revealed a small thumbnail of their upcoming Comic-Con 2009 Exclusive – ‘Mount Doom’ Sam and Frodo Diorama. In the latest edition of Sideshow TV (Sideshow’s video podcast), they have revealed many more views of the piece. While the podcast covers all of their Comic-Con 2009 exclusives, the Sam and Frodo portion is around the 4 minute mark. Check it out! [Feedburner] [iTunes] [Comic-Con Exclusives]
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Christopher Frank Carandini Lee CBE, CStJ (born 27 May 1922) is an English actor and singer. He initially portrayed villains and became famous for his role as Count Dracula in a string of Hammer Horror films. Other notable roles include Lord Summerisle in The Wicker Man (1973), Francisco Scaramanga in The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), Count Dooku in the Star Wars series, as well as Saruman in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. Lee’s most important role, according to him, was his portrayal of Pakistan’s founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah in the biopic Jinnah (1998). Lee has performed roles in over 220 films since 1948. Along with Rock Hudson, Lou Ferrigno, Vincent Price, Sterling Hayden, Vince Vaughn and few others, he is, at 195.6 centimetres (6 feet, 5 inches), one of the tallest leading actors of all time. 