New Zealand’s Weta wizards compete for more Oscars in tomorrow’s 78th Academy Awards in Los Angeles. But four-time Oscar winner and Weta Workshop chief Richard Taylor, who flew to Los Angeles on Friday, says King Kong’s Naomi Watts also deserved a nomination for best actress. And he hopes that actors who play digital characters will one day be recognised in best actor categories. Watts played heroine Ann Darrow opposite the digitally-created gorilla played by actor Andy Serkis, who was Gollum in The Lord Of The Rings triology. Peter Jackson’s $US207 million ($NZ315.21 million) blockbuster of King Kong has five Oscar nominations for best achievement in makeup, art direction, achievement in sound editing, sound mixing and visual effects. [More]
Category: LotR Cast News
They’re two giants of Aussiewood, and they’re also great friends. Aussie actor Naomi Watts was among the star-studded crowd that turned out in New York last night for the debut of Hedda Gabler, the Sydney Theatre Company production starring Cate Blanchett and Hugo Weaving. The 850-strong Brooklyn audience gave the performance a standing ovation and afterwards the King Kong star paid her respects, hugging Blanchett at a post-play party. [More]
Dominic Monaghan’s Golden Globe winning show ‘Lost’ is on tonight at 9PM EST on ABC. TORN’s chatroom now has a special ‘Lost’ screening room, login to #lost at 9PM and watch with fans from around the country! [ABC.com] [TORN Chat]
For Viggo Mortensen, acting in big budget Hollywood films is just one form of artistic release. Voted one of the world’s most beautiful men by numerous magazines, Mortensen is also an artist, photographer and a jazz musician. “It is all one thing, there are all different ways of expressing yourself,” said Mortensen, in Sydney to promote his Oscar nominated film A History of Violence. “You don’t have to make something that people call art. Living is an artistic activity, there is an art to getting through the day.” [More]
Be sure to tune into FOX tonight at 9PM (it has now moved to 10PM in Canada) 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.
LeafOfHumanTree writes: Viggo Mortensen was at the Sydney premiere of A History of Violence tonight at the George St cinemas. Viggo was an absolute gentleman and generous with his time. He signed everything for everyone, posing for photos, chatting to fans in different languages and shaking hands.
Before the film started, Viggo slowly worked his way down the red carpet, signing books, film postcards, DVD covers, calendars, etc for the fans. After the invitees had entered the cinema, cinema staff allowed fans to take down the posters and poster boards promoting A History of Violence, so I took one. Viggo then disappeared briefly to introduce the film to those VIPs invited to the screening and returned to sign more paraphernalia.
On his first trip down the carpet, Viggo was kind enough to sign a LOTR CD cover for me. When he returned from introducing the film, he was kind enough to sign my A History of Violence poster.
Here is a link to one of the few photos I took before my camera batteries died. I wish I could have taken a photo when he was smiling and turned my way, but the batteries were dead. [More]
Here is a link to an article in the Sydney Morning Herald about Viggo’s appearance at the premiere. [More]
Viggo is even more gorgeous in person than on film. Softly spoken, polite, patient and kind. He was a little serious, but smiled readily for photos and conversation.
I wish I could say that I said or asked something incredibly clever or gracious but I was dumbstruck and he had to say ‘And this is for…?’ when he came to sign my LOTR picture. ‘Is this how you spell it?’, he asked, as he wrote my name. I didn’t care – he could have signed it ‘To Rumpelstiltskin’ for all I cared!