Category: LotR Cast News
Nona writes: Some recent Sean Bean artwork is going up for auction next week on Ebay for the Dorset Wildlife Trust. (a sketch of an orchid). [More]
Ringer Spy Anonymous sends along these great 3 pictures from The Two Towers! Some fearsome Uruk-hai possibly at the battle in Helms Deep, the lovely Miranda Otto as Eowyn and your first ever good look at Brad Dourif as Grima Wormtongue!
While at Cannes, a lot of questions were answered concerning a wide variety of subjects. One of the more interesting pieces of information that came to light was the Stuart Townsend drama.
Let me give a quick background. Stuart was cast in the role of Aragorn but departed the production a mere 3 days after filming started. Initial reports through our spies had suggested that Stuart was hard to work with and there was a lot of friction on the set.
So why was Stuart replaced?
Well, at the Press Conference last friday, Peter Jackson spoke a bit about the situation. As it turns out, Stuart is an extraordinary actor. Jackson and others were impressed with his abilities, however as time moved on, it became apparent that he was too young for the role. As Peter put it, even Stuart, a big fan of the books, insisted he was too young for the role.
When Viggo Mortensen was cast, both Peter Jackson and Barrie Osborne gave the news to Stuart. They parted on good terms and in agreement.
So basically, Stuart was too young. There was no tension or friction between Townsend and Jackson as was previously reported.
PJ did go on to say that the day Viggo joined the team must have been fate, because there could not have been a better person cast in the role. He is Aragorn.
Well, not really. Auckland’s newspaper ‘The Herald’ had the usual stuff about LOTR and Cannes, but finished with this quote from Peter Jackson:
“..Since New Zealand is a small country, the Government was keen to help in whatever way.
The Prime Minister actually came to visit us early on and she said ‘What can we do to help?’ And we said ‘Have you got any spare soldier?’ and she immediately contacted the Minister of Defence who made a battalion of soldiers available.
“It was kind of fun with the soldiers – we got to train them in the use of swords and shields and spears, and with the defence cutbacks we have in New Zealand, it will be useful training for them.”
(Didn’t “Braveheart” use real soldiers for its army? Maybe we can still do military excercises with Scotland. – T )
Kryel sends along another great pic of the cast at Cannes. [More]