The Official Christopher Lee Homepage has posted some real media clips of Christopher Lee (Saruman) answering various fan submitted quesitons. As we would expect, some folks have asked about Lord of the Rings filming and New Zealand. While he can’t mention anything about the movies specifically, he did say, “Peter Jackson is one of the most remarkable directors I have ever worked with in my entire career.” That sounds like good news for us fans and a great compliment for PJ! Follow the links in the Q&A forum of this site to find the Real Media clips. [More]
Category: LotR Cast News
Film Effects with a Human Face
Growing up in Rulsilp Manor, Andy Serkis always wanted to be in theatre, but saw his future behind the scenes. But after catching the acting bug at university and adding a string of key roles to his credit, he now plays arch fiend Gollum in next winter’s much-heralded film of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. Alan Hayes talked to him.
Actor Andy Serkis has a peach of a role in the film they said could never be made.
As Gollum in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the rings, Mr Serkis, who grew up in Rulsilp Manor, has spent the last six months in New Zealand, ‘halfway up volcanoes, in glacial streams and marshes’, as well as in a special studio, creating the sort of effects that have finally made JRR Tolkien’s epic possible.
Shooting all three parts of the story simultaneously, Kiwi director Mr Jackson and his compatriot special-effects whizz-kids has wrestled the tale of sword, sorcery, fantastic creatures and little Hobbits to near completion, and part one is due on screen in December (a cartoon version of the early 1980’s fizzled after only one book had been animated).
Mr. Serkis will be back down under this summer for three months of post-production work, finishing the special effects which have made it all possible.
But the film doesn’t sublimate all acting talent in favor of technical wizardry.
“They were looking for someone who was capable of doing a creature voice but portray him as human as well,” says the 36 year old actor about Gollum, the boy who kills for, then becomes utterly corrupted by, one of the fabled, lost rings.
“I think the great thing about Gollum is he is the point of human contact or what the ring does to you,” said Mr Serkis, who having just returned from New Zealand and paid a flying visit to his parents. Lylie and Clement at their Westhone Gardens home, was in Manchester this week working on a new film.
On the theme of Gollum he continues: “He’s very much a case of” ‘There but for the grace of God.”
He ads that with the need to give cinema audiences the ability to relate the creature to something recognizable, he has played him as an addict, a ‘ring junkie’. complete with withdrawal symptoms.
“When you are playing such an extreme character, you have to root it in something the audience can identify with,” he said.
Mr Serkis confessed he had not read The Lord of the Rings before being offered the part, although Tolikien’s other Middle Earth tale, The Hobbit, was a childhood favorite.
To get into Gollim’s head, he said he read and re-read certain passages and found it ‘fantastic stuff’
During the course of the film, he must transform from Smeagol, the boy who killed his cousin for possession of the ring, into the reptilian Gollim, with his sobbing, hissing language as he talks to himself and the ring, his later ego which he calls ‘his precious’.
Much of the special effects use ‘motion capture’, a technique which required Mr Serkis to wear a special suit covered in reflective dots, tracked by a computer-driven camera.
The animation can then be overlaid, so the actor realistically drives the character’s movements, even if the final appearance is part computer graphics.
New Zealand is becoming a hot house of film special effects, not least due to costs being vastly lower than in Hollywood. Mr Serkis said the level of artisan skill and craftsmanship which produced the reams of costumes, armaments and equipment impressed him greatly and the scenery was perfect for portraying Middle Earth.
The film, he said, “was a real marriage between acting and animation, and they got the real cutting edge technology out there.
“As Peter Jackson said: ‘The film should be made because now we have the technology,” he recalls.
Six months in New Zealand wasn’t all work. His partner, the actor Larraine Ashbourne, and their two children, Sonny and Ruby, were able to come out, and the family managed a holiday on the south Island.
The Lord of the Rings has been sandwiched between other films – Shiner, with Sir Michael Caine, penciled in for release in 2001, and his latest project, 24-hour Party People, but as an actor trained in repertory, he yearns to get back on stage.
However, the long-anticipated ‘Rings’ is special, for film-goers and film-makers alike.
“I do think it’s going to be fantastic,” said Mr Serkis, “and I very, very rarely say that about anything I do.”
Thanks to Darrell for the tip!
The Defence Force was paid $205,000 by the producers of The Lord of the Rings trilogy for providing up to 300 staff as extras. [More]
DarkHorizons is reporting that Cate Blanchett (Galadriel) may sign up for the lead role of Veronica Guerin in ‘Chasing the Dragon’. Jerry Bruckheimer will produce and Joel Schumacher is set to direct.
Nona, from The Compleat Sean Bean page, sent us this today:
Sean [Bean who will play Boromir] has been mentioned in the 02 February 2001 issue of OK! Magazine (Issue 249) as one of their annual top 100 Showbiz Earners.
Check out the magazine clip in our scrapbook. [More]
Monday, January 29
Viggo Mortensenhttp://theonering.net/movie/cast/mortensen.html (Aragorn) The Portrait of a Lady SHOW3 & The Young Americans ENCACT
Liv Tyler (Arwen) Inventing the Abbotts KTVO
Ian Holm (Bilbo) eXistenZ TMC2
Hugo Weaving (Elrond) The Interview MYSTERY
David Wenham (Faramirhttp://www.theonering.net/movie/char/faramir.html) Dark City TNT
Ian McKellen (Gandalf) X-Men IN9
Bruce Spence (Mouth of Sauron) Dark City TNT
Christopher Lee (Saruman) Safari 3000 SHOWX
Bernard Hill (Theoden) William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream HBOSIG
Brad Dourif (Wormtongue) Urban Legend TMC & Color of Night HBOSIG & Amos & Andrew TMC2PTuesday, January 30 Liv Tyler (Arwen) Heavy SUNDAE
Ian Holm (Bilbo) Mary, Queen of Scots IFRC1
Elijah Wood (Frodo) The Faculty SHOWX
Cate Blanchett (Galadriel) An Ideal Husband STARZ5
Mark Ferguson (Gil Galad) Every Woman’s Dream LIFE
John Rhys-Davies (Gimli) Au Pair MovieMax 5 UK 
& Secret of the Andes Sky Premier 3 UK & Cyborg Cop WSBK
Orlando Bloom (Legolas) Wilde SHOW3
Christopher Lee (Saruman) Talos the Mummy Sky MovieMax 5 UK & Scott of the Antarctic A&EWednesday, January 31 Liv Tyler (Arwen) That Thing You Do! VH1
Ian Holm (Bilbo) The Fifth Element RTE 1 UK & All Quiet on the Western Front ENCACT
Hugo Weaving (Elrond) The Matrix MAX & Babe 2: Pig in the City Sky Premier 3 UK
Miranda Otto (Eowyn) The Last Days of Chez Nous IFC
Elijah Wood (Frodo) Avalon STARZ & Internal Affairs WNDS
Ian McKellen (Gandalf) Gods and Monsters SUNDAE
John Rhys-Davies (Gimli) Secret of the Andes Sky Premier 3 UK & Waxwork USA
Andy Serkis (Gollum) Mojo Sky MovieMax 4 UK
Sean Astin (Sam) Icebreaker ACMAX & Dish Dogs KXTX & Toy Soldiers STARZ
Christopher Lee (Saruman) Five Golden Dragons XUPN2 & Bitter Victory ENCACT
Brad Dourif (Wormtongue) Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones TRUEThursday, February 1 Viggo Mortensenhttp://theonering.net/movie/cast/mortensen.html (Aragorn) The Thin Red Line ACMAX & Witness MOMAX
Sean Bean (Boromir) Ronin SHOWX
Miranda Otto (Eowyn) The Thin Red Line ACMAX & The Well Carlton Cinema UK
John Rhys-Davies (Gimli) The Living Daylights Network 2 UK
Bruce Spence (Mouth of Sauron) The Cars That Ate Paris Film Four UK
Christopher Lee (Saruman) The Gorgon Sky Cinema 1 UK
Bernard Hill (Theoden) Gandhi HBOSIG
Brad Dourif (Wormtongue) The Exorcist III STARZFriday, February 2 Liv Tyler (Arwen) Stealing Beauty BRAVO
Ian Holm (Bilbo) Alice Through the Looking Glass STARZ4
Andy Serkis (Gollum) Among Giants Sky Premier 1 UK
Sean Astin (Sam) Kimberly HBOZ
Christopher Lee (Saruman) Sleepy Hollow Front Row 2 UK & Return From Witch Mountain Sky Premier 1 UK & The Mummy AMC
Bernard Hill (Theoden) True Crime HBOPL
Brad Dourif (Wormtongue) Best Men THMAX & Eyes of Laura Mars Film Four UK Saturday, February 3 Viggo Mortensenhttp://theonering.net/movie/cast/mortensen.html (Aragorn) Boiling Point ENCORE
Liv Tyler (Arwen) Armageddon Showing on Sky Premier 2 UK
Ian Holm (Bilbo) Legend BBC2 UK & Alien TVYou
John Rhys-Davies (Gimli) King Solomon’s Mines WRGB
Sean Astin (Sam) Encino Man KSTW & The War of the Roses KDEB
Christopher Lee (Saruman) Sleepy Hollow Front Row 2 UK & The Accursed KVOS & Captain Horatio Hornblower TCM
Bernard Hill (Theoden) The Loss of Sexual Innocence HBOPLSunday, February 4 Viggo Mortensenhttp://theonering.net/movie/cast/mortensen.html (Aragorn) A Walk on the Moon STARZ5 & Young Guns II WEMT & Fresh Horses ENCORE
Ian Holm (Bilbo) Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein Film Four UK & Dance With a Stranger FLIX & A Severed Head Sky Cinema 2 UK
Hugo Weaving (Elrond) Bedrooms & Hallways HBOSIG
Elijah Wood (Frodo) Flipper STARZ
Ian McKellen (Gandalf) Apt Pupil Sky Premier 3 UK & Jack & Sarah AMC
John Rhys-Davies (Gimli) Firewalker WTBSLOC
Andy Serkis (Gollum) Mojo Sky MovieMax 4 UK
Bruce Spence (Mouth of Sauron) Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome WJZY
Christopher Lee (Saruman) Sleepy Hollow Front Row 2 UK & An Eye for an Eye KTMD
Brad Dourif (Wormtongue) Alien Resurrection TV3 UK & Trauma SHOWB & Mississippi Burning WGNSAT