Looking for that perfect holiday gift for your favorite fan of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings movies? Look no further! Monday, December 16 could be your lucky day. That’s the day Julien’s Auctions, known for their auctions packed with Hollywood collectibles, will be auctioning off one of the original tobacco pipes used by Sir Ian Holm in his role as Bilbo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring! The pipe will come fully documented for authenticity by both Peter Jackson and Animation Designer and Supervisor, Randall William Cook.
According to the Julien’s Auctions website: Jackson personally gifted this production artifact to animation supervisor Randall William Cook in celebration of Cook’s 50th birthday during the making of the film. Included with the prop is the original birthday card from Jackson to Cook when the gift was presented to Cook on his birthday as well as a letter of authenticity from Cook.
What lessons can Amazon learn from the team that’s been there & back again? Let’s find out! Join TORn Tuesday hosts Cliff Broadway and Justin Sewell for an epic All-Star LOTR panel tomorrow! Joining us will be Mark Ordesky (Executive Producer), Sean Astin (Actor – Sam Gamgee), Rick Porras (Co-producer), Jim Rygiel (Visual Effects Supervisor), Michael Pellerin (Producer, multiple LOTR & Hobbit documentaries), Keith Stern (Ian McKellen’s Digital Manager), and Sala Baker (Actor – Sauron), as we all relive memories of filming LORD OF THE RINGS. What were those early days on set like? Did producers follow the fan discussion online? What made this effort so special? Get your deep knowledge questions ready for this multi-Oscar winning team and join the Live chat tomorrow 5pm PT. There are three options to watch the live stream, each of which let you comment and ask questions of your own:
Even within Tolkien’s own books, anniversaries are treated as special occasions. A chance for the characters to reflect upon the past that shaped them as they continue moving forward into the future. But for us Lord of the Rings fans, this October 11 (or October 10, if you’re in the Western world) is an anniversary of special magnificence. It was October 11, 1999 in New Zealand when principal photography commenced on Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies, with the main shoot encompassing The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King. Back at a time when the internet had no Facebook, Twitter, or Wikipedia, back when VHS tapes were the preferred way to watch home movies, and when Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin were world leaders, an 18-year-old Elijah Wood and his castmates gathered together to begin shooting three films that most of the non-Tolkien fans of the time gave little regard to.
Filmed on October 11, 1999
It’s interesting to look back at the schedule from those days because it wasn’t dictated by story or film order but by what locations were ready, who was available, and what the weather was likely to be like. In fact, while filming began with the four hobbit actors hiding from a black rider on the Wooded Road and ended 437 days later on the set of Minas Tirith, the order of what was filmed in between was more of a hodgepodge. (I’m always amused when people claim that the Grey Havens’s farewell sequence carries its emotional weight because of how much the actors bonded over the course of the project. In fact, it was shot rather early in the go, and when Ian McKellen was later asked how he kept from weeping in the scene, he replied, “This was only the second scene I filmed for the trilogy. I scarcely knew Frodo from Merry and adopted the safest course of expressing very little as I said goodbye to them.”)
“You with the dark hair, it is time to go.”
Of course, the end of principal photography itself wasn’t really the end. Pickup shots would continue for The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King, with the latter even having some pickup shots filmed after its theatrical release to help fill out the extended edition. Peter Jackson, after shooting the final final footage for the trilogy, a shot of a couple of skulls rolling at the Paths of the Dead, commented that it was especially bizarre to still be shooting The Return of the King in 2004 after the film had won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
By setting aside the pickup shots, weather cover days, and various bits and pieces shot by some hard-working unit while most of the actors were busy elsewhere, here’s the general schedule The Lord of the Rings followed:
1999
October
(Filming begins with Hobbit leads) The Wooded Road Farmer Maggot’s Field Buckleberry Ferry Bree Exterior (Viggo Mortensen arrives) Weathertop Isengard Deforestation
November
(Sean Bean Arrives) Anduin River Amon Hen Battle
December
Boromir’s Death Frodo’s escape from Boromir Ford of Bruinen Prancing Pony Interior Exiting Moria Approach to Lothlorien
2000
January
(Ian McKellen arrives) Hobbiton Exteriors The Grey Havens Edoras Exteriors
February
(Ian Holm arrives) Bag End Interior Orthanc Interior Helm’s Deep
March
Helm’s Deep Continues Gandalf at Isengard Rivendell Exteriors
April
Helm’s Deep Continues Last Alliance (Prologue) Aragorn and Company at the Black Gate Caves of Orthanc Frodo and Sam in Mordor
May
Helm’s Deep Concludes Frodo and Sam in Mordor Concludes Frodo and Sam at the Black Gate Moria Interior Rivendell Interior
June
Paths of the Dead Interior (Cate Blanchett arrives) Lothlorien
July
Orthanc Exteriors Cirith Ungol
August
Anduin River Flooded Isengard
September
Breaking of the Fellowship Caradhas Voice of Saruman
October
Edoras Interior Battle of the Pelennor Fields
November
Fangorn Forest
December
Fangorn Forest Concludes Moria Gate Minas Tirith
Special thanks to J.W. Braun, the author of The Lord of the Films. You can visit his website at www.jwbraun.com.
Talent, locations, infrastructure and a warm Kiwi welcome. According to Pam Ford from the Auckland Tourism Events and Economic Development agency in this piece from Radio NZ, those were the determining factors in Amazon Studios’ decision, confirmed on Tuesday, to film the upcoming Middle-earth-based TV series in New Zealand.
Quoted in stuff.co.nz, showrunners and executive producers J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay described New Zeland as indeed offering all of the criteria they were looking for: “As we searched for the location in which we could bring to life the primordial beauty of the Second Age of Middle Earth, we knew we needed to find somewhere majestic, with pristine coasts, forests, and mountains, that also is a home to world-class sets, studios, and highly skilled and experienced craftspeople and other staff”.
“And we’re happy that we are now able to officially confirm New Zealand as our home for our series based on stories from J.R.R. Tolkien‘s The Lord of the Rings. The abundant measure of Kiwi hospitality with which they have welcomed us has already made us feel right at home, and we are looking forward to deepening our partnership in the years to come.”
No doubt the prospect of a 20% to 25% rebate for every dollar spent also contributed to the ‘welcome’ factor. The good news for New Zealand is that Amazon will be spending approximately $1.0 billion of those dollars ($1.3 NZD) and will likely provide jobs that will spill over from the film industry to affect the rest of the economy for up to a decade.
Read more about the Auckland studios where filming will take place in our article from June, and be sure to listen to the full radio story linked above as it features our own staffer Garfeimao (Cathy Udovch)!
The party continues! We’re still celebrating 20 years of TheOneRing.net (check out the message boards for all the fun and games), and yesterday we received another lovely video message. This comes all the way from New Zealand; check out what Richard Taylor had to say. (You may want to be sitting down before you watch this one…) Thanks so much, Richard!
I have a confession to make. I’ve become a relatively bitter Tolkien fan in the past 20+ years. Since founding TheOneRing.net with Corvar, Tehanu and Xoanon, I’ve gone through a devolution of my own personal fandom, that was neither apparent at the time, nor welcomed as a result. You see, when we started, so many ages ago, I had read The Lord of the Rings religiously every year since age 13. Every single year. It was a welcome escape from the challenges of 13-year-old-boy-dom. After all, I was a pretty damn awkward kid. I looked forward to the summer when I’d pore through the pages of Tolkien’s master work, and be whisked away on a journey in which I felt I was passionately participating.
When the idea of TheOneRing.net came to fruition, I was able to get that same satisfaction through simply enjoying the dawning of the internet age with other Tolkien fans online. I consumed everything and anything that was shared, written, argued, engaged, etc. That become my cup of Tolkien consumption for many years, lasting through the end of The Return of the One Party. Yes, through those years, I did not read a word of Tolkien – but the thriving community of TheOneRing.net kept me more than fulfilled.
Then came the in-between years – we can call them the dark times – that time when our personal interests fall to the side as we build up our family and professional lives. (Don’t get me wrong, those are great things on a personal level, but for my Tolkien fandom, that time was pretty dark.) I didn’t read a word of Tolkien, and I didn’t consume the output of the community that had sustained me for so many years. The significance of Tolkien in my life took a back seat.
Along came the excitement and rush of The Hobbit films! A return to the grandeur of the early 2000s, a thriving community engaged with a new vision…or was it really? The reality for many of us old-timers (BTW – I’m not ‘THAT’ old), was that the venture through The Hobbit films felt a bit more like Thorin’s struggles (*cough* gold fever) than true excitement. For me – and maybe not for you – it felt forced … non-organic. The community still thrived, however, and a whole new generation of Tolkien fandom was born.
But for me … I was done. Well, obviously not ‘done’ done. But I had reached my limit. I hadn’t read a word of Tolkien for years … decades … and I saw too much behind the curtain of the ‘business’ of Hollywood gleefully to ignore the obvious truths that evade most. (We won’t go into those here – let’s just say, behind the curtain is pretty ugly.)
Then comes the news of a biopic of Tolkien. *roll eyes* This bitter Tolkien fan immediately thinks, ‘Oh great. How are they going to diminish the legacy of one of the greatest authors and minds of all time? Will they make him out to be a racist? A religious zealot? Pull out some other horrific tidbit of information that could attempt to ruin a legacy?’ Yea, bitter. ‘What modern sensibility will we crucify Tolkien with today?’
Pretty sure that is as bitter as bitter gets. (Was anyone else there with me?)
When I was offered an opportunity to see Tolkien at the Montclair Film Festival in Montclair, NJ last night, I was just as bitter. It was cool that I would get to go see it early, but I was pretty well set for something annoying. Yes, a few other staff had already seen it and set praises upon it, but this bitter old fan chalked that up to youthful enthusiasm for community relevance. (Sorry folks, but that’s the truth!)
What I saw on the screen last night was quite unexpected. It was inspiring, tearful, joyful and engaging. It was exquisitely directed, and skillfully acted.
What I saw on the screen was a story I hadn’t known. It was obviously not just a reporting of Tolkien’s life; no, this was a unique interpretation of a famous life, pieced together from a relatively undocumented time. This is something that engaged this bitter fan from the first scene of WWI hell, to a realistic conclusion well before Tolkien’s published fame.
This is NOT a geek film. This is NOT a greedy attempt to piggy back on the success of LOTR, Hobbit or other fantasy films. This is a wonderful work of cinema that not only fully re-charged my interest in learning more about the one who started it all, but also my interest in re-reading the books.
Today, I made sure that The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit books are front and center on my Kindle app. Guess what I’ll be reading later?
Congratulations to director Dome Karukoski (My new hero?) on an amazing film, worthy of the name of ‘Tolkien.’
