It’s hard to remember now, when every respectable household contains the Special Extended DVD Edition of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings, but the celebrated trilogy was once considered a somewhat iffy proposition. That’s part of the explanation for how Jackson, a rather obscure director from Kiwiland, was able to gain artistic control over what Newsweek once called “the most expensive and ambitious movie project in history.” And by filming in New Zealand, where he had built his very own world-class production facility, Jackson was able to use the Pacific Ocean as a moat, protecting him from Hollywood interference. The result was that rare thing, a global film franchise that bears a personal stamp — an intimate epic.
Category: LotR Movies
Starting in 2001, movie fans from around the globe came to know and love Viggo Mortensen as the noble, charismatic leader Aragorn in “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy. But for his last two major film projects, his characters have teetered in the middle before traveling to the opposite end of the heroic spectrum, proving that he’s not so concerned with his screen image as much as he is finding complex, challenging roles to get his hands dirty. Who says you can’t tarnish that One Ring to rule them all? The digging Mortensen’s been doing in the last two films has been under the auspices of acclaimed director David Cronenberg, the provocative filmmaker who’s examined the dark side of Mortensen’s characters in “A History of Violence” and “Eastern Promises,” which opens in wide release Friday.
No, you were not seeing things when you caught the season 3 premiere of ‘Prison Break’ tonight on FOX, that was Sala Baker. Baker, who played a few roles in the LOTR trilogy (most notably Sauron), had a small role as ‘World’ in tonight’s episode. Sharp eyed fans may have even caught his Eye of Sauron tattoo during the pivotal final fight scene!
Roheryn sends along scans from the latest Entertainment Weekly, featuring Viggo Mortensen in their Spotlight department, mostly related to “Eastern Promises.” Also be sure to take a look at EW’s coverage of the Toronto International Film Fest, they have a few Viggo interviews. Lastly, take a look at this link for a bit of LOTR goofiness with Viggo on ‘The Colbert Report’.
Terumi Isogai writes: I am a fan of LOTR who is living in Wellington, New Zealand. The big news in town is that the famous Chocolate fish cafe is in danger of closing by the end of this year, due to rising cost. You might know this already but I thought we as fans could start some sort of petition trying to stop this from happening.
I am a Japanese national and write blog about Wellington and LOTR related news in Japanese. I know a lot of fans from Japan still consider this cafe as oe of tthe LOTR locations and keen to visit as many times as possible. This cafe is sacred place for LOTR fans!
Please read this article from the Dominion Post. If you could spread the news to other LOTR fans, I am sure we might be able to save this little cafe!