Daniel writes: Sliders – The First and Second Season Dual Dimension Edition is available on DVD this week! The series stars the unforgettable John Rhys-Davies as Professor Maximillian P. Arturo. In conjunction with the release, several Sliders sites are participating in a free giveaway of Sliders DVDs to celebrate! Enter today – this no purchase necessary promotion ends on Friday, August 13 at 5:00pm Eastern time. [More] [Pre-Order on Amazon.com]
Category: Merchandise
BonMothma writes:
I have enjoyed offering fans the chance to see what it’s like to experience “The Lord of the Rings Symphony” from the point of view of a singer in the Mendelssohn Choir (read PART I & PART II). I had planned to talk about this past week’s rehearsals and performances in this final chapter. Last night, however, Dr. Page, the director of the choir, made it clear to me that he does not like details of the rehearsals being made public.
Honestly, it never occurred to me that this might be the case. I liken it to watching all the behind-the-scenes stuff on the extended DVD’s. It gives me a greater appreciation for the finished product when I see the hard work and care that went into it. Obviously, not everyone feels this way, and I will abide by Dr. Page’s wishes.
However, I do not wish to leave this story unfinished, so I’ll skip the rehearsals and talk about what it was like to experience these performances from the stage.
First of all, a bit more about the piece itself. Listeners will hear music other that what’s listed in the program.
The first movement lists “The Prophecy – Concerning Hobbits – The Shadow of the Past – A Short Cut to Mushrooms – The Old Forest – A Knife in the Dark.” It concludes with the music from “The Treason of Isengard” – the wizard fight.
The second movement lists “Many Meetings – The Ring Goes South [this includes some music from FOTR EE when Arwen and Aragorn look at each other as the Fellowship is leaving] – A Journey in the Dark – The Bridge of Khazad-dum – Lothlorien – Gandalf’s Lament – Farewell to Lorien [FOTR EE, Galadriel’s gifts] – The Great River [There is some music from Amon Hen in here next, including some from the score but not on the soundtrack album] – The Breaking of the Fellowship.”
The third movement lists “Foundations of Stone – The Taming of Smeagol – The Riders of Rohan – The Black Gate is Closed – Evenstar – The White Rider – Treebeard – The Forbidden Pool.” I didn’t notice anything additional in this movement.
The fourth movement lists “The Hornburg – Forth Eorlingas – Isengard Unleashed – Gollum’s Song.” Again, nothing additional to what was listed.
The fifth movement lists “Hope and Memory [Pretty much all of “Minas Tirith” is added here] – The White Tree – The Steward of Gondor – Cirith Ungol – Anduril.”
The sixth movement lists “The End of All Things [it actually begins with “The Fields of the Pelennor” – the whole thing, then plays part of “Hope Fails” before going into “The End of All Things.”] – The Return of the King – The Grey Havens – Into the West.”
The setup for these performances differs according to the venue, I’m sure, but for us, the choir was set up behind the orchestra. The screen was above our heads and just in front of the choir. Howard Shore was not extremely pleased with this set up, because the pictures are not supposed to be the focus, but it was the only way to do it at Heinz Hall. It was hard for me to not look up at the pictures when I had down time in the performance, but I glanced at them during the last rehearsal when I could.
Howard Shore’s conducting style was a pleasure to experience. He was very animated and expressive. For me, it really helped set the mood for whatever was happening musically. Offstage, he is quiet and reserved, but very gracious with his fans.
The sound of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra was balanced very differently for me because the percussion section was directly in front of us, and the French horns were in front of them. The strings sounded very far away sometimes (they were), but it gave me an opportunity to hear things in a totally new way. The percussion section was a sight to behold. There were some interesting things used to get the right sounds for the Isengard and Treebeard music. My favorite percussion moments were the drums at the beginning of “The Fields of the Pelennor,” and an occasional deep bass drum, that softly punctuated some of the quieter moments.
One of my favorite instrumental moments was “The Forbidden Pool.” I loved the combination of instruments that creates the sound of water in that sequence. I also loved the music for the lighting of the beacons. The horns all sounded so majestic.
It’s hard to pick one section that I liked singing best. Actually, one of my favorites was a part I did not sing – the Moria part when the Fellowship see the city of Dwarrowdelf. I loved hearing the men’s voices swell at that climax. We moved from Khazad Dum to Lothlorien, which was a big change. I loved singing that part – very ethereal. I think my other favorites were pretty much everything in the fifth and sixth movements, especially “The Steward of Gondor” – a very haunting sound.
I got to talk a bit with Sissel after Wednesday’s rehearsal. She is a very gracious and beautiful lady. I enjoyed listening to her renditions of “Gollum’s Song” and “Into the West,” but where she really shined was on the high parts. “Evenstar” was beautiful, but my favorite was in “The Return of the King,” where Arwen and Aragorn are reunited. Everything gets quiet, and all you hear is her voice. It was stunning.
Howard Shore, if you’re reading this, thank you for your beautiful work on these movies and for putting together such a brilliant symphony. I’m looking forward to the release of the boxed set. I apologize for anything I’ve said in these posts that may have revealed more than you would have wished. I’m just an enthusiastic fan who is very grateful to have experienced this, and wished to share it with those who can’t.
I am also grateful to Dr. Page for allowing me to sing with the Mendelssohn Choir. And I wish to thank Fred-O, whose letter to the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra prompted them to book these concerts. The final performance for this was on my birthday. To sing my favorite music on my birthday is the best present I could receive. I had to keep my composure and focus for these performances, but once I had finished last night, I began to cry. It was so wonderful and beautiful to participate in this, and I am sorry that it’s over. I will never forget it.
Michael writes: On Monday August 9th here in the UK the Shopping channel ‘QVC’ is doing a Lord of the Rings collection special at 10pm. [qvc.com]
Editor’s Note: I cannot confirm the accuracy of this report!
Nothing clear yet on the release date, let alone the disc specs for the third installment of The Lord of the Rings, however since both previous films had Extended Editions released on DVD it is fair to assume this will happen again, especially after it is rumoured Peter Jackson said the following at the Copenhagen premiere. Basically he commented that the first cut of Return of the King had a running time of four hours and fifty minutes. When asked why this was too long for theatres but acceptable for DVD, he said:
“It is different with the DVD version. People watch it at home. They can lay on the couch or spread the experience over two or three nights. That is the amazing thing with DVD. It gives a whole new dynamic and I can assure you that the DVD version of Return of the King will be longer than 4 hours and 50 min.”
Unless any of our Danish readers have can confirm this then it is still rumour, however if true, this really is interesting news.
My note: Also note that Sir Ian McKellen (Gandalf) appeared on Jonathan Ross Friday night, and he said that the Extended Edition would be over five hours long.
Andy
[Source: DVDAnswers.com]
A spy by the name of Jedi over at Comingsoon.net has posted a bit of information about the scenes in the Two Towers Extended Edition and some minor spoilers for RoTK.
A lot of the Towers information we’ve already read in AICN’s report, but there are some very interesting clarifications on several scenes. Although this report seems credible, the usual spy report disclaimers apply. Jedi writes:
I’ll give you report on the EE of TTT first then info on ROTK including my experience on set of the pick-ups going on and a look at a completed scene I got to view. Then info. on the trailer.
The day was Tuesday and it started with getting up around 9am and going for some breakfast with my “friends” at a little cafe called “Fidel’s.” If you stay in Wellington, I highly reccomend Fidel’s for your eating needs. Got out of there around 10:30am, drove to the screening where we sat down in a little screening room with about 30 seats and then it was show time.
Extended opening with Sam and Frodo: After Frodo wakes from his nightmare of Moria, the scene cuts to the hobbits carefully making their way down a cliff as the two towers title appears on the screen contrast to the theatrical version where the scene cuts to the hobbits making their way up a mountain and title pops up on screen. There is a better teaser leading up to Gollum, the audience really gets full of effect of the hobbits being followed, I believe there was a scene where we see Gollum’s point of view watching them as rome around emyn muil.
The Urukhai: You see the rivalry between Mordor’s orcs and Sauruman’s urukhai. One orc asks Grishnak why “the master wants the halflings…” The reply is “they have some elvish weapon, the master wants it for his war…” It all still leads to the food fight.
Sauruman in the cabins of Isengard is extended a little, he just walks around more.
Great new added scene here: The fight at ford isens where Eomer comes upon the body of a wounded Theodred who was ambushed by orcs. Karl Urban rules! Nuf said.
Treebeard: New scene added with Treebeards home and the hobbits rest and then drink the ent draught where they realized they have grown in the next scene. The look on their faces is kind of deja vu..
Fangorn forest and the return of Gandalf seemed in tack, although when he speaks about what happened in Moria, it looked like some scenes of Gandalf battling the balrog were added. It’s been months since I last saw the theatrical version of TTT.
The king of the golden hall: This scene is extended a little, mostly it is more wormtounge, we see the the rohirrium guards leading Grima to the steps as he protests, this scene is contrast to the theatrical version where after Theoden is exorcised the scene cuts directly to the steps of of the Golden hall and Wormtounge is thrown out. We then go to the funeral of Theodred when the beautiful Eowyn (Miranda Otto) sings a lament for her cousin. Very moving scene, Miranda has a beautiful voice.
There is are new scenes in the golden hall, in paticular Eowyn serves Aragorn some stew, the stew doesn’t look too tasty, but when you have been living off Lembas for days anything looks good. Also if I remember correctly there was another small scene where Aragorn reveals his real age to Eowyn.
Extended scene in the Edoras stables as the Rohirrum guards along with Aragorn and Eowyn are seeing that the horses are saddled ready to depart to Helms deep.
[My guess is the picture below is part of this scenes – Dem.]
More conversations between Gandalf and Aragorn, including the scene we have seen in the previews where Gandalf and Aragorn are talking at nightfall about Sauron and Saurman tightenting the noose… Also talking about how war is upon us.
Some new scenes with Faramir. Faramir role is beefed up. Most notable is the extension of scenes and new scene added to the osgiliath sequence, during the sequence where the Gondorian army and Faramir rangers retake the city of Osgiliath the great new scene of the flaskback of Boromir being sent to Rivendell and the introduction of Denethor. Great new scene, the Denethor’s cameo is well done and well placed. I gurantee you that when you guys see and meet denethor, you want jump through the screen and strangle him and tell him to show love to both his sons. Faramir gets no repect, which better explains Faramir hard nosed attitude and why he wants to take the ring to Gondor.
There are extended scenes of Sauruman and Worntounge in orthanc.
Helms Deep seemed longer and I could bet the farm in saying that I saw some new scenes in interlaced with others. Like I said above it has been awhile since I saw the theatrical version, so I can’t remember what is new and what is not new.
The storming of Isengard has some new scenes added, what appears to be hurorns leave and appear at helms deep as the urukhai are fleeing the scene and the huorns take on all comers. This was a cool scene..
The ending is not really new, but more extended, it still has the same stuff but there are more scenes that lead up to it, like Merry and Pippin going in the store room, Legolas and Gimli claiming they each won the orc killing contest and of course Faramir showing Frodo, Sam and Gollum to the sewers of Osgiliath where he tells Frodo “Go with the good of all men…” Then Faramir snickered something at Gollum. Sam and Gollum make a semi truce there too.
Well, that’s it. Another job well done by PJ and the editors.
Now the ROTK stuff:
I got to see some footage of ROTK, actually it was an actual scene. The scene consisted of a King who as fallen in battle and his nephew who is his last true heir gives a lament to his fallen Uncle. Very emotional scene. I was almost driven to tears, I would haved cried if the scene had been scored. That won’t happen untill sometime in late September or early October. BTW, if I have to actually tell you the names of the characteres invloved in this scene, then you are NOT a LOTR fan.
I did get to go Thursday and watch some pick-ups being shot at Wellington studios, they are actually doing some more pick ups for the pellenor fields, they are using a giant blue screen and there were a bunch of extras. Also in previous pick ups, Dom Monaghan did some new scenes with Bernard Hill who plays Theoden.
Finally, work on the trailer will begin in late August.
It will be a type of “super trailer,” over 2 minutes in length. Also, don’t get your hopes up about seeing shelob in the trailer, she will be teased. You may see just a leg or any eye or just her lair, they really are not considering putting her in the trailer in all her glory.
Also, there is talk of adding a hidden ROTK preview to TTT EE dvd just like what was done with TFOTR EE dvd and TTT hidden preview. Nothing is certain yet.
That’s it.
Peace out,
JEDI