Irascian writes: Joe Letteri, visual effects supervisor on King Kong, will be speaking in The Starr Auditorium at The Tate Modern in London (UK) as part of a series of lectures on digital art. Joe’s lecture will be at 6.30pm on Monday, 25th September. He will be discussing the creation of the Visual FX for Peter Jackson’s King Kong. Joe will show how Weta built 1933 New York City, grew the lush jungles of Skull Island, and brought King Kong to life. Joe has received two academy awards for the visual effects on The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers in 2002, and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in 2003. Tickets are £10 (£8 for children and senior citizens) and can be ordered from the Tate ticket office on 020 7887 8888 or online here.
Category: Crew News
All news about the LOTR Crew.
The music from Lord of the Rings has been voted the top movie soundtrack for the fifth year running. The Oscar-winning score composed by Howard Shore was the clear favourite in the poll by Classic FM. Hans Zimmer’s epic soundtrack for Russell Crowe film Gladiator was second. In third place was the 2004 film Ladies In Lavender, which starred Dame Judi Dench and Dame Maggie Smith. The score was written by Nigel Hess. [More]
Recent travellers on Red Carpet’s Lord of the Rings locations tour have been wowed by a new guest attraction – none other than Brett Beattie, body double to Gimli. Tour chiefs Vic and Rae James say they’ve been fascinated by the stories Brett can tell from his long days on the set. Brett probably spent as much time as any of the actors filming up and down the whole country, and his recollections can hold a tour party spellbound. Check out tours
The March tour was so enthused by their tour experience that some members put together a messageboard for past, present and future LOTR tour parties to share their stories. [More]
Although famed composers ranging from Sergei Prokofiev to Aaron Copland have written music for movies, the classical music world has tended to look down their noses at it. But that attitude is changing. The San Francisco Symphony and Brooklyn Philharmonic are now regularly programing such music, and, in September 2004, cellist Yo-Yo Ma released an album devoted to the film works of Ennio Morricone. Then there’s “The Lord of the Rings Symphony.” In an effort to get his music performed not only on the screen but in concert halls as well, movie composer Howard Shore fashioned his scores for the blockbuster trilogy into a popular six-movement symphony. [More]
The LOTR summer concert series starts off with a weekend event in Denver, Colorado. Markus Huber and the Colorado Symphony Orchestra will be at Boettcher Hall tonight (Friday may 19th), Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are still available! Take a look [TICKETS]
Click here for more info on the LOTR Summer Concert Series 2006. [More]
As you might expect of anything connected to The Lord of the Rings, the numbers behind Howard Shore’s score for the Peter Jackson film trilogy are mighty impressive:
• Four months of solid research.
• Nearly four years to compose.
• A total of 11 hours of music.
• More than 50 leitmotifs (individual themes).
“It was pretty daunting at first,” Shore admitted of the task. “Writing film scores is always difficult to do – but the funny thing was, I didn’t want to stop when it was over.”
Shore has since moved on to other projects: He’s preparing a staged version of The Fly for L.A. Opera with film director David Cronenberg and author David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly). [More]