Beginning this Friday, The American Cinematheque is screening a mini-festival of dark coming-of-age stories — including Peter Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures.
Entertainment Weekly writer Anthony Breznican is curating the film fest, and Jackson’s 1994 tale of friendship gone bad screens at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica this Friday. Star Melanie Lynskey will join a guest.
Breznican says he chose the film because Jackson created an haunting tale of friendship that simultaneously saves and then destroys two young girls.
While this is a true story, it’s an extreme one — but we can all relate to those friends we had who brought out both our strong side and our bad side. The kind of friend your mother doesn’t like you hanging out with. Doesn’t that make you want to see that friend even more?
Heavenly Creatures is remarkable for how much ground it covers. It has dark humor, deep love, tragedy, resistance, defiance, and gritty realism — but it also ventures off into the realm of fantasy and imagination. This movie was made long before Jackson ventured into the world of J.R.R. Tolkien, but it illustrates the power that fantasy can provide when we are feeling weak or lost.
I remember being stunned by the clay kingdom of the Fourth World, where Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey’s characters make their escape. To me, storytelling and fantasy are such potent forces because in a life where we often feel helpless or unseen, our imaginations can help us rediscover what heroism and courage really mean. Sometimes those stories — be it Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, the Marvel universe, or Star Wars — help us find those qualities in ourselves.
Other times, there’s the danger that escapism might take us too far. We can become closed off and lose ourselves in other worlds, then find ourselves crushed by the disappointments of reality. That’s what happens in Heavenly Creatures, and it is mesmerizing, terrifying, and stunning to behold.
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Many people have written to us over the last five or so days about a story that has begun circulating around the internet concerning Thorin Oakenshield and the final Hobbit film, The Battle of the Five Armies.
Frankly, we hoped this story would die a quiet death because it is simply not credible. However, a couple of web media outlets have picked it up so somewhat reluctantly here we are quashing a rumour that simply has no credence at all.
Seeing as this is obviously leading us into spoiler territory, if you are avoiding them or have not read the book (I know there are a few of you out there), then look away now. Continue reading “Debunking that Hobbit movie rumour about Thorin Oakenshield”
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Ringer Emma has sent us this interview by The Telegraph newspaper with Viggo Mortensen, where he talks about his latest movie The Two Faces of January. He also talks about filming The Lord of the Rings films saying that he felt that Fellowship of the Rings script was the “better organised” of the three films and discusses the use of CGI in the Middle-earth blockbusters.
Continue reading “Viggo Mortensen interview in The Telegraph”
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Last night was indeed a night of special magnificence here in Calgary! Calgary EXPO threw the event ‘Middle-earth EXPOsed’ – and what an extraordinary event it was. Sir Richard Taylor turned one lucky fan into an orc, applying his make-up on stage whilst the rest of the event took place. Host Mark Ferguson (Gil-galad) led conversations with actors Billy Boyd, Sean Astin, Craig Parker, Jed Brophy, Sadwyn Brophy (Eldarion), Dean O’Gorman, Mark Hadlow and Manu Bennett; special video messages came from Sir Peter Jackson and Richard Armitage; swordmaster Steven McMichael appeared on stage to fight with the gathered cast; songs were sung, hilarious improv acted out, and the audience were treated to two and a half hours of entertainment and laughter.
The fun continues in Calgary today and tomorrow! Don’t forget to stop by booth 2007 to say hi to the folks from TheOneRing.net, or to buy one of our con exclusive shirts. Staffer deej hosts a panel today in the Boyce Theatre, at 11.45, with Billy Boyd and Sean Astin; greendragon hosts panels on Sunday at 12noon and 2pm, with Sean Astin and later with the Hobbit cast members. Hope to see you there!
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Well, that was a surprise.
Even following our spy report last week that Warner Bros. (via New Line) had registered a new title for its trilogy of Hobbit films, I thought it unlikely they actually would follow through and make a change.
Mostly because There And Back Again seemed too established as a name and it seemed a bit irrational to toss away all that brand recognition.
On the other hand, it’s almost inarguable those two words The Hobbit are the true key that deliver all that goodwill (in an accounting sense) toward the films. And Warner Bros, with nothing more than the announcement of a mid-stream title change, have just scored the film millions of dollars worth of free editorial. That’s gold for any marketer.
Continue reading “How There and Back Again became The Battle of the Five Armies. And why.”
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Well, well, well. Last week we exclusively broke the news that it seemed like there might be a change in the title of the third film in the Hobbit trilogy, previously referred to as There and Back Again. New Line had just registered The Hobbit: Into the Fire. Today, on his Facebook page, Peter Jackson revealed that the title has been changed – but not to Into the Fire. They’ve gone back to the title originally registered back in 2012: The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.
Jackson also shares some exciting information about The Desolation of Smaug Extended Edition, telling us that we can look forward to more than 25 minutes of new material when we get to see that cut, later this year. Let the speculation on what that might be begin!
Read what PJ had to say here. Personally, I’m disappointed that they didn’t go for The Beorn Ultimatum or Exit the Dragon… Let us know what you think of this new title, and what you hope to see in the Extended Edition of the second movie, in the comments below.
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