ORLANDO BLOOM has a confession to make. When he was first sent the script of the David Storey play In Celebration, he “didn’t know who David Storey was”. And the ignorance, it seems, was mutual. “No, I’m afraid I hadn’t heard of Orlando,” the playwright happily confesses. As Bloom prepares to star in a London West End revival of Storey’s work, this parallel blankness is perhaps unsurprising, these two theatrical collaborators coming from contrasting branches of culture. The 30-year-old actor has never appeared professionally on stage, having spent his whole decade as an actor in epic films, including Troy and Kingdom of Heaven, with a special line in high- octane trilogies: as Legolas in The Lord of the Rings, and as Will Turner in Pirates of the Caribbean. [More]
Category: Old Main News
British actor and Lord of the Rings star Sir Ian McKellen is proving so popular with Wellington audiences that a third performance of King Lear will be staged next month. Tickets to the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of King Lear at Westpac St James Theatre on August 11 and 12 sold out last month, but tickets were still available for two performances of The Seagull on August 13 and 14, which also stars Sir Ian. The August 13 performance of The Seagull has now been replaced by a third performance of King Lear. People who had bought tickets to The Seagull on August 13 will be given tickets to the August 14 show. [More]
Sideshow Collectibles has started taking pre-orders for their latest Legendary Scale collectible. Gandalf the Grey is the fourth character in the line of Legendary Scale Lord of the Rings busts and the first human character to be offered. The piece stands approximately 14″ H (356mm) and will ship during the 4th quarter of this year. There is an exclusive edition (only available at the Sideshow website) which includes an additional ‘Moria’ staff. The best part of this release? At $149.99, the price is reasonable! Other releases in this line have been upwards of $250. Check out the full details through the following link. [Pre-Order Today]
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Saoirse Ronan has joined Rachel Weisz and Ryan Gosling in Peter Jackson’s adaptation of “The Lovely Bones” for DreamWorks.
Ronan takes the role of Susie Salmon, the central character in Alice Sebold’s 2002 best-seller. The story is told through the voice of Susie Salmon, a young girl who is murdered but continues to observe her family on Earth after her death. She witnesses the impact of her death on her loved ones, while her killer skillfully covers his tracks and prepares to murder again. Weisz and Gosling are playing the grieving parents in “Bones,” whose script was written by Jackson, Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh. Paramount Pictures is distributing the feature. [More]
Massive Multiplayer Online Games (MMO’s) (such as online Lord of the Rings) may soon be redefined and classified as official online gambling sites under the remaining provisions of the Gambling Act 2005. The new laws will create a single definition for gambling – as any and all games which incorporate the use of both chance and skill in order to win a prize.
According to the revised Gambling Act, “prize” includes cash, products, and virtual prizes that hold monetary worth, and “games of chance” as any game which involves elements of both chance and skill, or where superlative skill can eliminate chance. The new law will treat all MMO’s that run competitions or offer prizes in the same manner as an online poker site, or any gambling site for that matter. As a result, they will be subject to the laws and penalties as these more traditional forms. [More]
When Leonardo DiCaprio’s “The 11th Hour” trailer went up on his MySpace page, the site got overloaded with so many trailer views that the stat counter started going backwards. When Bruce Willis jumped into an Aint it Cool News chat to defend “Live Free or Die Hard,” the fanboys flamed him until he turned on his iChat camera and proved his identity. Then they warmed up to him. The guy who turned him on to Aint it Cool News in the first place was another star with a comeback sequel: Sylvester Stallone. When Steven Spielberg started filming “Indiana Jones 4,” he posted a video of himself popping champagne on IndianaJones.com. His photo of Harrison Ford slouching in his Indy costume spread through Cyberspace like wildfire. The dynamic between celebrities and their audience is shifting. The critics and the media no longer have the last word. Thanks to evolving technology, moviemakers and stars have new weapons to not only promote their projects directly to moviegoers, but to fight back against what they perceive as misinformation. They are taking advantage of their Internet fanbases to promote their projects, skipping the marketing middlemen and interacting directly with the people who buy tickets. Fan sites offer them valuable feedback about what their audiences like and dislike. But they also offer an opportunity to set the record straight. And sometimes, change the world. [More]