The bold attempt to film J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic fable of Middle-earth has been a resounding success. Already, the first two films in director Peter Jackson’s rousing Lord of the Rings trilogy from New Line Cinema have become classics—very successful classics: The Fellowship of the Ring, with its Hobbits, wizards, elves, and Orcs, generated $862.2 million in box-office revenue; the second film, The Two Towers, topped that with ticket sales of $920.5 million, putting it into fourth place among all films, of all time. [More]
Category: Old Main News
As “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” marches along to what looks like Oscar glory, we thought we’d take a moment to remember some of the little people that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences forgot: actors who played key roles in the Tolkien trilogy’s huge ensemble. [More]
Betsy writes: Sean Astin was on “Real Time with Bill Maher” last night on HBO. I believe it was episode 23, although he is not listed as a guest on the HBO site. The show repeats throughout the week, next showing at 10 p.m. ET today, Jan. 31 on HBO2 East. Sean did a great job and held his own against Bill; he got in a couple of really important points regarding our need to actually get educated and participate in the election process if we want to see change in our country. [More]
Andrea writes: Andrew Lesnie will be at the Berlin Film Festival to talk about the cinematography of LOTR. The whole thing will be a part of the “Talent Campus” series, the title and description of the event is “Pixel and Grain: Cinematography of `The Lord of the Rings`-Australian cinematographer Andrew Lesnie on handling the real and the digitals in `LOTR`”. [berlinale.de]
Ringer Roheryn writes: “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King gets lots of ink in this week’s Oscar Guide issue of Entertainment Weekly (Double issue #749/750). There is a 3-page overview article that mentions the film quite a bit, as well as individual features for Best Director and Best Picture, each offering one page of text with one photo page.” [More]
Peter writes: Howard Shore is coming to Atlanta with 2 nights of live performances of music from LOTR in Atlanta Symphony Hall this June. Alan Lee’s original illustrations will also be displayed during the movements and I have been told that tickets are selling fast. [More]