Melowyn writes: Here’s little more news and few pictures from Comic-Con 2004:
!!!SPOILERS BELOW!!!
A few more scenes on the EE revealed at the panel on Friday were the drinking contest between Legolas and Gimli (looks very funny!), Theoden accepting Merry’s services into the Rohan army, and Gandalf’s battle with the Witch King (wow!). Billy also mentioned that the scene where he finds Merry on the fields of Pelennor will be different in the EE. It will show him searching throughout the day for his Hobbit pal, and finally finding him after the sun has set. I guess the digital guys were able change the same scene from day to night. They also showed us a hilarious bit taken from interviews of Dom and Viggo about Oscar night. It won’t be on the EE, but maybe we’ll see it again some other time???
On Saturday, while Dom signed autographs for Lost a few booths away, Billy and David signed at the New Line booth. There was quite a lot of anxiety in the crowd before the signing. New Line announced the signing would begin at 12:00 with the line forming at 11:30. Many of us arrived about 9:30 and spent two hours walking the perimeter of the booth and studying the ROTK costumes displayed there, waiting for the moment that the line would form. By 11:30 there was a HUGE crowd around the New Line booth hoping to get tickets for the signing. Unfortunately many of those waiting were not able to get a ticket.
When things finally began, Billy and David were very gracious and took the time to speak to the fans and personalize their autographs. Both were extraordinarily patient and friendly. They did are quick interview, took a short lunch break for pizza, and then returned to continue signing for several more hours. Dom showed up, too, to say hello to Billy and David, making the day even more exciting. To top it off, I believe that New Line passed out more tickets, and David and Billy stayed longer than expected to make sure that everyone was able to get an autograph. Very classy gentlemen.
In the meantime, Dom walked around the exhibit hall and checked out some of the great deals. He smiled at fans, signed a few autographs and posed for some pictures. What a nice guy!
At the far end of the exhibit hall, Sala was at the Ringers booth also signing autographs and talking with the crowd. Quickbeam and his crew were there with some clips from the Ringers film, which looks fantastic.
It was really an incredible day!
As an aside, apparently there’s a rumor going around that the ROTK Extended DVD will be released on December 10. Laura from New Line who MC’d the panel on Friday night said she doesn’t even know the date yet and it definitely won’t be the 10th because that’s a Friday. New Line DVD’s are not released on Fridays.
A ‘tabloid’ newspaper in the US called Weekly World News makes it a habit to write fake articles and print them in the newspaper. They’ve written about Elvis being alive, Saddam and Osama being lovers, Aliens found on Mars, and a Bat-Boy, half bat, half boy, living among us. It’s no surprise then that the latest issue features this article.
Hobbit Skeleton Found in New Zealand
New Zealand might really be the “Home of Middle Earth” after all!
While that advertising slogan has been reeling in tourists curious to visit the sites of the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, Kiwi archeologists have uncovered an historical link to the film’s events: The world’s first complete hobbit skeleton.
Ironically, parts of the skeleton were discovered last month during road construction near Matamata, the rural area that filmmaker Peter Jackson chose to stand in as the hobbit village of Hobbiton.
Members of the NEw Zealand Archeological Society were immediately called in to investigate the remains, which they expected to be Maori in origin.
“You can just imagine our exitement when we saw that elongated foot poking out of the ground – unmistakably hobbit!” says excavation leader Dr. Harold Cavendish. “We quickly knew we had something rare.”
In fact, the assembled bones made up a complete hobbit skeleton: A young male in his early 60s, still clutching a stein commonly used to drink ale.
Even more remarkable, forensic scientists have deturmined the hobbit’s cause of death.
“The impact fracture on the back of his skull is consistent with the shape of an orc weapon know as the ‘orc gasher,’ a crude axe,” says New Zealand pathologist Eric Oxenburger.
“Our chap may have been just minding his own buisiness when a sudden orc attack quickly ended his life.”
Archeologists hope this discovery will lead to further understanding of the mythshrouded era that provided inspiration for J.R.R. Tolkien’s “myth-based” novels.
BonMothma writes: More observations from the perspective of a singer in the Mendelssohn Choir as we complete week 2 of rehearsals and preparations for the “Lord of the Rings Symphony” coming to Pittsburgh next weekend.
The music that the choir is using looks like it was put together by about 6 different people. On some pages, each measure is numbered; on others, only the first measure of a line is numbered. I found this especially ironic since there was a posting earlier this week with Howard Shore’s talking about the importance of numbering each measure in a movie score. It is perhaps more important in a way for the Symphony since I’m sure the original score was recorded in sections, and the orchestra and choir didn’t have to jump to different tempos and moods without a break, as we will have to for the live performance.
The phonetic text also seems to differ from one section to the next. Some words are in the pronunciation guide; some are not. Some of the text is less phonetic and more Elvish. One page is pure Elvish as it appears in Tolkien’s text, with no explanation that this is the case. Also, they not only lumped all of the Elvish languages into one translation, they put the Dwarvish in with it, too, with no notation that it is an entirely different language. In spite of these problems, the overall pronunciations are sounding pretty good.
I’ve seen many reviews by fans saying that the singing in the “Khazad Dum” sequence is not loud enough. After looking at it more closely and hearing the men working on it this week, I can see why. “Dimholt Road” touched on this last week when he talked about Shore’s using the low male voice to convey the deepness of the Dwarf city. I imagine that when this was recorded originally, the all-male choir was much larger than the male sections of the choirs that are appearing on this tour. Also, as the notes are very low, they are hard to sing loudly. I got the feeling that these were at the bottom of the ranges of some of the bases and baritones. As a result, it will not have the power and fullness of the original soundtrack and score.
There is a genuine enthusiasm in the choir from fans and non-fans alike. Everyone wants to do their best, and there have been many comments regarding the beauty and power of the different sequences. As we were going over one part, Dr. Page commented, “I don’t know what’s happening here, but it must be very sad.” It was Smeagol’s theme as heard in “The Forbidden Pool,” which isn’t a particularly sad moment, but it certainly conveys the pathetic nature of poor, poor Smeagol.
If you’re in Pittsburgh or were planning to go there for the Howard Shore LOTR concert on July 31, how about joining other Ringers for dinner beforehand? Diamond Took writes:
“On July 31, 2004, there will be an Overlithe Dinner to celebrate Howard Shore conducting the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra for “An Evening in Middle-earth”. It is featuring the recipes of my cookbook, and is a fundraiser to benefit the symphony. It’s from 4-6pm. The details are here
“The tickets are very limited and only available until July 27, 2004, but I thought that there could be people from out of town coming in that weekend for the concerts (there are three) and may also want to attend the dinner.
“The Pittsburgh Symphony goes all over the world and does a lot of free concerts and benefits for a variety of organizations all the time, and this time, we wanted to show them that Lord of the Rings fans are very grateful that they opted for the show with Howard, and that we appreciate them.”
mfissori writes: I got back from the san diego comic-con earlier tonight and man, let me tell you, the Rotk ee presentation was fantastic.
David Wenham and Billy Boyd were there and they were hilarious.
The crowd went completely NUTS for all of the new clips. But, because the crowd was so loud I had trouble catching all of the dialogue.
The dialogue’s not word for word and this is not the order in which the clips were shown. I’ll just try to get down everything I can remember.
MAJOR EE SPOILERS BELOW
– Shots of Saruman on top of Orthanc, saying things like “something festers in the heart of middle-earth” , “you are all going to die”, ” I want no pity or mercy!”, saruman shooting flames from his staff (I know this sounds kinda hokey but I thought it looked pretty good)
– Frodo/Sam/Gollum approaching the crossroads. we see sam looking at something and then there is a closeup (pics of which have already appeared online) of the statue’s head and it’s crown
– frodo/sam in orc costumes marching with orcs, big orc yelling “move on!”
– Merry saying “I know there isn’t much hope, I know I can’t do much. I’m just a hobbit. But I want to help”
– Mouth of sauron rides out, there is a closeup on his mouth (which looked pretty gross) as he says ” I have a token I was bidden to show thee” and then he reveals frodo’s mithril vest and throws it down to the ground. then there is a closeup of pippin who says “frodo…”
– Eowyn in bed at edoras, Aragorn is walking away from her but before he can get too far she reaches out and takes his hand.
– eomer grieving for eowyn (seen in theatrical trailer)
– sam in mordor looking at the dark, red lit sky telling mr. frodo that he sees a light.
– aragorn picks up flaming palantir and says something, the only word I caught was “Elendil”
– gandalf riding up to witch king making threats, something about sending it into the abyss, witch king responds with his own threat while his sword becomes enflamed.
– misc. new shots of the siege of gondor, orcs using small battering ram, fell beast swooping in and picking up soldiers
– eowyn fighting gothmog (the one eyed orc captain)
– faramir telling pippin about his childhood, boromir, and his father. pippin says that faramir has ” a different kind of strength” and that his father will see it eventually.
– Eowyn and Faramir hold hands and nuzzle at the houses of healing (women in the audience went especially nuts for this scene.)
– aragorn/legolas/gimli run away from an avalanche of skulls in the paths of the dead
I think this covers most of the new footage shown.
oh, and it was confirmed multiple times that the EE comes out in December. so far away 🙁
One day, a rather extraordinary visitor appears outside the house of a seemingly ordinary Hobbit. Readers rapidly become immersed in an intriguing relationship between a mysterious, powerful wizard and the simple, unwordly Hobbits. We find that a relationship that has existed between the two in the past is about to get much more complicated.
Gandalf’s Involvement with the Hobbits
As Middle Earth becomes increasingly darker and more dangerous, the relationship between Gandalf and the Hobbits becomes more intense as other races and beings learn about the previously sheltered race. Through their relationship, both Gandalf and the Hobbits become significant players in the War of the Ring that significantly changes them both.
When and why did Gandalf become interested in the Hobbits? Did Gandalf merely find them amusing, or did he recognise their potential importance in the grand scheme of things? Was the relationship a mutually beneficial one and what effect did they have on each other? And why are the hobbits always afraid of Gandalf turning someone to a stone or a toad?
Come join us in #thehalloffire as we discuss Gandalf’s Involvement with the Hobbits.
=== Upcoming topics:
August 7-8 — Middle Earth’s Greatest Cities August 14-15 — The Hobbit: Chapter 11: On the Doorstep
=== Place: #thehalloffire on theonering.net IRC server. Need instructions? Go here: http://www.theonering.net/barlimans/instructions.html
=== Chat Times:
Saturday Chat: 5:30pm ET (17:30) [also 11:30pm (23:30) CET and 9:30am Sunday (07:30) AET]
Sunday Chat: 7:00 pm (19:00) CET [also 1:00pm (13:00) ET and 5:00am (03:00) Monday morning AET]
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