Matthew Meakins writes: I am writing to you from Fraser’s Autographs, the UK’s leading dealer in Autographed material. Fraser’s will be holding a star signing in our London Gallery with Lawrence Makoare, who played ‘Lurtz’ in The Fellowship of the Ring, and ‘Gothmog’ and the ‘Witch King’ in The Return of the King
Lawrence will be meeting and greeting fans, and signing autographs, on the 14th May 2004, from 11 am until 2pm, for a small fee of £15.00 per signed photograph. Fans are welcome to bring their own material to be signed, but a similar fee will apply. For those who are unable to attend the signing, pre-orders are available, with or without Dedications or inscriptions, please call 0207 557 4407 to pre-order. (payment must be received before the signing)
All are welcome to attend, at:
Fraser’s Autographs, 1st Floor, Stanley Gibbons, 399 Strand, London, WC2R 0LX England
Courtney writes: I just got home from seeing the world premier of “The One-Man Lord of the Rings Trilogy,” at the Waterfront Theatre on Granville Island (Vancouver, BC), and thought my fellow Ringers might be interested in a report.
The actor who was performing was Charles Ross, best known for his one-man Star Wars show. All I can say is that it was one of the funniest things I have ever seen in my life. He did all the characters, special effects, and music himself. The voices he did for all the characters were spot-on (especially wonderful were his Samwise and his Denethor); and he worked the most clever jokes in (“Saurman: Do you know how the orcs were first brought into being? Read ‘The Silmarillion’!”). At the end, everyone cheered like mad and gave him a standing ovation.
He’s performing one more show of the LOTR Trilogy on the 13th; he will do several more shows of the Star Wars Trilogy. I got my tickets off festivalboxoffice.com; only slight service charges! I strongly recommend to everyone in the Vancouver area that they go. He said he would be performing the LOTR show again at the Vancouver Fringe Festival (which I think might be in early June), so if anyone misses him this time around he’ll be back soon.
The Company march single file into the gloom of Mirkwood. They find that a myriad of animals make sleeping hard and their provisions diminish so that they eventually make the move off the road in search of food. Bombur falls into poisoned water and goes into an unnatural stupor, and a mystical mirage appears causing the companions to get separated from eachother. Lost in the dark Bilbo is attacked by a giant spider.
What kind of place is Mirkwood? Who causes the mirage to appear and why? And what happens to Thorin? Moreover Bilbo finds both his sword and his newfound Ring more than useful. Is he developing into a true hero now, leaving the anti-here more and more behind the further east they get?
upcoming topics:
weekend 150504-160504: Mythological Creatures in Tolkien. weekend 220504-230504: The Hobbit – Chapter 9 weekend 290504-300504: The Hobbit – Chapter 10
Times: Saturday Chat: 5:30pm ET (17:30) [also 11:30pm (23:30) CET and 9:30am Sunday (09:30) AET]
Sunday Chat: 7:00 pm (19:00) CET [also 1:00pm (13:00) ET and 5:00am (05:00) Monday morning AET]
ET = Eastern Time, USA’s East Coast CET = Central European Time, Central Europe AET = Australian East Coast
Do you have a possible topic for Hall of Fire? Drop us a line at halloffire@theonering.net
Our good friend Rebecca writes: I was a guest last night for the screening of a new Australian film called ‘Gettin’ Square’ with David Wenham at the Harmony Gold Theatre. The criminal underworld story is set in the Gold Coast of Australia and it is in the same style of ‘Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’ and ‘Snatch’. David plays heroin junkie Johnny ‘Spit’ Spitieri, a hopeless criminal set on setting his life straight along with his friend Barry Wirsh, played by Sam Worthington. Johnny, with his greasy mullet hairdo, has a penchant for tight blue nylon shorts and flip flops. The courtroom scene where he is cross examined by the prosecutor is hilarious!
The Q & A afterwards included David, the director Jonathan Teplitzky, and the writer, Chris Nyst who himself is a criminal barrister. Most of the questions were directed towards the director and writer, but David was asked a few questions:
On accepting the role of Johnny he said ” I picked the role of Johhny because I saw the potential to create something memorable’. On the courtroom scene, which they did not rehearse beforehand, he responded ‘We did absolultely no rehearsal on this scene, we just let the surprise occur on the day”. He went on to say he was taking a much needed holiday back in Australia as he just finished three Australian projects back to back.
The movie was filmed before he got on board with LOTR and Van Helsing and no questions were asked about either of these films. Afterwards I got to chat with him a little more about ‘The Boys’ – my favorite of his roles, and being in producer mode, I headed straight to the director and producers to talk about filming. Sorry no cameras were allowed in the theatre although a few people took pictures in the lobby with David on their picture phones;) The organizers (Aus Trade Commission) did get a group shot for their website, so as soon as it is updated I can send you a link.
I am not sure if this film will be getting a wide release distribution deal, so I guess just keep your eyes open in case it ends up at arthouse theatre.
Merry in Oz and Thaliswen write: We went to the Supanova Expo on Sunday and had a great time!
We were lurking around the WETA booth when Richard Taylor arrived with his suitcases. He had a Rohan helmet, Gordorian breastplate, Pippin’s feet, a Hobbit stage double ears, an orc face and leg prosthetics–very cool! He gave us a WETA publicity pack and Eye of Sauron pin (I think just to give him time to unpack!!) and was incredibly friendly and chatty. Poor guy–I don’t think he stopped talking or signing autographs for over 2 hours! He was unassuming and relaxed and made a point of taking ‘funny’ photos with anyone who asked!
We also had a chat to partner Tanya and son Sam as they went off to explore Sydney. She mentioned how overwhelming and glamourous it was at the Academy Awards.
John Noble was great–very responsive to the crowd and thoughtful in his answers. He praised David Wenham and seemed very excited about the extended ROTK DVD which he has seen. It was lovely how he credited Billy Boyd’s song with being the most moving part of the filming.
Richard Taylor gave away more of his WETA goodies at the Q & A time. I always wondered how they kept on keeping on during the long shoot, but seeing him–he seemed tireless.
Stephen Ure was bubbly and keen to share his LOTR stories. Poor guy had the 4pm time slot, but was still enthusiatic. He gave his “What about their legs? They don’t need them’ line which was great. He also admitted to NOT having watched the extended DVD of TTT, but said he would! We will have to ask him if he kept his promise when we see him in Canberra!
Anna Slack writing On Behalf of the Cambridge Tolkien Society sends this in: Just a quick email on behalf of the Events Committee of the Cambridge Tolkien Society (UK), to alert you to a project we’ll be running soon, for which we’d love to garner some support from fans worldwide, if that’s okay!
On Saturday 19th June, 2004, members of the Cambridge Tolkien Society will be performing a continuous 13-hour read-through of the BBC’s excellent radio adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, in Borders Cambridge, with the kind permission of Brian Sibley, Michael Bakewell, and the Tolkien Estate.
This is a charity event, and every penny that we raise will be going to the National Trust, to help in projects such as the Snowdonia and Coastline appeals. We’ll be joined on the day by Brian Sibley, and possibly Michael Bakewell!
We’ve just posted a website up with more information on it (www.holbytlas.net), and it would be great if you could put us up as an announcement on the news part of TOR.n.
Many thanks!
Anna Slack Keeper of the Book of Westmarch On Behalf of the Cambridge Tolkien Society
