Glad to be alive the Company follow Gandalfs lead towards ‘The last homely house’, the residence of Elrond; a descendant from elves and ‘heroes of the North’. To the sound of singing elves they arrive in the fair valley of Rivendell, and the travellers are happy to get to a place of rest, though there is a history of conflict between the Dwarves and the Elves that must be disregarded.
They benefit greatly from Elronds wisdom during their stay. Not only does he offer a good amount of insight regarding the quest, but he gives them two special swords of protection. Moreover, he can help solve the riddles of the map.
Do you think Elrond is in league with Gandalf in setting up this Quest? What part does nature play in Tolkiens ‘the Hobbit’? What impression do you get of Rivendell and the elves in this chapter? Join us in #thehalloffire as we take a closer look at Chapter 3 of ‘The Hobbit’ – A short rest.
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
Glad to be alive the Company follow Gandalfs lead towards ‘The last homely house’, the residence of Elrond; a descendant from elves and ‘heroes of the North’. To the sound of singing elves they arrive in the fair valley of Rivendell, and the travellers are happy to get to a place of rest, though there is a history of conflict between the Dwarves and the Elves that must be disregarded.
They benefit greatly from Elronds wisdom during their stay. Not only does he offer a good amount of insight regarding the quest, but he gives them two special swords of protection. Moreover, he can help solve the riddles of the map.
Do you think Elrond is in league with Gandalf in setting up this Quest? What part does nature play in Tolkiens ‘the Hobbit’? What impression do you get of Rivendell and the elves in this chapter? Join us in #thehalloffire as we take a closer look at Chapter 3 of ‘The Hobbit’ – A short rest.
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
Glad to be alive the Company follow Gandalfs lead towards ‘The last homely house’, the residence of Elrond; a descendant from elves and ‘heroes of the North’. To the sound of singing elves they arrive in the fair valley of Rivendell, and the travellers are happy to get to a place of rest, though there is a history of conflict between the Dwarves and the Elves that must be disregarded.
They benefit greatly from Elronds wisdom during their stay. Not only does he offer a good amount of insight regarding the quest, but he gives them two special swords of protection. Moreover, he can help solve the riddles of the map.
Do you think Elrond is in league with Gandalf in setting up this Quest? What part does nature play in Tolkiens ‘the Hobbit’? What impression do you get of Rivendell and the elves in this chapter? Join us in #thehalloffire as we take a closer look at Chapter 3 of ‘The Hobbit’ – A short rest.
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
Its that time again! Pre-Orders have begun for The Return of the King theatrical edition DVD and VHS. Currently we have links to the official New Line Shop to pre-order this item. They say they will ship on May 25th.
This two-disc DVD is presented with the enhanced picture and sound quality and contains over two hours of added value material. The DVD set includes exciting behind-the-scenes specials, featurettes, theatrical trailers, TV spots, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy supertrailer, a preview of the upcoming The Lord of the Rings based video game, “The Battle for Middle-earth,” from Electronic Arts and a link to exclusive online content about the motion picture trilogy. Available in both Widescreen and Fullscreen Editions, the DVD Set features Dolby Digital EX 5.1 surround sound, stereo surround sound, English subtitles and closed captions, Spanish subtitles, in-depth programs such as, ” The Quest Fulfilled: A Director’s Vision”, ” A Filmmaker’s Journey: Making THE RETURN OF THE KING”, National Geographic Special – “The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King”, featurettes created for lordoftherings.net: “Aragorn’s Destiny”, “Minas Tirith: Capital of Gondor”, “The Battle of Pelennor Fields”, “Samwise the Brave”, “owyn: White Lady of Rohan”, “Digital Horse Doubles”, and multiple television spots.
Stephen writes: Hi– I work in the publishing industry, and saw this report in the email version of Publisher’s Weekly. Thought you might find it interesting!
Book of the Day: Unauthorized Bio of Peter “Oscar” Jackson
With just eight films to his credit, New Zealand’s Peter Jackson is suddenly Hollywood’s “It” director thanks to his most recent film, Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, which, of course, won Academy Awards in all of the 11 categories it was nominated, including Best Picture and Best Director. St. Martin’s Press/ Thomas Dunne Books had Ian Pryor’s unauthorized biography, Peter Jackson: From Prince of Splatter to Lord of the Rings ($24.95; 0-312-32294-1) waiting in the wings to be released the day after the Academy Awards. Even if he hadn’t won the Oscar, he’d still be the man who helmed the second movie (after Titanic) to ever gross $1 billion worldwide.
Jackson’s newfound respect is a far cry from his cult film origins, beginning with his ultra-violent splatter comedies such as 1988’s Bad Taste, 1989’s Meet the Feebles and 1992’s Dead Alive (a.k.a. Braindead). Ian Pryor, who has written about New Zealand film for the last 15 years and who interviewed Jackson numerous times (although not specifically for this book), traces the 42-year-old director’s path from cult favorite to box office champion.
There’s some good, behind-the-scenes stories of how Jackson shot and released his early films and some of his epic battles with the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) over many of his films (most notably, he was forced to cut 12 minutes from Dead Alive to avoid an X-rating). With his shock-jock reputation, he seemed like an odd choice to film the atmospheric and restrained lesbian true crime film, Heavenly Creatures, in which Kate Winslet plays a teenage murderess who later grew up to write Victorian murder mysteries under the name of Anne Perry. Jackson eased closer to the mainstream with 1996’s big-budget flop, The Frighteners, starring Michael J. Fox.
Although with 20/20 hindsight, it would seem filming The Lord of the Rings trilogy would be something any studio would jump at the chance to produce, the back story proves, fascinatingly, otherwise. Miramax originally agreed to film two movies at once, but began cost-cutting and told Jackson that he had four weeks to shop the project around to another studio before they reduced the project to one movie. Happily, New Line Cinema decided to fund the project as a trilogy, which Jackson would shoot over a 15-month period between 1999 and 2000.
While Pryor notes that Jackson put many obstacles in his biographer’s way (discouraging co-stars from giving interviews, requesting that the New Zealand Film Commission not release movie stills and sales information about the five films Jackson produced through the organization), Pryor still conducted more than 120 interviews for the book.
With Jackson’s vocal resistance, readers might suspect the unauthorized biography was a hatchet job, but it’s pretty even-keeled. The director is volatile, but he’s a pussycat compared to directors featured in Peter Biskind’s delicious sourball Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance, and the Rise of Independent Film (S&S). According to U.K. newspapers, Jackson’s reluctance to embrace Pryor’s biography is because he’s working with authorized biographer Brain Sibley, who’s created a cottage industry writing Tolkien movie tie-in books (such as The Lord of the Rings Official Movie Guide and The Lord of the Rings: Making of the Movie Trilogy, both from Houghton Mifflin).–Kevin Howell
Leo here – There’s probably a story here somewhere, though I guess I will start believing all this once I read it in the official biography as well…
Thain Brandybuck sends in this report from the Oscar celebrations in Wellington:
The Oscar festivities saw people celebrating all over the world. And the real party begun even earlier with a gathering of good friends in Wellington, New Zealand. Unaware that movie history would be made on Monday, our group Cormacolindor met for the weekend. Here, back in the capital of the Kiwi version of Middle-Earth, we participated as stunt fighters at the Cuba Street Carnival parade. Fighting in full armour, including the weight of real chain-mail, swords and shields, was a challenge. We also had to brave heavy rain that stopped literally only minutes before the parade begun. And I am not sure if it helped when one of our group members recalled his experience from the filming of Helms Deep.. anyway, we came, fought, survived (well, most of us) and after 90 minutes of cheering, music and flash lights we successfully finished another public display. And after we had secured hundreds of pounds of armour and weaponry, we could finally hit town!
Wellington looked at its best, the sun kept shining and with hundreds of performers and spectators the street festival was well attended. Even more important, there were still heaps of Lord of the Rings-related things to discover.
We Cormas kept strolling around for hours, and there was so much to see! Buskers from all over the world performed, there was live music everywhere.. and all this time spent in the company of fellow Tolkienists! Oh, did I forgot to mention that we were all clad in authentic medieval/Middle-Earthish garb?
We surely drew some attention to us, especially when we improvised our favourite book and movie scenes of Lord of the Rings. Thanks to my Hobbit costume, I was put into the bucket fountain. Unnecessary to mention that my cloak about doubled its weight. Though who else can say they bathed in, well, Elijah Wood´s .. ah, nevermind. Anyway, the looks I got were nothing compared to those when another group member posed as a Nazgûl. I think we were all a little bit creeped out by how authentic it looked.
The day lights faded, we allowed ourselves a few drinks while watching the rugby and then retired into an exceptional good Turkish restaurant.
The next day was Academy Award day. The Day. The sun was shining, probably because we didn´t have to wear armour, and the wind reminded us that we were in the windiest capital of the world. Most of us had to work but I escaped the treadmill and was thus free to live the moment. And I was not alone. I even had to line up to take pictures for the Embassy Theater, a new top sightseeing attraction. A seemingly touched Lord of the Rings-fan was forced to chase his cap down Courtenay Place, which was probably a remarkable experience in itself. As my evening garb was starting to look like a sailor´s work wear, I opted for going into the Embassy. The Theater was nicely decorated with huge golden Oscar statues, and of course posters and banners.
More and more people started arriving, most of them in formal dress. Only five people/creatures were in costume: three Hobbits, a Nazgûl and a famous director. I was relived at not having put on my full gala armour! People walked around, socialising in the foyer or watching L.A. footage inside. The Embassy had arranged live coverage of the Academy Awards, and I was one of those glued to the screen. Looking back, the hours passed far too quickly! Starting with the Red Carpet ceremony, and the Countdown, the atmosphere built up. Every time Keisha or one of the Lord of the Rings- cast and –crew was seen, the crowd cheered and clapped madly.
And then the Official Ceremony begun. We surely enjoyed the Lord of the Rings-spoofs, and even better – straight afterwards the Oscars started coming home! The Kiwi audience got more and more excited.
When I thought I wouldn´t mind, I was wrong. As the hour drew closer, I became more and more excited. By now I was pacing around the theater with my newly found friend Tony, who happens to look remarkably similar to Peter Jackson. Could we Kiwis secure our position on Top of the World?
And then (finally) Steven Spielberg stepped on stage, opened the envelope – and the rest is history. The audience begun screaming and whistling. Nearly everyone was on her or his feet by now – even the Prime minister of New Zealand who was also one of the invited party members. I actually cannot clearly remember the next half an hour but national television showed us dancing in the aisles. With huge Hobbit smiles. And fairly roundish eyes.
The audience slowly moved out to the foyer where our celebration began.. there were VIPs everywhere, and cameras and.. well, fellow Tolkienists were difficult to identify. This was Peter Jackson´s hour of triumph and anyway, I had given in to that already. I was introduced to a few people, surprisingly many of them American, and finally escaped to talk to one of the Hobbit extras.
With the noise slowly dying down, we finished giving TV and radio interviews and finally fled to the waterfront. What better way to finish this day then congratulating the magic crew itself?
Standing in front of the Chicago was a funny feeling: this is where the Red Carpet After Party in December 2003 was held. All of the outer decoration was removed by now, of course. But the bar itself was fully decorated, and loud music and cheering could be heard everywhere. This is where the crew of WETA Workshop and WETA Digital was still celebrating! And even after 6 hours of partying, people kept coming. We were mistaken for guests and treated quite nicely. We also managed to congratulate a few people, among them the armoursmith, the weapon maker and others. There were so many happy faces! Unfortunately, we were discovered and left with what was left of our dignity..
.. only to see footage of our arrival at the WETA party on late night news. Followed by pictures of The One Party in L.A. And so it was shown to the world that this was our day, too. We Ringers are everywhere!
