Beverly Hills, CA – Annie Lennox will perform at the 76th Academy Awards ceremony, telecast producer Joe Roth announced today. This will be the first time the singer has performed on an Oscar(R) telecast.
Lenox will perform the Original Song nominee”Into the West” from “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.” Lennox, Fran Walsh and Academy Award-winning composer Howard Shore are nominated for writing the music and lyrics for “Into the West.”
Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2003 will be presented on February 29, 2004, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland(R) and will be televised live by the ABC Television Network beginning at 5p.m. (PST) with a half-hour arrivals segment.
Information about the 76th Annual Academy Awards can be accessed on line. [www.oscars.org]
There is in every tale a beginning and end. To make any story complete however, it is necessary and indeed it is impossible not to have a middle. The middle of a story is the child of the beginning and the father of the end and so in this way carries great weight in itself. This tale that follows as well as the next can readily be documented as the middle of my adventures.
Tuesday, December 3, 2003 was for the most part a day of rest. Yours truly had stayed at the premiere party till 3:30 in the morning and couldn’t get to sleep until much later. Tuesday was a rest day for the most part, so I will go ahead somewhat quickly to day 4 of my travels. However Tuesday night had in it QUITE an adventure which I simply must tell.
Remember the Hobbits adventures with Tom Bombadil and Old Man Willow and the Barrow Wights? That is in way what this part of the story is like. I went out in the late afternoon and took a cab to Mt. Victoria in Wellington hoping to see (foolishly without a guide) where the hobbits hid in the woods from the nazgul. I started out along with my trusty Samwise Gamgee of a friend (a friend of the family’s) and we traveled to and stood on the very summit of the Mount. It is important to note to all my North American and other readers that the mountains of the New Zealand are more like hobbit mountains…to us the would officially be large hills. To the Big Folk that is.
After reaching the top we went down and found a strange path that led to the shadier part of the Mount. The trees grew tall and dark in great abundance. Their roots were gnarled and ancient in appearance. It was probably for precisely this reason that Peter Jackson and Crew decided to use this forested area for filming as the whole look of the place is very “Middle Earthy”. We walked down the long winding paths just hoping to find the spot where the hobbits hid from the nazgul but we never saw it. Apparently there are different levels and different paths and we were not on the right one. Night was falling and trees just kept standing there tall and ominous (quite a scary place at night for hobbits). Then behind me I heard a sound and in a flurry turned and saw a Nazgul on mountain bike racing towards me. Yes that was definitely a “Get off the road!” moment and I warned my good Samwise (to save his life) to get out of the way. The biker passed in silence and with him most of my dread. Phew, that was close.
Frankly we weren’t getting anywhere, just farther in and farther out (farther into the deep darkness of the forest, farther out from home and hearth). This was getting to be pointless and it turned out we had to be heading back since the next day we are getting on a very early flight from Wellington Airport to Queenstown for a looong LOTR flight tour. We headed back up the winding paths and unruly gnarled roots that were determined to trip us up. It was a hard road but thankfully we found our way back. And oh my good heavens…did I mention I was filming all this a lot of the time? Madness!
The next morning came quickly, and I swiftly gathered my things, and met my Guardian in lobby and with swift hobbitish care got into a cab and rolled off to the airport to catch the flight to Christchurch and from there to Queenstown. I must admit the flight from Christchurch to Queenstown was quite delightful once we came in sight of our destination. Real mountains and breathtakingly tall hills appeared with immeasurable beauty. Queenstown is a bonny little town and probably is considered to be one of the prettiest locations on the South Island. This is where a lot scenes of LOTR were filmed, primarily for TTT and ROTK but some was used for Fellowship too.
We went into Queentown’s hobbit sized airport (really, and truly, it is small!) and looked for a sign that said Glenorchy Air (our transport for the day). We caught sight of it and traipsed over to where all these LOTR figurines and posters were.
Perhaps it will do to explain a bit about Glenorchy Air and what their role is in our tale. Glenorchy was primarily responsible for flying many of the cast and crew around to locations back in ’99 and 2000. Some of the many cast they gave transport too were Ian Mckellan, Viggo Mortenson, Orlando Bloom, John Rhys Davies, and Dominic Monaghan. They even still had some ORIGINAL call sheets that they showed us of what time what actor had to be where, and the Lord of the Rings emblem was at the top (really cool!).
Our purpose today was to take a six hour flight tour of various LOTR locations (primarily where major scenes of Two Towers were shot)and there were to be two people from Weta on the tour with us! One of them was the Visual Effects On Set Supervisor. They were taking one last nostalgia tour of where LOTR was filmed– something other Weta people had been doing in general.
So we all got on the same 7 person plane and flew over to the tufty fields of Rohan. We walked over to the spot where the Uruk Hai were carrying Merry and Pippin and Pip dropped his brooch for Aragorn to find. At this point I must admit I had some fairly “Tookish” mishaps. The tour guide was kind enough to point out to everyone to be careful of the marshy mud–WELL…guess what…I stepped in it ANYWAY! ACK! Fool of a Took! And my pant leg got mud along with my boot. So yes I had to walk about like that…
We continued on walking for seemed like miles across the golden grasslands that were Rohan. What a walk it was! As such a little hobbit I was in constant danger of getting lost (as my legs are shorter and mind you that group did NOT always stay together), and after some time my face got to be red a those strawberries Sam talked about in ROTK. On and on we walked until arriving to the spot where they had filmed the scene in the Two Towers of the Rohan village being attacked and burned. We approached this very large pond like thing, and they showed us the exact spot where the village had been. They pointed out a pile of old wood which had been torn down from the village set and I bold hobbit like I am took a piece to bring home as a souvenir (no small piece mind you, and I still have it too). We moved on to another part of the village where several of us took photos, and we could see on the ground the markings of where a Rohan building had been burned. We were fortunate enough to hear a story at this point from the Visual Effects Supervisor (forgot the fellow’s name, sorry). He told us how when they were filming the orc extras actually got to burn a building…but these guys were having TOO much fun and got a little carried away and mind you scared the cameramen quite horribly. They added SO much wood to the fire to make it as big as possible that the fire got really big and got a little to close for comfort to some of the cameramen who were nearby filming with their cameras on some large rock face. You can imagine how much the poor cameramen scolded the extras…and how truly mad the latter were (they had to be prevented from just grabbing any old important prop and just THROWING it into the flames!). Some day on set, lol.
After all this we started heading back to the plane (a VERY looong walk mind you, and add to that the poor state of the cherry hobbit). I did have a very nice talk with the pilot and found outthat he knew who Erica Challis of TORN was and said he had been one of the Ringer Spies back in the early days! (Sorry didn’t get his Ringer Spy nickname 😉 ).
The next stop Rings location was the famed and glorious Edoras with its sweeping vistas and astonishing hill. We landed (much to my disappointment) a ways away from the actual hill so had to content ourselves at viewing it from a distance (and later flying over it). I must at this point mention that this hobbit decided to be a little adventurous and STARTED to meander over there but was stopped when our ride came to take us to the lodge. Mushrooms! Next time I’ll go with Aragorn, since rangers go anywhere even difficult rocky long walks without a fuss. 😉
We all went to a local lodge in Twizel where everyone had their lunch except this hobbit. Who cares about lunch! I was in Middle Earth! I must mention that I STILL yes STILL had half a mind to walk up to that lonely but fascinating little hill where Edoras had been but it was just to far… My hobbit heart at that moment yearned for wings.
After lunch we got a ride back to where the plane had set down and took off to fly over that lovely, lonely hill. I took some nice pictures (especially because I was sitting up front that time.)
Our next and last major stop was–can you guess? Ok here comes the hobbit dreamer talk– Our next stop was the BOLD, the GLORIOUS, the MAGNIFICENT, SWEEPING, dazzling, Pelennor fields!! (Ok I think that was enough of a build up to get everyone excited you can sit down and breath now. 😉 ). Also in Twizel, this extraordinary field that became a field of battle in the last film was a truly magnificent site. There were small mountains and large hills all around, some of which were snow capped. The field was of course vast, and definitely large enough to have an army of thousands there (although only a few hundred were used for the films).
This was the great field where Aragorn, Eomer, Eowyn,Merry and others had all fought their greatest battles. This is where the nazgul had swooped down upon the armies of Gondor and the city itself, and seeing it all in real life was truly awesome sight! They showed us where the actual city had been digitally added against the side of a mountain, and gave us a heads up to keep our eyes peeled for bits of armor that might have fallen off during filming. They showed us where Theoden and his army had made their charge. We never found any armor, nor did we see any orcs (did we want to? lol), but it was an exciting adventure, and it was a truly exhilarating feeling to be standing where armies had fought for the freedom of Middle Earth. Gondor was there, though unseen, as were thousands of beloved characters from literary legend whose memory and deeds had been recorded by the greatest author of the 20th century. We will never forget them, or him, till the world ends.
So ends part III of There and Back Again, a hobbits tale by Pippin Skywalker (descendant of the great Took hero who fought and lived during the war of the ring in the Third Age of Middle Earth). So long my friends, and look for the continuation of this tale in parts IV, V, VI, and VII, and learn how Pippin of Sky went on various other adventures including going home to Hobbiton, and the GREAT STRUGGLE, which is surprise for part VII (I promise you will all love the tale).
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — The film’s characters, in enormouslikenesses, loom from airport and theater rooftops. Postage stamps, coffee cups and airplanes are festooned with their pictures. Movie-related art exhibitions crowd galleries.
From the tourist industry to the film industry, “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy continues to reverberate through this small island nation. The expected flood of Oscars will only confirm the success that people here have been celebrating for the last two years.
But even as “The Return of the King,” the third and last of the movies made by Peter Jackson, works its way through theaters, New Zealand and its film industry are already scrambling to prepare for the post-“Rings” future.
In December the government approved a grant program intended to attract more movie productions to New Zealand. It will reimburse 12.5 percent of the production expenses of films that cost more than $10 million and that fulfill certain criteria about how the money is spent.
The first to qualify for the grant is a Hollywood version of another story set in a fantasy realm, “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” the most popular book in the C. S. Lewis series “The Chronicles of Narnia.” Instead of Middle Earth, New Zealand will star as Narnia. The director, Andrew Adamson, a New Zealander, was co-director of “Shrek” and “Shrek 2.”He is expected to begin filming the live-action production in mid-2004, and if it is successful, more Narnia movies are to follow.
Mr. Jackson, another native son, recently began planning his $110 million remake of “King Kong,” which like the “Rings” trilogy will be filmed entirely in New Zealand.
At Weta Digital, Mr. Jackson’s Wellington-based special effects company, Joe Letteri, a visual effects supervisor, compares Weta with his former employer, Industrial Light and Magic, the powerhouse that George Lucas built on the strength of the”Star Wars” series.
Mr. Lucas founded ILM in 1975 in San Francisco, which at the time was considered light-years from Hollywood. But distance is a diminishing issue, Mr. Letteri said, since fiber optic cables can shrink the distance between Wellington and Hollywood.
“You have a mini Bay Area here,” he said of Wellington, with all of the services but little of the sprawl. “New Zealand is just not as expensive as California.”
The scale of the infrastructure built here to handle the “Rings” movies increases the pressure to find big-budget projects to sustain it.
But other films here don’t have Hollywood-size budgets. The $330 million cost of the “Rings” trilogy dwarfs the estimated $100 million spent annually on production by the entire domestic industry.
“Whale Rider,” the surprise international hit that earned the 13-year-old Keisha Castle-Hughes an Oscar nomination, was considered a big-budget film at about $6 million.
“The Lord of the Rings” trilogy had roughly 100 times as many crew members, estimated John Barnett, a producer of “Whale Rider.”
That disparity goes a long way toward explaining why an entire industry — in some ways an entire nation — is reassessing its future. Yet some New Zealand filmmakers worry that big-budget movies from overseas will drive up production costs and further marginalize the domestic film industry.
“It should never be made a second fiddle,” said Geoff Dixon, a partner in Silverscreen Productions in Wellington. “It has a danger of becoming that.”
Others worry that an industry (and government) overly eager to develop glamorous overseas projects will allow domestic production to wither because of unfair competition for film services. “There’s no point in bringing people here if there aren’t services here,” Mr. Barnett said.
Still, he credits the “Rings” trilogy with giving the movie business a general boost. Others go further.
“The whole perception of who we are as New Zealanders is changing,” said Penelope Borland, chief executive of the New Zealand Screen Producer and Developer Association. Long regarded as pragmatic and down-to-earth, New Zealanders are being seen as creative and even high-tech, Ms. Borland said.”Part of it is the sheer pride in `Lord of the Rings,’ ” she added.
In most places around the country, that pride has not eclipsed pragmatism.
New Zealanders are looking for ways to exploit the trilogy for as long as possible. The government set the tone two years ago by briefly renaming Wellington, the capital, Middle Earth to celebrate the premiere of “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring,” the first installment of the trilogy.
Now hotels, restaurants and movie theaters offer “Rings”-related promotions, and travel companies hawk “Rings”-theme tours, bolstered by research last year that found that almost 10 percent of international visitors listed “The Lord of the Rings” as one of the reasons for their visit.
In Matamata, Hobbiton, the only remaining set, has drawn thousands of visitors, each paying $33.50 for the short tour. Nearly 200 more come every day.
“Hobbiton has given us the opportunity to jump on the bandwagon,” said Russell Alexander, whose family owns the sheep farm on which the set was built.
Sitting in a cramped office filled with souvenir shirts, pens and key chains, he ticked off the additional tourist attractions he wanted to promote to keep the bandwagon rolling: clay bird shooting, paintball, sky diving and golf.
“There’s no more time for sheep farming,” he said.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – In December of 2000 Peter Jackson witnessed “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” premiere at The Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, California. On February 6, 2004 he returned to a sold out crowd and a warm reception as the American Cinematheque screened “Fellowship.” Fans started lining up at around 4pm for the 7:30pm screening which was followed by a Q & A with PJ hosted by Christopher Connelly
PJ seemed relaxed and pleased to be in a room full of fans. The legendary Forrest (Forry) J. Ackerman began the evening by presenting Mr. Jackson with a special award in the form of a permanent seat in the gloriously restored Graumann’s Egyptian Theatre. PJ explained to the audience how Forry’s former magazine “Famous Monsters of Filmland” inspired him by letting him know “that there were other people in the world like me.” PJ said “It’s so important to try to encourage the next generation.”
PJ later said that they didn’t have a cinema in the town where he grew up, and he couldn’t go to the movies until he was ten years old when his parents allowed him to take the train to the theater in a neighboring town. He credits “King Kong” as the film that inspired him to direct. (An ambition he acquired at age nine.)
On describing his choice of Howard Shore for composing the score of LOTR, PJ explained that “He does what I call dark beauty, very well.” PJ spoke of how he and Fran Walsh liked Shore’s scores for “The Fly,” and “Silence of the Lambs” and used bits of these scores as temporary tracks while editing the first cut of FOTR.
In answering a question from a fan, PJ elaborated on what “The Lord of the Rings” meant to him by saying that “ ‘The Lord of the Rings’ is a movie against enslavement [it’s] about finding your free will.”
If you’re interested, here’s a report of Annie Lennox on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, which aired Friday night.
Jay showed an ROTK CD with Viggo on the cover and introduced “Oscar Nominated” Annie Lennox. A live string section along with an accoustic guitarist performed with her. (The first violinist was so prominent he was more or less doing a duet with her, very beautiful.)
Annie was dressed in lowcut white shirt paired with black slacks. She didn’t give her best performance of the song, being slightly out of tune once or twice… but Annie’s always been better tracked than in person. Overall, though, the performance was good – especially from the string section.
Annie got a big ovation, and Jay said, “That was lovely!” and that closed out the show.
Craig Kilborn (CK): Our next guest is a talented British actor who has made millions of fans around the world as the Hobbit Merry in “Lord of the Rings.” Please welcome Dominic Monaghan. Dominic Monaghan: (DM) [he enters, shakes CK’s hand and sits down] CK: Nice to see ya DM: You too. Wow [at audience cheering] , SIT DOWN! CK: How’re you doing? DM: I’m alright. CK: So how did this movie change your life? If you just had to… DM: Well I live in LA now CK: yeah… [audience cheers] DM: That’s kinda different, yeah… well. Um, its weird, you know when things like this happen it IS your life. So you don?t really have any concept of things changing. You… [it] just is your life. Your cool with all of the kind of things that are going on. CK: [interrupts] Well your big in England because of the TV series right? DM: Uh, yeah. I was kind of, y’know I was on a TV program so they knew me. I was doing theater over there. Y’know, not in any way near the kind of worldwide phenomenon that Lord of the Rings has become. CK: [Interrupts again] Yeah. this is huge right? DM: Kind of crazy. CK: Yeah, and how did it go at… what was it the Golden Globes you were at? DM: Golden Globes! Yeah, Golden Globes was fun man. I, um [laughs] I think I… I think I have a face that looks like I… I’m… CK: [interrupts] trouble? DM: … up to mischief. CK: Yeah, yeah! DM: Causing Trouble… CK: Security grabbed ya? Or what did you do? DM: They… I went out on the night before with my mates and because you, in LA you need to bring your ID out with you all the time, Y’know. CK: Sure. DM: Uh, I lost my ID [shrugs] , so I turn up at the Golden Globes without my ID, and I’m consistently carded all the way through. CK: Oh Boy… DM: Uh, And I’m totally cool with it- y’know you guys have got a job to do- it’s ok but the people from NewLine that represented me are saying [whispers] This guy’s in Lord of the Rings! CK: He’s in what? DM: [still whispering] He’s in Lord of the Rings! CK: Lord of the Rings, right. DM: He’s in one of the movies that is probably gonna win best picture tonight d’ya want to let him through? [normal voice again] Ah no, no- sorry can’t do it. Can’t do it. CK: And what did you do? Did you loo… DM: I just, you know, I smiled and, y’know kind of winked at the guys… [gives a flirtatious wave- audience laughs] CK: That’ll go over big! DM: [pulls back innocently] CK: Yeah, I wonder… DM: Challenge authority! CK: Yeah, challenge authority. DM: Challenge authority! CK: So You would admit that you have a look that… is dangerous, up to no good. DM: I don’t know about dangerous, I don’t know about dangerous. But, you know, cheeky… CK: Cheeky. DM: Uh, you know, I just… My mum always says, uh “Even if your not doing something wrong you look like the guy who would be.” CK: Yeah, yeah you’ve got that look! [audience cheers] So, you mention LA. Now the weather out here is tremendous… DM: [interrupts] fantastic! CM: Fantastic. DM: Yeah, not today. CK: Not today. DM: It’s more like Manchester today. CK: Yes, but it is in general its wonderful. Do you like LA? Or are you… DM: I do like LA there’s… I have a few a, minor scruples. CK: Yes, hit me with them. DM: You guys can’t drive! CK: We cannot drive! [audience cheers] DM: It’s as simple as that. CK: Why do you say that? [laughing] DM: Well… drives me insane. You need to signal! When your turning right or left… signal! [takes the innocent look again- audience cheers] CK: Yeah? DM: And, if your gonna stop- don’t do it immediately! [emphatically smacks hands together] Y’know? Like, give us a little clue that you’re gonna slow down. CK: So we, what are we aggressive? Are we lazy not putting the blinker on? What are we…? DM: [interrupts] I would just say from an Englishman’s point of view, I would say you’re inconsiderate. CK: Inconsiderate? [incredulous- audience cheers] So you’re [indistinguishable] DM: Not you of course! What do you drive? CK: It doesn’t matter does it? DM: No it doesn’t. CK: No. DM: It’s a private question. CK: It’s a big-*** sedan! I like sed- this is my… DM: Do you signal? CK: What? I uh, uh yes. DM: Good. CK: I’m actually a safe driver but, I’m not from LA. Maybe the locals, and that’s the other thing about the locals. When it rains they don’t know how to drive. DM: No they don’t. CK: No. DM: I think because people drive so much in LA, they’re so tired of being on the road [acts exhausted and annoyed] that they don’t want to signal, they don’t want to turn… CK: No, and the traffic is bad here, correct? DM: Yeah it is bad [nods]. CK: Yeah. DM: Um, everything else I’m kinda cool with. Y’know like, uh: [counts off on fingers] amazing food; uh y’know you can surf here which I really enjoy doing; um beautiful women, a part of… CK: What do you think of the women? DM: I enjoy the women. CK: Yeah? DM: [nods] I enjoy them, think they’re, uh, nice. [audience-mostly women-cheers] Finally quashing those gay rumors about Elijah and I which… [more cheering] CK: Were there alot of those? DM: Oh my God! There’s a few of those! I mean we don’t necessarily say no or yes. We kind of go “hm” [inexplicable expression here, best described as- as they say of the elves… “Do not go to the elves for wisdom, as they will say both no and yes.”] Ah but yeah I love, y’know I love ladies in general but here they have that kind of strange swollen phenomenon. [gestures to his upper half- audience laughs] Swollen breasts, swollen lips… CK: That’s not as common over in England is it? DM: Fake boobs are just starting to come into play, but not y’know the fake lips and the kind of swollen cheeks and the eyebrows and the little chipmunk [indistinguishable- but gesturing to these areas all the while]. CK: We don’t like that. DM: I don’t like that either. I go for more the, the natural, cooler looking music type… CK: Sure. DM: Girls. CK: Yeah. DM: Yeah. CK: And [stutters] are they, can they be American. Can they be British? DM: Sure. They can be A- no I don’t go for British girls that much. CK: Why is that? DM: Because, cause I hear that, I’ve heard it for a long time and I’m used to it. Something that I know. CK: Oh you mean the accent? DM: Yeah. Whereas American girls seem to be a little bit more glamorous. A little bit more kind of, “Oh are you a cheerleader?” [audience laughs] You don’t know. CK: [laughing] Ah that was classic. How old are you? DM: I’m 27!. CK: You’re 27 your a kid. Now are you friends with Jack Osbourne? [the previous guest] DM: I am friends with Jack. CK: You know Jack. DM: I do. I know his family really well. So I should send all my love to Ozzie [waves] and I hope that he’s well, and Sharon of course. CK: And you uh, you do an impression of Jack? DM: No I don’t do Jack! I do Ozzie every so often. CK: Oh an impression of Ozzie? DM: If I’m in a bad mood of if I want to get attention from one of my mates I do “Sharon!” [Ozzie impression] But that’s pretty much as far as it goes, yes. CK: Yeah. DM: Fantastic television the Osbournes. CK: Yeah it is, it’s riveting. DM: I hung out with Kelly at the Golden Globes and y’know they’re just a really, very very cool hip family. Regardless of what goes on in their lives. They’re just very nice people. CK: Is that show on in England? DM: Yeah. It is in England. CK: It is yeah. DM: We have this Queen’s speech in England. You know that on Christmas day. We had Sharon’s speech a couple years ago- at the same time! CK: Wow! That’s huge. DM: So the cool kids are watching Sharon and you know, going, [silly/defiant expression] Sure beats watching… CK: What’s your next project? DM: I don’t really know man. I mean it’s kind of, its pilot season here. So as you know LA’s kind of crazy at this point. Meeting with alot of people. Uh, I want to work for the discovery channel at some point this year. Making kind… CK: Really? DM: Yeah, natural history programs… CK: Yeah, doing what? What do you want to do? DM: I don’t know like um, my kind of idea for a program is kind of: a third nature program; a third kind of, tourist, a kind of tourism kind of program; a third kind of um, environmental consciousness kind of thing. I, my biggest influences growing up were- Sir David Attenborough. Do you know this guy? He’s kind of a… CK: Say again? DM: Sir David Attenborough CK: Yeah yeah yeah… [nods] DM: He’s an English, natural history host… CK: Yeah. DM: So I just want to be back in that medium. I just want to do something for my generation. Cause I love animals. CK: That’s great [audience cheers] very good! You ought to come back, we ran out of time you gotta come back. Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, let’s get out and see that thing. DM: Yes, cause no one else is! [audience tremendous cheering] CK: Dominic Monaghan! We’ll be right back…
