Mighty Squid writes: I was overjoyed to hear about the Lord of the Rings props display at Toys R Us in Times Square NYC. Thank you TORn!
I must admit the prospect of going to Times Square this time of year is a bit daunting. Going to Toys R Us felt a bit like Mordor. The line to get into the store wrapped around the block. Luckily my husband is large person and we were able to bulldoze the tourists out of the way. We asked the first employee we saw how to get to the third floor where the exhibit is suppose to be. He told us one floor up by the dinosaur. Found the dinosaur and LOTRs merchandise but no movie props. So the search was on. The promotion also included buying LOTR games for a shot at meeting Andy Serkis (more on that in a sec) so I figured it would be by the games. I picked up a LOTR Risk game and asked the nearest employee about the props display. She informed me that it had closed quite some time ago. I was not happy. So I had my husband wait in the huge check out line while I scouted around. Craning my neck near the elevators, glass cases with LOTR logos were clearly seen on the floor above. So far two employees had no idea about the display. So I impatiently waited for my husband, made sure he had his receipt and waited for the elevator. The elevator operator didn’t want to bring us to the third floor since it seemed obvious that we weren’t the people who had “personal shoppers”. I told her we were looking for the LOTR display. She finally agreed to bring us. Unhelpful employee number three.
Finally I got to see the display. Displayed was the weaponry of the Heroes of Middle Earth. Gimli’s axe, Leggy’s bow and EVERYONE’s sword. Very cool. There was also an entry form to win Wormtongue’s dagger. I filled quite a few out.
Now for stage two. I brought the game receipt to the Personal Shopping desk expecting the same blank stares and lack of information I had gotten so far. I was pleasantly surprised. Away from the mob of tourists and scream of children people have kept their sanity. They knew exactly what I was talking about. They made a photocopy of my receipt, took down my name and phone number, and handed me a ticket to meet Andy Serkis at the private signing. I was stunned. I did not expect there to be any tickets left. After failing to get Trilogy Tuesday and PJ at Lincoln Center tickets I just couldn’t believe I would get tickets to anything. So not only will I be able to at last see the final installment of this history making trilogy but I will celebrate the day by meeting Gollum himself!
If anyone is in the New York City area, get over to Toys R Us! I was only number 55 of a possible 700!
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We would like to extend our appreciation and thanks to everyone who attended the Return of the Ringers Party at the Skyline Restaurant.
The party was a night we will never forget, the atmosphere was electric and everyone was so nice! Many of you would have met our two year old daughter Katie, who was the inspiration of our cause to raise awareness into organ donation. Katie has a liver disease and will one day need a transplant alongside many other people in New Zealand, and indeed around the world. Our message is not New Zealand specific but worldwide.
To see Katie at the party you would not realise there was anything wrong with her, she had the best time ever of her two years. She danced the night away and made sure that others danced with her also! When the band finished after 1am she was asking them to play more. Not bad for a little girl who had been up now for 19 hours!
The generosity of all who helped to raise the $13,107 for the awareness campaign was outstanding. With little overheads and no paid staff this money will go directly into the campaign frontline.
We would also like to thank PJ, Fran and P.A. Jan Blenkin. Throughout their incredibly busy year they still always have made time to help us. As well as brilliant movie makers they are lifesavers, their help in raising the profile of the shortage of donors will already be making an impact, and not just in New Zealand.
A TORN member emailed me and suggested that we add a ‘donate’ button on our website for those who could not attend the party but would like to contribute.
This has now been done. We have also added a small incentive by adding an area where you can send a message to PJ. with the added guarantee that he will actually get the message personally! (though we can’t guarantee that he will reply.)
Wishing you a great Christmas and New Year!
the ‘Tookey’ family
GiveLife NZ
Andy Tookey
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LQ writes: TechTV will carry some stories on LOTR within some of their regular news/info programs, plus a half-hour special on ROTK. All times are East Coast and each show is repeated several times on the network.
December 17th – The Screen Savers: ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King’
December 17th – Tech Live: Opening of ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King’
December 17th – TechTV: Special – Lord of the Rings: Visits to the sets show the creation of the films based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s trilogy. Behind-the-scenes look at LOTR trilogy and its videogame spin-offs.
December 18th – Tech Live: Sneak peak at the extras on the ‘Lord of the Rings’ DVD.
December 19th – Tech Live: Secrets to the new ‘Lord of the Rings: Return of the King’ videogame
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MrCere here – Just a reminder that today, Monday, is the last day to sign up for the www.Royalselangor.com promotion for LP3 – The return of the line. After today’s last-minute sign ups, Royal Selangor will randomly pick the winners of those who have registered HERE.
Here is a reminder in case you have forgotten about the details of this promotion that is available for all Line Party participants world wide.
www.royalselangor.com, an award winning website with more than 600 pewter gift ideas, offers the Lord of The Rings fans a wonderful opportunity to collect coveted Middle-earth inspired pewter designs. The wide selection consists of beautifully sculpted character goblets, shot glasses, wine glasses and tankards. To add to the excitement this year, there is now a new release of commemorative plates and flutes.
The set of four commemorative plates capture the many classic moments from The Hobbit, The Fellowship of The Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of The King. They feature scenes such as the Battle of the Five Armies at the Lonely Mountain, the Council of Elrond in Rivendell, the Entmoot in Fangorn Forest and Éowyn’s battle with the Witch King.
The War of The Ring chess set is a true collector’s piece for chess
aficionados and fiction lovers. The good side is sculpted in pewter while the evil side is copper-plated. The good side is led by Strider as the King with Galadriel as his Queen. Naturally, the evil side is led by the dark lord Sauron, accompanied by the Great Spider Shelob as his Queen.
Each piece is intricately sculpted and a game of chess with this set will transport you into the heart of the battlefield between the forces of good and evil in Middle-earth.
To stand a chance to win these sought after designs, simply click here to register. Remember to fill in the LOTR line party that you’re attending at the section – ‘Which LOTR Line Party Are You Attending’ to qualify you as a valid participant. Winners MUST be part of an ACTIVE, particpating line party event.
To check if you’re a winner, attend the LOTR line parties near you. Prizes will automatically go to the next winner if not claimed during the party.
There will also be 100 consolation prizes, which will be given out in select locations on a first-com-first-serve basis during the line party.
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After a wild couple of weeks touring New Zealand and guiding busloads of people through the countryside, Tehanu is back with her report on the Return of the Ringers party.
Parties are Fun…..or are they?
Regular visitors to TORn might have wondered what’s happened to Tehanu for the past few weeks. Well, after the madness of Return of the Ringers and the premiere the day after, I had several thousand hours of sleep to catch up on. But I was also tourguide to a busload of 46 LOTR fans doing a Red Carpet tour of film locations for 2 weeks. Those weren’t very compatible goals, what with the 6:30 starts and the relentless hunting for people, luggage, and film locations.
Tagging along was my fiance, who emigrated to NZ three days before we set off on this magical mystery tour; he was remarkably tolerant of having to share our lives with hundreds of other people since his arrival in the country.
I hear that the party was a lot of fun, and I certainly saw a lot of people dancing and laughing and talking and looking fantastic and glamourous. I saw them in a kind of blur, personally – like I’d occasionally crash into somebody’s plate or dodge their Springle Ring while I was racing around “running” the party (and I use that term loosely.) But other than that, it was like an extension of what TheOneRing.net is all about, for me – a place for Tolkien fans to gather together and meet other people to have fun with. Except we were getting together in real life for once. Seven hundred of us!
After months of running around planning for all this, and worrying that it wouldn’t work out (we thought of a hundred things that might go wrong!) it was a relief to sit on the front desk checking people in and see how the fans were all buzzing with excitement before they even got in the door. Sure, there was a long queue lining up and it took a while to get everyone through, but the mood was good and conversations seemed lively while they waited. From my point of view it was nice to say hello to a lot of people I’d only ever spoken to online before. I think a lot of people were pleased to find old friends from the Net to party with them.
Next LOTR party, I’m going to do all that stuff. This party, I didn’t eat, drink, dance or do anything other than direct traffic all night, and the other party organisers were the same. Everyone thinks we were locked in that VIP room exchanging meaningful looks and witty banter with the stars. Dream on! I don’t think I even had time to say hello to anyone except Bruce (hi Bruce) and Richard T. as I was busy running round getting the food, drinks and security organised for them and doing other things to counter the forces of Chaotic Good (‘cos with 700 people and some film stars and the media all in one place, chaos isn’t what you want.)
I think we ended up with a somewhat freeform party – apologies to all of you that hoped to win something in a costume or dancing competition. We got Ben Wootten and Bruce Hopkins to hand out spot prizes to worthy hopefuls, which was the best we could do once the stars arrived and derailed our schedule in the nicest possible way. Thanks for coming, guys, and I hope you had a good time!
The venue didn’t burn down killing hundreds of LOTR fans, and no stars were trampled into a millimetre-thin smear on the carpet, so two of my major goals were accomplished. (These were the two that had me waking up at 4 in the morning in a cold sweat for weeks beforehand.) So I’m really, really happy. Really happy that it’s over, too.
The Mouth of New Line had told me that the stars had way better things to do and far better parties to attend than ours on that evening. I thought she was likely to be right – this would be one of the last opportunities for the cast to all get together, and I imagined they’d have moments that they would not want to share with 700 of us.
So we’d been pretty blasé about security, in hindsight. Luckily the Chainmail Stuntpeople stepped in to help when the stars dropped in to say hello to the fans. (Lots of other reports have described that, so I’ll simply say ‘Thanks for coming, it was lovely to have you!’) I never did find out what the professional security folk thought about standing shoulder to shoulder with a crew of armed warriors as they escorted the stars on and off the stage. Sean Astin and Sir Ian McKellen acted like it was all in a days’ work, which it pretty well is after filming LOTR.
It’s now two weeks since the Premiere Party “Return of the Ringers” in Wellington and we can finally take stock of the result in terms of the charity we aimed to help. We set out to raise money for a charity that PJ had chosen – the Organ Donor Awareness Campaign. Yesterday I invited Andy Tookey, the campaign head, to come over and pick up a cheque for $13,107 NZD.
Andy has been trying to raise public awareness of the need for more organ donors to help people in need of transplants. Organ donor rates in NZ are low, not from a shortage of compassion, but from the lack of information about the process. Our donation will be used to fund airtime for their ad campaign to run on TV; if that is not feasible, the campaign will direct its efforts to creating an educational package for schools.
To all of you who helped us raise this money – from the organisations and businesses in NZ who donated auction goods, the stars of 3Foot6 and Weta who autographed some of them, and you the people who supported us by buying tickets, drinks and T-shirts – a huge hug and a thank-you.
I especially want to thank Joel Bion and his wife Fran, for their generous personal contribution to the auction; Peter Jackson and Richard Taylor and their colleagues for finding time in their hectic pre-premiere schedule to sign our auction goods, and John Noble for stepping into the breach on the night and whipping up enthusiasm (and prices) at the live auction.
Thanks are due to the Chain Mail People (you know who you are) who helped with security and kept our beloved actors and Weta stars safe from our sometimes too-boisterous adoration! I’m never going to forget the sight of those staunch warriors forming a human corridor and shouting ‘Hold the line!’ as they escorted the stars to and from the stage.
Thanks to Sean Astin, Sir Ian McKellen, John Noble, Bruce Hopkins, Lawrence Makaore, Richard Taylor, Gino Acevedo and Ben Wootten for turning up and giving the fans an opportunity to show how much they love them.
Last but far from least, I have to thank Lyric Apted and Rochelle Powers for their tireless work in organising the party. Although I had the initial idea to have a party for the fans at the premiere, any idiot could have thought of that. Actually making it happen depended utterly on their skills and talent for organising and keeping track of hundreds of details and connections. They deserve a lot more praise and attention than they got. Now you know who they are so there’s no excuse.
Next installment: How I got into the premiere and what I thought of it.
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Barbara is a professional movie critic in Germany. She sent this great review in – some spoilers here in that it really does pick out some of the best bits. But most importantly, her overall impression is emotionally charged admiration and pleasure in the achievement.
The Return of the King
“I’ve been writing movie reviews for thirteen years now. Never before have I sat in a theater with my heart pounding in my ears as the lights went down. So it’s no use denying that I went to see „The Return of the King” hoping that I’d like it. And, oh, I did. While in „The Two Towers” Peter Jackson faced — and mastered — the task of continuing a storyline split in three, he now has to follow an even greater number of threads that do not all lead to the one end as the fates of over a dozen main players unfold. More overshadowed than guided by the twisted creature Gollum, Frodo and Sam carry the Ring of Power into Mordor, hoping against hope to destroy it. At the same time, another battle awaits their former companions. Gandalf the wizard and Aragorn, heir to the throne of Gondor, once more call the world of men to arms to ward off the final attack of the evil Lord of Mordor. This battle for Gondor is not only one of the turning points that define the future of the men of Middle Earth, it is also the great canvas on which much smaller fates are painted. As promised by the Lady Galadriel much earlier in the trilogy, it is here that the remaining Hobbits Pippin and Merry find their place in the story, it is here that the unhappy Eowyn shows her true merit — it is here that mass action and singled-out faces find their perfect balance.
“Yes, there are quibbles. The film takes some time to find its pace — time it would dearly need later on, when only those who have read the books can guess how Eowyn and Faramir end up where they do. The ghost army doesn’t look nearly as tormented as I’d imagined it. There is the sad matter of the missing, magic-voiced Saruman. (And the German translation, which I saw, is often unnecessarily clumsy, not to mention the fact that not for the first time, some of Jackson’s Wagnerian imagery stirs uneasy historical memories in the German mind.) But they don’t really matter, and if anything, they whet the viewer’s appetite for the extended DVD version. What they cannot touch is the powerful vision that underlies it all, a vision that once more captures the essence, if not all the details of the book, turning its words into cinematic moments of the unforgettable kind. The beacon fires of Gondor calling for Rohan’s help. The Steward of Gondor feasting at his table as his son Faramir rides to meet his death on the Pelennor and Pippin’s voice accompanies him in a simple lament. Aragorn sending his men into one last fight, not for honor, not for Gondor — but for Frodo.
“So, this is the long-awaited third film after which no other will follow, a much anticipated event that is also a farewell. And Peter Jackson takes his time to conclude not only „Return” but the whole trilogy with it, to let the homecoming Hobbits experience a sense of loss that may well express what the filmmakers felt at the time the shooting drew to a close, and what many viewers may assume to feel as the credits start to roll. But this is the point where „The Return of the King” has one last surprise in store for you, because Jackson does not send you home feeling sad. As the lights go on again, the unexpected feeling that prevails is joy.”
Barbara Schnell
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