Forbidden Planet is delighted to announce a signing by Andy Serkis to promote his book Gollum: How We Made Movie Magic. He will be at the new Forbidden Planet Megastore, 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, WC2 H 8JR, on Thursday 18th December from 6pm.
In this remarkable book, the actor who plays Gollum relates how he and a team of animators brought to life one of the screen’s most psychologically complex, physically demanding and technically challenging characters. A milestone in filmmaking history, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers saw an actor’s performance seamlessly integrated with digital animation to create the very first totally lifelike animated character. Telling his own story, Andy explains how a three-week voiceover commission became a four-year commitment to breathe life and soul into the most fascinating character of all.
Andy was born in West London and grew up wanting to be a graphic artist. He studied visual arts at Lancaster University, where he became heavily involved in theatre studies. After performing in Barrie Keefe’s play Gotcha, he decided he wanted to become an actor. An auspicious stage career grew into film and television and in 1999, he was offered the role of Gollum.
Andy will be signing at the new Forbidden Planet Megastore. Offering a 10,000 square foot of floorspace and over a mile of shelving holding 25,000 products, this store will continue the Forbidden Planet tradition of hosting appearances by the greatest names in science fiction and fantasy. Previous appearances have included Christopher Lee, Ray Harryhausen, Douglas Adams, Anne McCaffrey, Iain Banks, Larry Niven, Clive Barker, Frank Herbert, Stephen King, William Gibson, and H. R. Giger.
Observer writes: In the December 2003 issue of Brio magazine, there was an interview conducted in which the cast was asked this question: “While working on these movies, did you learn a particular life lesson that would be valuable for teens today?”
Sean Astin: “Contentment. That you can’t do everything all at once, right away. Be patient and take things as they come. Learn to live each moment. I’ve finally gotten to that place.”
Miranda Otto: “‘Lord of the Rings’ reveres things I think society is aching to go back to [such as] honor, loyalty and dignity – qualities we tend to forgo so quickly for money. If someone says, ‘I’ll give you $200 if you take your clothes off and run around the block,’ a lot of people will do it.”
Peter Jackson: “The need for determination. You have to believe in yourself and not let anything stand in your way. There have been several periods in the history of this project when it could’ve just died.”
Andy Serkis: “Not taking people at face value…. It’s important to understand the nature of the dark and light sides of our personalities.”
Dominic Monaghan: “Keep what’s pure – love of friends, your family, or defending something good and honest that you believe in – as opposed to greed, power, hunger, and domination.”
Brad Dourif: “The whole theme of fear and confrontation with yourself. What you’re afraid of seems bigger than you are, but if you let it overwhelm you and overcome you it makes you small. If you face it, you triumph and become much more.”
John Rhys-Davies: “Unity, courage, and a willingness to sacrifice yourself. We all have a choice: we’re either slaves or princes in this life. We make slaves of ourselves so readily and so easily.”
Billy Boyd: “Don’t get all stressed out wondering where your next 10 years are going to go. Partly from playing a hobbit and partly from living in New Zealand, which has a more laid-back lifestyle, I’ve learned to be more happy in what’s happening now.”
Bernard Hill: “For the battle scenes we learned sword positions and practiced a lot. Because it can be dangerous, we needed to trust each other. So we’d hang out with the stunt guys and really got to know each other. When it came time for filming the Helm’s Deep scenes, they’d arrive in makeup and Uruk-hai armor with their false teeth in and we’d hear the call, ‘OK, heads on!’ So they’d put their heads on and come at us, and you couldn’t tell who was who. My immediate reaction was, ‘Ugh, I don’t like this person.’ Then you’d hear, ‘Hey, Shaw!’ ‘Who’s that?’ ‘Andy.’ “Oh Andy, hi!’ Inside this head was my friend. But with the head on something happened to him. I was frightened of this person because of an appearance that was only prosthetic deep. It forced me to think about my fears and innate prejudice.”
Elijah Wood: “You don’t realize how important your friends are until you need them. During tough times when you lose perspective or have mental or emotional fatigue, those are the people who pick you up and tell you, ‘It’s cool. We’re in this together.’ Embrace those friends that you have.’
Monaghan at the TTT Premiere in NYC with the word ‘trees’ written on his hands
Actor Dominic Monaghan (Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The Purifiers, Spivs, Shooting Livien) employs his international stardom by becoming Spokesperson for Project Last Stand, an international effort bringing attention to the current state of the world’s forests and raising funds by organizing a celebrity charity auction. The proceeds from the auction will support forest groups who are buying unprotected forests and planting trees worldwide:
Among the featured charities is the Nga Uruora Kapiti Project, an organization dedicated to the restoration of native forest habitats along the Kapiti Coast, north of Wellington, New Zealand. They are currently planting trees and restoring native bush between Paekakariki and Pukerua Bay:
‘We are cutting down the equivalent of eleven football pitches of rainforest a day that is not being replaced. When I was told this, I was completely horrified.’ – Dominic Monaghan, The Lord of the Rings Fan Club Official Movie Magazine
Monaghan is an active environmentalist, enjoys the outdoors, monkeys and football.
For more information about Project Last Stand Contact:
Matthew T. Dickerson, author of Following Gandalf: Epic Battles and Moral Victory in the Lord of the Rings, will give a lecture titled “J.R.R. Tolkien and the Real Battle in the Lord of the Rings” on December 4 at St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York (Viggo’s alma mater). The lecture will be held at 8 PM in Room 113 of Griffiths Arts Center.
The author will argue that Tolkien’s original treatment of battles provides a very different picture than the films or video games present, by addressing such questions as “What is Gandalf’s real power and why does he display it only on rare instances?, “What is the essential power of the one ring and why do characters reject it?”, and “Does Tolkien glorify war and violence?”
The event is free and open to the public. For more information, call 315-229-5011, or check the SLU website at www.stlawu.edu.
In the December 2003 issue of Brio magazine, there was an interview conducted in which members of the cast were asked this question: “While working on these movies, did you learn a particular life lesson that would be valuable for teens today?” Ringer Spy Observer sent us this interesting transcript of the answers.
Sean Astin: “Contentment. That you can’t do everything all at once, right away. Be patient and take things as they come. Learn to live each moment. I’ve finally gotten to that place.”
Miranda Otto: “‘Lord of the Rings’ reveres things I think society is aching to go back to [such as] honor, loyalty and dignity – qualities we tend to forgo so quickly for money. If someone says, ‘I’ll give you $200 if you take your clothes off and run around the block,’ a lot of people will do it.”
Peter Jackson: “The need for determination. You have to believe in yourself and not let anything stand in your way. There have been several periods in the history of this project when it could’ve just died.”
Andy Serkis: “Not taking people at face value…. It’s important to understand the nature of the dark and light sides of our personalities.”
Dominic Monaghan: “Keep what’s pure – love of friends, your family, or defending something good and honest that you believe in – as opposed to greed, power, hunger, and domination.”
Brad Douriff: “The whole theme of fear and confrontation with yourself. What you’re afraid of seems bigger than you are, but if you let it overwhelm you and overcome you it makes you small. If you face it, you triumph and become much more.”
John Rhys-Davies: “Unity, courage, and a willingness to sacrifice yourself. We all have a choice: we’re either slaves or princes in this life. We make slaves of ourselves so readily and so easily.”
Billy Boyd: “Don’t get all stressed out wondering where your next 10 years are going to go. Partly from playing a hobbit and partly from living in New Zealand, which has a more laid-back lifestyle, I’ve learned to be more happy in what’s happening now.”
Bernard Hill: “For the battle scenes we learned sword positions and practiced a lot.
Because it can be dangerous, we needed to trust each other. So we’d hang out with the stunt guys and really got to know each other. When it came time for filming the Helm’s Deep scenes, they’d arrive in makeup and Uruk-hai armor with their false teeth in and we’d hear the call, ‘OK, heads on!’ So they’d put their heads on and come at us, and you couldn’t tell who was who.
My immediate reaction was, ‘Ugh, I don’t like this person.’ Then you’d hear, ‘Hey, Shaw!’ ‘Who’s that?’ ‘Andy.’ “Oh Andy, hi!’ Inside this head was my friend. But with the head on something happened to him. I was frightened of this person because of an appearance that was only prosthetic deep. It forced me to think about my fears and innate prejudice.”
Elijah Wood: “You don’t realize how important your friends are until you need them. During tough times when you lose perspective or have mental or emotional fatigue,those are the people who pick you up and tell you, ‘It’s cool. We’re in this together.’ Embrace those friends that you have.’
TolkienOnline’s original.wombat found a very interesting extract regarding Smeagol/Gollum in ROTK from Andy Serkis’ forthcoming book, Gollum: How We Made Movie Magic:
“Friday 11 April (03) was to be one of those defining moments in Gollum’s journey. I went round to Pete’s house to work on the script (ROTK) with Fran and Phillipa. It was great to see them after such a long time and we caught up on life since that mad day of ADR at Pinewood last summer. What they had in store for me, and Gollum, completely blew me away. It really brought home to me what incredibly adventurous, fearless screenwriters they were.
Fran had this idea that instead of repeating what he had established in the Two Towers – Gollum being the vicious dark side, the survivor, full of hatred and revenge, with the re-emerging Smeagol as the chink of light in his soul, the abused child, the victim who really trusts Frodo, and the side we felt pity for – that we turn it all on its head so that Smeagol was really the cold calculating passive-aggressive psychopath who play acted being the victim to get his own way. In comparison, Gollum would be less dangerous because his passion, lust and aggression were true hot-blooded emotions, flooded with feeling. The idea sent me reeling but I knew instinctively that this would be the way to go, that the character would deepen and take the audience on a very complex journey.
My only worries were, I suppose that it questioned my world-view. I had played Gollum as someone who, at the end of the day, no matter what he’d done, was a very sick addict and was redeemable because he was the victim of a powerful force that he couldn’t handle. Now we were looking at a character who is pure evil, past all redemption. My brain was frazzled by the implications.”
Sean Astin: “Contentment. That you can’t do everything all at once, right away. Be patient and take things as they come. Learn to live each moment. I’ve finally gotten to that place.”
Miranda Otto: “‘Lord of the Rings’ reveres things I think society is aching to go back to [such as] honor, loyalty and dignity – qualities we tend to forgo so quickly for money. If someone says, ‘I’ll give you $200 if you take your clothes off and run around the block,’ a lot of people will do it.”
Peter Jackson: “The need for determination. You have to believe in yourself and not let anything stand in your way. There have been several periods in the history of this project when it could’ve just died.”
Andy Serkis: “Not taking people at face value…. It’s important to understand the nature of the dark and light sides of our personalities.”
Dominic Monaghan: “Keep what’s pure – love of friends, your family, or defending something good and honest that you believe in – as opposed to greed, power, hunger, and domination.”
Brad Dourif: “The whole theme of fear and confrontation with yourself. What you’re afraid of seems bigger than you are, but if you let it overwhelm you and overcome you it makes you small. If you face it, you triumph and become much more.”
John Rhys-Davies: “Unity, courage, and a willingness to sacrifice yourself. We all have a choice: we’re either slaves or princes in this life. We make slaves of ourselves so readily and so easily.”
Billy Boyd: “Don’t get all stressed out wondering where your next 10 years are going to go. Partly from playing a hobbit and partly from living in New Zealand, which has a more laid-back lifestyle, I’ve learned to be more happy in what’s happening now.”
Bernard Hill: “For the battle scenes we learned sword positions and practiced a lot. Because it can be dangerous, we needed to trust each other. So we’d hang out with the stunt guys and really got to know each other. When it came time for filming the Helm’s Deep scenes, they’d arrive in makeup and Uruk-hai armor with their false teeth in and we’d hear the call, ‘OK, heads on!’ So they’d put their heads on and come at us, and you couldn’t tell who was who. My immediate reaction was, ‘Ugh, I don’t like this person.’ Then you’d hear, ‘Hey, Shaw!’ ‘Who’s that?’ ‘Andy.’ “Oh Andy, hi!’ Inside this head was my friend. But with the head on something happened to him. I was frightened of this person because of an appearance that was only prosthetic deep. It forced me to think about my fears and innate prejudice.”
Elijah Wood: “You don’t realize how important your friends are until you need them. During tough times when you lose perspective or have mental or emotional fatigue, those are the people who pick you up and tell you, ‘It’s cool. We’re in this together.’ Embrace those friends that you have.’