Click for more images Last week Cate Blanchett was on Live! With Regis and Kelly in the am….
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Last week Cate Blanchett was on Live! With Regis and Kelly in the am. She was there to promote her new film ‘The Missing’ directed by Ron Howard. While there she also discussed her pregnancy and other films she was working on. Click on the image above for more.
This was in this month’s Onfilm magazine in NZ, and I thought it would interest a number of TORN readers both for the crossover interest in Narnia and for the news of Richard Taylor, Grant Major and John Howe working on these films.
Onfilm: Confirmation was still pending at presstime that Kiwi Andrew Adamson’s Chronicles of Narnia dramatisation would be shot in New Zealand.
Investment NZ’s Paul Voigt would only say a decision is nigh but one source close to the Walden Media production believes there’s no doubt about the principal location.
“If The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe isn’t filmed here, it won’t be filmed anywhere.”
The NZ advantages are considerable, ranging from a 12.5% rebate on its NZ spend under the proposed Large Budget Film Grant scheme to the Oscar-winning creature/special effects expertise of WETA.
Among those officially attached to the NZ$200 million project are The Lord of the Rings troika of Grant Major (production/design director), Richard Taylor (special effects) and John Howe (conceptual artist).
The Shrek director’s dramatisation will be live-action and feature a real lion. Said Adamson in July: “I read the book when I was eight years old and it seemed very real to me. Aslan has to be, first and foremost, a real lion.”
The script is being written by Ann Peacock, who won an Emmy and a Humanitas Prize for A Lesson Before Dying.
Her upcoming projects include Country of My Skull, with John Boorman attached to direct and Sam Jackson, Juliette Binoche and Jon Voight to star; On the Ropes for director Brad Silberling; Marines of Autumn for Irwn Winkler; and Star Time, with Joel Schumacher directing Will Smith.
Walden Media, which has optioned all seven books in the Narnia series, is a subsidiary of The Anschutz Company, one of the largest privately-owned and operated ventures in the US.
Its affiliated companies are principall engaged in telecommunications and media, natural resources, transportation, real estate, sports and entertainment.
Walden originally planned to release The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe mid-2004 but the opening has since been pushed back to two years from now.
Spy KFitz writes: I just saw Dominic Monaghan shooting a movie on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, just a stone’s throw away from Gracie Mansion (the mayor’s residence). He is now (Saturday afternoon, 11/22) at E. 86th Street and the East River, at Carl Schurz Park, filming a drama called “Shooting Livien” with Jason Behr (‘Roswell’). Dom had on a rumpled green jacket, dark trousers. His hair is much longer than in LOTR. He has almost a beard. I asked what they are shooting, and a person with a walkie talkie said the name of the movie and that it also has Sarah Wynter (’24’) and Joshua Leonard (‘The Blair Witch Project’). They just started shooting this week, so you can look for them around town. They are shooting in New York until next month, I was told.
Beorthnoth writes: I wasn’t sure if anyone had brought this to your attention, but chief Kansas City Star movie critic, Robert Butler, was one of the very few reviewers in the country to pan The Two Towers last December.
…But for those of us who thought the first film was at its best when reveling in the little details of life in Middle-earth and examining the relationships between its characters, “The Two Towers” is a letdown.
What can you say about a movie in which the best performance is given by an animated creature? In which our heroes spend most of their time running around, assuming stock company heroic poses and spouting groaners like, “The red sun rises. Blood has been spilt this night”?
…Just when we’re starting to get into one particular story, we’re torn away and presented with another. We never get a clean dramatic arc to any of the three.
Moreover, some characters — Elrond (Hugo Weaving), Galadriel (Cate Blanchett) and Arwen (Liv Tyler) — appear only in unremarkable flashbacks. They seem to be here only so the actors’ names can appear on the poster.
Far more troublesome is the film’s lack of humanity — if that can be said about a film populated by elves, wizards and hobbits. New characters like Theoden and his niece, the warrior princess Eowyn (Miranda Otto), and the Gondor war chief Faramir (David Wenham) should have their own stories to tell. Instead they’re shallow, colorless and unremarkable.
[Click here for the whole interview]
Well: I think it worth noting that he has completely revised his take in his review of the Extended Edition. I think it worth noting for the broader community – a mark of just how much better this Extended Edition is over the original.
The review is NOT available online at this time. It may be later; then again they may decided to keep it as print-exlcusive content.
Extra time makes ‘Towers’ stand up taller
ON SCREEN
Robert W. Butler
November 21, 2003
All too often the special DVD “director’s cuts” are of movies that were too long to begin with and certainly don’t need additional padding.
But the new extended DVD version of “Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” is a case where more is better. In fact, it changes everything.
I was one of maybe five critics in the country who didn’t like the theatrical version of “The Two Towers” that opened a year ago. Aftet the excellence of “Fellowship of the Ring” it seemed to me that “Tow Towers” quickly deteriorated into a runaround movie. Everybody runs over here, then they turn around and run over there.
Moreover, the film seemed terribly stilted, with actors striking grandiose poses and making stentorian declarations. “Towers,” I thought, was too much bombat and not enough soul.
Now, I’m happy to report, all that has changed. For the extended DVD director Peter Jackson has released has included 45 minutes excised from the theatrical release, and the additions transform the film.
What happened is obvious. Required to turn in a three-hour cut, Jackson sliced away everything that wasn’t related to pure advancement of the story. Left in the can was tons of relationship stuff and character development which, for me anyway, is the equal of all the fighting and riding. The restored footage affects nearly every passage in the extended “Tower.” We get more Gollum and Frodo. We get an entire back story about Faramir (in the theatrical version a maddeningly undeveloped character) and his brother Boromir that finally gives this character a personality.
Pippin and Merry get a lot more time to explore the world of the Ents – the tree creatures which now are allowed to show more personality. In an amusing coda after the fall of Saruman’s citadel, the hobbit cousins discovered a vast cache of victuals and pipeweed seized from the Shire – a moment of pure Tolkien pleasure.
We learn a good deal more about Eowyn, the princess of the horse warriors, and her unrequited love for Aragorn. The friendly rivalry between Legolas and Gimli fully develops.
Great stuff. But there’s more.
The PG-13 rated violence of the theatrical cut struck me as sanitized. In the extended version, though, heads fly. There’s a scene of Faramir’s soldiers beating a captive Gollum that’s genuinely disturbing.
There’s also a good deal more humurous interplay this time around.
So what at first struck me as a tentative and under-inhabited spectacle now emerges as a truly gripping work that succeeds on a much more human, emotional level.
Watching the three hour theatrical version was a chore. But this nearly four hour DVD cut seems to fly.
In short, it’s a great way to get pumped up for next month’s opening of “The Return of the King.” And, yes, Peter Jackson is a genius.
Are you the ultimate “Lord of the Rings” fan? Tell why you are the #1 fan and you may win an opportunity of a lifetime. New show in development wants to hear from true fans!
Please send a two minute tape showing/telling us why no other fan compares to you. Be outgoing, energetic and don’t forget to be creative! Also, if you won an international trip, what two people would you bring with and why?
You must:
Be over the age of 18
Have a valid passport
Available from December 2-12
Please send videotape and your contact information to:
Jill Bandemer
E! Entertainment
5750 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90036
Deadline for submissions is December 1st.
Tapes will not be returned and become the property of E! Entertainment Television.
© 2003 E! Entertainment Television, Inc. All rights reserved.
Koala writes: UA cinemas in Hong Kong have just released this information.
Fellowship of the Ring Dec 4-10 (3:10pm & 7:15pm)
The Two Towers Dec 11-17 (3:00pm & 7:00pm)
The Return of the King Opens on Dec 18
Package Price: $150
OR, there’s this option:
Screening Marathon
Do you want to compete with other “The Lord of the Rings” fans to finish the 12-hour screening marathon? Here comes the chance! The screening marathon will be held on Dec 17, from 2:30pm to midnight.
From Dec 1 to 5, 8 to 10, pay attention to “RoadShow” (KMB) to know more about the game details. A “The Lord of the Rings” T-shirt and a certificate will be given to each participant. Furthermore, winners of the game may win a trip to New Zealand, get special movie premiums and even cash! Don’t miss the chance. Check “RoadShow” (KMB) for further details.
