Plenty of folks have sent along these scans from Arena Magazine, featuring Orlando Bloom, Elijah Wood and Ian McKellen! Take a look!
Category: Old Special Reports
Elvasdottir writes:
Greetings to all Tolkien fans from Delmar, New York! Here follows a resume of a program that will surely delight all LOTR geeks, especially those in Argentina, because it offers some personal details about Viggo Mortensen …. For your convenience I am sending this in English and Spanish.
Last night (12/28) on CNN En Espanol, the Spanish-language version of CNN, they interviewed Peter Jackson and several actors from TTT, including Dominic Monaghan, Billy Boyd, Elijah Wood, Andy Serkis, Brad Dourif, Bernard Hill, Miranda Otto, and Viggo Mortensen. The interviews were conducted in English with real-time Spanish translation. Because most of the information put forth was material we have already heard in one forum or another, I will not recap it here.
In particular our rugged yet sensitive hero Aragorn shone forth, as he surprised even the interviewer, who appeared to be a native speaker of Spanish, with his fine command of the language. He surprised me as well, even though I knew he was fluent, with his thoughtful answers and remarkable lack of an American accent. The interviewer admitted that his investigation of Viggo had failed to turn up the fact that he was fluent in Spanish! In addition to posing him questions regarding the film and how it has changed his life, the interviewer asked him where/how he learned Spanish. Viggo responded that his family had moved to Venezuela when he was 1 1/2 years old, and then a year later to Argentina, where he lived till he was 11. He has been back there once, recently, and toured all around Buenos Aires, finding the neighborhoods where he grew up largely by memory. Pretty amazing, considering how long he has been away! In addition, he rented a car and travelled all around the pampas and even went up into Cordoba. Unfortunately he was not able to visit el Chaco, where he also lived for a short time. He said he would like to go back to Argentina, in particular to promote the film. Acquaintances in Argentina have been asking him when he will go, but so far he has not officially been offered the chance to do so.
Viggo then asked the interviewer if the interview would be shown in Argentina, and the interviewer responded that, yes, it would be seen in Argentina, Mexico, the USA, and Canada. Viggo then sent kisses to all Argentine viewers, said he hoped that their economic and political situation would improve soon, and sent hugs to all the fans of an Argentine soccer team, San Lorenzo de Almagro. He then called out the slogan of the team, Up with the Crows! Hopefully, I have transcribed that properly:-)
Our hero is obviously not only a fine actor, sensitive, creative, artistic, and politically savvy, but a well-rounded human being as well. What a prince! whoops, I mean king:-) May his star continue its ascendance!
Sincerely,
Elvasdottir
Elvasdottir has also provided a spanish version of the report …
Saludos a todos los aficionados de Tolkien desde Delmar, New York! Aqui esta el resumen de un programa que seguramente deleitara a todas las hinchas de El Senor de los Anillos, especialmente los de Argentina, en particular porque ofrece unos detalles personales acerca de Viggo Mortensen….Para que entiendan mejor lo presento en ingles y en espanol.
Anoche en el canal CNN En Espanol, el canal version de hablahispana de CNN, entrevistaron a Peter Jackson y varios actores de Las Dos Torres, incluso a Dominic Monaghan, Billy Boyd, Elijah Wood, Andy Serkis, Brad Dourif, Bernard Hill, Miranda Otto, and Viggo Mortensen. Las entrevistas se hicieron en ingles con traducciones simultaneas a espanol. La mayoria de la informacion es materia de la cual ya nos hemos enterado en alguno u otro foro, por lo cual no la presento en este informe.
En particular nuestro heroe fuerte pero sensible, Aragorn, se lucio, porque sorprendio al entrevistador, quien aparecio ser de hablahispana de nacimiento, con su fino dominio del idioma. Me sorprendio a mi, tambien, a pesar de que ya supe que era fluido, con sus respuestas consideradas y su inexistente acento “gringo”. El entrevistador admitio que durante su investigacion de Viggo no habia descubierto su dominio del espanol! Ademas de preguntarle acerca de la pelicula y como ha cambiado su vida, el entrevistador le pregunto como y donde habia aprendido el espanol. Viggo le contesto que su familia habia vivido en Venezuela cuando el tenia un ano y medio de edad, y un ano despues se fueron a vivir a Argentina, donde el vivio hasta los once anos de edad. Ha visitado a Argentina una vez desde entonces, recientemente, y recorrio todo Buenos Aires, encontrando los barrios donde vivio mas que todo por memoria, lo cual es muy sorprendente en consideracion de que no habia ido alla desde que tenia once anos! Ademas, alquilo carro y viajo por toda la pampa y tambien hasta Cordoba. Lo que no pudo hacer fue visitar al Chaco, donde tambien vivio por un periodo corto. Dijo que le gustaria volver a visitar a Argentina, en particular para promocionar la pelicula. Tiene amigos en Argentina que quieren saber cuando podria ir alla, pero todavia no se ha presentado la oportunidad de una manera oficial.
Viggo en ese momento pregunto al entrevistador si la entrevista iba a ser presentada en Argentina. El entrevistador respondio que si, que se iba a mostrar en Argentina, Mexico, USA, y Canada. Viggo entonces mando besos a la gente argentina, deseandoles que la situacion politico-economica se resolviera pronto, y tambien mando un abrazo especial a los aficionados del equipo de futbol argentino San Lorenzo de Almagro. Tambien dijo la consigna de ese equipo, Arriba los cuervos! Espero que la capte bien:-)
Obviamente nuestro heroe no solo es un actor fino, sensible, creativo, artistico, y politicamente bien-informado, pero tambien un ser humano muy completo. Que principe! uupps, quisiera decir rey:-) Que su estrella siga su trayectoria!
—
From our friends at McKellen.com:
I haven’t spoken to Sir Ian for about a week; I hope to hear from him soon.
We last spoke about Dumbledore a few weeks ago and he told me he was not considering it and approved my publishing the denial on our rumours page. As you know, just about anything is possible in Hollywood, but I will be very surprised if he takes the part — though I’m sure he’d be interested to work with Alfonso Cuaron or on HARRY POTTER in some other non-bearded non-hatted role.
Of course anything in The Sun must be assumed to be only loosely based on fact and that story rings particularly untrue to me . . . and they are the ONLY source for this so they would have to be very well connected — not every WB employee thinks of running to The Sun with the latest rumours.
Keep an eye on our rumours page for clarification (probably a stronger denial) in the next couple of days. I’ll keep you posted.
As always, you can keep up to date with Ian McKellen rumors right here! [More]
Ro alerted us to the astounding news that a handwritten manuscript of Beowulf was found buried in a box of JRR Tolkien’s papers that are housed in the Bodleian Library in Oxford, England by Michael Drout, assistant professor of English at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts. Drout was researching Anglo-Saxon scholarship at the time for his book ‘Beowulf and the Critics’, published earlier this month. According to the Sunday Times, which has reported this story, “I was sitting there going through the transcripts when I saw these four bound volumes at the bottom of the box. I started looking through and realised I had found an entire book of material that had never seen the light of day.” This manuscript consists of a translation and line by line interpretation of the epic poem. It is considered by scholars to be much closer to the original Anglo Saxon than the latest publication.
We are searching for a postable link to this story now, but in the meantime, we wanted to bring you the news that Tolkien’s Beowulf manuscript is going to be published next summer.
BilboFett writes:
“They say Christmas day is one of the biggest days for movies, and I believe it. At the Cinemark in Victorville CA (USA), every single showing of LOTR:TTT was sold out .. in the morning. And, at one of the later showings, they overbooked the seating by 200!
The theatre employees believed that there were just a lot of people who snuck in, so they made EVERY SINGLE person stand up and stand in a line so they could check everyone’s ticket! Sure enough, they had oversold by 200!
As you could imagine, when 200 people had to be turned away, some people got a little upset (imagine being a father and explaining this to your kids on Christmas day!) and one man started a riot that led to the police hauling several people away.”
Very strange.
frodo’s girl writes:
I had the pleasure of attending several events at Te Papa this past week. The first one was a black tie dinner for the embassy trust on the 17th. the members got to see the new LotR exhibit(http://www.tepapa.govt.nz/rings/) before it opened and have a delectable dinner catered by Te Papa’s own Icon restaurant.
Members arrived at 6.30pm and were treated to drinks and allowed to peruse the exhibit for an hour and a half before sitting down to a 3-course meal. The exhibit is brilliant. Too much to describe really, there are costumes from FotR (Gandalf the Grey, Aragorn, small Frodo, Legolas, small Gimli, Galadriel, Arwen), sets of full armor with weapons (one suit from most of the races, plus the elf armor the used for the massive agents, and Theoden’s), a few weapons and some chain mail you can touch, several concept drawings, lots of video (some are the extras from the extended dvd), the head of the Treebeard pneumatic puppet, the final marquette for the cave troll, and the boromir in the boat (which is absolutely fabulous, you keep thinking it is really Sean Bean, and that he is going to sit up at any moment), not to mention a myriad of props and more. There is also an interactive bit where you and your buddy can sit on Gandalf’s cart and be the size of a wizard, or a hobbit – very fun. It was marvelous to be able to see the exhibit with a small crowd before it opened to the public. A truly great evening.
I returned to the exhibit on the 19th with the red carpet tours group and got to spend another 2 hours in the exhibit (it really takes multiple viewings to see everything), and though you can’t take a camera in, I did get some shots of the statues at the entrance of Te Papa, and the entrance to the exhibit itself which I have included. I also got to spend the rest of the day with the tour while they went to some filming sites around Wellington.
I was back at Te Papa the next day to get Ian Brodie’s signature in my travel guide. I had met Ian in my last trip through NZ and it was wonderful to catch up with him again. Ian was one of the lucky ones that got to the premier. While we visited Ian signed a bunch of books for the exhibit store to sell – you might be able to get one if you order them soon
(http://www.tepapa.govt.nz/rings/store_books1.htm)
Anyway, I’m sure I’ll be back to the exhibit at least another few times before it leaves at the end of February. If any of you have a chance to see it here, or at one of the other 4 venues, be sure and take it.
cheers,
frodo’s girl