Fresh from creating music for the second instalment of The Lord of The Rings, Wellington composers Plan 9 have been signed to score a major Australian feature, “Danny Deckchair”. Plan 9 are currently working on the score of the Andrew Mason produced feature which stars Rhys Ifans and Miranda Otto. Plan 9 have scored a number of New Zealand features in recent years and together with former Mutton Bird guitarist David Long, created the memorable Hobbit birthday party music “Flaming Red Hair” in The Fellowship of the Ring. For the second film in the trilogy, The Two Towers Plan 9 have contributed to “Gollum’s Song” which is featured over the end credits performed by Icelandic songstress Emiliana Torrini. In addition Plan 9 composed a number of incidental pieces used throughout the film. [More]
Category: Old Special Reports
The Astins appear in a 2-page blurb in the December 2002 issue of “Rosie” magazine.
Miranda Otto
by Graham Fuller
Quietly slaying audiences for years, now she runs rings around evil furies in The Lord of the Rings.
In this month’s The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and next year’s Return of the King, Miranda Otto gets to play the only fully realized woman J.R.R. Tolkien wrote into his epic triptych.
As the Lady Éowyn — vainly enamoured of Aragorn, harassed by the lecherous Grima, and distressed at being left behind when the Riders of Rohan go to war — she secretly girds up as a knight and suddenly finds herself facing the fearsome Nasgûl lord.
The lissome Otto thus combines the Pre-Raphaelite ideals of yearning medieval damsels and armour-clad slayer of mythical beasts, though there’s a touch of the angry virgin there, too.
One of Australia’s most gifted performers, Otto has graduated from playing waifs (Love Serenade [1996], The Well [1998]) to sexy manipulators (Human Nature, TV’s The Way We Live Now) and classical heroines (A Doll’s House onstage in Sydney). In the upcoming Julie Walking Home, she is formidable as a sensual, headstrong woman smarting from her husband’s adultery who falls in love with the faith healer tending her ailing son.
Graham Fuller: Éowyn is the only important mortal woman in The Lord of the Rings. Did you feel the burden of that?
Miranda Otto: No, that was exciting to me. I feel the burden of it now because I know a lot of readers like her, and I hope [my portrayal] is somewhere near what they imagine. It is hard being the only woman, because you’re given the responsability of being vulnerable.
GF: Since Éowyn’s love for Aragorn [played by Viggo Mortensen] is unrequited, is he more of an object of desire than she is?
MO: I think Viggo will come across onscreen as the object of desire more than I will–particularly for women. [laughs] Éowyn never really gets to know Aragorn, but what she responds to in him is the sense of the past, and the fact that he will be the king of men when his time comes.
She feels a desire to pull her kingdom from out of the situation it’s in and is thwarted because she’s a woman and has no real power. But she’s like a tightly coiled spring, and when she sees Aragorn I think she says to herself, “If I was with him, we could bloody change all of this.” But I don’t know if in the end it’s real love.
She’s referred to in the book as “stern as steel,” but in some ways she’s quite a damaged character, because she has always been surrounded by death. She has to break away from that destructive force.
GF: Have you experienced unrequited love?
MO: Yes. I mean, it felt like it at the time, but in retrospect it wasn’t the big love that I thought it was. But the way I experienced it at the time was that nothing made sense to me. It was like looking into the abyss.
GF: Did you tap into that, or are those experiences–and emotions–always present because they’re aprt of who you are?
MO: As an actor, my thing si not so much that you change, but that you’re put in situations where you are forced to keep reflecting on certain things, and they draw your mood into that area. I certainly felt like Éowyn during different times. Although it was like a big family on the set, I felt quite alone somehow.
GF: How did you become an actress?
MO: When I was growing up I became friendly with the two daughters of the director of the theatre company that my dad [actor Barry Otto] worked for. We used to watch Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers’ films and things like Bugsy Malone [1976], and for years we would write our own shows and put them on.
It was during one of those shows that someone asked me to audition for a film [Emma’s War, 1986], which I ended up doing when I was about 16 or 17. Then I went to drama school. It was only afterward, when people tried to stop me, that I really had to fight for my career.
GF: What people?
MO: People I had relationships with who didn’t want me to act anymore–it’s very hard to go out with an actor. It’s a weird, all-involving profession. I think you get better at it as you get older, but it takes up so much of yoyr emotional life.
GF: Do you think you’ll want kids one day?
MO: Yeah. When I was working with these children on Julie Walking Home and seeing this huge bond their mothers have with them, I felt quite jealous. I don’t want to be someone who gets duped by acting, following something that is essentially unattainable. And I don’t want to turn around later and go, “Oops! What happened to my life?”
Fuller, Graham. “Miranda Otto.” Andy Warhol’s Interview. Vol. 32. No. 11. New York: Brant Publications, Inc. Pp. 52-53.
Corsair very kindly provided a translation of the kinder surprise ads for non-German speakers.
Hi, Corsair here from the message boards. My wife, who is German, translated the German chocolate candy ads from the home page. They are as follows:
The newest secret from Kinder Ueberraschung — Lord of the Rings part two. With new heroes, the brave fighter Faramir and the mighty King Theoden. The Lord of the Rings Two Towers — starts Dec. 18 in theaters … already now in Kinder Ueberraschung.
Type at bottom says: Now in every 7th egg!
The others (I presume this is from left to right):
With new heroes, Snaketongue (Wormtongue? A hero?) and Eowyn, the King’s niece.
With new heroes, mighty King Theoden and the dark magician Saruman.
With new heroes, Eowyn, the King’s niece and the brave fighter Faramir.
With new heroes, the dark magician Saruman and his servant Snaketongue.
Newline and the New Zealand post are having a stamp launch for the new LotR:Two Towers stamps at 5pm on 2 dec 2002 at Parliament buildings in Wellington. They have graciously invited 20 LotR fans to come to the launch, in costume if they’d like. If you are interested in being on of those 20, please RSVP as soon as possible to stamplaunch@frodosgirl.net to reserve a spot (you will be able to get into the launch only if your name is on the list). [Launches are an attractive source of nice wine and nibbly cheesy things and yummy bits of salmon, in my experience, so if that sounds like fun and you also like the idea of meeting some other LOTR fans, by all means sign up for this! – Tehanu]
Direct from the Hollywood Bowl Wellington enters the ancient world of sorcerers and wizards through the power of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra on Thursday 5 December at the Michael Fowler Centre. Acclaimed Hollywood Bowl conductor John Mauceri leads the NZSO in a concert that will include music from the recent hit film Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, and the Southern Hemisphere premiere of Academy Award®-winning composer Howard Shore’s new orchestral suite adapted from his score to The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. [More]
World premieres set for New York, Paris, London, Los Angeles, Copenhagen, Seattle,Toronto, Wellington and Sydney in December
Los Angeles, CA, November 19, 2002 – New Line Cinema’s The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, the central film in Peter Jackson’s epic trilogy based on the J.R.R. Tolkien classic, is set to debut in premiere showings around the world, it was announced today by Rolf Mittweg, New Line Cinema’s president and chief operating officer, worldwide distribution and marketing.
The film will make its North American bow in New York on December 5, followed by the European premiere in Paris on December 10 and the UK premiere on December 11 in London. On December 15, the film will premiere in Los Angeles and in Copenhagen, with the Queen of Denmark attending. A special screening in Seattle follows on December 16. The film premieres in New Zealand, where The Lord of the Rings trilogy was shot, in Wellington on December 18, and in Sydney, Australia on December 19.
“The opening of this film has truly become a global event,” Mittweg said, “because The Lord of the Rings has been embraced by so many different cultures. The first film has shipped 35 million DVD and VHS units worldwide, a testament to the popularity of the trilogy and how widely the fan base has broadened. Multiple premieres of The Two Towers around the globe are a fun and appropriate way to celebrate both the universality of Tolkien’s themes and the excitement and anticipation that is building among moviegoers.”
New Line Cinema presents The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Peter Jackson’s epic adventure scheduled to open December 18, 2002. The trilogy represents an unprecedented undertaking – three films made simultaneously over a year and a half of production. The first film in the trilogy, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, was released December 19, 2001, to widespread critical acclaim and garnered $860 million worldwide. The film was nominated for 13 Academy Awards, more than any other film in 2001, and won four.
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers stars (in alphabetical order) Sean Astin, Cate Blanchett, Orlando Bloom, Billy Boyd, Brad Dourif, Bernard Hill, Christopher Lee, Ian McKellen, Dominic Monaghan, Viggo Mortensen, Miranda Otto, John Rhys-Davies, Andy Serkis, Liv Tyler, Hugo Weaving, Karl Urban, David Wenham, and Elijah Wood.
New Line Cinema presents a Wingnut Films Production, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, directed by Peter Jackson. The screenplay, by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Stephen Sinclair and Jackson, is based on the classic trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien. The film is produced by Barrie M. Osborne, Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh. The executive producers are Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne. Also executive producing is Mark Ordesky. The director of photography is Andrew Lesnie, A.C.S. The production designer is Grant Major. Michael Horton is the editor. The co-producers are Rick Porras and Jamie Selkirk.