Old Special Reports | Lord of the Rings & Tolkien News - TheOneRing.net Fan Community, since 1999

Ryan sends us this update on all the great figurines you can get at games-workshop.com. Take a look at these cool pics, wargs included!

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Pamela writes: Someone who works for the DVD company here has post the pics of the bookends and the preorder gift-posters. The release date of TTT has been changed to 12/21 about several days ago. And some said that the agent here wants to make it earlier just like in America on 12/18. There’s no further news about it recently.

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A chance to get the inside story on the making of the most eagerly anticipated film of the year

Middle-earth hits London on November 6 as HarperCollins launches their official children’s and adults’ tie-in books for The Two Towers, the second instalment of Peter Jackson¹s spectacular Lord of the Rings trilogy, at Waterstones, Piccadilly.

To celebrate the launch of the official publications, film and book fans will be treated to a unique day of in-store events and activities. A must for anyone wanting to get the inside story on the making of the trilogy and the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien.

As well as author talks and book signings and an exclusive chance to play the new Electronic Arts game for PS2, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Waterstones is host to a one-day exhibition of exclusive stills from the new film. There will be the opportunity to purchase a limited-edition lithograph by the leading mythical artist and film¹s conceptual artist, Alan Lee, for which 1000 have been produced for this one day only.

Broadcaster and author, Brian Sibley, and fantasy author and publisher, Jude Fisher, will be in store from 10 a.m. to discuss and sign copies of their new titles, ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Making of the Movie Trilogy’ and ‘The Two Towers Visual Companion’, respectively.

The authors will then host a chat forum at 6.30 p.m. for members of the public to discuss Tolkien and the film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings. This will be followed by a Q&A session.

As the official chroniclers of Peter Jackson’s Oscar-winning interpretation of the Tolkien novels, Brian and Jude made numerous visits on location in New Zealand. In the company of Jackson and the principal cast, including Sir Ian McKellen, Elijah Wood, Liv Tyler, Viggo Mortensen and Christopher Lee, they observed the making of one of the most long-awaited and challenging productions of all time.

Brian Sibley is a writer and broadcaster, well known as the presenter of Radio 4’s former film programme, Talking Pictures. His ‘The Lord of the Rings Official Movie Guide’, which topped the bestseller lists in the UK and USA last year, was the latest project in a 20-year long career of writing about J.R.R. Tolkien¹s work.

His lifelong interest in fantasy books and cinema is reflected in his writing credits. In 1981, Brian dramatised the critically-acclaimed BBC radio dramatisation of The Lord of the Rings in which the role of Frodo was played by Ian Holm, later to play Bilbo Baggins in the film trilogy.

Jude Fisher is the pseudonym for Jane Johnson, who has worked on Tolkien books for more than 18 years, first at George Allen & Unwin Publishers, then at HarperCollins, and is an accredited Tolkien expert. As Jude Fisher she has written two fantasy epics, as well as The Sunday Times bestseller: The Fellowship of the Ring Visual Companion.

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Greetings — Quickbeam here.

I have to take a moment to comment on all this DVD craziness.

Most people around here are shouting to the rafters with joy. They are wildly happy that the new Extended Version DVD of The Fellowship of the Ring is about to come out. Rave reviews are springing up all over the Net; and on major DVD websites like The Digital Bits [click here] we see praise like this from editor Bill Hunt: “Its overall presentation quality, breadth and depth of content and thoughtful attention to virtually every detail is unsurpassed in any other DVD release to date.” That’s pretty strong praise!

But others are whining that the “bait and switch” routine is pulling extra dollars out of their pockets and in general making a big stink. I’ve seen articles in the L.A. Times [click here] where consumers and LOTR fans are portrayed as annoyed — even shocked that New Line should “undercut their customers” like that. Over-the-top entertainment writer Glenn Lovell had a colossal hissy-fit in the Boston Globe online edition [click here]. He nearly burst a vein when he found out in August that his new 2-Disc DVD was just a regular edition. In his view, New Line Cinema is “shameless” and “consumed by greed.”

Settle down, Glenn. Please.

I’m going to say some things here that may sound suspicious. I promise you I am not a studio brown-noser trying to score points with the people behind the scenes. I am so not interested in that. I have nothing to gain here. So if I sound like I am rushing to the defense of a big corporation, well, it’s not really that simple. I am a huge DVD enthusiast — with a collection of hundreds of movies. I love everything about the digital format and just want to clear up the air. I’m telling you this as an informed consumer.

New Line is not really “ripping us off,” as so many claim. I truly see the reason in this, and I also sense the careful hand of Peter Jackson, trying to do that little extra something for us. Releasing separate DVD editions makes perfect sense….

…. as long as we are told AHEAD OF TIME!

The keys here are the economics of the market…. and more importantly the information that includes you, the consumer, in what is going on.

Consider what it would look like if New Line released a full 6-disc Giant-Goliath, Super-Duper, Mega-Deluxe Edition DVD with both versions of the film and endless hours of supplements. That retail package would be so costly to produce and distribute it would of course be very costly for consumers to buy. We’re talking upwards of $80 where most people usually spend $19.99 for a new DVD title on sale. Yes, I look for those sales! Few of us, including me, would be able to buy this item within their regular “entertainment budget.” I’m a working class Joe just like the rest of you.

Breaking these DVDs down into separate releases seems to satisfy all of us. There’s the regular movie fans who just want to own “that cool fantasy flick” they saw in theatres. Then, of course, there’s us. We are toughest to please…. and want all the juicy bits of creativity that P.J. and WETA can show us. We are the true connoisseurs. So he went back to make that 4-Disc set with all that extra footage for us. Really, he made it with us in mind: to feed the “high-end appetite” of true Tolkien fans. I’m not going to buy that regular edition, I know that film and have experienced enough of it. This Extended version is what I really want. I am now free to choose.

Do I sound like an educated consumer? Well, I am. And that’s because New Line actually told us ahead of time there will be different editions!! Yeah, it is totally surprising, considering the way most studios treat the home video consumer.

Look, if you want to be really mad, why don’t you get mad at Paramount? They totally suck. Look at what they did with the Star Trek movies on DVD: releasing each film with a pedestrian regular DVD (most of them awful transfers, not even anamorphic widescreen) then coming back just a couple of years later to give us “real special director’s editions.” Now THAT is something worth complaining about. Now I have to go back and re-purchase all my Star Trek if I want the clean, restored, anamorphic discs with all the goodies. I hate Paramount for that. That is truly “double-dipping.” I’m even more angry with Warner Bros. They just made me go out and get the new Amadeus Director’s Cut, which beats by a mile that crappy old DVD they had released. Oh, don’t get me started on Disney. They’re the worst.

It is highly unusual for New Line Cinema to have a big press release and spread the word through all the Tolkien fan sites that we have a choice. Pick one. Pick the other. At least we were honestly told early on. So why on earth are all these people bitching and moaning? Of course the studio is making a boat-load of money off these titles. So what? You can still put your money on what you like best. There was no surprise here…. the information was readily available. I think we should say “Thank you New Line” for the courtesy!

But especially we should remember that P.J. wanted to do it this way. Again it feels like he’s putting forth a lot of extra effort just to please his fans.

Much too hasty,

Quickbeam

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To get more information, use the sites I use like the ones below. Simply find a movie or actor you want to see, go to one of the sites below and see if the film is playing in your area. mydigiguide.com, tv-now.com and IMDB.com

Note: These are films that are listed as being on TV THIS WEEK ONLY, this is NOT a list of all the films the cast has done

Cast List

Viggo Mortensen

Liv Tyler

Ian Holm

Sean Bean

Ian Mune

Martyn Sanderson

David Weatherley

Marton Csokas

Taea Hartwell

John Noble

Alexandra Astin

Peter McKenzie

Hugo Weaving

Karl Urban

Miranda Otto

Noel Appleby

David Wenham

Cameron Rhodes

Elijah Wood

Cate Blanchett

Bruce Hopkins

Ian McKellen

Mark Ferguson

John Rhys-Davies

Andy Serkis

Stephen Ure

Craig Parker

John Leigh

Timothy Bartlett

Harry Sinclair

Orlando Bloom

Lawrence Makoare

Robbie Magasiva

Ray Henwood

Dominic Monaghan

Robyn Malcolm

Bruce Spence

Megan Edwards

Billy Boyd

Sarah McLeod

Sean Astin

Christopher Lee

Sala Baker

Brian Sergent

Bernard Hill

Nathaniel Lees

Brad Dourif

Howard Shore

Jim Rygiel

Peter Jackson

Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn)

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Young Americans, The (1993)
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Young Guns II (1990)
Witness (1985)
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