Ryan writes:
Hey. I typed up the interview with the producers of Lord of the Rings (Barrie M. Osborne and Mark Ordesky). It’s from the August edition of DVD Now, an Aussie DVD magazine. They talk alot about the DVD and talk abit about TTT and ROTK.
Producer (Barrie M. Osborne) and Executive Producer (Mark Ordesky) in DVD
Now, August 2002 Issue
DVD now: What was it in Peter Jackson’s filmography that convinced you guys he could take on a production of this magnitude?
Ordesky: There was nothing in his filmography. But we didn’t do it on the basis of his filmography. I’d known Peter personally since 1987. Its conventional Hollywood thinking to say ‘oh, if they haven’t done this before they’ll never be able to do it now.’ And that’s the kind of conventional Hollywood thinking that leads to bland vanilla films. There were some studios, who shall go unnamed, who didn’t even bother to take the meeting when Peter came to Los Angeles. Can you imagine?
D.N: What’s your favorite film of his?
Ordesky: Excluding LOTR?
D.N: Excluding LOTR.
Osborne: For me, Heavenly Creatures
Ordesky: I think for sheer quality of filmmaking that’s probably true. I have a passion for Bad Taste just because it’s the first one, it’s the first thing I ever saw. I tried to buy it, you know, for a hundred thousand dollars when I was in another company and I was told I was insane.
D.N: How difficult was it to convince New Line, considering they put just about everything they had on the line?
Ordesky: Surprisingly, relative to the investment, it was not difficult. Even thought it was water-cooler fodder in Hollywood for many, many months and years that this was a fool-hardy endeavour, once the first film was seen as a great success it became retroactively the most visionary business decision in modern filmmaking history because we had two sequels in the can at an unbelievably economical price.
Osborne: But I think I would encourage anyone who reads this article to go out and make only one movie at once
Ordesky: DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME! I used to be six feet tall, I’m gonna be hobbit size by the time it’s done.
D.N: So there’s a rough-cut of the second LOTR film?
Ordesky: Oh there’s more than a rough-cut, there’s a fine cut. There’s been a fine cut for some time. There’s fine cuts of all three.
D.N: Which of the three do you like best?
Ordesky: Oh it’s not fair to say. Al you can say with certainty is that they get better and they get bigger. The thing is people think of film one as this gigantic epic, and they have no idea. Film one is like an indie movie compared to film two. And film three is even more humongous than film two.
D.N: Why are you waiting a year between releases of the films?
Ordesky: With these films it’s a simple thing because the nature of the post-production schedules was such that we couldn’t release them any earlier than a year apart anyway. And also things happen in terms of the video window and the DVD window and the pay TV window. Things to start to cannibalise each other because you suddnely are theatrically releasing a movie at the same time that film one is in the video store.
Osborne: I was an advocate of trying to do six months.
Ordesky: We were going to do summer-Christmas-summer (US), there was a thought, and then we looked at the post schedule and we were like ARE YOU INSANE?
Osborne: I’m glad I lost that argument. We would have been dead.
Ordesky: But it works. I kinda like the idea of every Christmas you’re going to be with LOTR and every summer you’re going to have the video, DVD, pay TV, etc.
D.N: Given the Rings success are there any plans for The Hobbit?
Ordesky: The Hobbit rights are actually frozen in a complicated legal situation between New Line and United Artists, so for the time being there is no ability to make a Hobbit movie.
D.N: So can you describe the difference between the first DVD version and the second DVD version?
Osborne: The first version, the August release, is the theatrical experience. You’ll see the movie that you saw in the theatre and you’ll be able to own it or rent it, have it in your home. I must also say that the DVD quality, the quality of the images is impeccable. We scanned in our negatives so that most of the negative is digital negative. On film two we’re going to do the entire film as a direct transfer from actual digital information. The November DVD is an extended cut of the movie. Both cuts are Peter’s cuts and Peter stands behind both of them, he doesn’t have a preference for one or the other. The extended cut is something that you probably wouldn’t sit through in a theatre. It’s long and the pacing might be slow. But it’s really great because it rounds out the characters so you get to see all of this background and understand the back-story of alot of the characters.
Ordesky: Peter feels strongly that the way a theatrical audience watches a movie and the way a home audience watches a movie are just entirely different experiences. And therefore I think if you watched the three and a half hour November release at home you would not be conscious of it being “too long or too much detail”. But that same exact film in the theatre would be a different experience.
D.N: Do you think there’s any possibility in years to come of this second version making it into cinemas?
Ordesky: It is possible that down the road one could create the feature film versions of the extended cut. Actually our fantasy is that after film three is released you could take the extended cut of film one, film two, film three and put them onto film and watch them in a theatre, which would be very cool.
D.N: Do you guys have a preference?
Osborne: No. I mean this sincerely, I actually like both of them because they’re full realised pieces of art. What we did that’s unusual is half an hour of material and it’s not like outtakes. These scenes are fully integrated in.
Ordesky: Yeah, you won’t have a consciousness when you watch it. Unless you have a real deep knowledge of the theatrical version, you can’t tell ‘oh, there’s one of the new scenes’, it just flows. Howard Shore’s score flows.
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From: hutt River Girl
In our paper’s Magazine section in the “Recommended” column was this:
Day Out
What: Kaitoke Regional Park
Where: About 15 Minutes drive north of Upper Hutt
When: Anytime during daylight
It doesn’t take long when you arrive at the Te Marua entrance (wrong it is the Waterworks Road entrance) to this great park to realise why Peter Jackson chose it to film several scenes in The Lord of The Rings. The bush looks other wordly, even though it’s under an hour’s drive from Wellington city.
Of late the park has capitalised on being a setting for the Elvish stronghold Rivendell. The best was to enter the park is from the Waterworks Road entrance which you hit first. There are several signs that point visitors to where filming took palce, as well as small, but detailed, displays of what was filmed. But die-hard Tolkein fans be warned, Jackson hasn’t left behind any sets, giant rubber Hobbit feet or any other evidence that it was used for the triology. Not that it matters because just soaking up the bush and throwing some snarlers (sausages) on the gas- operated barbies is worth the trip. And you can add to the ambience by either attempting to read Lord of Thr Rings in the bush or go all the way and dress up as a Hobbit. … By Tom Cardy.
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Swedish newspaper, Aftonbladet, recently posted an article about Gandalf in the Two Towers. The article included some short interviews with both Ian McKellen and Peter Jackson. It´s in Swedish, but Al_Bino kindly provided the following translation. You can read the original swedish text here.
Gandalf is alive in the new movie – Strong and white
McKellen: “He is like a Samurai”
Warning. Here the intrigue of “the Two Towers” is revealed. Unfortunately it probably won´t help if you stop reading here. Before the movie has its premiere most of the viewers will know that Gandalf is back.
– He is more sharp in the new movie, says Ian McKellen who plays Gandalf. He is literally reborn.
In “Lord of the Rings” Gandalf falls down a dark chasm after having stopped Balrog, so that Frodo and the others can escape. Now a trailer for “the Two Towers”, rolls in the swedish theaters. Two minutes that ends with a close-up on Ian McKellen as the impressive Gandalf.
During a break in production in New Zeeland, I ask Peter Jackson why he has chosen to reveal that the bearded leader of the Fellowship is coming back.
Did you think about hiding the return of Gandalf until the premiere?
– No, that´s impossible. For several reasons. Many millions have read Tolkiens books and knows what an
important part Gandalf plays in the two sequels, says Peter Jackson. We have to have Ian McKellens name on the poster, and maybe a picture of him to. So I thought he could be in the trailer as well. But now it´s not really the same wizard. Last time he was Gandalf the Grey. Now he is Gandalf the White.
I meet him at last at breakfast in Wellingtons studio, where the tall Gandalf and Saruman strides around majestically, picking up egg and bacon. When the day of recording is over, an Ian McKellen without makeup comes, and tells me about the wizards return after his death in the first film. He stretches his stiff limbs.
– I get tired from 14-hour days and sitting on a barrel dressed in cow-skin, pretending to be riding a horse, he says. The horse is Shadowfax. In the trailer we see a glimpse of Gandalf riding in the front of a charge.
Your character is transformed?
– He is sent back to do the job he did not finish, says Ian McKellen. Gandalf the Grey was burdened with an ache, from all the thousands of years that he had lived. A little uncautious, made some mistakes, sat rather with the Hobbits drinking and smoking. Not always on the alert.
– Now Gandalf is sharp and concentrated. The Ring is on it´s journey, and he must see to it that it gets there.
He is a leader, a samurai, more energetic. Gandalf looks younger, even though his hair has turned white. He is neat and elegant. Still with a sense of humour, but he will not let himself get distracted.
Was it easy to become Gandalf again after 18 months?
– Yes, but I was a little worried. Peter showed me all my scenes in “the Two Towers” and explained what he wanted to add and remake. When I saw them I found the right mood again.
It must help having all the others back in Wellington as well?
– Yes, it´s very unusual that everybody in the crew is back to make the additions. Everyone is here because of Peter Jackson. It´s a very nice atmosphere here in New Zealand. We don´t have any pressure on us any longer, since the first film was such a success.
– Peter told us that now it´s more like making a home-video. Although I´ve felt like that all the time
with “Lord of the Rings”. It just happened to be a home-video that the whole world enjoyed. Gandalf has a bigger role in the secod and the third installment.
– It´s his last job. When it´s done he knows it is the end of Gandalf. His journey is over. He is a changed person.
– Gandalf speaks differently and looks differently. He has become more vigorous and strong to
complete his task.
It sounds like an action hero?
– Yes, but unlike other action heroes he is very human. You never see Magneto in “X-men” sitting down having a meal. The viewers gets to see Gandalf on his time off as well.
But after this you´re back in Magnetos costume again, right?
– Yes, we´re starting to shoot in Vancouver in july. It feels like I have been doing “X-men” and Gandalf for five years. I made the first “X-men” just before “Lord of the Rings” and now I´m back as Magneto again. “X-men” is also a family, though a little changed. Both Halle Berry and Hugh Jackman has become big stars since we made the first “X-men”.
I saw you in August Strindbergs “Dödsdansen” (Dance of Death) with Helen Mirren on Broadway. Have you any new plans for the Theatre-stage?
– Not right now, but quite soon. We were thinking of doing Strindberg in London. I´m shooting “X-men” in Vancouver until october, but after that i´d like to do a play.
Ian McKellen started doing theatre and made his breakthrough as a movie actor in the 1990´s. He has been a spokesman for homosexuals in England, and was recently grand marshal for the Gay Pride parade in San Fransisco. He met his boyfriend in New Zealand and spends much time there.
– Yes, i´ve become like a part of the furniture. Nobody looks, says Ian McKellen. But “Lord of the Rings” has changed a lot. I have got fans for the first time in my life. Children who draws their breaths when they see Gandalf. It happens everywhere. My website has 2 million hits a month.
The time in New Zealand has given him a new point of view.
– I am more eager to have some time off now, says Ian McKellen. Before, I worked a lot, and lived to little.
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Ringer Spy Nilcamiel sends along these scans from Poland’s ‘Film’ Magazine. Take a look!
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LOTR fans attending Mythopoeic Society’s conference in Boulder, Colorado on July 26 will be the first public to see the new LOTR documentary from Dan Timmons, “The Legacy of Tolkien,” which he’s been working on for over a year.
The documentary features footage of Tolkien himself, artwork by Ted Nasmith, conference video clips from the 2001 Mythcon (where Quickbeam and mywelf were among the interviewees), and interviews with many scholars and writers, including Peter Beagle, Philippa Boyens, Patrick Curry, Verlyn Flieger, Joseph Pearce, and Tom Shippey.
Hopefully this documentary will be in wider release soon!
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