Thanks to Antoni Jover “Josef Bugman”, for the exclusive interview on his Age of Kings Middle Earth Mod. To check out the amazing screen shots from his game go Here.
Q: What was your inspiration to create a Middle Earth mod within Age of Kings?
A: I suppose the main factor was the news I received about the LOTR film. First I couldn’t believe my eyes, but soon I felt the necessity to make something with all that cool pics and stuff ( specially the TheOneRing.net pics of Edoras Set, to tell you the truth )….so here came the inspiration. Another decisive thing was the fact that I was making another mod based in a Tolkien-like universe, so the jump was smaller. And the last thing was the acquisition of a good 3D program….I think that’s all 🙂
Q: What tools have you used to build the Mod, and what will we need to purchase or download before we can play it?
A: To create the mod I’m mainly using 3D Studio MAX 3, a very powerful 3D tool that allows me to create the 95% of all the buildings you can see. Related to units, I’m going to use both 3D MAX, Paint Shop Pro 7 and last, but not least, MS Paint ( incredibly simple but useful tool ). To use this mod, you obviously need the game “Age of Empires 2: The Age of Kings” and its expansion “The Conquerors”, from Microsoft. Moreover you need to download a small free program, called ModPack Studio 2 Lite ( also known as MPS 2 ) that allows your system to install and uninstall automatically the mod just by double-clicking in it ( you can achieve it here: http://aok.heavengames.com/blacksmith/php/getfile.php3?type=Utilities&id=147 )
Q: How many scenarios will be altered to fit within Middle Earth. What details or story line accompany these scenarios?
A: We’re thinking of a release 8-10 scenario FOTR Campaign, that will include the travel from Hobbiton to Rivendell ( included Bree, maybe the Old Forest and Barrow-Downs, although I’m not sure it Tom Bombadil will appear; the Weathertop and the crossing of Bruinen River ). Once in Rivendell, that will probably have indoor scenes, a new feature in AOK mod-campaign scenarios, the Fellowship will travel across Moria ( probably with a stressing countdown chased by evil orcs ), through the magic realm of Lothlorien ( trees will be really large! ) and finally across the Anduin to Parth Galen. I can’t reveal much details of scenarios because they’re still not done..we only have some concept ideas. However we’ll try to make the scenarios as interesting as possible without losing Tolkien storyline…that’s more or less what Peter Jackson is trying to do with his amazing film!
Q: Will the scenarios be playable online, or offline only?
A: The scenarios are only thought to be played offline, mainly because all the people would need to have the mod installed to play online…moreover triggers won’t work properly in a multiplayer game. If people wanted, perhaps we could try to make a multiplayer version of the Campaign ( but that’s rather unlikely )
Q: Have you any plans to expand the Mod if the first release is successful?
A: According to people’s demands, I think I’ll be forced to release just a “Fellowship of the Ring MOD” as soon as I can. So the rest of the mod will accompany the other 2 campaigns ( The Two Towers and The Return of the King ). I would like to release the 3 Mod-campaign packs independently from the success of the first release ( remember that I’m a crazy LOTR fan )
Q: Using the tools available, how accurate are you able to build Middle Earth scenarios within Age of Kings?
A: Well…if I had enough pics and maps, I would like to recreate almost exactly all the scenarios that people will be able to see in the film. As you have seen, the buildings are as similar as possible to the film reconstructions and Tolkien descriptions and characters will have the real actors and actresses icons. However it’s obvious that AOK engine limits some features ( for example, the game has 5 sets of civs that share the same architecture, what forces me to make strange combinations to achieve as many civs as LOTR has ) …so before people start criticizing me, they’ll have to check the AOK engine to notice how limited I am. Anyway AOK Scenario Editor Triggers allow expert designers to do amazing actions and tricks…so expect anything!!
Q: Will you work alone in this huge project or will you have help?
A: Although the final team is still not created, I wouldn’t like to forget about all the people that will help me ( not so much ). I’ll be helped by 4 Scenario Designers and 2 or 3 temporal 3D Building and Unit creators, so I’ll try to include their names as soon as possible. Anyway I still need some 3D designers to convert original AOK Units to LOTR ones, so if you are reading this and you think you’d be able to do this job, please contact me!
Celebrate The Lord of the Rings Day on November 8th!
November 8th is Lord of the Rings Day! As fans prepare for the much-anticipated release of “The Fellowship of the Ring,” the first film in New Line Cinema’s epic The Lord of the Rings Trilogy on December 19th, bookstores across the United States will be celebrating the publication of Houghton Mifflin’s movie tie-in books, THE LORD OF THE RINGS OFFICIAL MOVIE GUIDE by Brian Sibley and THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING VISUAL COMPANION by Jude Fisher.
At 1:00 p.m. local time on November 8th, the following bookstores will host a LORD OF THE RINGS event featuring a twenty-minute video created exclusively for Houghton Mifflin. It will include the story behind the J.R.R. Tolkien publishing phenomenon; never-before-seen interviews; behind-the-scenes film footage; and conversations with director Peter Jackson, artists Alan Lee and John Howe, as well as stars from the movie, including Ian McKellen, Elijah Wood, Cate Blanchett, Liv Tyler, Viggo Mortensen, and Orlando Bloom.
The film books, along with this exclusive video event, will be a dazzling preview of one of the most eagerly awaited film projects of all time!
THE LORD OF THE RINGS DAY – NOVEMBER 8th THE LORD OF THE RINGS OFFICIAL MOVIE GUIDE by Brian Sibley ISBN 0-618-15403-5, $14.95 pb; 0-618-15402-7, $24.95 hardcover THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING VISUAL COMPANION by Jude Fisher ISBN 0-618-15401-9, $19.95 hardcover
**SEE THE EXCLUSIVE VIDEO AT THESE STORES!** NOVEMBER 8th, 1:00 p.m. local time
ARKANSAS Little Rock — Barnes & Noble, 11500 Financial Center Parkway
CALIFORNIA Berkeley — Cody’s Books, 2454 Telegraph Avenue Huntington Beach — Barnes & Noble, 7777 Edinger Avenue Los Angeles — Brentano’s, 8500 Beverly Boulevard Manhattan Beach — Barnes & Noble, 1800 Rosecrans Avenue, Building B Palo Alto — Borders, 456 University Avenue San Rafael –Borders, 588 Francisco Boulevard West
COLORADO Boulder — Barnes & Noble, 2915 Pearl Street Colorado Springs — Media Play, 651 North Academy Boulevard Glendale — Barnes & Noble, 960 S. Colorado Boulevard Northglenn — Borders, 241 W. 104th Street
DELAWARE Newark — Waldenbooks, 123 Christiana Mall
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Georgetown — Barnes & Noble, 3040 M Street NW
FLORIDA Miami — Barnes & Noble, 12405 North Kendall Drive Orlando — Barnes & Noble, 2418 East Colonial Drive Pensacola — Books-A-Million, Pensacola Square, 6235 North Davis Highway Sarasota — Sarasota News and Books, 1341 Main Street Tampa — University of Southern Florida Bookstore, 4202 East Fowler Avenue Vero Beach — Vero Beach Book Center, 2145 Indian River Boulevard
GEORGIA Alpharetta — Barnes & Noble, 7660 North Point Parkway, Suite 200
IOWA Des Moines — Barnes & Noble, 4550 University Avenue
IDAHO Boise — Barnes & Noble, 1315 North Milwaukee
ILLINOIS Oak Park — Barbara’s Bookstore, 1100 West Lake Street Rockford — Waldenbooks, The Mall at Cherryvale
INDIANA Fort Wayne — Little Professor Book Company, 6360 W. Jefferson Boulevard Indianapolis — Borders, 5612 Castelton Corner Lane South Bend — Hammes Notre Dame Bookstore, Eck Center Val Paraiso — The Book Bag, 1817 Calumet Avenue
KANSAS Lawrence — Hastings, 1900 W. 23rd Southwest Plaza
KENTUCKY Lexington — Joseph-Beth Booksellers, 161 Lexington Green Circle Louisville — Hawley-Cooke Booksellers, 27 Shelbyville Road Plaza
MASSACHUSETTS Boston — Barnes & Noble, Downtown Crossing, 395 Washington Street Newburyport — Jabberwocky, The Tannery, 50 Water Street Worcester — Tatnuck Bookseller, 335 Chandler Street
MAINE South Portland — Waldenbooks, 323 Maine Mall
MICHIGAN Flint — Borders, 4135 Miller Road
MINNESOTA Minneapolis — Sam Goody Central, Mall of America Roseville — Barnes & Noble, 2100 North Snelling Avenue
MISSOURI Brentwood — Borders, 1519 Brentwood Boulevard Columbia — Columbia Books, 22 South Ninth Street
MONTANA Bozeman — Hastings, 1601 W. Main, Hastings Shopping Center
NEVADA Reno — Barnes & Noble, 5555 South Virginia Street
NEW HAMPSHIRE Nashua — Barnes & Noble, 235 Daniel Webster Highway
NEW JERSEY Paramus — Barnes & Noble, 765 Route 17 South
NEW MEXICO Albuquerque — Page One Books, 11018 Montgomery Northeast
NEW YORK Farmingdale — Borders, 231 Airport Place Hamburg — Media Play, 3701 McKinley Mall Parkway New York City — Barnes & Noble, 33 East 17th Street Syracuse — Barnes & Noble, 3454 Erie Boulevard East
NORTH CAROLINA Fayetteville — Waldenbooks, 438 Cross Creek Mall
OHIO Cincinnati — Joseph-Beth Booksellers, 2692 Madison Road Cleveland — Joseph-Beth Booksellers, 13217 Shaker Square Columbus — Media Play, New Market Mall, 7690 New Market Center Way Dayton — Books and Co., Dayton Town & Country, 350 East Stroop Road
OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City — Barnes & Noble, 6100 North May Avenue
OREGON Ashland — Bloomsbury Books, 290 East Main Street Salem — Borders, 2235 Lancaster Drive, Northeast
PENNSYLVANIA Philadelphia — Barnes & Noble, 1805 Walnut Street West Chester — Chester County Book Co., 975 Paoli Pike
RHODE ISLAND Warwick — Barnes & Noble, 1441 Bald Hill Road
SOUTH CAROLINA Greenville — Barnes & Noble, 735 Haywood Road
TENNESSEE Chattanooga — Waldenbooks, 2100 Hamilton Place Blvd. Nashville — Davis-Kidd Booksellers, 4007 Hillsboro Road
TEXAS Amarillo — Hastings, 4301 SW 45th Street Austin — Bookpeople, 603 North Lamar Beaumont — Books-A-Million, Parkdale Mall, 6155 Eastex Freeway, Suite C324 Fort Worth — Borders, 4601 West Freeway Longview — Barron’s Bookstore, 405 W. Loop 281 McAllen — Hastings, 4500 N. Tenth Street, Suite 400 San Antonio — Borders, 255 E. Basse Road
SOUTH CAROLINA Greenville — Barnes & Noble, 735 Haywood Road
UTAH Orem — Media Play, 130 East University Parkway Salt Lake City — Borders, Crossroads Mall, 50 S. Main Street
VIRGINIA Richmond — Borders, 9750 West Broad Street Virginia Beach — Borders, 1744 Laskin Road
VERMONT Manchester Center — Northshire Bookstore, 4869 Main Street
WASHINGTON Seattle — Barnes & Noble, 2700 Northeast University Village Spokane — Hastings, 7706 N. Division Street Tacoma — University Bookstore, 1754 Pacific Avenue
WEST VIRGINIA Charleston — Books-A-Million, Dudley Farms Plaza, 212 RHL Boulevard
The tie-in products for WH Smiths are coming in-store between now and early November. A member of staff kindly showed us the store guide to up coming products due in before Xmas. They look marvellous! As for the mo’ they have various versions of the books and the John Howe illustrated board game, an alternate version of the movies 16 month calendar and the famed BBC radio play in 13 parts on CD. Games workshop now have an in-store flyer for their product range due out on the 3rd and 4th of November. They’ll also be having an in-store ‘Bilbo’s Birthday’ weekend to celebrate/promote the range of goods, with demonstrations of the battle game throughout.
Also, I bought a desk top calendar at HMV with many many lovely pics, info snippets and a movie tie-in quiz-all for £6.99.
It is not a graceful walk, at least not by conventional standards, that is being practiced by Ian McKellen in the revival of Strindberg’s “Dance of Death” that opened on Broadway last night. His legs stiffen and stray; his basic navigational instincts betray him.
But his posture is as arrogantly erect as pain allows. And when a footstool intrudes itself into his path, as it will keep doing, Mr. McKellen kicks it away as if it were some importunate, helpless little animal. And he keeps walking. That’s the important thing: he keeps walking.
Lumbering across the long stage of the Broadhurst Theater, Mr. McKellen brings something frightening and majestic to the act of putting one wayward foot before the other. As Edgar, the infirm army captain living in spiteful and isolated wedlock in a dank island outpost, Mr. McKellen projects an aggressive arrogance that doesn’t so much conquer decay as ignore it. Every willed gesture, no matter how sloppy, becomes a death-defying act.
Watching Mr. McKellen’s captain shooting sparks in the dark mouth of mortality is about as thrilling as theater gets. Too long absent from New York’s stages, this English actor, much celebrated here for his Tony- winning performance in “Amadeus” 20 years ago, returns to Broadway to serve up an Elysian concoction we get to sample too little these days: a mixture of heroic stage presence, actorly intelligence and rarefied theatrical technique.
Those who know Mr. McKellen only from his recent eccentric film roles (he’s the Hobbit-advising wizard in the forthcoming “Lord of the Rings”) can’t begin to appreciate his reputation as the greatest living actor of the English-speaking stage. Mr. McKellen needs the space, the amplitude that theater allows. Even playing small and inward, as he did in the title role of “Uncle Vanya” a decade ago, he projects big.
Too big, some critics have argued. But in an age dominated by the pocket Adonises of the screen, there’s rich satisfaction in seeing a performer who combines intellectual integrity with an emotional reach that hugs the very last rows in the balcony. And when you have an actress of comparable fire power, the throaty siren known as Helen Mirren, playing the captain’s adversarial helpmate, Alice . . . well, your only choice is to join the line for tickets.
That said, it must be admitted that this “Dance of Death,” which has been directed by Sean Mathias, doesn’t entirely live up to its leading man. There is for starters the crucial question of the third member of the play’s triangle of shifting power. That’s Alice’s cousin, Kurt, who is portrayed by David Strathairn, an excellent American actor, who here takes his character’s passivity well past the vanishing point.
There are also chafing discrepancies in tone. In its portrait of marriage as a torture chamber, Strindberg’s turn-of-the-century masterpiece presents an obvious temptation to go Gothic, with vampire versus vampire squaring off in the marital ring. To some degree, this product cultivates an aura of Transylvanian kitsch.
Don’t forget that Mr. Mathias’s last Broadway success was his rollicking production of Cocteau’s “Indiscretions” (“Les Parents Terribles”), which was staged as an outlandish Symbolist romp. Here, Santo Loquasto’s set exudes a similar, if more cluttered, look of diabolical whimsy, turning the captain’s island fortress into a haunted house jointly designed by Dali and Disney.
And the music and sound design by Dan Moses Schreier sometimes seems borrowed from “Dark Shadows,” the vampire soap opera. Ditto Natasha Katz’s artful but lurid lighting. When the two combine to underscore the ominous visit of a beggar woman (Anne Pitoniak), you feel you’ve wandered into an old Christopher Lee movie.
This is all, in truth, kind of a hoot. But what Ms. Mirren and especially Mr. McKellen are doing is much more devious and ultimately far more interesting. Working from the playwright Richard Greenberg’s astutely loosened up adaptation and benefiting from Mr. Mathias’s obviously affectionate direction, these performers elicit the Every Marriage aspect in the captain and Alice’s relationship, especially in the first act.
This marriage may be a sort of hell on earth, yes. But is it really so different from that of many couples who have lived long and claustrophobically in each other’s presence, the tics and habits of each tattooed into the mind of the other? What’s shocking about the opening scenes of this “Dance” isn’t the eye-popping open- walled castle of a set; it’s the feeling that you’ve dropped in on a couple that you usually take pains to avoid visiting.
For there is Ms. Mirren, hunkered into her shawl on one side, her voice aquiver with fretfulness and a resentment of such long standing that it has worn at the edges. And there, oh so homey on the opposite side of the stage, is Mr. McKellen’s captain, with an almost pleasant, rectangular smile revealing teeth to watch out for.
As they bicker and snipe, momentarily falling into nasty collusion over the failings of their distant neighbors, you know this is their everyday fare. They must long ago have settled into this acrimonious ritual, from which they clearly draw at least minor pleasure. Their defense of their respective (and hefty) egos is what keeps their blood circulating.
“I suppose you’re attractive . . . to other people, when it suits you,” he says to her, savoring each pause like old brandy. After a minor dispute on how to handle the servant question (a serious one in their case, since no one stays for long), she tells him, “You are a despot with the character of a slave.”
How’s that for a description for an actor to live up to? Yet Mr. McKellen miraculously does, giving credence to the idea that one may smile and smile, however humbly, and still be a tyrant. He is unfailingly polite, jocular and often soft-spoken. Yet there is a demure threat poised behind every courteous gesture.
Notice the captain’s ostensibly loving physical contacts with Alice’s cousin Kurt, who reappears in their lives after a long absence. Edgar clutches Kurt to his chest while pressing a cane or rifle horizontally against Kurt’s back. When Mr. McKellen places his hands on Kurt’s shoulders, you understand the look of slight, panicked nausea on Mr. Strathairn’s face.
It is Kurt’s mere presence, of course, that alters the routine chemistry between Alice and the captain. Now they have an audience and potentially an accomplice. Or is it a victim? In any case, their litany of reciprocal grievances turns into an operatic war that may be either the real thing or merely another diverting military exercise. Kurt may not altogether appreciate their vitriolic performance, but we sure do.
For this is when Ms. Mirren bursts into glorious artificial flower. This actress, known to Americans as the sublimely weary crime solver of “Prime Suspect,” takes her cues from our knowledge that Alice was herself an actress. She has been waiting for a comeback as eagerly and as long as Norma Desmond.
With Kurt to observe her, Alice’s face floods with light; her voice acquires ringing bell tones; anticipating her husband’s imminent death, she sheds her at-home drudgery clothes in two witty variations on dressing to kill. Alice’s seduction of her cousin, as she rocks fervidly from foot to foot, is scary, funny and sexual at once. And just wait till she (literally) lets her hair down.
This is also, unfortunately, where Mr. Strathairn’s performance runs aground. In the earlier scenes with the couple, the actor’s air of quiet uneasiness works fine, as he becomes both target and confessor to the ailing captain. The role is partly a stand-in for Strindberg, and it’s tough to pull off. But at some point, Kurt has to be transformed into a monster on the level of his hosts, and Mr. Strathairn is unwilling to make that leap. He disappears when he should be most visible.This sense of a vacuum detracts from “Dance” as a study of a marriage. We need that third point in the temporary triangle to make full sense of the dynamic that keeps Alice and the captain together. The emphasis instead shifts to another relationship, that of the captain with death. And if this makes the play a tad lopsided, it also allows Mr. McKellen to give a performance that will become a touchstone for anyone else playing the part.
I can’t think of a more profound or unsettling study in denial from my theater-going experience. The first thing you have to know about Mr. McKellen’s captain is that he is indeed dying; the second thing is that he intends to treat death as he has all things that contradict his wishes and beliefs, by pretending it doesn’t exist.
There’s fierceness in his decrepitude. If he can’t manage the stairs, he’ll slide down the banister. Though his head falls regularly to one side and his eyes will sometimes go dead and absent, he insists on ordering chateaubriand for breakfast in a voice that suggests God as a gourmand. There are also the cruel moments of recognition: of fear and acceptance, when he wraps his arms around himself and suddenly looks small and very cold. By the end, these accumulate into something like an epiphany.
Yet these scenes don’t erase the memory of the dance of the boyars that the captain performs for Kurt, as Alice plays the piano. It’s a furious, flustered performance, both heroic and pathetic, in which the captain seems to kick and punch at every dismal phantom in pursuit of him. These are not rehearsed steps. He’s making it up as he goes along, with all the vitality that’s left him. He is, to put it simply, staying alive.
DANCE OF DEATH By August Strindberg; in a new version by Richard Greenberg; directed by Sean Mathias; sets and costumes by Santo Loquasto; lighting by Natasha Katz; original music and sound by Dan Moses Schreier; technical supervisor, O’Donovan and Bradford; production stage manager, Arthur Gaffin; general management, Stuart Thompson. Presented by the Shubert Organization, Roger Berlind, USA Ostar Theatricals and Chase Mishkin. At the Broadhurst Theater, 235 West 44th Street, Manhattan.
WITH: Ian McKellen (Edgar), Helen Mirren (Alice), David Strathairn (Kurt), Anne Pitoniak (Maja), Keira Naughton (Jenny) and Eric Martin Brown (Sentry).
I recently went to see the Homecoming at the London Comedy Theatre of which stars good old Bilbo Baggins (Ian Holm). I managed to get a programme and it has a small section on Ian stating his theatre background and movies of which he has starred in. So i thought I’d send what it says to you;
Ian Holm most recently appeared in this production of the Homecoming at the Gate Theatre in dublin which opened in June of this year before transferring to New York as part of the Harold pinter Festival at the Lincoln Centre. He has previously worked with the Gate in the theatre’s first Harold Pinter festival in 1994 as andy in Moonlight and Duff in Landscape. He worked extensively at Stratford-on-Avon from 1954 to 1967, where roles included puck in A Midsummer’s Night Dream, Lorenzo in the Merchant of Venice, Prince Hal in Henry IV (parts 1 and 2), the title roles in Henry V and Richard III and Romeo in Romeo and Juliet. Other Theatre Work includes Lenny in the Homecoming at the Aldwych and in New York, astrov in Uncle Vanya at Hampstead and King Lear at the Royal National Theatre.
Television work includes jesus of Nazareth, the Lost Boys, Uncle Vanya, the Misanthrope, We the Accused, the Last Romantics, The Browning Version, Game Set and Match, The Borrowers, and the Last of the Brown Bombshells.
Film work includes Joe Gould in Joe Gould’s Secret, The Homecoming, Alien, Chariots of Fire, Greystroke, Henry V, Hamlet, The Naked Lunch, Frankenstein, The Madness of King George (small piece of trivia I come from the same town as Nigel Hawthorne who take the leading role in the Madness of King George), Big Night, The Sweet Hereafter, Fifth Element, A Life Less Ordinary, Existenz, LORD OF THE RINGS, From Hell, and the Emperor’s New Clothes.
Now a small tidbit for those who are adamant on trying to compare The Lord of the Rings with Harry Potter. Another of the stars in the Homecoming was one Ian Hart whom is starring in the new Harry potter Film as Professor Quirrell. From watching the performance I can say that ian Holm’s performance was priceless and the Harry potter film will benefit with Ian Hart’s presence. However I couldn’t compare the two films simply through these two…
I recently went to see the Homecoming at the London Comedy Theatre of which stars good old Bilbo Baggins (Ian Holm). I managed to get a programme and it has a small section on Ian stating his theatre background and movies of which he has starred in. So i thought I’d send what it says to you;