Ringer Spy Ed strikes gold again and shows us some more additions to his LOTR collection, take a look at Lurtz!

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“Ringleader” by Christopher Lawrence and the IQ Gamer Staff

Sir Ian McKellen reveals what it’s like to play the ultimate wizard – from “Lord of the Rings” combat training to keeping Gandalf’s pesky beard out of harm’s way.

The tip of the gnarled staff rhythmically taps upon the rocky terrain as the old wizard makes his way up the mountainous path. Behind him follows a literal fellowship of some of the most beloved heroes ever sprung from the well of imagination: hobbits Frodo Baggins, Pippin Took, Sam Gamgee and Merry Brandybuck; Legolas the elf; the dwarf Gimli; Boromir of Gondor; and the ranger Aragorn. Of course the wizard – the powerful mage known as Gandalf – isn’t exactly a slouch himself. A central figure in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth mythos, Gandalf is perhaps the most important character in modern fantasy and easilly the greatest wizard since Merlin. As he reaches the summit of the mountain slope, Gandalf touches a hand to the wide brim of his pointed hat and solemnly continues his trek. He’s marching toward dramatic history … a place Sir Ian McKellen knows well. McKellen, the acclaimed British actor who’s enjoyed more than three decades of success as a performer, is most familiar to American audiences as Magneto, the villainous star of last year’s summer blockbuster “X-Men.” Come this Christmas, that’ll no longer be so. On December 19, McKellen explodes onto the big screen as the personification of Tolkien’s classic wizard in director Peter Jackson’s long-awaited, live-action adaptation of “The Fellowship of the Ring.” McKellen graciously agreed to take a few minutes away from his busy shooting schedule and active web chatting atwww.mckellen.com to answer a few questions for INQUEST about all things Gandalf…

INQUEST: There has been a lot of debate about how “Fellowship of the Ring” opens. Will it start at Bilbo’s birthday party or detail the history of the War of the Ring?

MCKELLEN: Its original prologue has been abandoned and the backstories of Isildur and of Smeagol, who both found and lost the Ring, are now to be told once Bilbo, the adventurer from Tolkien’s The Hobbit, has been introduced. In Bag End, we will see Bilbo starting to write his memoirs. Gandalf’s arrival in Hobbiton for Bilbo’s 111th birthday party of magnificence now opens the movie just as it opens the first book but it has been expanded to help with the exposition. A Prologue, with its stash of names and facts, can unnerve audiences, and I am relieved that ours has gone.

INQUEST: When Sir Alec Guinness played Obi-Wan Kenobi, he hated the role. What do you think of your Gandalf part?

MCKELLEN: Sir Alec didn’t like the sparse dialogue in “Star Wars.” By contrast, Gandalf gets some of Tolkien’s best writing.

INQUEST: Gandalf has a fair amount of action sequences in the movie. Did you play the action scenes or did your stunt double?

MCKELLEN: You will appreciate that the camera doesn’t always record the truth and that when, for instance, Gandalf falls after the Balrog, it may be neither me nor my stunt double who is dragged off the Bridge of Khazad-dum. But generally, if some action is potentially dangerous, I am happy to let others take over, knowing that in the completed film, no one will be the wiser. When I realized on “Last Action Hero” that even so fit a gent as Arnold Schwarzenegger has a double, I lost any worries about being thought weedy. Doubles have a double advantage: It means that two “Gandalf” scenes can be shot simultaneously, and so the schedule progresses.

INQUEST: Does Gandalf’s beard ever get in the way?

MCKELLEN: After five months, I am reconciled to having my face disguised by false hair all day and even finding some comforting security in the wig. Moustache and flowing beard. After all, without them, I wouldn’t look or feel much like Gandalf. At lunchtime, my wig is pinned back and the beard I bundled into a hair-net which snoods it out of the way of salad and dessert.

INQUEST: Would you liken the character of Gandalf to any of your other roles?

MCKELLEN: early on, I found Gandalf’s character comfortably familiar, making me wonder if I had met him elsewhere disguised as some other character who I had played. Prospero, Shakespeare’s wizard, who I played just before Gandalf? Or Shakespeare’s angelically down-to-earth Kent who tends to King Lear and his successor Edgar on their journeys? But no, Gandalf is unique and I have relished getting to know him well over the last 10 months.

INQUEST: did you receive and combat training to play Gandalf?

MCKELLEN: I have never had any general fight training, so each time I have to wield a weapon, I start from scratch. In “Lord of the Rings” I have trained a little with Gandalf’s staff and Glamdring, which he carries once the Fellowship is en route to Mordor. Fighting is easier on screen than on stage. The camera rarely sees the full figure, whose silhouette is crucial to convince a theater audience. Hence the use of doubles who save the actors’ time and bloodied knuckles. You can be pretty sure that when you can’t see the characters’ faces during a film fight, that doubles are being used. That leaves the actor with his close-ups, wielding an off-camera weapon, sometimes minus its blade to avoid slicing the operator!

INQUEST: Will Gandalf’s powerful elf ring Narya be seen in the films?

MCKELLEN: By the end of the third film, Narya will be in evidence. The ring was made in the WETA workshops, which supply all the other props. Once, I forgot to take it off at the end of the day’s work, which gave the props department a sleepless night.

INQUEST: Now that filming has wrapped, do you ever find yourself impersonating Gandalf, or taking on his habits and mannerisms?

MCKELLEN: It may surprise you, but I seem to have left Gandalf’s persona behind in New Zealand. Perhaps I am unconsciously like a painter clearing the canvas for the next character I have to portray.

INQUEST: Gandalf aside, is there any one Tolkien character that intrigues you more than others?

MCKELLEN: Treebeard is a favorite of mine. Anyone lost in a wood like in the “Blair Witch Project” can believe that trees walk and talk.

INQUEST: Any other role you would have liked to play?

MCKELLEN: Where I the right age4, I should like to have tackled Frodo; I have always been attracted to characters who go on journeys and mature as a result.

INQUEST: Excluding yourself, who would you have picked to play Gandalf?

MCKELLEN: Fans have expressed enthusiasm for Sean Connery, Anthony Hopkins and Christopher Lee as likely Gandalfs. I would have picked Paul Scofield. He won the Oscar for “A Man of All Seasons” and was so wonderfully unworldly as Mel Gibson’s dead father in Zeffirelli’s film of “Hamlet.”

INQUEST: What other actors do you admire?

MCKELLEN: Those who dare to be different part by part. Those who like hard work and challenges. Those who put money and status low on the list of priorities. Judi Dench, Johnny Depp, Robert Downey Jr., Michael Gambon, Dustin Hoffman, Robert Lindsay, Sean Penn, Meryl Streep and many other who are not yet well-known.

INQUEST: is filmaking as grueling as everyone says it is?

MCKELLEN: “Long and tedious fun” about sums it up. Actors get driven to and from work mainly so they don’t disrupt the shooting schedule by having accidents. We get up before dawn and get home maybe 15 hours later. At work, we are fed for free and relax in our personal trailers. All this attention is to prepare for the vital moment when the camera turns and we actually earn our salaries by acting.

INQUEST: How do you prepare personally?

MCKELLEN: Nothing too distracting: a daily crossword, if I can find The (London) Times newspaper, or a book – currently Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling – or snoozing or even answering e-mail. And I read and reread whatever scene is being shot next.

INQUEST: Is it difficult to separate your roles from your personal life?

MCKELLEN: During the weeks of rehearsing a play, I tend to become absorbed by the character as I look for him during private study and with the other actors. I try out walks and accents and gestures of face and body. I sometimes learn my lines on public transport muttering them out loud to myself. This must look odd to fellow passengers.

INQUEST: What was your most difficult scene while filming the “Lord of the Rings”?

MCKELLEN: Confronting the Balrog was hard because, whatever you eventually see in “The Fellowship of the Ring,” all I saw aloft in the studio was a yellow tennis ball, Gandalf’s eyeline for the monstrous fiery creature.

INQUEST: What would you change about the story if you could?

MCKELLEN: I would want to reinstate some of the episodes from the novel which didn’t make it into the three movies. But that’s entirely hypothetical and only possible if we had made five or maybe six movies.

INQUEST: Did the success of “Star Wars” influence new Line’s decision to do the story in trilogy format?

MCKELLEN: All filmakers admire the “Star Wars” trilogy, and it certainly set a sort of precedent. But you can tell, it was a storytelling imperative that made [director] Peter Jackson stick out for at least two films. He was very happy when new Line Cinema offered money enough for three, They are dealing with a classic whose following is worldwide – 6.6million downloaded the online snippet of “Lord of the Rings” in its first week. That would be some opening weekend if they all bought a ticket!

INQUEST: It’s been argued that Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” is an allegory for World War II. Do you think this has any weight?

MCKELLEN: Tolkien composed “Lord of the Rings” during the years 1936 to 1949 and tellingly refers to it as “a history of the Great War of the Ring.” World War II was fought by conscripted civilians and volunteers including Tolkien’s own son, Michael. Adolf Hitler’s dominance over Europe must have impinged on the father’s life and writing. The basic plot of ordinary peace-loving hobbits drafted by Gandalf into the fight against Sauron mirrors contemporary events. The wizard warns Frodo about spies being everywhere, just as there were posters in wartime Oxford saying the same thing. Having been born in 1939 and remembering sleeping in an Anderson Shelter against the Nazi bombers, I found it easy to identify Hitler with Sauron.

INQUEST: Assuming the movie is the mega-hit we think it will be, does the idea that you may be forever remembered in most people’s eyes as Gandalf worry you?

MCKELLEN: I have always admired myself on being a protean actor, capable of successful disguise as I deliberately look for variety in my work. What critics or audiences think of me doesn’t worry me overmuch, as long as I am still offered new challenges in the theater as well as cinema. There are worse fates than to be permanently associated with a great literary icon, should that come about.

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Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn)

28 Days (2000)
Walk on the Moon, A (1999) UK
Psycho (1998) UK
Thin Red Line, The (1998) UK
Albino Alligator (1996)
Passion of Darkly Noon, The (1995)
Prophecy, The (1995)
American Yakuza (1994)
Crew, The (1994)
Ruby Cairo (1993)
Young Guns II (1990)
Fresh Horses (1988) UK

Liv Tyler (Arwen)

Plunkett & Macleane (1999) UK
Onegin (1999) UK
Inventing the Abbotts (1997)
Heavy (1995)
Silent Fall (1994)

Ian Holm (Bilbo)

Joe Gould’s Secret (2000)
Last of the Blonde Bombshells, The (2000) (TV)
eXistenZ (1999)
Alice Through the Looking Glass (1999) (TV)
King Lear (1997) (TV) UK
Fifth Element, The (1997) UK
Hamlet (1990) UK
Henry V (1989)
Dance with a Stranger (1985)
Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984) UK
Alien (1979) UK
All Quiet on the Western Front (1979) (TV)
Shout at the Devil (1976)
Oh! What a Lovely War (1969) UK
Fixer, The (1968) UK

Sean Bean (Boromir)

When Saturday Comes (1996) UK
Black Beauty (1994) UK
Stormy Monday (1988)

Martyn Sanderson (Bree Gatekeeper)

Ned Kelly (1970)

David Weatherley (Barliman Butterbur)

“Potato Factory, The” (2000) (mini) UK

John Noble (Denethor)

Airtight (1999) (TV) UK

Peter Mackenzie (Elendil)

Chill Factor (1999)
Major League: Back to the Minors (1998) UK
Nick of Time (1995)
Off Limits (1988)

Hugo Weaving (Elrond)

Matrix, The (1999) UK
Strange Planet (1999)
Bedrooms and Hallways (1998)
Interview, The (1998)
Babe (1995) UK
Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, The (1994)

Miranda Otto (Eowyn)

What Lies Beneath (2000)
Jack Bull, The (1999) (TV)
Thin Red Line, The (1998) UK
Love Serenade (1996)
Emma’s War (1986)

David Wenham (Faramir)

Molokai: The Story of Father Damien (1999)

Ian Mune (unknown)

Piano, The (1993) UK

Elijah Wood (Frodo)

Bumblebee Flies Anyway, The (2000)
Faculty, The (1998) UK
Ice Storm, The (1997)
North (1994)
Good Son, The (1993)
Forever Young (1992) UK
Paradise (1991)
Internal Affairs (1990)

Cate Blanchett (Galadriel)

Gift, The (2000)
Talented Mr. Ripley, The (1999) UK
Ideal Husband, An (1999) UK
Pushing Tin (1999) UK
Paradise Road (1997)

Ian McKellen (Gandalf)

X-Men (2000) UK
Apt Pupil (1998) UK
Gods and Monsters (1998) UK
Cold Comfort Farm (1995) (TV)
Jack and Sarah (1995)
To Die for (1994) UK
Six Degrees of Separation (1993)
Scandal (1989) UK
Keep, The (1983) UK
Alfred the Great (1969) UK
Touch of Love, A (1969) UK

John Rhys-Davies (Gimli)

Au Pair (1999) (TV)
Cats Don’t Dance (1997)
Bloodsport 3 (1996)
Cyborg Cop (1994)
Unnamable II: The Statement of Randolph Carter, The (1993)
Sunset Grill (1993)
Journey of Honor (1992) UK
Tusks (1990)
Gifted One, The (1989) (TV)
Waxwork (1988)
Firewalker (1986) UK
King Solomon’s Mines (1985)
Nairobi Affair (1984) (TV) UK
Naked Civil Servant, The (1975) (TV)

Andy Serkis (Gollum)

Topsy-Turvy (1999) UK
Among Giants (1998) UK
Tale of Sweety Barrett, The (1998) UK
Stella Does Tricks (1997)

Harry Sinclair (Isildur)

Braindead (1992) UK

Orlando Bloom (Legolas)

Wilde (1997) UK

Lawrence Makoare (Lurtz)

Rapa Nui (1994) UK

Bruce Spence (Mouth of Sauron)

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)
Cars That Ate Paris, The (1974) UK

Sean Astin (Sam)

Sky Is Falling, The (2000)
Kimberly (1999)
Dish Dogs (1998)
Bulworth (1998) UK
Low Life, The (1994/I)
Teresa’s Tattoo (1994)
Encino Man (1992) UK
Where the Day Takes You (1992) UK
Toy Soldiers (1991)
Memphis Belle (1990) UK
War of the Roses, The (1989) UK
White Water Summer (1987) UK
Goonies, The (1985)

Christopher Lee (Saruman)

Sleepy Hollow (1999) UK
Jinnah (1998) UK
Journey of Honor (1992) UK
Safari 3000 (1982)
Serial (1980)
1941 (1979) UK
Three Musketeers, The (1973) UK
Nothing But the Night (1972)
Brides of Fu Manchu, The (1966)
Psycho-Circus (1966)
Gorgon, The (1964) UK
Longest Day, The (1962) UK
City of the Dead, The (1960)
Truth About Women, The (1958)
Traitor, The (1957) UK
Amère victoire (1957)
Battle of the River Plate, The (1956) UK
Moulin Rouge (1952)
Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951)
My Brother’s Keeper (1948) UK

Brian Sergent (Ted Sandyman)

Braindead (1992) UK

Bernard Hill (Theoden)

Midsummer Night’s Dream, A (1999) UK
Loss of Sexual Innocence, The (1999) UK
True Crime (1999) UK
Bounty, The (1984)
Gandhi (1982) UK

Nathaniel Lees (Ugluk)

Rapa Nui (1994) UK
Hercules and the Lost Kingdom (1994) (TV) UK

Brad Dourif (Wormtongue)

Ghost, The (2000)
Storytellers, The (1999) UK
Urban Legend (1998) UK
Best Men (1997)
Death Machine (1995)
Amos & Andrew (1993)
Body Parts (1991) UK
Hidden Agenda (1990)
Mississippi Burning (1988)
Dune (1984) UK

Jim Rygiel (SFX)

Anna and the King (1999)
Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)
Alien³ (1992)
Last of the Mohicans, The (1992)
Batman Returns (1992)
2010 (1984)

Howard Shore (Composer)

High Fidelity (2000)
Analyze This (1999)
Dogma (1999)
eXistenZ (1999)
Cop Land (1997)
Looking for Richard (1996)
Striptease (1996)
Se7en (1995)
White Man’s Burden (1995)
Moonlight and Valentino (1995)
Client, The (1994)
Philadelphia (1993)
Single White Female (1992)
Prelude to a Kiss (1992)
She-Devil (1989)
Moving (1988)
Dead Ringers (1988)
Fly, The (1986)
Fire with Fire (1986)
After Hours (1985)

Peter Jackson (Director)

Hercules and the Lost Kingdom (1994) (TV) UK
Braindead (1992) UK

To get more information, use the sites I use like:

mydigiguide.com, tv-now.com and IMDB.com

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The party at Decipher.com is in full swing, and though I haven’t seen quite as many questions and answers as I would have expected, it seems the atmosphere is staying true to the theme; a party.

The Decipher team has been sociable, conversational and fun loving from everything I’ve observed. They’ve loosened their ties and gone at it, trivia, jokes and general conversation over this massive, constantly expanding message board. At times it can get a bit hectic, having to refresh every ten seconds and noticing five new posts at the top of the page, and twenty more added to previous threads.

The trivia has been the biggest hit, engaging the party goer’s minds with true Middle-Earth trivia. The questions have been geared towards everyone, from simple facts, “Where did Frodo meet Aragorn?” to brain benders such as, “What road is the Ivy Bush on?”

Everyone’s a winner, whether your there to ask a question, let your thoughts be known, or even to conquer the trivia challenges and find yourself the recipient of prize merchandize.

Kyle Heuer (Marketing) has been around for the long haul today, delivering trivia and answers to sporadically up and down the numerous message threads.

There are many ways to heal a Companion:

I’m sure there are more, but that is the quick and dirty.

Tim Ellington (Taskmaster and Design) stepped in to deliver his services to the fans questions, and participate in the trivia mayhem.

How much contact have you had with the Tolkien Estate?

We did not have design interaction with the estate. I (and others) have worked with New Line Cinema in New York and Los Angeles, Tolkien Enterprises in Berkeley, and we have had some contact with Mr. Jackson’s group in New Zealand.

It has all been wonderful!

When doing the design and fields of the cards do you consider artistic rules concerning the proportions?

I’m not in the art department, which does all of the template designs… but I would guess they do. One element I know that was very important on some of the cards was to retain as much of the aspect ratio to the movie frames as possible to keep the “cinematic feel.”

Are there multiples of each character, and is there a variation in their rarity?

There are two versions of each Fellowship member from the story. One rare of each, and the others are uncommon, common and/or fixed.

Chuck, among others among the Decipher team, has been busy on the boards as well.

For example, there’s a version of Frodo with the Gandalf signet, and a version of Frodo with the Aragorn signet. I think.

And they look pretty cool, too. Like wax seals. Very nice.

I don’t claim to know everything their talking about, not being an avid RPG card slinger myself, but to those who are well versed in this medium of entertainment, I hope you’ve learned something.

Remember, the party lasts till 9 PM Eastern time, so if you haven’t participated, go Here and procrastinate no longer!

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The all day event at Decipher continues with Sandy Wible, Monica Jones, and Tom Lischke, who stuck around beyond the call of duty.

Unfortunately Monica Jones had computer trouble, by Kyle from Decipher held contact with her on the phone and did his best to entertain the masses with trivia, and short answers for the avid fan’s questions.

So what did we learn? Well, to start a fan asked the question, “Are there any Tolkien games being made by EA or Sierra?” and our very own Ostadan came to our aid, putting this complicated question into an understandable perspective.

EA has the license for LotR games based on the _movies_. Sierra (actually Vivendi/Universal) has the license for games based on the _books_. Several games are planned — I know that Vivendi will have a “Fellowship” game for the X-Box planned for early next year, and have revived the online roleplay project. I do not know what EA’s plans are.

And of course, it’s more awesomely complicated, since the rights for the Silmarillion and other posthumous works are separate. It took about half a page of tiny print in the rulebook for the Iron Crown CCG to explain the whole mess.

Sandy Wible (Production) then came on the scene:

For those who don’t know, I handle a lot of the production details, as well as helping the Art and TCG people with all kinds of odds and ends.

Lately, I’ve been working hard getting the press sheets ready to go to the printer, and also finalizing the foil templates for the cards.

She was asked:

What does most of the art consist of. Still, publicity shots?

We have always desired to use images that are _not_ publicity shots in our games. You see the publicity shots all over the place… which is great for their purpose, but we like to show you something unique and different.

We have gone to great trouble and expense to wheedle (and yes we wheedled big time) images from the film that NOBODY else has access to. When you get your cards, you’re going to see images from the film that aren’t available anywhere else!!!

What’s in a deluxe starter set?

We plan to have the special precon deck made just for the Deluxe Starters (based on hobbits and Ringwraiths), glass damage markers, glass Fellowship tokens, a booster pack, a collector’s card list, and more. Now, some of this might be eliminated (such as the card list) since we’re still finalizing the contents, but this is the basic idea.

Tom Lischke (Design) stuck around to answer more questions:

Adventure Path: a line of up to nine sites. When the game starts, only a site 1 is in play (a Hobbiton or Bree site, most likely). As fellowships move, sites are added to the path as necessary until at the end, there will be nine (site 9s are stuff like Amon Hen, Falls of Rauros, etc.). Rivendell is at 3, Lorien is at 6.

The player who goes first puts out their site 1, and both players put their fellowship marker on it. When a fellowship moves, if the site they are moving to hasn’t been revealed yet, one of their opponents plays that site from their adventure deck (for instance, if the furthest advanced fellowship was at site 5, and choose to move, one of their opponents would play their copy of site 6).

What will Decipher be using for advertisement and giveaways? Monica Jones (Vice President of Marketing) gives us a peak:

We’ll be producing posters, static window cling, etc. for retailers and posters for giveaway to guys like you. Have you seen any of the oversized LOTR TCG cards? I think they’re pretty cool.

Well folks, this will be going on all day, so if you have any questions, or just want to hang around and answer the ongoing trivia in hopes if winning prizes, go Here and tell ‘em Berendir sent yah.

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The Cool folks at Decipher are celebrating in a very special way today! They’re getting the talent behind their LOTR goodies and doing Q&A sessions with them! check out Berendir’s first report! More coming soon!

TITLE: Tom Lischke (Design)

From 10-11 AM Eastern time Tom Lischke fielded questions and posed challenging trivia. Missed the action? No problem, I’ve collected all the information your hungering minds can devour – at least as much information as was there to collect!

Interested in magic, or how big a fireball Gandalf can spout forth from his nostrils?

There will definitely be spells in the game. Typically, they will be event cards (I guess we could eventually do a condition that is a spell). Both Gandalf and Saruman have spells for now. Although, rumor has it that the Nazgul (at least some of them) are Sorcerors, but we have to look into that.

A fan inquired about the Bilbo card; asking about the characters strength and role in the game.

I remember his strength being 2. He cost either 1 or 2.

He is an ally (doesn’t travel with the fellowship), and not a young one, but he has some sweet text.

What about archers?

During the Archer phase, both sides count up the number of archers they have at the fellowships site (I have to say it that way because typically ally archers don’t count) and the opposing side takes that number of wounds, which they must assign to their own characters.

That is the systemic implementation. Of course, there are other game texts that interact with that.

How does corruption work?

I’ll tell you about the systemic implementation on the Ring-bearer, although other cards that represent the concept will exist.

Also, when bidding to go first in the game, players bid burdens for their Ring-bearer

How many card types are there?

The One Ring Companion
Ally
Possession
Artifact
Event
Conditon
Minion
Site

Thanks Tom for your time in answering our questions! Now, for the trivia he challenged us with.

Q. What road is the Ivy Bush on?

Answer: Bywater Road

Q. What would you use asea ananion for?

Answer: Healing wounds.

Q. What are otters for?

Answer: Swimming -I don’t get it either-

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