Di: [The question was missed while I changed tapes.]
PB: I think, as I said before, the advanced[?] story is pretty clear. One of the things I did deliberately was not reread. I’d already read it several times, and I deliberately did not reread it when it came to the writing process because I wanted what I remembered to stand out. And it does, it really does. I think if you ask somebody who hasn’t read the books for about ten years, tell me the story, you would basically know, what you need is there. So, like I said, some stuff is left untold.
Di: Outdoor and location work is very difficult, because you can not control the weather. Did you find yourself rewriting at all to limit those things. So much of the story takes place outdoors, but was there any conscious effort to say, well, we can condense a few things and keep away from one or two extra days of being out here with the snow and the rain?
PB: No, we didn’t. That was the whole point of shooting it in New Zealand, the environment and the scenery. We had the most incredible crew in the world. We really did. We had a lot of unit shooting. Peter has always inspired an enormous loyalty, and everybody just picthed in. So if Peter wanted to shoot on top of a volcano then we were there.
Di: He sounds pretty spontaneous at times. If you got a location and he turned around and said, I want that angle, did you find yourself rewriting to accomodate…
PB: [laughs] Matt Cooper is sitting in the audience laughing his head off because Matt was involved with the locations, as was Blair[?], attached to the production and was involved with the contracts to secure some of the resources, etc., etc. He was telling me this story last night, where absolutely that happened, very often. And, like I said, the great thing about our crew was if you get there and the boardwalk is set up that way and you were going to shoot that way, or something catches Peter’s eye, then, you know, it’s done. But it’s just amazing the crew was so unbelievable. And so many Tolkien fans within it.
Di: I take the actors were pretty accomodating. “Let’s try something over there.”
PB: Yeah. Oh, the actors were phemomenal.
Di: Any other insider information?
PB: Insider info? [laughs, ponders]
Di: You can’t tell us anything.
PB: No, it’s not that, I’m just trying to actaully think of what that would be. It’s probably something that… I’ll probably need a question.
Di: You wanted to let the audience know something about what you were all trying to achieve.
PB: Thematically, right. It’s interesting in approaching this, I often get asked in media interviews about what is the reaction of the fans going to be to the film. Are we worried about the reaction of the fans to the film? And my response has been; the fans of the book made these films. But in this company I think I can go further and give an explication of that. I think that to say that… for the media to try to bring up sometimes a sense that fans are going to be outraged, if you change this or change that, or whatever, it devalues what Tolkien readers know and understand, in that this is a huge canon of work, a huge literary heritage for all the world. My experience with people who love this book, Tolkien fans, is that they understand that this is a reading of the book. This is a vision, that they themselves do it, that’s what it was. And always we’ve tried to stay true… What is interesting, I was reading in Tolkien’s letters his own thoughts on Truth and Story. And to me what was important in creating the film and while you would be making the film is – to me this was what was important- is to bring this world alive. To be able to see it, to be able to experience it, as you can on film, which is a new experience, it’s a different experience to reading it. So that’s wonderful, I’d love this I think. And the sense of wonderment, is something very important, I think, to be able to bring that to life. To embrace some of those themes, and to get some of those themes out there. I think the concept of the greater good has gotten a really bum wrap. Recently. It feels different from other films.
Di: I think this is going to be released as PG-13. And it is a move about war. But do you have an age range which you think that it will appeal to? Did New Line keep that in mind, to try to widen it out as much as possible?
PB: Again, it wasn’t really a studio directive so much as something Peter wanted to do. He wants this to be embraced by as many people as possible, because the books are. In terms of the audience range, I have a twelve year old. I have absolutely no hesitation in her seeing this, there’s nothing in there that I would feel… I think that ten year olds would love this film. I mean I don’t know if they’re allowed to see it.
Di: What is on the professional horizon for you? Anything exciting you can tell us about?
PB: Well, it’s interesting, I thought I wouldn’t go to fantasy again, you know, because I don’t think that’s really the right tone for these works. There are several projects out there that are really exciting, and so we’re kind of talking.
[A lot of audience members asking questions forgot to talk into the microphone, so their questions were inaudible]
AM1[Audience Member 1]: How long are the films?
PB: I can honestly say I honestly don’t know. I think at the moment they haven’t locked off the first film. It will be over two hours, the first film. How long over two hours, I don’t know.
Di: I believe there’s a rough cut right now that’s three and a half, which would not surprise me.
PB: Yeah, exactly. Actually, it wasn’t three and half. There is a very long version, but it was never perceived to be the version that was to be released. It was, as you said, like a draft really.
AM2: []
PB: It’s an interesting question. I think what I said, I’m not sure how it came across, is one of the things I love about this is it’s almost an anti-quest. It’s a quest to undo a great evil. And what I think I said in that interview was I don’t know whether we can do that; can we do that now, do we do that, do we look at things we know to be powerful, enormously powerful, do we have the strength and courage to undo them? I don’t know.
AM3: The books contain a lot of darkness and I can imagine in film you can treat those in a horror way. Was it possible to include a kind of sadness…?
PB: Oh yeah, that is the great gift of having great actors. I think, yes, dark. I think the way as a writer that you approach things that thematically can be quite dark is to make them as exciting, as energectic, as adreniline as possible, as edge of your seat as possible, because you need to embrace all of that but you don’t want it to weight a film down. And in terms of the sadness, oh, yes, yes.
Di: I imagine some of those actors can bring it on.
PB: It’s beautiful. It’s not depressing sadness, as everyone who’s read the book understands. There’s a beauty in it, there’s a deep beauty in it.
AM4: To some fans the songs are the heart of the trilogy. Could you say a little bit about how the poetry has been woven into the films?
PB: Sure. I find a lot of his prose to be incredibly lyrical and incredibly poetic. Yes, there are songs. I have insider information. Now I don’t know if this will…we haven’t approached the third film yet. But Billy Boyd, who plays Pippin, has one of the most beautiful voices. And the moment that Denethor says, “Give us a song, Mater Hobbit”, he does, and it’s unbelievable. Yes we do embrace that, absolutely. It is very hard, it was a hard thing to know how much you can do…
Di: Did you have a list of songs more to the forefront, so that, if we include it, we’d prefer to go with these?
PB: Yeah, very early on, because Peter likes sometimes to shoot to… to be able to hear in his ear… I see him sometimes writing at the computer with the music playing. We had A Elbereth Gilthonel, it was done by a wonderful… Play Nine[?]… who is a wonderful group of musicians in New Zealand, who also did the music for Bilbo’s party, and just hearing that inspires you. This was such a gift as a writer. You got to walk into Weta and see these incredible creations, you had these actors bringing things to life, you have musicians bringing things to it…
Di: Have you had a chance to hear any of the score?
PB: Yes, I have. In fact, Howard is brilliant. Again, fate, fate. Howard came down to New Zealand, we were talking. He very early on recgonized that he wanted to do a choral piece for the dwarves, the mines. And we had spoken a lot about choral pieces, and he said maybe we could get somebody to do something in Elvish. And we just went, not Elvish, Dwarvish, these are dwarf mines. As soon as we said that…so I was just sort of sitting there eating and I said you know, it’s male […] they’ve got male voices. And Peter just went ahhh, and immediately, if you can imagine the mines, the great Dwarvish miners, male voices like the great Welsh choirs. So one of my favorite things that I did was write some libretto that was translated into Dwarvish for the entrance into Dwarrowdelf. Which probably only the people in this room are going to be able to understand. [laughing]
AM4: I know this is not necessarily your ken, but can you talk a little about the technical side. I’ve heard a lot of rumors about Peter using new techniques in certain scenes, and ways that he’s able to deliver the fantastic side, without it being hokey or silly […]
PB: I wish I could, and I would, and I’m not stalling or anything like this. I would just hate to…I can only speak as an observer from what I’ve seen, and the work that Weta Digital is doing is phenomenal, that’s all I know. It’s like […], you just go, oh my god, it’s wonderful. So again you just get excited as well. So I can’t answer that, all I can say is what I’ve seen, it was incredibly exciting.
AM4: But what you’ve seen is unique to your view.
PB: Um, yes, absolutely, to my untutored eyes, yes, absolutely. Sorry, I wish I could say more. But I can say it’s in incredibly great hands.
AM5: In the book the prologue and the appendices are part of the way that Tolkien implies this vast historical reality behind the story that he’s telling, beyond the narrative itself. Obviously those kinds of things don’t translate very easily to film. Were there any things that you tried to do to compensate for that and imply this historical reality to the story?
PB: Absolutely, they were wonderful resources, absolutely. It’s interesting, actually, a lot of it translated incredibly well, I think, dramatically. Because it works wonderfully, it’s Professor Tolkien’s own musings, and some slightly eccentric thoughts in those, in the prologue and the appendices, whcih were fantastic! Wonderful color.
AM5: Can I ask you specifically if you use the same notion that the book itself is a translation of a historical artifact?
PB: The Red Book of Westmarch? Yes, it’s in the film, absolutely, it’s brilliant.
AM6: It’s well reported that the hobbits are effectively shrunk down with the use of a computerized [..]. Did you note any difficulties or special challenges you faced in portraying the Tolkien characters on screen such as the elves or the dwarves or the balrog?
PB: Again, I’m sorry, I know it sounds like I’m falling back on the actors, but the actors enormously informed it. One of the things that’s great about Peter’s process and the way his brain thinks is he very early recognized and identified the fact that as you read this book, you forget about the size difference. You don’t consciously keep these guys this big in your brain. And I don’t personally believe that Professor Tolkien did. And then occasionally he would remind you. And I think that’s the way that Peter’s done this in terms of the size. In terms of the different cultures, and wanting to show the huge vastness of this world, which is so utterly important, and I know for people who love these books is incredibly important, is that we had unbelievable artists working on this film, who brought the cultures to life. And as you can imagine, loved the […] of doing it. So the detail that went into that, and the interesting thing was it was one huge creative engine that everybody else was fed by. The actors would walk into Weta, you know Viggo would go in there when they were doing swords and things like that, and the writng on the swords and even understanding what those runes were, this would help him form his character. All of this sort of thing, it was great.
AM7: All my favorite parts in the book happen at night, such as Sam in Mordor at night and he looks up at the star…
PB: He sees the star.
AM7: I was wondering how much you adhered to the whole sense of night and day. […]
PB: I should tell you we shot that scene. Again, I don’t know, but it was shot. It’s one of the most beautiful moments in the book, and it informs so much of what has gone before, and so much of the presence of people like Galadriel and Gandalf himself, and Elrond. So, in terms of tonally, in terms of night and day? The gathering gloom, the gathering darkness? Yeah, I’ve got a funny story about that. We had to stop shooting in Queenstown, we had to go to wet weather cover. So very quickly we had to go the film that we were shooting in Mordor. Peter was talking to his wonderful, brilliant cinematographer Andrew Lesnie, and wonderful gaffer who was in charge of the lighting, Brian Pettigrove[?], and he was talking about the gathering gloom of Mordor. And then Brian went and talked to his boys and said, [Aussie accent] “Right, it starts off and it’s night and it’s really dark.” And then the sun comes up? “Then the sun comes up, but it’s still really dark.” [laughs] Brian Pettigrove was utterly fantastic. I remember him in Lothlorien, shooting in Paradise believe it or not, it was like […] for Lothlorien, completely appropriate. If you ever get to New Zealand you must go and see this. Beautiful, beautiful forest. And Pete went up to Brian and said, “What do you think about the lighting, Brian?” And Brian said, [Aussie accent] “Oh, I think we’ll use the avaliable light, Pete. Every available light.” [laughs]
AM8: […]
PB: Sure, it’s interesting because there’s more than one elvish culture which we tried to observe as well. I guess it’s true to say, I don’t know if it’s fair to say, but elves I think… I don’t think timelessness is the right word to say, we needed a sense of ancientry and a sense of the world is changed, moving on. So in terms of the elvish culture, I think we drew upon Professor Tolkien’s own writings to let us see as much as we could, and what was in the book, and what the actors found.
AM9: You mentioned some of the outdoor locations. I’m also curious about some of the indoor things, did you have to build certain things, certain sets. And which one did you think was the most difficult.
PB: Yes, enormous sets. Edoras, which was built on top of a carrock of rock in the middle of an incredible alluvial valley, with soaring mountains actually all around it. And they did the most phenomenal job in recreating that.
Di: Those pictures are on the net.
PB: They’re amazing
AM9: What’s your favorite personal theme in the books that also made it into the films?
PB: OK, I’m going try some elvish. [laughs] My favorite theme? [speaks Elvish line] The world has changed… Bill, you’re going to have to help me [laughs] [speaks more Elvish lines] So, the world has changed, I can feel it in the water, I can feel it in the earth, I can smell it in the air. That’s my favorite theme.
AM10: […] the concept of magic […]
PB: Sure, no, exactly. That’s a wonderful question. One of my favorite things of the prologue, somebody mentioned the prologue, is the ordinary magic of hobbits. Ah, it’s just such a wonderful concept. And I know that Sir Ian McKellen thought a lot about this, and in terms of the power that is within Gandalf, the power that he summons when needful. The differences between Saruman, that drove a lot of the Gandalf – Saruman… Yeah, power really, rather than magic, I suspect, looking back on it, is what we’re talking about. The power of the elves, what is the nature of the power of these people. What is the nature of the power of the world? What is the nature of the power of Illuvatar? Those sort of things. So rather than magic, I mean the great line, “Do not mistake me for a conjurer of cheap tricks, Bilbo Baggins”, tells you early on that this is no ordinary visitor.
AM11: It’s great to see you here. It’s really fantastic that you came all the way across the planet to come and talk to us. And I don’t know if the crowd feels the same way, but you really should be acknowledged for making this special trip. [claps]
PB: I think Bill deserves a lot of credit for doing that and just his unbelievable enthusiasm for the project and his understanding for the project, which was great. And also New Line, they embraced this whole… I mean everything about it they’ve embraced it brilliantly. And for me it’s also a deep pleasure for me, it’s wonderful, and I’ve never been to San Francisco, and yeah, I think I want to come and live here. It’s wonderful, very, very beautiful city.
AM11: My question has to do with Professor Tolkien’s attitude about myth. And if you have read Humphrey Carpenter’s biography, you learn a lot about the real core of Tolkien’s personal belief about myth, and its appropriate, needful use in communicating to mankind, on the whole, greater essential truths than he otherwise might be in touch with. You’ll have to forgive me for paraphrasing so rudely. I wanted to know how closely, as a writer, your own work was informed by Carpenter’s biography and your own feeling as a writer about myth.
PB: Well, I love that biography. I read that biography, I had read it, when I was very young actually, which was a weird thing, because I don’t normally go and seek out biographies on authors that I loved. It was a great read. And yes it did inform, or gave me a sense of who this man was. So…the rest of that was?
AM11: I was most interested in your personal spin on myth, the way Tolkien […].
PB: Well, he has informed on a lot of that for me, absolutely, he’s like this great teacher that you can go to. I talked about immediacy as necessary in film, and making this film feel real, but you don’t want to lose the huge, enormous history that this is based on. I think that we had very early on, Peter made a decision that he wanted people to recognize this as our world, that this is our world. This is not a far off planet, this is Earth. And to do that, this is our mythology, that to recognize that this is where we came from. So I found that myth and theme, one of the great advantages working on this project was, as a writer and adapting it, was just the wealth of what you could go to, when you were looking at those things. I remember reading something of Professor Tolkien, when you said truth…he said something about fidelis, that truth, I think he was talking about something C.S. Lewis wrote (somebody here probably knows this better than I do)… but basically that the truth and beauty of something will rise above – this is what I took it to mean – will rise above and be what is received and what is remembered. Often myth is not necessarily a collection of fact, in fact it isn’t a collection of fact. So yes, to that extent, we used it.
A BIG thanks to Gorel for this transcript of the Philippa Boyens panel at Mythcon, check it out!
PART I
Di[Paula DiSanto]: What did you do before this? Tell me some background in terms of writing experience, and of your kinds of experiences in the area of your career in writing.
PB[Philipa Boyens]: It’s interesting, we went to Cannes. I got introduced, and the person who was introducing me said, “making her debut as a screenwriter”. And I suddenly thought, oh, I am, that’s right. Because I’ve been working on this for four years now. It didn’t feel like a debut, but it is. So really this was my first professional venture into screenwriting. Before that, I worked with a lot of film-makers when I was executive director of the museum of […]. Prior to that I worked in theater, and that’s my background. And I came to writing from working with actors and working on performance pieces, helping some plays. I actually gave writing away. And I didn’t really have an expectation of coming back there. I had worked with a lot of friends, done script editing, read scripts, which is one of the avenues through which I came to be involved in this project.
Di: And exactly how did you get involved?
PB: I can remember it very clearly. My partner at the time, Steven Sinclair[?], … had worked with Fran and Peter before, on Feebles and […]. We got a call, we were at my house and we got a call from Fran. And he put the phone down and he said, you’ll never guess what Fran and Peter are working on. And I was doing something and said, “Oh, what?” or something like that. And he said Lord of the Rings, and I just went, “You’re kidding!” […] I think my next thought was, “They’re mad!” Which I found out is true. And then I thought, well, that’s very brave, a thing to attempt to do. Which I also found out was true, that Peter is really brave. But further to that, so Steven started working with them, he sort of playfully said “Ah, six weeks.” [laughs] They asked me to read a treatment, which I did. And I was very nervous about doing that because it was my favorite book. They knew this, this is why they had asked me. […] But when I did I got very excited because I could see it, and subsquent to that, a sort of very broad overview draft. I gave them some notes. And then, they rang and said, “Would you like to be involved as a writer?” I thought, “Um…yeah!” [laughs]
Di: That took all of two seconds.
PB: Yeah. [laughing]
Di: I understand that originially the script was in two parts. Going from two parts to three parts has obvious advantages. Was it a struggle, were there any disadvantages to going to three?
PB: No, I don’t think so. I think that’s the best format to tell the story, as a trilogy. But I don’t know if it was a disadvantage. Because there was a lot of time pressure, that was the key at that time. New Line came on board, Bob Shaye’s famous decision to want to make three movies. We had to work very, very hard. It was almost a page one, well, not quite a page one rewrite, but it involved…
Di: A serious restructuring…
PB: Yes, rethinking.
Di: Did you get to the point where you do have this extra time, you had to make some hard decisions, some things had to be left out. Was it difficult to make those decisions?
PB: I have to say this is not me being smooth. I do like to think of it, and the choices that we made, that we chose to leave some things untold, rather than left out. Unsaid. Because they’re there to be discovered for people who come to the book, and for those people who know the stories and love the stories, they understand them. So, in terms of that process, the advanced[?] story of the Lord of the Rings, I think this audience especially, which is why it’s such a great audience to talk to, will know that the advanced[?] story, the actual story, is very strong in the Lord of the Rings. When I read that first treatment, that’s when I realized it lends itself to cinema in a wonderful way.
Di: Did New Line have any preference for things to stay in or take out.
PB: No, again, honestly they were maginificent to work with. They worked from a place of trust, they trusted Peter, and they trusted his vision. They were incredibly suppportive. They have been throughout the whole thing. There were some wonderful people there who understood this story and understood these books like Mark Odesky, Bob Shaye himself. We were very lucky to go work with some great film makers. They’re part of the film making process.
Di: Did you have time for table readings. Just to explain, a table reading is where you’re getting the cast together before you actually start shooting so the director and the screenwriters can hear the key actors reading their part all the way through and start to get a feel for the rythym of the story and that sort of thing, if you have to make some possible changes. I know that you’re going into production sometimes, and boom, so did you have time for that?
PB: Not an official table reading. We did a lot of work with the actors. Fran and I were involved because it was understood because of the nature of what Peter was intending to do, which was to shoot three films out of sequence, that it would be a continual creative process. One of the things is, we knew we wouldn’t have the entire cast, we had 22 main characters in the movie I believe, we never really had the entire cast in one place. We were shooting all over the north island and south island of New Zealand. So what we tended to do was to work on scenes and work with the actors that way. I do remember [laughs], I think the women of the audience will appreciate this, it was late one night when we were in Queenstown. We’d done a light revision on a scene between Aragorn and Boromir, and Fran and Peter worked with them, and Fran and Peter had to go to a dinner. I had Sean Bean and Viggo in my hotel room reworking the scene. At the time, all I was focusing on was, “Oh, this is Aragorn and Boromir, this is wonderful.” It was only after they left that I went, “That was Sean Bean and Viggo Mortenson, in my hotel room!” And subsequently some girlfriends of mine went, “What were you thinking!?” And I have to admit, I was thinking Tolkien! I think that says more about me than I need to disclose. [laughs]
Di: Speaking of Viggo, his casting came very, very close to the [beginning of shooting]… Did that impact you at all? Did you make any changes? He’s a very different type personality.
PB: Yeah, oh, I have wonderful Viggo stories. I truly can’t imagine another actor playing him now, Aragorn. Fate has driven a lot of this project. The day that fate decided he was the right person to play Aragorn was a lucky one for us. I can tell you a little story. He apparently takes a long time to decide on, he chooses his projects very carefully. So suddenly he was offered these three films, to come to New Zealand, for a huge commitment. Peter did a call with him, the studio did a call with him, talked to agents, and Fran and I talked to him about some of our thoughts. Aragorn as a character was one of the more difficult characters because of his journey. Wonderful character, brilliant character, but certainly a character that… dramatically, you need to really think through the story. So Fran and I talked to him about some ideas, and he asked us questions. He really just asked us questions, and we began to realize these were some very acute questions that he was asking. Anyway, he had some time to decide, it was a very short period of time, I can’t remember how much. I was in the main office, Peter’s office, and he was shooting and I think Fran was on set with him. We hadn’t heard an answer from him. I think New Line honestly had, but we hadn’t. A phone call came in, and Jan Bacon[?], our wonderful assistant, said “It’s Viggo Mortenson on the phone.”, and she said take it. So I picked up the phone and went, “Hullo?” And this voice said, “Hi, this is Viggo Mortenson.” And he said, “I wanted to ask you a question.” And I thought, oh no, it’s going to be about schedules or time frames, and I went, “Yes?” And he said – and I had no idea if he had committed or not – he said “So, how old was I when I was taken to the elves?” And I just went, “Yes!” [pumps arm] And I have to tell you, this is true, he turned up at the airport, I think he had bare feet, with a copy of the Volsunga Saga in his bag, which he took off his shelf.
Di: I’m not sure if this is true, I’ve been reading it on the web, that when Tolkien sold the film rights, he had a proviso saying that no new scenes could be added. Is that true?
PB: No. I think that might be a bit of an urban myth, but no.
Di: If you needed to you could invent scenes?
PB: Yeah… Again, the process of inventing within somebody else’s work is…. to me it doesn’t feel that good doing it. We are trying somehow to stay true to the characters. There are opportunites within the stories, as everyone here understands, where things are told in reportage, and one of the great, wonderful opportunities you get to do with film, and what I hope that fans of the book are going to embrace and love, as much as I did seeing it, is things such as the meeting between Gandalf and Saruman. Because that is a moment that you can bring alive on film.
Di: It would seem because of the scope, and you had to cut everything down, that it would be more exposition, being able to link things together. DId you find that that was true, that if you had to invent that it would be to serve the story telling for the audience?
PB: Yes, absolutely… and the characters.
Di: We’ve seen two trailers, thus far. What I noticed in the trailers is that a lot of the on screen dialogue was a paraphrase of Tolkien’s actual dialogue. Was there a stylistic reason for the rephrasing beyond the fear that this might sound too archaic for modern audiences?
PB: I think Tolkien’s language is brilliant, it’s wonderful. And we were so lucky to have actors such as Sir Ian McKellen, Sir Ian Holm, you know, wonderful, wonderful actors, who could take an approach and lift off the page all of that language. In terms of archaic constructions, sometimes it’s very potent and powerful to leave it as it is. Sometimes you do it to be clearer. Sometimes it’s just something to do with length. I think one of the things you need to do in film is to make it immediate. Peter wanted from the very early stages, and one of the things that drove him when he talked to everybody involved in the creative process was, make it real. And that was from the design perspective, from the performance perspective, from the writing perspective. And in making it real you need to make it immediate, and in doing that you are going to have to relook at some of those constructions. […]
Di: So we’ll see a mix of verbatim dialogue and a sort of paraphrase.
PB: Exactly.
Di: Were any scenes rewritten to take advantage of specific actors, their strengths and their quirks?
PB: Yes, absolutely. It was a great gift to myself and Fran and Peter to be able to work with the actors. They began to assume in your mind the characters, they became the characters. Seeing Ian McKellen walk on set as Gandalf is just something incredibly extraordinary. I think it was, I just thought of it, Trevor Nunn, I think it was, I saw a documentary done by the Royal Shakespeare Company. And he said that: Shakespeare had always been best informed and enlightened by the great performances of great actors. And this is not denying the contributions of great scholars. That holds so true to someone like Ian McKellen playing Gandalf, and his insights into the character are extraordinary. Whenever he walked on set, you just got a sense of security. [laughs] Gandalf’s here, it’s OK. I’m sure he wasn’t thinking this in his head, he’s thinking, “What is this?” [imitates Ian looking puzzled at something he’s reading]
Di: Did you have to any rewriting to speed up a scene or even slow it down, where you could tell from the available footage that you had shot so far that maybe something needed to be longer or shorter? If it was longer, did you figure it would be edited?
PB: Certainly. If you can you write long, so that you have that luxury of making that choice, making decisions. Editing’s about making choices and making decisions, the best way to tell it. As a screenwriter you can suddenly realize that you’ve said something more than once. Which one was the best way to say it? In terms of lengthening things, sometimes as writers, I think we went into that, often with the support of the actors to hold onto those moments. And Peter embraces those kinds of things, to try to do them to their fullest capacity.
Di: I know a lot of people will be interested in this. Was the decision to expand the role of Arwen directed from New Line or was it the three of you saying we really need to pull this out and go to The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen, and put that into the body of the story?
PB: It’s so interesting the feedback that you read about the character of Arwen because most of it’s incorrect. Ultimatley we drew absolutely on the appendix. People say her role is expanded… there is one sequence which was done for very practical reasons, and I absolutely stand behind it, which I think you’ve probably all seen [laughs], that works incredibly well. I think you wouldn’t be serving the film, you wouldn’t be serving the audience, you certainly wouldn’t be serving the book if you ignored her character. What stands out for me in the first film, and I have to say that Liv Tyler has a quality about her that is just extraordinary, and what stands out to me is Arwen is a voice in this film who does not give in to despair. Not that necessarily other characters will or do. But in the midst of all this is someone who knows and understands how they feel and is holding onto it and is holding true to their feelings. And that requires enormous openness and understanding and wisdom, and Liv just gives that. And her Elvish is great!
Di: When it was originally published the novel was broken into three volumes from the directive of the publisher. There was no way they were going to do that all at once, because of the cost of the production. It broke up fairly easily because it is six books within one work. When you were breaking up the film, in terms of the, I don’t want to say cliffhanger but it almost works that way in the novel, did you find you had to shift where it broke differently, between the end of the first film and the end of the second film?
PB: I think we’ve pretty much stayed true to the structure of the novels. In terms of shaping ends, one of the biggest things we had to do and one of the most difficult things to do, was at the end of the first film, to leave the viewers with a sense of fulfillment. It can’t be just a cliffhanger. You have to feel that you’ve been on this journey, that something has happened, that something enormous has happened, and it does, as you feel in the book. A change has occurred, a change that’s going to drive the second story forward, but also actually has brought one of your main characters, or your main character, to a point and he has achieved something. So we’ve worked very, very hard. What was interesting was working an action based climax into an emotional climax. And I feel personally for myself, and I’ll be really interested to see how you feel about it, the emotional climax of this great sequence at Parth Galen, and on the slopes of Amon Hen, which is very driven and it’s this amazing sequence with Boromir, and it’s everything you can, in fact I truly believe it’s more than you can imagine. But what stands out is the emotional climax which…[sighs]…it’s wonderful, an incredible performance by Elijah Woods.
Di: Which of three installments of the film did you find the most difficult and the most challenging in regard to keeping the pace and flow of Tolkien’s story?
PB: In terms of each film? It’s really hard. Rivendell nearly killed me. Nearly killed Fran. We were like, “Don’t make us go back there.” [laughs] But it’s such a brilliant moment in the book, and you want to serve that, but really if you look at it the story does stop in a way, and you must restart it. So it’s how do you get through that so that the story doesn’t just stop. How do you embrace what that place stands for, thematically, and you have Alan Lee doing concept drawings of the house, so it’s just exquisite. How do you feed into the story and drive the story. Lothlorien, again, and I’m not picking on the elves, it can become a place where you stop and have a cup of tea, which you can’t do. But I hope, I hope, that we’ve managed to capture some of the extraordinary stillness and light, and everything… I have no words.
Di: It has been reported on the internet that the original prologue that was shot for the Fellowship of the Ring, which details the history of the ring, has either been removed or moved to a different location in the film. If it has been moved there are places to put it. I think I remember reading that Peter was concerned that might have been dumping too much information on the audience, and trying to integrate it so that they’re getting this history in a more natural way. It could be put in the Shadow of the Past or the Council of Elrond. Could you tell us about how that was rethought?
PB: It’s a little bit apocryphal, that story, I have to tell you. It’s not completely true. It’s part of the process by which these films were developed, the creative process, it was a difficult one. I was talking to Fran about it actually. It’s an enormously difficult process, but it was our process, it was the process that we had to do to make these films. In terms of the prologue, or lack of, or is there one, or whatever, you’re going to have to wait and see. [laughs] But I can say that the back story, that serves the story, was very difficult to do. It’s finding the places where it isn’t just exposition, it should never be just exposition. It shoud be character driven, it should be as much as possible character driven, it should be action driven. It should, again, feel real. So the back story was difficult, which was we needed a prologue. And certainly, Gandalf’s return to Bag End is very important, and it is obviously a very important imparting of information to the main character, but what you find is it’s also a point in the film when you want something to happen. When you need for it to continue to drive forward because you spend this time in Hobbiton, and it’s so wonderful, [excited] this cart comes over the hill and you see it all, it’s beautiful! It’s wonderful, and to embrace that peaceful world, but to understand that that is under threat is very important. Peter was very good, he never closes doors, he’s incredibly open. He’s always thinking, how is an audience, and as big an audience is possible is going to receive this, and what is the best way to tell the story.
Di: I know there was some reshooting. When the decision was made to do that, did the three of you get together, or was this assigned to you to do a rewrite or two of you or all three of you?
PB: We did it all together. The reshoots were part of the natural process of pickups, which is a part of the process of film making. Fran especially is incredible at structure and she always kept her eye on that and then she’s sit down and talk it through, and Peter as well.
Di: You were happy with the reshoot portions fifting into what was already there?
PB: Oh, sure. These guys has been in these characters for fourteen months, they could walk into it easily.
Q&A with Clay Harper, Tolkien Projects Director, Houghton Mifflin Company
What are some of the highlights of Houghton Mifflin’s long history of publishing the works of J.R.R. Tolkien?
Houghton Mifflin has been J.R.R. Tolkien’s U.S. publisher since the beginning, with the first U.S. publication of The Hobbit in 1938, and Tolkien’s work is one of the crown jewels of our publishing program. We have published every book by the author, including children’s stories, poems, and scholarly essays. We’ve also published nearly every significant book about the author and his work, including Christopher Tolkien’s monumental twelve-volume The History of Middle-earth. The Hobbit was an immediate success upon publication, and readers asked for more stories set in Middle-earth right from the start. But it was a very long wait for the expected sequel. The Fellowship of the Ring, the first volume of The Lord of the Rings, didn’t arrive in stores until 1954 — sixteen years later. As a cultural phenomenon in America, Tolkien’s work has captured a wide public consciousness on several different occasions. In the mid-1960s, the first paperback editions were authorized, and the novels became immediate bestsellers. By the 1970s, Tolkien’s work was very popular on American college campuses and inspired everything from Led Zeppelin lyrics (including “Misty Mountain Hop” and “Ramble On”) to graffiti and buttons (the inspirational slogan “Frodo Lives” and the satirical “Gandalf for President”). Animated films of The Hobbit produced by Rankin/Bass and then a portion of The Lord of the Rings, directed by Ralph Bakshi, appeared on the scene. The Dungeons and Dragons phenomenon was partly inspired by Tolkien’s work, and it could be argued that the big fantasy sections in bookstores owe a large part of their existence to Tolkien’s popularity.
Why has The Hobbit been so popular for more than six decades?
It has been hailed as one of the greatest children’s stories of all time, and generations of readers have identified with the reluctant hero, Bilbo Baggins. Hobbits are amiable, likable, peaceful folk who don’t like to meddle in the affairs of others, and who don’t quite understand the forces at work in their imaginary world of Middle-earth. By nature, they don’t often travel, and they enjoy the simple things in life most of all: home, hearth, family, riddles, song, and good food. The wise wizard Gandalf enlists Bilbo’s help in a quest that Bilbo would prefer to have nothing to do with. There is great humor in the tale, and great adventure as the wonder of Middle-earth is revealed to the reader through the wonder of Bilbo’s reaction to being far from home — and of course there is great danger in the guise of the dragon Smaug the Magnificent, and from other sources as well.
But Tolkien’s real achievement is to tap into the great literary traditions and deepest roots of the English language — Beowulf comes to mind, particularly regarding the dragon’s hoard — and make these modes of storytelling accessible to and enjoyable for children. I believe it is that attribute, in addition to the wonderful cast of characters and the story itself, that has helped the book stand the test of time as a perennial favorite among readers of all ages.
What are the major themes of The Lord of the Rings, and what are its virtues?
The Lord of the Rings is a vastly more complex work than The Hobbit, and many readers and critics have proposed answers to this question over the years. My view is that some of the simplest explanations are the best, but perhaps they are the most difficult to grasp — at least as to how much Tolkien intended. First and foremost to me is the fact that The Lord of the Rings is the profound and spectacular creation of a single mind, a mind steeped in the legends of Europe and exceptionally well versed in the expression of its mythologies — in other words, the sheer enormity of Tolkien’s achievement. To have created a 1,200-page novel with hundreds of characters and centuries of invented history, culture, and language permeating every page and every action in an enormously eventful plot; to have created passages of heartbreaking beauty and gut-wrenching terror; to have made this entire invented world come alive in a very real way for the reader through unshakable logic and intricate design; and then to have set these characters in motion toward such incredible heights of excitement, intrigue, danger, and bittersweet triumph — it’s just mind-boggling to me. And every single incident and character, even every thing, is in The Lord of the Rings for a reason. I’ve never had an experience in fiction that comes close to achieving that.
Is it an epic adventure story? Of course. Is it about good and evil? Yes . . . but not just. It is partly a tale of pastoral, isolated, and innocent beings — the hobbits — swept up in the perilous history of their times. They find that their world is far more complex and dangerous than they had ever imagined. But a bit like soldiers going off to war (which in a sense they are), they find they have an important part to play in the outcome. Tom Shippey argues quite persuasively in his recent book J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century that the book is in part a response to the existence of evil in our world, particularly as it manifested itself in Tolkien’s times. The hobbits must make a simple moral choice between doing what they feel is right and doing otherwise — including the choice of doing at all. They find that they must engage the world around them — just as we all do in the end. So in this sense the book is a kind of coming-of-age tale, structured a bit like a funnel — the story opens up from their happy origins to encompass a vast world of grim danger through which the hobbits must travel to perform what they come to see as their duty. They persevere and ultimately prevail through the power of such simple to state but difficult to achieve virtues as courage, determination, bravery, and the renewable bonds of friendship and love. The world of Middle-earth they encounter is populated by creatures and cultures that embody these and other attributes, including wisdom and beauty but also tyranny, aggression, greed, ugliness, jealousy, and cruelty. In this way, Middle-earth is more than a little like our own world, and the conflicts in it and in the hearts of the characters are as personal as our own. Every single character is changed, marked, by personal experience, as we are in life.
Another wonderful thing about The Lord of the Rings is that it contains a host of aphorisms, which readers have taken to heart, including “He who breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom,” “Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens,” “The wise speak only of what they know,” “All that is gold does not glitter,/Not all who wander are lost;/The old that is strong does not wither,/Deep roots are not reached by the frost,” and countless others. Whenever I need to decide about packaging issues or strategy for the program, the one that rings in my head is “It is not our part here to take thought only for a season.” Tolkien has created a complete world within a world — our world — inside the covers of this novel.
What should readers know about the author?
J.R.R. Tolkien was born in South Africa on January 3, 1892, and died on September 2, 1973, at the age of eighty-one. He immigrated to England at the age of three but was orphaned at twelve and went to live in an orphanage. From a very early age, Tolkien invented his own languages as a hobby — more than twenty of them by the time of his death. He married his sweetheart from the orphanage, Edith, in 1916. Tolkien served in the First World War, surviving the Battle of the Somme, but nearly all of his closest friends were killed in that war. A student of the English written traditions and philology (the study of the history of words), he worked for a time as an assistant lexicographer on the Oxford English Dictionary. Later, as his career progressed, he taught at the University of Leeds, and then became a don at Oxford, where his scholarly reputation grew.
Tolkien wrote his fiction in his spare time. A jovial and deeply spiritual man, he was good friends with C. S. Lewis, and the two discussed their novels while they were writing them. Tolkien was delighted with the popular success of his novels in many ways, but he always fought their interpretation as allegory. To him, they simply were what they were, and the American college campus craze of the late 1960s, with its embrace of his work toward unintended ends, was a source of consternation. In 1972 he was awarded a CBE by Queen Elizabeth II.
Upon Tolkien’s death, his youngest son and literary executor, Christopher Tolkien, an Oxford don in his own right, prepared his great cosmology of Middle-earth, The Silmarillion, for publication. Christopher later produced a twelve-volume account of the origins, evolution, and writing of his father’s epic tales, The History of Middle-earth.
What is Houghton Mifflin’s role in the global Tolkien publishing enterprise?
We work closely with our UK partners, HarperCollins Publishers, to develop ideas for new editions, and we’re in constant communication with the estate of the author to discuss opportunities and results. We also monitor the activities of others and the potential impact on our copyrights, trademarks, and the legacy of J.R.R. Tolkien. Our market is obviously a large and influential one in this global context, but Tolkien’s work has been translated into more than thirty-five languages, including Armenian, Icelandic, Moldavian, Portuguese, and even Esperanto. Lifetime global sales of The Hobbit are estimated to be in excess of 40 million copies, and of The Lord of the Rings at more than 50 million copies — which makes Tolkien one of the most popular authors of all time.
What have been the sales trends in the United States throughout Houghton Mifflin’s history?
More than 30 million copies of Tolkien’s work are known to have been sold in the United States since 1938. After each of the major cultural way-points when the audience has expanded, the work has never seemed to fade in popularity. Now Tolkien’s work has been passed down through several generations, and each generation finds in his stories an inspiring set of values and ideals that fits its own life and times. Over the last few years the readership has been expanding at a great pace, and today Tolkien’s work can be found in more retail outlets and on more bookshelves than ever.
Houghton Mifflin’s own sales figures in 2000, on a dollar basis, were in the “mid-seven figures,” with unit sales (not including set components) of very close to half a million books. In 2001, we expect that the dollar-sales number will easily grow into a substantial eight figures, with unit sales of well over a million units. Our sales (U.S. only) doubled in each of the past three years, and it is very likely that this year’s sales will at least triple last year’s before the first film opens. Our new one-volume paperback with movie art on the cover, released in May, has sold five times as many copies as last year’s full-year sale of the previous edition through mid-July, and there are already a million copies of it in print through six printings.
What has Houghton Mifflin’s publishing strategy been? How has this strategy evolved over the years?
Houghton Mifflin has promoted, protected, and nurtured the work throughout its history, and will for generations to come. We believe that the best advocate for the work is the work itself; for years, readers have encouraged their friends and family to experience Tolkien’s creation, so there is a certain snowball effect whenever the audience expands. We’ve always treated the work like the extraordinary literary achievement that it is — as a timeless classic — rather than as the cornerstone of a particular genre. Because The Lord of the Rings and Tolkien’s other books invite rereading and close study, many readers who first come to them in paperback later move on to hardcover editions that they cherish for years. Consequently, we’ve published attractive quality paperbacks, solid hardcover editions, copiously illustrated editions featuring the art of J.R.R. Tolkien, Alan Lee, and others, as well as elaborate gift and collector’s editions over the years — and all are built to last. So the novels are available at a variety of price levels, with different packaging for different audiences. Every major new edition finds a welcome home, and the introduction of each is an opportunity to find a new audience and reintroduce the best-selling backlist to retailers and readers alike.
Our current efforts began ramping up in the spring of 1999, with the first U.S. publication of a one-volume paperback of The Lord of the Rings. Later that fall, the three-volume editions and The Hobbit were reissued. Readers often want to learn more about the author and his work once they’ve experienced it — and the growing popularity of Tolkien throughout the Internet community has certainly helped readers find others who share their enthusiasm. In each season since 1999, we’ve steadily reissued and published new related works, including The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography, The Atlas of Middle-earth, The Silmarillion, and, for the first time on American shelves, paperbacks of the books known as The History of The Lord of the Rings. The audience keeps expanding to accommodate these wonderful books as well.
In December 2000, Houghton Mifflin reached an agreement to become the sole U.S. publisher of books related to the major motion picture trilogy of The Lord of the Rings, in production from New Line Cinema under the direction of Peter Jackson. We’re using our expertise to reach as many readers as possible both before and after the first of the films opens on December 19, 2001. In May 2001 we introduced the first edition of The Lord of The Rings that used art from the forthcoming films as cover illustration, and as of now (7/01) one million copies of it are already in print through six printings. In September we’ll be introducing three-volume editions in paperback, hardcover, and boxed sets. On November 6, the first two books containing extensive imagery from the films will be available — and there are more titles to come.
Are there unique challenges in publishing film tie-in books?
There has never been an opportunity for us like this one. We’ve been working hard to spread the news of the impending film installments of The Lord of the Rings throughout our expanding customer base for Tolkien. Working closely with New Line Cinema, HarperCollins UK, and our customers, we’re determined to meet the challenge with a carefully calibrated, quality publishing program over the entire three-year period of theatrical releases and beyond. This is the first time that one monumental tale has been told through three films all filmed at once — and the films are being made by a vast crew of extremely talented fans of the books for fans of the book, including those who have yet to read it. We are very encouraged by their determination to be as true to Tolkien’s vision as they can be, and by the fact that the two illustrators most closely associated with Tolkien’s work — Alan Lee and John Howe — have been involved in the production design. You won’t see a flood of opportunistic “product” on the shelves from us or anyone else, but rather a selection of high-quality books that are faithful to the story and that take you behind the scenes of this unique filmmaking effort.
Besides managing the challenging logistics of acquiring, launching, producing, and marketing these new books — and believe me, many, many people are involved — one of the most interesting opportunities for me personally was the chance to look through New Line’s archive of more than 80,000 still photographs from the production in search of cover art for our novels. Our art director and I spent two days hunched over a light table looking through this mind-boggling array of possibilities, and everything I saw looked spectacularly rich in detail and true to the novels to me.
What are your hopes for these films?
I have been a fan of Tolkien’s work for more than twenty-five years and have read The Lord of the Rings many times. It has come to mean something different, something fresh and new, something more powerful and more admirable, each time, and I deeply cherish the images in my mind’s eye, put there through Tolkien’s beautiful prose and poetry. But for more than a decade I’ve also been a fan of the thoughtful, illustrated interpretations of his work in Alan Lee’s and John Howe’s paintings, and to see those visual interpretations serve as the basis for the films’ design, lovingly recreated and crafted in three dimensions, has been a thrill. What I’ve seen of these films so far compliments what’s in my mind’s eye. Houghton Mifflin obviously has a vested interest in the success of these films directly through our publishing program, but it is my passion and our hope that these films become an opportunity to encourage thousands and thousands of readers to discover Tolkien’s wonderful books for the first time — or to revisit his work again. By that measure, the films are already a huge success.
What are the significant new Tolkien books to be aware of this year?
There is a new edition of The Hobbit, featuring cover art by the renowned illustrator Peter Sis and completely new typesetting which restores the text to exactly the way it was when the author last made corrections; this will reach American shelves in August. In early September there will be a reissued edition of Unfinished Tales, which is a collection of shorter works set in Middle-earth. In late September, new editions of The Lord of the Rings in three volumes arrive — hardcovers, paperbacks, and boxed sets. Then on November 6 come the first of the books that focus specifically on the films: The Fellowship of the Ring Visual Companion by Jude Fisher, an introduction to the characters, cultures, and settings of Middle-earth as depicted in the films, and The Lord of the Rings Official Movie Guide by Brian Sibley, a behind-the-scenes introduction to the challenges that faced the filmmakers, actors, and crew.
What can we look forward to from Houghton Mifflin’s Tolkien publishing program beyond 2001?
In the spring of 2002 we’ll publish a book related to the art and design of the first film as well as a completely redesigned edition of Douglas A. Anderson’s The Annotated Hobbit. The lists beyond that are still in development, but you can expect to see more quality books about the films and more books about Tolkien from us in the future.
Do balrogs have wings?
This question, about a pivotal character and incident in The Fellowship of the Ring, embodies one of the great reader-inspired arguments of all time. And there are others: “Who or what is Tom Bombadil?” and “Who killed the Witch-King of Angmar?” My answer to the first question is “perhaps,” but for the second and third, you will have to consult The Lord of the Rings and draw your own conclusions.
Clay Harper, a former bookseller, has worked for Houghton Mifflin since 1988 in a variety of roles, including director of adult marketing. He has been managing the Tolkien publishing program since 1999.
For further information: Visit Houghton Mifflin at www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com to search our entire catalog.
28 Days (2000) Walk on the Moon, A (1999) UK Psycho (1998) UK Thin Red Line, The (1998) UK Prophecy, The (1995) Crew, The (1994) American Yakuza (1994) Ruby Cairo (1993) Young Americans, The (1993) Young Guns II (1990) UK Fresh Horses (1988) UK Witness (1985)
Liv Tyler (Arwen)
Cookie’s Fortune (1999) Plunkett & Macleane (1999) UK Onegin (1999) Can’t Hardly Wait (1998) UK Stealing Beauty (1996) UK
Ian Holm (Bilbo)
Joe Gould’s Secret (2000) Last of the Blonde Bombshells, The (2000) (TV) eXistenZ (1999) Animal Farm (1999) (TV) Dance with a Stranger (1985) Brazil (1985) UK Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984) UK S.O.S. Titanic (1979) (TV) Alien (1979) UK Mary, Queen of Scots (1971) UK Nicholas and Alexandra (1971) Fixer, The (1968) UK
Sean Bean (Boromir)
GoldenEye (1995) UK Stormy Monday (1988)
Martyn Sanderson (Bree Gatekeeper)
Ned Kelly (1970)
Hugo Weaving (Elrond)
Matrix, The (1999) UK Babe (1995) UK Exile (1994) UK
Miranda Otto (Eowyn)
Thin Red Line, The (1998)
David Wenham (Faramir)
Molokai: The Story of Father Damien (1999)
Elijah Wood (Frodo)
Faculty, The (1998) UK Good Son, The (1993) Forever Young (1992) UK Paradise (1991) Avalon (1990) UK Internal Affairs (1990)
Cate Blanchett (Galadriel)
Ideal Husband, An (1999) UK Pushing Tin (1999) UK
Ian McKellen (Gandalf)
X-Men (2000) UK Apt Pupil (1998) UK Bent (1997) Restoration (1995) Shadow, The (1994) Six Degrees of Separation (1993) And the Band Played On (1993) (TV) Scandal (1989) UK Alfred the Great (1969) UK
Secret of the Andes (1998) UK Tusks (1990) Perry Mason: The Case of the Murdered Madam (1987) (TV) King Solomon’s Mines (1985) Victor/Victoria (1982) Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square, A (1979) UK
Kimberly (1999) Icebreaker (1999) Dish Dogs (1998) Teresa’s Tattoo (1994) Encino Man (1992) UK Toy Soldiers (1991) Memphis Belle (1990) War of the Roses, The (1989) UK White Water Summer (1987) UK Goonies, The (1985)
Christopher Lee (Saruman)
Sleepy Hollow (1999) UK Tale of the Mummy (1998) UK Jinnah (1998) UK Death Train (1993) (TV) UK Safari 3000 (1982) Serial (1980) 1941 (1979) UK Arabian Adventure (1979) Return from Witch Mountain (1978) UK Creeping Flesh, The (1973) Horror Express (1972) UK One More Time (1970) Vengeance of Fu Manchu, The (1967) UK Psycho-Circus (1966) Gorgon, The (1964) UK City of the Dead, The (1960) Tempi duri per i vampiri (1959) Crimson Pirate, The (1952) UK Moulin Rouge (1952) UK Saraband for Dead Lovers (1948)
Brian Sergent (Ted Sandyman)
Meet the Feebles (1989)
Bernard Hill (Theoden)
Loss of Sexual Innocence, The (1999) UK Midsummer Night’s Dream, A (1999) UK True Crime (1999) UK Wind in the Willows, The (1996/I) UK
Brad Dourif (Wormtongue)
Shadow Hours (2000) Storytellers, The (1999) UK Urban Legend (1998) UK Bride of Chucky (1998) UK Murder in the First (1995) Body Parts (1991) UK Cerro Torre: Schrei aus Stein (1991) Hidden Agenda (1990) Graveyard Shift (1990) Dune (1984)
Jim Rygiel (SFX)
Anna and the King (1999) Species (1995) Alien³ (1992) Batman Returns (1992) 2010 (1984) Last Starfighter, The (1984)
Howard Shore (Composer)
High Fidelity (2000) eXistenZ (1999) Dogma (1999) Analyze This (1999) Game, The (1997) Se7en (1995) Moonlight and Valentino (1995) M. Butterfly (1993) Guilty as Sin (1993) Philadelphia (1993) Prelude to a Kiss (1992) Silence of the Lambs, The (1991) Postcards from the Edge (1990) She-Devil (1989) Fly, The (1986) After Hours (1985) Videodrome (1983)
Peter Jackson (Director)
Heavenly Creatures (1994) Meet the Feebles (1989)
To get more information, use the sites I use like:
Heya TORN. Spotted this on the website of the Dunedin Methodist Mission, New Zealand. One of the mission’s priests – a self-confessed LOTR fan – is giving an evening talk about the Lord of the Rings this August 29 as part of the church’s Open Education Programme (ignore the date of 2000 on the web page – it’s a typo). The talk will focus on the good vs evil and religious themes of LOTR.
Can’t think of a better way to spend a cold winter night in the southern South Island, myself…..
Cheers, Ataahua New Zealand.
http://www.dunedinmethodist.org.nz/prsh/zprsh.htm
Our Open Education Programme for 2001 Our parish is again offering an Open Education Programme, with, we hope, something of interest for everybody. It is an “open” programme, because we welcome the participation of people from other churches and from the wider community. There is a small charge for each session – generally $5.
If any of these grabs your attention, and you have not otherwise registered your interest, please ring the Methodist Mission Office, 477 2000, to check that the arrangements listed here still hold, and to indicate your intention to join in.
The Lord of the Rings Speaker: Rev Donald Phillipps
The Rev Donald Phillipps is a former President of the Methodist Church, to which he has given and still is giving distinguished service. In his spare time he is a lover of cricket and choral music — and the works of J.R.R. Tolkien.
Later this year the first of three films directed by New Zealander Pater Jackson and based on the famous trilogy, The Lord of the Rings, by English writer J.R.R. Tolkien, will be released to a world-wide audience. If you haven’t already entered Tolkien’s hugely imaginative and magical world of hobbits, elves, orcs, ents, ring-wraiths and Dark Riders, or followed Frodo, Sam and Pippin, or met Sauron, the Dark Lord, Gandalf the wizard, the noble Aragorn, Gollum and all the rest, read the books now and get ready for the film by hearing about the world of the Lord of the Rings from an expert and enthusiast.
The Lord of the Rings is more than an epic romance which has a cult following numbered in millions. It is also a serious account of the struggle between good and evil; a masterpiece of fiction with profoundly religious themes. Let Donald Phillipps be your guide. Wednesday August 29, 7.30 – 9 p.m. followed by a light supper. Mornington Methodist Church, Galloway Street, Dundedin. Cost: $5
I haven’t noticed if you already posted this info about the event, but if you haven’t already, perhaps you can help spread the word to the more VFX-oriented TORN fans, maybe one of them will wanna send a review back.
“At this year Siggraph 2001 (http://www.siggraph.org/s2001), WETA Digital will showcase some of the work they are doing on the “Lord of the Rings” movies at the Side Effects Software (http://www.sidefx.com) booth, during their special Houdini meeting. To present the visual effects shots, Michael Perry, VFX animator at WETA Digital, will be there, and he will comment on the role Houdini software had in the post-production of LotR.
The event will be held on Sunday, August 12, beginning at 2 p.m. in the Westin-Bonaventure Hotel’s San Jose Room. Besides the WETA presentation, there will be other companies demonstrating their most recent work, a reception afterwards, plus a sneak preview of the new Houdini 5 software. Unfortunately, there are no more open seats, due to the overwhelming demand, but if one of the torn fans happens to be going there, maybe he or she can send a report back to us.
For more on this and other SFX tom-foolery, check out our our SFX section!
Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn)
Liv Tyler (Arwen)
Ian Holm (Bilbo)
Sean Bean (Boromir)
Martyn Sanderson (Bree Gatekeeper)
Hugo Weaving (Elrond)
Miranda Otto (Eowyn)
David Wenham (Faramir)
Elijah Wood (Frodo)
Cate Blanchett (Galadriel)
Ian McKellen (Gandalf)
Andy Serkis (
Bruce Spence (Mouth of Sauron)
Sean Astin (Sam)
Christopher Lee (Saruman)
Brian Sergent (Ted Sandyman)
Bernard Hill (Theoden)
Brad Dourif (Wormtongue)