2 days left until the NEW LOTR trailer hits theatres!! Thanks to New Line for sending us this new Banner for today! Great pic of Gimli the Dwarf!
Category: Old Special Reports
Heat Magazine has two LOTR related clips, and ringer spy Alex sends them along for your viewing pleasure!
Many thanks to Andre for this story. He got it from Der Spiegel, ran it through the Babelfish translator [RIP Douglas Adams] and we both tried to clean the result up into intelligible English. Bracketed phrases are best guesses.
” We were totally lucky ass holes ” – By Ruediger Storm
The independent producer Saul Zaentz ( One flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest “, ” Amadeus “), 80, is one of the producers of the “Lord of the Rings” films. Spiegel ON-LINE spoke with Berkeley resident and three-times OSCAR winner about his role with the ring Trilogy, and about Hollywood’s lack of imagination.
Spiegel ON-LINE: Mr. Zaentz, you control among other things the movie rights to the “Lord of the Rings “, and in 1978 you produced an animated movie. Why do you leave the large real film version [to someone else]?
Saul Zaentz: The animated film is the only one of my productions with which I am not satisfied. We simply had not found the correct form. Now there are the technical possibilities, but digital effects are no longer my world. Naturally we use it, in order to improve normal productions visually. But with the “Lord of the Rings ” the computer animation is a [vital] part of the film. And now I am at an age where I cannot learn this type of film-making. Nor do I want to. That is now Peter Jackson’s vision.
Spiegel Online: Is he the right man?
Zaentz: He is. Only because of him I gave away all the rights. I met him and his wife several times in the last few years, and with their intelligence and their enthusiasm the two convinced me.
Spiegel Online: Although with “Heavenly Creatures” he had only one film to show which can be taken seriously?
Zaentz: It’s the same with Anthony Minghella, who made ” the English Patient ” for me, he’d only shot one good first work “Truly, Madly, Deeply”. But one film is sufficient already, so that I can judge whether someone is a good director.
Spiegel Online: Is it sufficient just to be a good director in order to master the epic dimensions of the “Lord of the Rings “?
Zaentz: With “the English Patient ” there were the same discussions. Studios said, ‘Now that is a large movie, but Minghella so far made only a small one.’ Nerve-killing! Finally I exploded. I said: If Miro had painted only small pictures, would you not let him paint a large one? On that they gave no answer.
Spiegel Online: Are you in contact with Peter Jackson?
Zaentz: I sent him some material on musicians, whom I considered suitable. But I do not know whether he selected some of them.
Spiegel Online: That is your only contribution to the “Lord of the Ring “?
Zaentz: If Peter Jackson had not convinced me, the movie probably would not exist.
In the last ten years there were different prospective customers [for the film rights], but the correct one was simply not among them. I sold the option to Miramax, which wanted to co-operate
with Jackson. I let them pay a considerable sum, because Miramax only makes those movies big, into which they invested properly. But then they wanted Jackson to make only one “Lord of the
Rings” film. That was naturally an absurdity, and he stepped out. Miramax would have had to pay now another large amount for the renewal of the option, but now they had no director anymore. And in that situation my friend Bob Shaye of NEWLINE called me and suggested we co-operate. And I said: Clearly, but only with Peter Jackson.
Spiegel Online: Nevertheless the cash had also to be right, didn’t it?
Zaentz: Of course. We have a profit-sharing of the film and we control the Merchandising rights. But we found a concerted solution with new LINE, with which both parties earn something. Otherwise I have nothing to do with the movie. Therefore I want also no recognition as a producer for LOTR.
Spiegel Online: As a producer you experienced several nightmares. In the middle of producing “the English Patient ” the financing fell through. Now you plan a complex film on Goya and his times. Are you ready for a new horror trip?
Zaentz: One cannot say : “I do not go over the road, because I might get hit by a car.” I believe in my luck. It worked with the ” Cuckoo’s Nest.” Exactly the same we were lucky that we received 1979 the rights for ” Lord of the rings ” from MGM. Therefore one called us also “the lucky ass holes of Berkeley “. After “Amadeus” we were the totally lucky ass holes,” and after “The English Patient” the “extremely totally lucky ass holes”.
Spiegel Online: And all this although you never did the typical Hollywood Blockbuster.
Zaentz: Hollywood always copies itself. If one has a successful animal film, they all do animal films. One should not look always at what the other studios do, but do his own thing. What I’m interested in is the influence of history on the ” conditio humana “. That’s what I want to talk about. That’s the only way a movie works.
Spiegel Online: When you received 1997 the Irving G. Thalberg Award, you said, ” the cup is full “. The following OSCAR for ” English the patient ” you commentated with ” the cup has overflowed now. ” Why do you then still continue?
Zaentz: Akira Kurosawa, one of my true heroes, said one of the greatest sentences which I have ever heard: “People like us should die while making movies “. I don’t want to find the Holy Grail, but I always want to be on the way to it. My aim is the way.
Rallas sent us this report from an Aussie paper:
I’ve just finished reading a full page article (with picture) from an Australian Daily newspaper concerning an interview with Cate Blanchette. In the article there are several quotes from other actors (Tyler, Bean) and PJ. The interesting one is from Tyler:
“She’s absolutely, hands down, probably my favourite actress and I loved to watch her”, Tyler said at the film’s worldwide media launch in Cannes. “It was wonderful, although we only had one scene together, to get to meet her and be together. She’s an amazing woman”.
Interesting as, if I remember correctly, Arwen doesn’t meet her grandmother at all in the books! Another small change to the story…”
I don’t do my best postings round midnight. People wrote to say that Galadriel and Arwen do indeed meet, near the end. Galadriel attends the wedding and afterwards rides some way with the company.
It’s sitll interesting to speculate what scene they’re written for since Tolkien didn’t write any scenes between them – or am I misremembering there too?Arwen and Galadriel together. We’ve seen a lot of pictures of Arwen dashing round on horses and holding weapons. Now here’s some evidence at least for some scenes that might be less physical and more emotional. It occurs to me that the Tolkien newbies watching the movies won’t know about Arwen’s loss of immortality if she chooses to stay with Aragorn. Either it gets mentioned in passing, or they can write a new scene (and why not between Galadriel and Arwen?) that reveals the seriousness of Arwen’s choice.
Confusion reigns, because none of the most overtly Tolkien-influenced Zeppelin songs are on their third album, though some have argued that ‘The Immigrant Song’ and ‘Celebration Day’ could be vaguely reminiscent. In Celebration Day Eryndur mentions “…references to a woman who worries about her people’s days being over, and how they’ll have to go; and a train leaving for your destination, and being in the promised land. All this points to the fading of elves, the ascendancy of man, and the departure from the Grey Havens and the trip to Valinor.”( I can’t see PJ wearing any reference to a train anywhere in LOTR though.) And if you decided to say that ‘The Immigrant Song’ was about Numenoreans instead of Vikings it could fit though it wouldn’t have much to do with the story of LOTR.
Meanwhile nobody has much to say about ‘What is and what should never be,’ the song that Alannis SAID she was singing on the MTV interview, according to Susie. But that song’s not on Led Zep 3 either, it’s on Zep 2. I looked at the lyrics and thought ‘OK, so maybe Aragorn and Arwen are thinking this:’
‘”If I say to you tomorrow,
Take my hand child come with me,
It’s to a castle I will take you,
Where what’s to be they say will be.
Catch the wind see us spin,
Sail away leave the day,
Way up high in the sky.
But the wind won’t blow,
You really shouldn’t go,
It only goes to show.
That you will be mine,
By taking our time.”
Hmm, it could be cunning to have a song that represents A&A’s feelings for each other so it can show up from time to time to remind us that they’re still apart, still thinking of each other. Saves on making up additional dialogue for the same effect.
Well, maybe. Somehow it’s still interesting to think about the other possibilities.
Led Zep albums 2 and 4 have some more favourite Tolkienish songs, says Eryndur: “Ramble On” is on Led Zeppelin II, and “The Battle of Evermore” is on Led Zeppelin IV. These two songs have the most blatant references to Tolkien, going so far as to actually mention specific Tolkien creations, namely “Gollum”, “Mordor” (from Ramble On), and “ringwraiths” (in Evermore). Another point in their favour is that they’re written to contain a duet. But you can rewrite a lot of songs so they use more than one voice, either alternating or in harmony.
Personally I like the reference to the urge to ramble on hitting hardest in Autumn – something that Frodo and Bilbo both felt.
As for the whole idea of using Led Zep music at all, or Alanis and Axl to sing it, here’s a few thoughts. Led Zeppelin alternated a very gentle ballad style of music with harder-rocking music. “Ramble On,” much as I like it, seems too rocky for the spirit of LOTR. (Plus what do you do about the bit where it wanders off into worrying about some woman lost in Mordor? ) But there’s no end to the ways music can be arranged: the rather dry drum sound in “Ramble On” could easily be replaced with the old celtic bodhran. The interesting bassline would change character completely if played on a cello or viol de gamba. The lead guitar riffs? Imagine them on violin. About the only thing that would have to go completely is the cymbal/kit drum sound, which dates the music instantly. That, and the vocal lines that are more screamed than sung in that very 70s rock style.
But if you listen to something like ‘Battle of Evermore’ you may notice that most of the accompaniament is very light – mostly guitars. The other very twangy instrument you hear a lot of sounds like a hammered dulcimer – these days a standard sound on a sampler keyboard, but the original instrument is very old and very simple – a flat box on legs with wire strings that are played with hammers. It wouldn’t take much to turn ‘Evermore’ into a very ancient-sounding simple folksong. The main thing that would have to change is that characteristically 70s rock caterwauling that they break into every now and then – it’s very much part of a certain music of a certain time.
As for Alanis and Axl Rose doing Zep? Or doing some older-sounding music? Well, listening to singers do something new is always interesting especially if they’re breaking into a new genre. I’ve got my own list of successes and failures: Kiri Te Kanawa is a GREAT operatic soprano, but her version of ‘Summertime’ makes me leave the room. On the other hand Mahalia Jackson is a singer who does more gospel than anything else, which a lot of people find boring, but I defy anyone to listen to her version of ‘Summertime’ without the hair lifting on the back of their neck. Sinead O’Connor doing Schubert’s ‘Ave Maria’? I can’t hit the ‘off’ button fast enough, and yet she has a great voice in her normal songs. Celine Dion doing most things leaves me marvelling that such an extraordinary voice can be used to so little effect, and yet the time she sings something by a good composer, like when James Horner put her on the ‘Titanic’ soundtrack, then she’s powerful and moving.
So sometimes people do these daring departures from their normal style and it pays off. Sometimes it doesn’t. All adds to the suspense of waiting to see!
PS if you HAVE to mail someone about this, mail tehanu@theonering.net as the others have NO interest in discussing it!
For the 32.6% of us who are going to explode by the time the films come out, we can try and find some relief in doing other Tolkien-related things to distract ourselves from the movies. Not all of you will have found the audio recording on Tolkien reading from LOTR on Salon.com – that’s always worth a listen just to hear him do Gollum’s voice.[More]
Along the same lines, there’s always the BBC audio version of LOTR on tape, with Ian Holm playing Frodo instead of Bilbo as he does in the film. This is THE classic version. Sam wrote in with good news for British Ringers:
“I noticed in WHSmiths (a big chain in England for books, CD’s, magazines, newspapers, you name it) that they are now selling the 13 tape audio cassette box set for twenty pounds (£20) which if you ask me is a pretty good bargain…whether it’s going for cheaper elsewhere I’ve got no idea…” [Nope, costs about twice as much here even allowing for the exchange rate-T.]
Elsewhere, Rallas alerted me to this:
“Debbie Ridpath Ohi, a Toronto writer and musician, has invited Tolkien fans and foes alike to join her as she wades her way through the yarn that has won the odd accolade as greatest book of the 20th century.” You get to see an experienced writer respond to the book for the first time, and then there’s the responses to her from other people. It’s great to see a skeptic getting gradually drawn in to the story.[More]