28 Days (2000) Thin Red Line, The (1998) UK Psycho (1998) UK Perfect Murder, A (1998) UK Albino Alligator (1996) Portrait of a Lady, The (1996) Passion of Darkly Noon, The (1995) Prophecy, The (1995) Floundering (1994) American Yakuza (1994) Boiling Point (1993) Ruby Cairo (1993) Young Guns II (1990)
Liv Tyler (Arwen)
Dr. T & the Women (2000) Cookie’s Fortune (1999) UK Plunkett & Macleane (1999) Can’t Hardly Wait (1998) UK Armageddon (1998)
Ian Holm (Bilbo)
Last of the Blonde Bombshells, The (2000) (TV) eXistenZ (1999) UK Sweet Hereafter, The (1997) Fifth Element, The (1997) UK Madness of King George, The (1994) Naked Lunch (1991) Hamlet (1990) UK Brazil (1985) UK Dance with a Stranger (1985) Return of the Soldier, The (1982) All Quiet on the Western Front (1979) (TV) Severed Head, A (1971) UK Fixer, The (1968) UK Bofors Gun, The (1968) UK
Sean Bean (Boromir)
Black Beauty (1994) UK
Marton Csokas (Celeborn)
Halifax f.p: Swimming with Sharks (1999) (TV)
Hugo Weaving (Elrond)
Matrix, The (1999) UK 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) UK Dead Letter Office (1998) Thin Red Line, The (1998) UK
Elijah Wood (Frodo)
Bumblebee Flies Anyway, The (2000) Faculty, The (1998) UK Ice Storm, The (1997) Good Son, The (1993) Forever Young (1992) UK Internal Affairs (1990) Avalon (1990) UK Back to the Future Part II (1989) UK
Cate Blanchett (Galadriel)
Ideal Husband, An (1999) UK Pushing Tin (1999) UK
Ian McKellen (Gandalf)
Apt Pupil (1998) UK Shadow, The (1994) UK I’ll Do Anything (1994) Scandal (1989) Alfred the Great (1969) UK
Secret of the Andes (1998) UK Great White Hype, The (1996) UK Aladdin and the King of Thieves (1996) (V) Katharina die Große (1995) (TV) Cyborg Cop (1994) Unnamable II: The Statement of Randolph Carter, The (1993) Sunset Grill (1993) Perry Mason: The Case of the Fatal Framing (1992) (TV) Seventh Coin, The (1992) Perry Mason: The Case of the Murdered Madam (1987) (TV) King Solomon’s Mines (1985) Nairobi Affair (1984) (TV) UK Victor/Victoria (1982)
Kimberly (1999) Icebreaker (1999) Bulworth (1998) UK Dish Dogs (1998) Long Way Home, The (1997) UK Harrison Bergeron (1995) (TV) Low Life, The (1994/I) Where the Day Takes You (1992) UK Encino Man (1992) UK Toy Soldiers (1991) UK Memphis Belle (1990) Staying Together (1989) War of the Roses, The (1989) White Water Summer (1987) UK Goonies, The (1985)
Christopher Lee (Saruman)
Sleepy Hollow (1999) UK Tale of the Mummy (1998) UK Jinnah (1998) UK Odyssey, The (1997) (TV) UK Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990) Safari 3000 (1982) 1941 (1979) UK Circle of Iron (1979) Return from Witch Mountain (1978) UK Nothing But the Night (1972) Scream and Scream Again (1969) Gorgon, The (1964) UK Beat Girl (1960) Battle of the River Plate, The (1956) UK
Bernard Hill (Theoden)
Midsummer Night’s Dream, A (1999) UK True Crime (1999) UK Gandhi (1982) UK
Brad Dourif (Wormtongue)
Shadow Hours (2000) UK Urban Legend (1998) UK Color of Night (1994) Amos & Andrew (1993) Trauma (1993) Body Parts (1991) UK Cerro Torre: Schrei aus Stein (1991) Jungle Fever (1991) Child’s Play 2 (1990) UK Hidden Agenda (1990) Mississippi Burning (1988) UK Dune (1984) UK
Jim Rygiel (SFX)
102 Dalmatians (2000) Anna and the King (1999) Star Trek: Insurrection (1998) UK Cliffhanger (1993) Batman Returns (1992) Ghost (1990) 2010 (1984) UK
Howard Shore (Composer)
Cell, The (2000) eXistenZ (1999) UK Analyze This (1999) UK Se7en (1995) Ed Wood (1994) Sliver (1993) Single White Female (1992) UK Prelude to a Kiss (1992) Naked Lunch (1991) Silence of the Lambs, The (1991) Postcards from the Edge (1990) She-Devil (1989) Big (1988) Dead Ringers (1988) Moving (1988) Fly, The (1986) Places in the Heart (1984) UK Videodrome (1983) UK Silkwood (1983) UK
Peter Jackson (Director)
Heavenly Creatures (1994)
To get more information, use the sites I use like:
Chade sent in this nice story, which he’s translated out of theSwedish paper Aftonbladet:
“A new article about LotR and more specifically about Elijah Wood at Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet.se.
Elijah says “it is cool to become a doll” and that he himself collects action figures from i.e. Star Wars.
He also said that PJ wanted only Brittish actors as hobbits, but Elijah wanted this part bad, so he got himself dressed up as a Hobbit, went out in the forest and let a friend film him as he read a few parts from the books with british accent.
Christopher Lee told Eliah that after the movies have opened, he won’t be able to walk on the streets, and compares it to how Paul McCartney described the hysteria about the Beatles. Then the article talks about PJ being a big Beatles-fan and how he’s described the four hobbits as the members of the Beatles: Paul (Frodo), John (Merry), George (Pippin) and Ringo (Sam). Elijah says that when PJ had his birthday the four hobbits made a picture where they posed exactly as a classic Beatles-picture (from the Ed Sullivan Show) and on the drum-set it said “The Hobbits”. 🙂
For the entire article (in Swedish) follow this link
Thanks to Phillip for this one, which is pretty detailed. There’s a few ‘neekerbreekers’ – confusing Saruman and Sauron – but still worth a read. Notice the mention of the ‘Bizzare fingernails’ on Frodo and the fact that heads are hewed off and blood flows freely – answering the people who feared that LOTR might become too cartoon-like or Xena-like in its depiction of violence.
“See Article on LOTR and Cannes
May 13 2001 BRITAIN
An epic film has been unveiled in Cannes, writes Richard Brooks, finally pitting technology against the wizardry of Middle Earth.
THE secrecy surrounding Hollywood’s version of Lord of the Rings has finally been lifted. The first footage of what will be a trilogy of films telling JRR Tolkien’s epic fantasy was shown to a select audience at the Cannes film festival last week: it revealed a Middle Earth scarier and stranger than many expected.
In what must be the longest-ever trailer for a movie, three clips running to about 20 minutes were screened for the cast of the film and a few others, including a Sunday Times writer.
The scenes opened at the beginning of Tolkien’s tale of the battle between good and evil; the hobbit Bilbo Baggins is at home in his house built into a hillside. There is a knock on the door and Bilbo, played by Sir Ian Holm, answers it to find Gandalf, the wizard.
Sir Ian McKellan, who plays Gandalf, is an imposing figure with a gruff voice who, thanks to clever camera angles and double-filming of scenes, appears to tower over Bilbo. “Although I was in each scene, I could not believe what I was seeing on the screen,” said McKellan, who saw the results of his efforts only at the screening.
In the books, Tolkien brilliantly weaves together dangerous adventure with quirky humour, and on the evidence of the clips the film achieves the same. Though the film has been made deliberately to appeal to people who have never read Tolkien, the characterisations seem to sit well with the original. Holm displays a quaint charm fitting for Bilbo, while McKellan is majestic as Gandalf.
What will surprise many audiences is how frightening some of the scenes are. After Bilbo departs, his cousin and adopted heir, Frodo, played by 20-year-old Elijah Wood, takes over as the central hobbit character. Depicted as a small figure, with squinty eyes and bizarre fingernails, Frodo is entrusted with the Ruling Ring – the only power that can prevent the total dominion of the wizard Saruman the White, played by Christopher Lee.
Frodo sets off with a group of friends on a perilous journey to the Crack of Doom to destroy the ring forever. Trolls, orcs, dwarves and other fantastic characters crowd the story. The first clip shown last week ends with a battle against medieval warriors and other weird figures as the hobbits travel through Middle Earth. Heads are severed in the fight with swords, and blood flows freely.
Desperate adventures continued in the second clip, which showed Frodo and his group travelling through the labyrinthine Mines of Moria. There they encounter a grotesque, octopus-like colossus called The Watcher, which has one eye. There are attacks by orcs, which look as if they have been dragged from graves, and a scene in which a rock staircase collapses above a terrifying fall of hundreds of feet.
The group also has to flee Balrog, a 40ft-high winged demon whose skin crackles with fire and smoke.
In the book, Gandalf saves the hobbits but is dragged into the abyss by Balrog. The makers of the film are keeping most of their secrets for now: though it is known that Gandalf dies in the film, it was not revealed how last week. Instead, the hobbits were shown emerging from the terror of the mines at an elves’ city, where they are attended by Lady Galadriel, played by Cate Blanchett.
The sets are spectacular, and the technical effects are so skilful it is hard to tell where the real actors end and the computerised images begin. To press home that no expense has been spared in making the trilogy, the filmmaker, New Line Cinema, hired a chateau at Cannes and turned it into a scene from Middle Earth.
It is engaged in a battle almost as epic as those in the story. The first of the trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring, will be released in December, a month after the first film adaptation of the Harry Potter books reaches cinemas. The other two parts are expected to be released at one-year intervals.
Filming took place in New Zealand in 1999 and last year with a cast that included Sean Bean and Liv Tyler.
Some Tolkien purists are concerned that there is more love interest in the film than in the book. “The book is essentially a Boy’s Own story,” said Humphrey Carpenter, the biographer of Tolkien. “There’s minimal love interest. Yet I don’t object to the book’s filming.”
The Tolkien family, however, is concerned at the effect the films will have. “When we were growing up these were just stories we were told,” said John Tolkien, the eldest son. “When you’ve grown up with something you don’t want someone else putting their finger on it.”
Though Tolkien sold the rights to the book before his death, he appears to have doubted whether such a complex, fantastical story could be filmed.
“Tolkien himself never thought a film could be made of the books,” said Richard Crawshaw, of the Tolkien Society. “We feel that no movie could ever capture the full depth and flavour of the book.”
Peter Jackson, the director of the three films – which have been made as one long story – believes that cinema has now reached a stage where it can cope with Middle Earth. “It has taken all the years since Tolkien wrote his book for film-making technology to catch up with his imagination,” said Jackson, whose best-known film previously was Heavenly Creatures, starring Kate Winslet.
Judged by the clips released last week, he may be right. If the rest of the films live up to the studio’s promise, audiences will be left eager for more. As ever with the Lord of the Rings, hidden dangers remain. If the Hollywood marketing machine weaves too clever a spell and the films fail to live up to the hype, it will take the wizardry of Gandalf for New Line Cinema to recover. The trilogy is costing at least £200m.
Here is the first installment of our cast interviews. These interviews were conducted in a round table format with about 9 other reporters, including Harry from AintitCool. While my analog tape of this interview turned out pretty poor, I’m hopeful Harry will post his digital audio to make up for our technological downfalls!
***NOTE: While I attempted to get every word spoken, in some cases I had to paraphrase. A huge thanks to my friend Amy for providing some quality editing before I posted this update. ***
Reporter: How did you get cast?
Christopher Lee: I got a call from my agent saying that Peter Jackson was directing Lord Of The Rings. “Would you go and see him and talk to him? Would you do a reading? And would mind if they videotaped you during the meeting?” Well, I said, “No,” because in the case of this particular story, this great epic, I was perfectly happy to go, be seen, photographed, and read… and do anything they like! Its not something one does all that often. So, I went along and saw him in a very small room in the back of a church in London. And he was sitting there with his wife (one of the producers and also one of the writers) Fran, and the British casting director. And I read something, I don’t remember what it was, and then he said… well, he didn’t say anything actually. But I didn’t say “Well, do I do it, or whatever you want me to play?” I found out later that he had already exactly decided everyone he wanted to for each role. And he got them all.
John Rhys-Davies: What about this business of you getting down on your knees and begging?
CL: That’s not on film. That.. ah… came later. He showed me, like he showed you, all these wonderful photographs of locations in New Zealand, and some of the characters John (Howe) designed. I thought, god this is going to be something unique in my life as an actor, something I always dreamed about… that this would become a film one day. Of course we say film, what one really means is the whole thing. And I always dreamed that maybe I would be in it. So occasionally dreams do come true! Not very often.
Reporter: Many people said you wanted to play Gandalf, years ago.
Christopher Lee: Oh, well…years ago, when the books came out! And, I was too young to play Gandalf. I was! When the books came out, somebody said to me, “Did you read these books, and do you think they will be made into a film?” And I said it’d be a wonderful thing, but I doubt it. And he said, “What would you like to play?” And, of course I said Gandalf, nothing strange about that. Who wouldn’t? But now, I’m far to old to play Gandalf. And when I saw what Ian did, apart from his performance, and seeing what he had to do physically, I was extremely thankful! I was even looking at you (Ian) running through the mines yesterday (in the footage).
Reporter: What do you remember of meeting Tolkien?
CL : Very little. I was up in Oxford meeting some friends, and we were in the Randolph Hotel. And someone said, “What are you doing here, this is all rather correct and proper. Lets go to a pub.” This was a way long time ago. Forty-five plus years ago. And we went to this pub, it’s now world famous, but I can’t remember the name of it. I can’t honestly remember. We were sitting there talking and drinking beer or something, and someone said, “Oh, look who walked in,” it was Professor Tolkien and I nearly fell off my chair. I didn’t even know he was alive. He was a benign looking man, smoking a pipe, walking in… an English countryman with earth under his feet. And he was a genius, a man of incredible intellectual knowledge. And he knew somebody in our group. He (the man in the group) said, “Oh Professor, Professor,” and he came over. And each one of us, well I knelt of course, each one of us said, “How do you do?” And I just said “Ho… How… How…” I just couldn’t belive it. But I’ll never forget it.
IM: I think meeting writers is more special then meeting…
CL: Of course, they originate the whole thing…
IM: … then meeting the Queen or stars. I remember being at the National Theater the year Arthur Miller sequestered. When the author of Death of a Salesman walked on the stage, I don’t know! Or, when I once saw Samuel Beckett rehearsing. It’s just so thrilling. CS Lewis, I used to attend his lectures at Cambridge…
CL: Well, he was a member of the same club, the Inklings, as was Tolkien at Oxford. He wrote three wonderul books.
IM: I think Tolkien has been looking down, or up, on this project. He was always there. The books were always there, just off the set in every single scene. Last minute checks… did we get it right, is that what he wanted, is that what he intended? The devotion to that man, I think was equal to that of Peter Jackson. It was always there, it never was out.
Reporter: Like a director checking a composer?
IM: It was just like that.
Reporter: Why does he (Peter Jackson) engender such affection?
CL: He can! He is a man you come to love and respect.
JRD: He has everything a director needs. And a director needs an enormous technical facility of some sort. He knows the grammer and syntax of filmmaking. His casting is impecible. It is… present company. I never walked into a first reading of anything before and looked around and identified the characters. “That’s got to be Frodo… that’s got to be Legolas the elf. That’s got to be Sam.” I’ve never done that before in my life. And when I saw that, I saw that he knew. That there was a chance we would be making something big.
IM: You know when this film comes out, it’s just going to say “New Line productions present ‘Lord of the Rings.'” It’s not going to be “A film by Peter Jackson.” Wouldn’t you think you’d earn the right, having brought this project to life, to have your name up there? The man you’ll meet today is the man we met every day. He is always the same. He is the guy that has only got one pair of shoes. He’s wearing a long pair of trousers today I have never seen him wear. He’s always in shorts. He’s always in the same vest, shirt. And there are other people like him in that remarkable country of New Zealand. And he generates such enthusiasum just simply by being himself. He is not a star. He is absolutely reliable. You can go to him and you’ll get the answer, and his knowledge is formidable.
CL: He knows what he wants. And he will go on doing it until he gets it. You know when he says, “That’s it!” then that IS it.
Reporter: What kind of impact will these films have?
JRD: These are going to be the biggest films of all time. I don’t think there is any question about it. Because half the world has read Tolkien, and the other half will. I have to tell you, that line did not come from me.
CL: I didn’t come from me either. It’s something I read.
IM: Since it was announced these films were being made, the Tolkien estate finances in the United Kingdom alone have doubled. How do we know the film is going to be successful? Look at AintitCool News (pointing at Harry) and other sites. Look at the 400 million hits on the Lord of the Rings site. Look at the responses on my website. There are people just waiting and waiting. It will be the biggest opening of any film. The question is, will it go on then, to be bigger then that? And having seen that half an hour last night, any concerns about that have been laid to rest. It has very good appeal. And it must appeal to people who have never read the book, and will never read the books, and are just going to want to go on the journey. And I think it’s going to happen.
Reporter: Then its a pretty big deal to be in it?
CL: And so it should be. Everything to an actor should be a challange. If it isn’t, there is no meeaning to it for what we do. Everything is a challange. And if it comes off, its a victory.
Reporter: Could you be doubting your roles?
CL: Not amongst this cast. Not with this director.
IM: You know, we wouldn’t all be here. We have all dropped everything to get here, whether we were working or not. We have to be here. The call went out, Peter said, “Would you come?” we said, “Yes, of course.” Anyone who is not here is working and could not get away. It has been a very large family of friends, all of them with some particular talent, either taught themselves or been taught especially for this project… or bringing that master experience. And if nobody wanted to see our film, the experience would still have been worthwhile. But it’s thrilling, the virtue on this occasion, the proper, trying to do the right thing, is going to be rewarded by people’s response.
CL: I noticed last night, there was a cocktail party, I said to my wife, “… this is very interesting, because there are certain people that gravitated to certain people. And the hobbits more or less in one corner, and togther again. It shows you very much. And you know, Aragorn and Boromir are together, and they’re all part of the Fellowship of course.” The interesting thing for me is to see that this, this great affection amongst all of us, is still there. And believe me, after a year or more that is very, very rare. There are some people you don’t want to ever see again usually.
JRD: We can’t tell you any story of temperment or fights or things like that. It was a wonderfully great sense of comradship and comrodery.
Reporter: This was the first time you had all worked together?
CL: I worked with John, I had never worked with Ian.
JRD: On my honeymoon, we went to Oxford playhouse to see a brilliant young actor in a play . It was the third time i saw you (Ian McKellen). In Oxford.
IM: Tolkien must have been around then. Well it was over 40 years ago.
Reporter: You (John Rhys-Davies) have been in other action films before. Can you compare ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ with this one?
JRD: There was a wonderful sense of improvisation with the first ‘Raiders of the Lost Arc.’ If you read the first script, honestly, it read like a comic. This was pretty well laid out. Obviously there was fine tuning and writing going on all the time. They were both wonderful experiences. But I… you can’t really compare two extraordinary opportunities of a lifetime. But, I have to carry on, not only is this going to be a big one, but i think in 10 years time, when you look back, and you compose your list of your top favorite films, I think we will find room for ‘Lord Of The Rings.’ It’s the right marriage, only now, that the technology exists to tell the story, the way it should be told. But there is a story. It’s brilliantly executed. It’s so well cast, present company excepted. It is a magical tale. And it’s about good and evil. I think good wins!
CL: Speaking again, quite personally in respect to this drama, I never believed that at my age, which in a couple weeks I’ll be in my 80th year I hope. I don’t believe in the space of a year, just over a year, I’d be working with Tim Burton, Peter Jackson and George Lucas. It’s incredible. It’s all absolutely wonderful in their own different ways.
JRD: Well, you figure you have done what… 240 pictures?
CL: 255… 255 I believe.
JRD: You are probably, about now, just finishing your apprenticeship.
Reporter: Ian, how strange is it for you, after so many years of being a theater actor, to be an action figure; to be in a big epic seen by younger people?
IM: The problem with doing the greatest text ever written, Shakespeare, is that you are impatient with anything that doesn’t begin to match up to his imagination and his expression. So, I turned down probably more films then I should have done because I didn’t think they were well enough written. But in the case of X-men, not a great text, but a great story… I mean a Shakespearian story really. And then Tolkien, who has his own imagination, which is beyond Shakespeare, something Shakespeare never really tried to do, and dialogue which is worth speaking. You haven’t really seen that. You haven’t seen the big scenes yet, but there, a lot of acting is required in this film which has naught to do with racing up mountains. It’s simply eyeballing the actor and discovering them through conversation. Then you say Tolkien is up there with Shakespeare and… I don’t feel there is a great division even though, you can catergorize them as, “Oh, here is a fantasy movie, here is an action movie…” Shakespeare hadn’t a sense and anticipated both.
author’s note: (I skipped a full blown discussion on Shakespeare’s story orgins and the Kings of England.)
IM: I hope all this wants to make you see the film
(Laughter)
JRD: You can imagine what the conversations were like on the set.
The End
Tomorrow I’ll be heading to the party of a lifetime, so I’m not sure how much time I will have to get the next set of interviews on line, but I will try my hardest to!
Once again, sorry for the lack of images with these reports. As you know, we were not allowed to have cameras at the Chateau.
This is from Catinyat, whom we thank for translating the complete text of the Aftonbladet report on the LOTR footage shown at Cannes.
“The Lord of the Rings” – a Real Adventure
Jens Peterson [movie critic] at Aftonbladet has taken a look at the first movie in the trilogy. All friends of “The Fellowship of the Ring” can calm down. The movie looks fantastic. Yesterday, 26 minutes of the adventure was shown in Cannes. Thrilling, striking, impressive. Wow. The first of the three “Lord of the Rings” movie will show up this christmas. The director Peter Jackson presented 26 minutes of filmimg.
Gandalf with a long beard First, there were a lot of scenes describing the intrigue and showing the main characters. Here is the idyllic Shire, to where the mighty Gandalf comes with long beard and blue hat, and where Bilbo celebrates his 111th birthday with a spectacular fire works show, which looks very lively at the movie screen. The young hobbit Frodo (Elijah Wood) hears about the powerful and dangerous ring. Thanks to special effects, Bilbo (Ian Holm) and the other hobbits only reach Gandalf (Ian McKellen) to the waist. Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), Legolas (Orlando Bloom), Boromir (Sean Bean), Galadriel (Cate Blanchett) and Gimli (John Rhys-Davies) comes into the story. Saruman (Christopher Lee), Elrond (Hugo Weaving) with his daughter Arwen (Liv Tyler) flash past.
Dangerous walk in the mountains Then there is 14 minutes of connected filming where the heroes wanders through the mines of Moria. Instead of climbing over the dangerous mountains they walk through mines that once where a home to dwarfes. They find only bones in the fantastic mountain halls. And new dangers. It´s a thrilling moment, that shows how nice the special effects works. The viewers were thrilled by the story and screamed when one dreadful creature after another attacked.
Short previews of the other movies At the end they showed a lot of short scenes from the two follow-ups, even the unravelling where an almost dying Frodo who is carried by his friend Sam, and the seductive temptation of the magical ring. From close-ups of the ring to great battles with thousands of creatures. Horror, excitement and humor. Judging by appearances “The Lord of the Rings” will be the thrilling spectacle all the friends of the books have hoped for. The countdown has started.
Jens Peterson Translated by Emil Ericsson (catinyat)
Image text:(Gandalf)Thrilling Spectacle “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy looks fantastic says Jens Peterson after a showing in Cannes. The digital special effects are impressive likewise the drama. Ian McKellen plays Gandalf.
(Uruk-Hai) Uruk-Hai goes to attack in one of the many great battlescenes.
Yep, the Scandinavians are leading the pack still. Tero wrote in with his translation of a Finnish article. He says “Keep in mind that the Finnish way to tell things might sound a bit lame to you since we tend to avoid superlatives and such.” Sort like Kiwis, whose highest accolade sounds a bit like ‘Yeah, it was all right.’
Cannes. The first few minutes were shown from the most anticipated premiere of next Christmas season, TheLord Of the Rings, the movie directed by Peter Jackson. And it looked really promising!
The show, invitation-only for international media reporters [including the MIA Calisuri – : )], consisted of trailer, promo stuff and a special 14 minute long, edited and finalized episode of the movie. In the episode the characters Frodo, Gandalf, Aragorn and others were engaging terrifying enemies in the Moria mines.
Even though this single episode was totally cut off from the complete movie and shown as separately, it had an uplifting feeling of heroic saga. The effects and the sets were fantastic and gothic and the monsters were quite terrifying.
After seeing the few selected minutes, it seemed the characters themselves will not be shadowed by the extraordinary effects and sets!
Peter Jackson introduced the movie clip and said it was funny to show material to people that will be in theaters not sooner than half a year from now. Funny or not, after the show the audience gave spontaneous furore (applauded).
Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn)
Liv Tyler (Arwen)
Ian Holm (Bilbo)
Sean Bean (Boromir)
Marton Csokas (Celeborn)
Hugo Weaving (Elrond)
Miranda Otto (Eowyn)
Elijah Wood (Frodo)
Cate Blanchett (Galadriel)
Ian McKellen (Gandalf)
John Rhys-Davies (Gimli)
Andy Serkis (Gollum)
Harry Sinclair (Isildur)
Bruce Spence (Mouth of Sauron)
Sean Astin (Sam)
Christopher Lee (Saruman)
Bernard Hill (Theoden)
Brad Dourif (Wormtongue)