“THE PRICE OF MILK directed by Harry Sinclair and starring Karl Urban, starts a run to day in Chicago.”
If you’ve never seen a Kiwi film, this isn’t a bad place to start. It’ll surprise you. And get a load of the cast – it stars Karl Urban, who’ll be Eomer in LOTR. And the director Harry Sinclair, is a friend of Peter Jackson – and he plays Isildur in LOTR. Screenwriter Fran Walsh helped on the script, and PJ’s WETA workshop did some of the effects. It’s a closely-knit world here.
Most of all, see it because it’s got this crazy blend of human detail and magical realism which will make you wonder if there is an NZ ‘school’ of film-making, and what these consistently offbeat films should make us expect from LOTR. Is it going to follow the standard blockbuster formula, or will it also have this strange magic about it?
“Hey there. Just saw an article on Liv Tyler’s performance in “One Night at McCool’s” on CNN.com, it mentioned her role in FOTR, as well as the fact that TTT and ROTK are coming in ’02 and ’03.” [More]
Ringer Tim sends in these mentions from the UK:
“First off,Total Film has a “I’m-reading-this-for-McCool’s,honest” interview with Liv Tyler. A couple of quotes:
“Peter did not lose his cool once.And I’ve never seen that happen.Not even on a normal film….I was just so impressed.”
She says acting as an elf “…has f**cked me forever because I now sound English and I want to sound like a New Yorker!”
Also,next month’s Deamwatch magazine is due to have an interview with Liv. PURELY about LOTR… “
By TOM KING Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
The summer movie season may be just about to kick off, but in Hollywood, thoughts are turning to Christmas.
Christmas 2003, that is.
As moviegoers settle into theaters for “Pearl Harbor” or “Tomb Raider,” many will be greeted by a trailer for one of the biggest movie gambles ever: Not one, not two, but three “Lord of the Rings” films, coming to theaters each December between now and 2003. Usually studios make Rocky I, say, before Rocky V. But all of these “Rings” have already been shot, put in the can and are ready for postproduction.
Why would anyone make three hugely expensive films at the same time, when they don’t even know if there’s an audience for one? Turns out the studio, New Line Cinema, isn’t alone in making this kind of bet. Before audiences ever lay eyes on WWF star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in “The Mummy Returns,” Universal Pictures has already given him his own $60 million movie. Warner Bros., meanwhile, is currently making two sequels to “The Matrix,” its Keanu Reeves hit of 1999. And the producers of the Jackie Chan action movie “Rush Hour” are talking about “Rush Hour 3” — “RH2” doesn’t hit theaters until August.
But at a time when moviegoers’ tastes seem to change faster than Gwyneth’s boyfriends, the “Rings” movies are by far the riskiest. Based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy classics, not only do the movies have a combined price tag of $270 million, they’ll also be going up against the first “Harry Potter” film. Both movies, plus Disney/Pixar’s “Monsters, Inc.,” will be battling for the same family audience, in the theaters and also in the toy stores. Beyond that, we’re talking about a studio trying to create a franchise without any input from ticket buyers. Aren’t they supposed to have some influence?
Bob Shaye, New Line’s co-chairman, has an answer. He says the Tolkien books have a dedicated fan base, and besides, making three films at once is cheaper than making them individually.
Sequel Economics
Here’s how: When studios make sequels, the costs always go up for special effects, for sets and costumes and — especially — for actors. Mike Myers got just $3 million to star in New Line’s 1997 hit “Austin Powers.” For the 1999 sequel, “The Spy Who Shagged Me,” Mr. Myers’s price jumped to almost $10 million; he’s getting a whopping $25 million for “Austin 3.” And when Dino De Laurentiis tried to get Jodie Foster to return as Clarice Starling in “Hannibal” last year, he says she wanted $20 million (she is believed to have gotten about $1 million for “The Silence of the Lambs”). The producer hired the much less expensive Julianne Moore instead.
For the “Rings” movies, New Line also had to build just one enormous Middle-earth set (in New Zealand), not three. And it had to pay the fees and salaries of all the technical crew just once, before anyone’s won an Oscar and before it’s a blockbuster, when the studio had the most leverage. The other company co-chairman, Michael Lynne, says the studio estimated it might have cost almost twice as much to make the “Rings” movies individually.
Then there’s the lesson in sequel reality that New Line got from “The Mask,” the 1994 blockbuster starring Jim Carrey as a bank clerk turned super-hero. When the studio wanted to make a sequel to it, Mr. Carrey balked, not only wanting more money than New Line was willing to pay, but also not sure he wanted to revisit the character. The result: A potentially big hit never got made.
In the case of the “Rings” movies, Mr. Lynne also insists the studio has limited its financial risk by selling off nearly all the foreign rights and driving some hard bargains on merchandising. He says New Line is on the hook for only about $60 million of the films’ $270 million cost. (Others say the number is more like $90 million.)
Still, if the first “Rings” film bombs, the studio — which was founded as a niche player making movies on the cheap — could be left with two very expensive sequels that nobody wants to see. That’s hardly inconceivable, given that for every “Star Wars” or “Jurassic Park” out there, there’s an equally expensive bomb that studios once claimed could be a franchise movie. Remember “G.I. Jane,” “Last Action Hero” and “Howard the Duck”? But, says Mr. Shaye, New Line is investing in an event, and “one of the very few that you’d decide was worth it.” Still, he concedes, “anything could happen. I’m sitting here crossing my fingers.”
‘Ishtar’ Again?
But why worry about the future when the present is even scarier? This weekend, New Line finally opens its troubled Warren Beatty comedy, “Town & Country,” the most fabled runaway production in recent memory and a film that’s already being compared with legendary disasters like Mr. Beatty’s “Ishtar.”
‘Town & Country’ Publicity Proves an Awkward Act
Originally slated to open in April 1999, the movie has had its release date changed 13 times. Initially given the green light at $55 million, industry executives say the film ended up costing closer to $85 million due to what Mr. Shaye calls “logistic” issues.
That’s a pretty frightening number given the film’s cast. Besides Mr. Beatty, it has Goldie Hawn and Diane Keaton, all of them over 50 and none of them with great appeal for the core young moviegoing audience these days. Plus, “Town & Country” arrives with the baggage of a long and tortured backstage drama (shoots, reshoots, and then more reshoots) well known among the public. The main problem: The movie started production without a finished script.
Mr. Shaye says despite its troubles, the movie is “sassy and funny and definitely worth your nine bucks.” That may or may not be true, but, most incredibly, he adds, New Line isn’t going to incur huge losses on the film the way the studio did with last year’s “Little Nicky.” “I think we’re going to get out in one piece.”
Whatever happens, the studio, part of AOL Time Warner , recently announced that it was going back to making fewer — and cheaper — movies.
Suffice it to say that the marketing folks for ‘One Night at Mcools’ have done a great job shopping Liv Tyler (Arwen) around to every reporter in the known galaxy, here are a few more articles about lovely Liv, she does mention LOTR quite a bit:
MR. S:OK, tell me about your role in The Lord of the Rings.
LT: It’s been expanded from the books. There’s a big appendix at the end with a large chapter about Arwen. Basically, there wasn’t enough female presence in a lot of the film, so they took the appendix and used that story and placed it throughout. We shot all three movies at once. It took a year and a half, back and forth to New Zealand.
From: Metro (via AP)
TYLER PLAYS A FEMME FATALE IN ‘ONE NIGHT AT MCCOOL’S’
With everything she already has in the can, Liv Tyler could sit back and coast yet still have a high profile in movie theaters over the next three years.
First up, Tyler essentially plays three different roles as a femme fatale in the black comedy “One Night At McCool’s.” Then, for the next three Christmas holidays, she’s playing the same role in three different movies–the trilogy of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings,” shot simultaneously from late 1999 through last December in New Zealand. Tyler, who plays the elf Arwen, co-stars with Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Cate Blanchett and Ian Holm.
Except for re-recording dialog, Tyler and the rest of the cast have their work done on three film releases through 2003.
“That is an incredible idea, for sure,” Tyler said. “I keep thinking, well, I don’t have to worry. I’ve got three years of movies done already.
“That is nice, but there’s a part of me that’s kind of anxious to get into another role, because ‘Lord of the Rings’ was so spread out for me. I didn’t get the sense of working every day consistently for a period of time. And at the same time, I’m not the main character in those movies.”
For Immediate Release: Sideshow Toy & Weta Workshop Create Unique Partnership for New Line Cinema’s Lord of the Rings
Sideshow Inc. of Westlake Village, CA has partnered with Weta Workshop of New Zealand to develop multiple lines of polystone collectibles based on the upcoming film trilogy, The Lord of the Rings. Weta Workshop is the Special Effects Company that created the effects for all three Lord of the Rings films. The Sideshow / Weta collaboration will be responsible for the development and marketing of five lines of polystone collectibles: statues, busts, miniature weapons, miniature armor and helmets, and wall plaques.
The Lord of the Rings film trilogy is a New Line Cinema production and is based on the J.R.R Tolkien classic fantasy series of books. The films are currently in post-production in New Zealand with the first film; “The Fellowship of the Ring” slated for a December 2001 release. Peter Jackson, a native New Zealander, whose credits include “Heavenly Creatures” and “The Frighteners”, is directing the trilogy. The international cast features Sir Ian McKellen, Ian Holm, Christopher Lee, Liv Tyler, and Elijah Wood.
The Sideshow / Weta partnership bring together two respected and talented organizations. Sideshow is the creative force responsible for the highly praised line of figure collectibles based on the Universal Studios Classic Monsters. The Sideshow team has been recognized for its ability to consistently achieve character likenesses in both collectible toys and statues. Weta is New Zealand’s foremost Effects facility, which was established fourteen years ago to support New Zealand’s fledgling film and television industry. Among Weta’s credits are several of Peter Jackson’s earlier films and also television’s popular Xena and Hercules’ series. Weta is comprised of a group of artists united in their love of art and film – from blacksmiths to leatherworkers, skilled prosthetic technicians, miniature makers, painters to wigmakers, casting and molding experts, engineers and swordsmiths.
The Weta Workshop has been immersed for more than four years in the conceptualizing, creation and the on-set operation of the creatures, miniatures, armor, weapons and special make-up effects for the three epic films. Weta’s focus has been to create a unified look throughout the three films while capturing the very essence of the books that are held so dear by millions of readers around the world.
It is the same Weta designers and technicians that have created the different armies and creatures within Middle Earth that have chosen to create the high quality collectibles under the Sideshow / Weta brand. The integrated experience that these designers and technicians have had in the creation of the films and their unique relationship with the actors and director will result in the most authentic figure and miniature collectibles possible. A preview of the upcoming collectibles can be seen at www.sideshowtoy.com where regularly updated info about the collectibles will be available.
The Sideshow / Weta collectibles will be released over a period of eight months beginning with Series I due to be in stores in September, 2001. Each additional series will be released at approximately 45 day intervals. Sideshow / Weta plan to release 24 statues, 32 busts, 16 helmets (also known as helms), 7 environments, 7 wall plaques and 14 assorted weapon sets based on the first film. Each of these items have been meticulously crafted, expertly reproduced to the highest standards, and are meant to bring the discerning collector a lifetime of enjoyment. Series 1 product, as well as future releases can be viewed now at www.sideshowtoy.com.
Founded in 1967, New Line Cinema is the entertainment industry’s leading independent producer and distributor of theatrical motion pictures. New Line licenses its films to ancillary markets including cable and broadcast television as well as to international venues. The company, which is a subsidiary of AOL Time Warner Inc., operates several divisions including in-house theatrical distribution, marketing, home video, television acquisitions, production, licensing and merchandising units.
Just got the new issue of Premiere Magazine in the mail today (May Issue), and there are two small LOTR mentions. Well, one, and this other kinda related thing…well, read and see.
The main article this month is the 2001 Power List, that is, the top 100 most powerful people in Hollywood. It has this little sidebar “Dead, But Not in Showbiz”, about people that are deceased, but are still showing much Hollywood power. One of them mentioned is our dear Professor, J.R.R. Tolkien. It says this: J.R.R. Tolkien: New Line’s decision to spend $270 Million to make the Rings trilogy must make [George] Lucas nervous: Star Wars was a rip-off!
LOL….I like that.
The other kinda related bit: Number 32 of the top 100 Most Powerful People is Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne, the two new heads of New Line (I believe). Amongst other things, it says this:
“…..They bet on the $270 Millon on LOTR.”
It also says: “Their Weaknesses: If the first installment of of RINGS tanks, all bets are off.”
Liv is all over the place as “