That mysterious picture of what appears to be a wizard impaled on a wheel has generated a lot of speculation in the Tolkien world. I thought it’d be a good use of Net resources to compile some of the thoughts and guesses we’ve received so people can mull them over.
Firstly, Sir Ian McKellen said that it wasn’t him on the spike, though he was on the set at the time; Neither was it Christoper Lee, who’s currently filming in Australia. Right, that’s all clear enough, but it doesn’t rule out that it could be either of their stunt doubles, or even a dummy, as Ken McGuire’s suggested. Even though the camera’s very close to the impaled figure, perhaps they can manipulate the image so it looks like a real (dead) face.
After all, Lee and McKellen are close to seventy, and PJ is going to find a better use for their talents than hanging them upside-down on a spike. Anyone can do that. (me! me! me! – did I just hear volunteers?) If it isn’t one of the wizards at all, somebody suggested Grima….so, say he gets ideas above his station, puts on the white robe, and Saruman pushes him out of Orthanc? I just made that up 5 seconds ago without a shred of evidence to back it up, but it’s worth mentioning that if the Scouring of the Shire story is reduced, there’s no requirement for Grima to die the same way as in the books.
‘Gollum’ suggested Denethor’s death, with the same reasoning: it’s not crucial to the plot HOW he dies. I dunno, though, would a director miss the chance to film a big fiery immolation scene? All those cool light and smoke effects? Though ‘Gollum’ reckons that could be added in afterwards…..but CGI is expensive and kerosene’s cheap….Plus there’s no mention of machinery in Minas Tirith; there certainly is around Orthanc, so that cogged wheel seems to belong there naturally.
Still, quite a few people opt for Saruman, having fallen out of Orthanc (in this version, Grima pushes him…..leaving Grima free to go on and mess things up in the Shire….and Saruman ends up impaled there. Where’s the blood? There’d be blood and last night’s dinner all over that spike if it was really supposed to look like the wizard was impaled on it. Maybe that stuff can be added afterwards with CGI, but Xoanon couldn’t see the point of that. I believe Watties Foods have been purveyors of tomato sauce to film directors for a long time in NZ, and nobody’s seen any reason to replace their product with digital effects up til now. CGI is still labour- and time-intensive enough that directors avoid using it if there’s an easier way.
So, if there’s no blood, is it a vision? A dream? Something that Frodo sees in the Mirror of Galadriel? That’s a nice guess from Ed Meier, because we’re told that he sees ‘many scenes flashing quickly before his vision’ or words to that effect, but Tolkien doesn’t tell us exactly what.
C Bracebgirdle offers the theory that it’s a vision that the Ents have while chanting ‘Down with Saruman,’ or a image that appears as they intone, “Wizards ought to know better: they do know better. There is no curse in Elvish, Entish, or the tongues of Men bad enough for such treachery. Down with Saruman!”
Equally, is it a vision sent via the Palantir to make Denethor or Saruman or Aragorn despair? That’s stretching the Palantir a bit beyond the powers that Tolkien allows it, but still, it’s possible.
Saint suggested perhaps they’re filming some torture that Gandalf undergoes while imprisoned by Saruman. We know that Saruman uses violence against him in the scenes that have been filmed already, and it would make Gandalf’s ordeal more believable, or drive home the fact that at that time, Saruman was more powerful than Gandalf, and was able to render him helpless. My objection to that is that having a spike like that through him wouldn’t just torture him, it’d kill him stone-dead.
So, these are the ideas that are floating around at the moment. When all’s said and done, it remains a mystery.
Decipher Acquires Coveted License for The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
August 10, 2000 – Decipher Inc. of Norfolk, Virginia, announced today that it has been granted the worldwide, exclusive rights to create and market trading card games and digital trading card games based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy epic The Lord of the Rings. Decipher is the second manufacturer to announce a license for The Lord of the Rings from New Line Cinema, producers of the highly-anticipated screen adaptation of what has been called the Book of the Century.
The agreement with New Line grants Decipher rights to all three motion pictures: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Two Towers (2002) and The Return of the King (2003). A parallel agreement with New Line and Tolkien Enterprises also grants Decipher the same category rights for all of the literary properties related to The Lord of the Rings. This far-reaching deal gives Decipher the opportunity to explore in depth the entire universe of The Lord of the Rings for an initial period of six years, with a renewal right for an additional five years. The agreement also grants Decipher an option to develop trading card games and digital trading card games from The Hobbit (the trilogy’s literary “prequel”) and any new eventual Hobbit motion picture.
“We are extremely proud to be involved with such a wonderful property and production,” said Warren Holland, Chairman and CEO of Decipher. “Everything we have seen from script to film footage points to a motion picture experience of monumental proportions. Our goal is to recreate and enhance that movie experience long after people leave the theater. We have a team of enormously creative employees who are passionately dedicated to this property and we will be bringing to life some of the most valuable and collectible game cards ever created.”
“Decipher has proven time and again that they are the preeminent company when it comes to translating epic- sized properties to the collectible card game medium. Lord of the Rings could not be in better hands” commented David Imhoff, Executive Vice President, Worldwide Licensing & Merchandising, New Line Cinema.
While details of the games were not announced, it’s safe to say that Decipher intends to use the film (and photo-realistic images generated in house on their state-of-the-art Silicon Graphics systems) to illustrate both the physical trading card game and its digital counterpart. Both versions of the game are scheduled to launch at about the same time, which should be very close to the opening of the first movie in December 2001. As Warren Holland said in his announcement, “The future of film and the future of trading card games are about to be forever redefined with a new standard of excellence.”
Jonathan Quesenberry Public Relations Manager jonathanq@decipher.com August 10, 2000
While doing a bit of digging on the latest cast member to join LOTR, Joel Tobeck, I’ve discovered two things:
1) Amazingly he was never on Shorland Street
2) He plays Creegan, the coolest looking dude from ‘Cleopatra 2525’.
Joel Tobeck has been working on TV and Film as early as 1986. His first job was an uncredited role in ‘Queen City Rocker’, he also played ‘The Boyfriend from Hell’ (hmm sounds like my X’s name for me) in ‘The Shrimp on the Barbie’. He has also done extensive work on the ‘Herc, Xena, Cleopatra 2525’ gigs, playing roles such as ‘Strife’ ‘Demios’ and ‘King Boraeus’. Read a revealing interview about Tobeck here.
This is off the Evening Post, we believe: GANDALF BREATHES LAST BREATH? Wellington, Aug 8, New Zealand Press Assc – Did Gandalf the wizard breath his last breath in the Hutt Valley today? Filming of a scene from the $360 million The Lord Of the Rings trilogy could clearly be seen at a set on a vacant site in Peterkin St, Taita, today. Parts of the set, which included a large blue screen, a spotlight on a crane and props, have been visible from the street for the past few days. The scene today showed what appeared to be wizard character Gandalf, who is played by British actor Sir Ian McKellen, impaled on large spiked wooden wheel. Crew were moving the wheel in an anti-clockwise direction during filming. It was unclear where in J R R Tolkien’s classic the scene takes place. It is possible that it is the first death of Gandalf after battling a creature called the Balrog on the bridge of Khazad-Dum. (But why wouldn’t they film that indoors on soundstage, anyone know?-Tehanu )Gandalf falls into an abyss and disappears, returning later as the more powerful Gandalf the White. Other sightseers today included a couple who perched on the roof of their car for a view of the action. A woman used a telescope, while a man took photographs. Film company Three Foot Six and New Line Cinema have been highly secretive about filming in the Wellington region, keeping the media off site and limiting the release of film images. Filming began on Mt Victoria last October and has also taken place in the Dry Creek Quarry on Haywards Hill, the former Fort Dorset site in Seatoun, and Harcourt Park in Upper Hutt.
We expect this article will appear in Stuff later, WITH pictures.
Hmmmm. Impaled on a wheel. Don’t panic everyone, there’s probably some explanation somebody can come up with.
Who needs New Line to generate hype? LOTR madness is invading the weirdest corners of life already, and what could be weirder than ‘Reality TV’?
Mighty Orc Hunter saw this on NZ TV2’s “The Money Game”:
Three innocent entrepreneurs were let loose on Monday morning from the top of Coronet Peak skifield (not a million miles from some LOTR locations, but that’s merely coincidental) with just the clothes they were wearing and $5000 each. They were to meet at the top of the Skytower (Auckland, 1000 miles away)on Wednesday night and the person with the most money would win.
One guy ended up with about $3900 after making $30 on the sharemarket, trying to do a hole-in-one challenge, and selling a _lot_ of flowers.
The other guy seemed a little touched in the head and had the ability to spend his money like it was water. His plan was basically to put a sound effects CD together with things like a baby crying, a train going past a level crossing (horn and all), then trying to sell it to music labels. “I’m sorry – we prefer music.”
The young lady’s big plan was to put together an auction in Wellington with no stuff to start with. Somehow she got hold of a copy of LotR signed by six of the cast members. I have no idea where she got it from because I was watching a different channel at a crucial moment. (AAAAAAAAAAAARGH!) She got $7400 ish.
Oh, yeah. The 2nd guy I mentioned came out at $18,000 after selling two or three thousand CDs to the Warehouse – look for it in their mailer. It’s the CD with artifical grass on the front cover.
This Spy Report of sorts comes from Ghost of Deagol from Denmark, I’m not sure how or why, but they’ve managed to get some LOTR footage ready for the big screen. From the look of his report, it seems to be the ShoWEST footage, and it’s the read deal. So read on!
Once a month I, together with some fellow movie-geeks, attend something called “Surprise movie”, which is an event starting at midnight where a movie is shown 1 month or so prior to its opening. This is a nice thing that is always full of excitement and speculation about what movie that is going to be shown. Some people even make bets as they stand in line. Yesterday it was time for yet another Surprise movie event, and as always we were discussing which movie we would like it to be. Now, here in Denmark we have to wait a couple of months (in some cases even longer) after the US premiere before we get to see most movies, so “X-Men” and “Scary movie” were mentioned. Anyway, we entered the cinema and found our seats. Now, since this is a midnight event and because there are so much excitement about the unknown movie ahead, people are normally eager to get the movie on, and thus commercials and trailers are just something that can’t end quickly enough. I had exactly the same feeling until suddenly, right after the trailer for “The Cell” I heard the words: “It has been named the greatest and most popular books of the 20th century!”. Wow! Did the big screen suddenly get my attention? As I said earlier, this is an event that attract many movie-geeks, and I suspect most of them knew what this was about. Anyhow, everyone stopped talking and eating popcorn as the Internet preview emerged on the big screen! Myself? I had goosebumbs all over!
Now, like most Ringers I’ve seen the Internet preview dozens of times, but seeing it on the big screen was a whole new experience. And that’s not all:
There were even new goodies that I haven’t seen before. Maybe they’ve have been shown in the ShoWest or ComicCon footage, which I’ve never seen, so seeing actual new footage was a real blast for me. Although the new stuff consisted of short sequences, I’ll try to describe them here. First off, I noticed an interview with Sean Astin where he talked about the excitement of doing LOTR and the incredible adventure that the story provides. Then I saw a CGI sequence of what must have been the troll that we saw a miniature model of some weeks ago. It was running towards the camera in Moria, I believe. It looked quite gorilla like in the way it moved, and I must admit that I don’t hope it’s the balrog, since it’s not how I picture it. However, it was still a cool sequence.
Then there was a short sequence with Liv Tyler and Viggo Mortensen surrounded by cameramen and makeup artists. Another very short cut showed what I believe was a hobbit (what else?) in heavy makeup, that looked a little “doll-like”. As I said, it was a short cut, so I will not draw any conclusions from it.
They greatest part was perhaps seeing the hords of orcs marching in Mordor again. Although the Quicktime format is very good, this sequence is only done real justice on the big screen. They level of detail was incredible, and the movements were even more realistic. And I must not forget to mention that the sound of them marching thundering from a 3D cinema sound system was a thrill!
Although I’ve only read about the excitement that the preview created at the ComicCon event, I think I now have a bit of a feeling of just how that must have been. Everybody went wild, and I saw several people making “YES!” gestures. The excitement went from skyhigh to understandable frustration though, as the words “Followship of the Ring – Christmas 2001” emerged. New Line is torturing us here!
Having seen this trailer on the big screen, I’m more than sure that these movies are in very safe hands. I can’t believe they actually showed the trailer here in Denmark at this point, but I’m just happy I was there to witnes it.
As for the surprise movie itself? Well, it was U-571 (another VERY late movie for us Danish moviegoers) but I must admit that the images from the LOTR footage were with me throughout the movie.
