Here’s a small piece of satire from www.suck.com. Apparently these folks make fun of everything, so it was only a matter of time that they would find the good professor and Peter Jackson on their radar:

Lord of the Rings

Peter Jackson’s three-picture take on J.R.R. Tolkien’s beloved fantasy trilogy begins in Christmas 2001 with

Fellowship of the Ring.

Filming continues in New Zealand, much too far away for any motion picture executives to fly in and pull the plug.

The late Professor Tolkien reportedly created his fantasies in support of imaginary languages he created for his enjoyment, which is sort of like starting a band because you bought a bunch of empty CD containers. Still, making up your own languages is the loneliest activity imaginable, so we forgive him. Tolkien rejected one popular reading of his mid-century bestseller, that of the Cold War struggle between competing empires, for reasons known only to those who’ve read all eighty-three of his son’s respectful and necessary hardback books on the subject matter. Clearly, however, Tolkien was a fan of really short people walking in the woods, so we suggest Jackson play up Tolkien’s “quest” as a combination of the Eco-challenge and a search for proper facilities.

Posted in:

• Old Special Reports

Share:

Ringer Spy Daniel son of David sends in this report from the London paper ‘Metro’:

Here’s a short article from London paper Metro:

(W H Smiths is a chain of booksellers/newsagents in the UK)

Posted in:

• Old Special Reports

Share:

What do we know about Howard Shore?
Well, he’s Canadian, born in Toronto in 1946. He used to belong to a band called Lighthouse, but left them in 1978 for a career in film music. At first he worked a lot with the director David Cronenberg, and provided the music for his ‘The Fly’, ‘Scanners’, ‘Videodrome’ and ‘Naked Lunch;’ more recently ‘Existenz.’ As Cronenberg is regarded as an innovative director, so Shore is regarded as having ‘a difficult, confrontational style which constantly challenges the perceptions and ideas of film music.’ (Movie Music UK)
This sounds very promising; the ideal kind of person to work with PJ and his team, who are similarly constantly working on the edges of what’s expected.

There’s a whopping great huge list of Shore’s filmography on UK Movie Music br>In there it also mentions that Shore has the flexibility to compose in a range of styles. It’s very promising what they say about his feel for the ‘dark uncertain world of thrillers and horrors.’He did the soundtrack for ‘Silence of the Lambs.’ Here’s the great review it got from Movie Music UK:
“…this superbly chilling score by Howard Shore, whose ability to create a musical sense of overpowering tension is second to none in Hollywood at the moment. The score is performed by a full symphony orchestra throughout, but intentionally adopts a languorous tone and pace. This is the absolute epitome of “dark” film music, with the performers of the Munich Symphony Orchestra regularly playing their instruments at the lowest possible end of their ranges, and through orchestrations so thick they almost become a solid wall of sound. “
Or what about this review from the same source, this time for ‘M. Butterfly’:
“Complementing Cronenberg’s unique visual style and Peter Suschitzky’s sumptuous, panoramic cinematography is Howard Shore’s sublime music, who was given free reign leave the shackles of dissonance far behind him and compose a work of exquisite beauty, texture and restraint. The main theme, given a full rendition in the first track ‘M Butterfly’, is built around a lovely four note motif, and is granted a thunderous opening statement on horns before moving on to be performed by woodwinds with a string backing and accompaniment from a delicate harp”
Whaah! I can’t wait.

Posted in:

• Old Special Reports

Share:

The third person involved with the LOTR film and props thefts appeared in court today. I went along for a look again. As usual my own home neighbourhood fielded a strong team of assault drink and drug offenders. I sat down next to the one person who looked habitually desk-bound, a man with small white hands. Soon enough his lawyer sat next to him, carrying a folder with his name on it so I could see I’d picked the right man. No sign that he knew who I was, though I suppose he’d have loathed me on principle if he had. The webmasters of the Tolkien fan sites represent the Net fans who ended up biting the hand that hoped to feed them, or hoped to milk them of $180,000, depending on your point of view.
Meanwhile the courtroom warmed up with a lot of backslapping and laughter and ‘how’s your father?’ between the lawyers, police and court functionaries. Not a very encouraging environment for the defendents. My special interest had been sitting around looking as comfortable as a cat in a rainstorm until his lawyer showed up; then there was a fair bit of grinning and joking from them too. Bravado, perhaps. On the other hand, a defence lawyer who didn’t instill confidence in his clients wouldn’t get a lot of work. ‘Ooh, don’t fancy your chances now, mate’ wouldn’t be too good for business.
The judge arrived and an air of pen-chewing tension settled over the room. Eventually the accused was stood up, another lawyer said that the prosecution was still needing more time to complete disclosure. Which translates as ‘They haven’t got to the bottom of all the evidence yet,’ I suppose. So, it’s a very complex case, perhaps? More news next week, and we hope it’ll start to get interesting then too.

Posted in:

• Old Special Reports

Share:

A recent TORN message board post about Sean Astin (Sam) stirred up some questions with us, so we dug through our news files and found out that yes, according to an interview with Sean Astin’s father John, that Sean’s daughter Alexandra will be playing Sam’s daughter Elanor in The Return of the King. How’s that for parity and a run-on sentence? Check the article out here and take a look at these two pics we managed to scour that may or may not show Sean with Alexandra.

Posted in:

• Old Special Reports

Share:

The scouring of the net and my email is complete, and I am now prepared to give you a slightly different glimpse of the Lord of the Rings featurette that was shown at Comic Con 2000.

Scant hours after the featurette was shown at Comic Con, Quickbeam submitted an in-depth report on it. Despite his involvement with Ian McKellen showing up at the featurette, he did not have the best seat in the house (well crouched on the floor is no seat at all!).

Numerous people chimed in with what they saw and felt through email and our discussion boards. These are some excerpts from those messages. I also grabbed some excerpts from a variety of sources around the web. We would like to thank everyone who submitted information.

“I just got done watching the LoTR footage at Comic Con 2000, and I am even more hyped up about it now than before.“… …”All in all it was killer, and the part with Ian coming out was totally unexpected, totally made my Comic Con 2000.” Kevin

“I had resisted downloading the Internet trailer because I wanted to experience a theater trailer, and boy, am I glad I waited!“… …”Last of all, there was a tiny scene in which a small, golden-haired toddler girl runs down a path and jumps into the arms of Sean Astin as Sam. This caused me to immediately burst into tears as it was obvious that this was the final scene when Sam returns from the Havens to Elanor and Rosie. Just the sight of this poignant, bittersweet moment at the end was enough to break my heart, and to reassure me that whatever flaws, inaccuracies, or changes that these movies have won’t matter one whit — they are all going to be so emotionally resonant and beautiful that no one will care.” Sandy

“I agree completely with Quickbeam’s review of the Comic Con LoTR preview. The crowd energy when Sir Ian himself was introduced was chilling. Everyone stood as one and cheered. I felt he was genuinely touched by the reception.” Jim

“The featurette was fabulous. My only complaint was that it was TOO SHORT! But it made my visit to Comic Con.” Eerok

“Sean Bean eloquent delivery about the troubles caused by the Ring “…such a small thing…” in the controversial scene where he is grasping the chain the Ring hands on. Having established the context of the scene now, it makes for a perfect example of how moments from the book dramatized for film gain a new level of intensity and intimacy.“… …”To sum up, the production has clearly captured what you might call the “essential feel of Tolkien.”” DV

“Amazing stuff. Sir Ian McKellen absolutely rules!!!” Lord of the Nazgul

“… you could feel the wave of energy building in the crowd. From the first moment of the LOTR footage until the end, the stunned silence was broken only by the occasional “ooh” or “ahh”.“… …”Between Gandalf and Magneto, Sir Ian is having a Beatles-like effect on fanboy crowds these days.” IGN.com

“What happened during the next 15 minutes of Comic Con would probably be one of the most magical moments of my life.“… …”I tried to take glances at how Ian was taking in most of the footage. He was very engrossed in what was happening on screen and would occasionally take a look into the crowd to see how they were reacting as well. I probably missed some stuff in the trailer, but it was so cool to watch one of the actors react to others seeing his own work.” Joram Manka (of Fandom/Ringbearer) as reported on AICN

“In total, New Line presented approximately 6 minutes of footage. Jonathan and I tend to think that this footage was released for an event in New Zealand prior to today’s showing because of the dates at the end of the trailer–instead of “December 2001”, it read “Holiday 2001″… a term we Americans don’t use to refer to the Christmas/Holiday season.” Ted (of Tolkien Online) in his report

I must say I am quite jealous of the people who were able to attend, and that like the rest of you I will be holding my breath for the theatrical trailer this fall.

On behalf of TheOneRing.net and myself, our thanks to everyone who submitted a report on the LoTR footage at Comic Con 2000.

Quickbeam’s full coverage of Comic Con:

• 1st Day report from San Diego Comic Con
• Gandalf Storms Through Comic Con
• The San Diego Comic-Con was a Major Blast

Posted in:

• Old Special Reports

Share: