At the moment, TheOneRing.net is sponsoring two causes with the income from those little ad banners you see at the top of most of our pages. One of them is book-related, the Duffy ‘Books in Homes‘ scheme, and the other is environmental, being a part of the Worldwide Fund for Nature’s campaign to protect endangered marine species.
A few weeks ago the school we sponsor, Runanga, got the free books the children there had picked out. The school principal wrote:
“What a fantastic day…our children received their books. It was fantastic. We had Graeme Thorne, the ex-All Black, as our Role model. We also had the paper here so hopefully we will have some publicity.”
The Duffy programme gets famous people, usually sports stars, to come and be Role Models and tell kids that reading is a cool thing to do. In New Zealand, the All Blacks are like, well, think of whatever the most famous sportsteam is in your country, that’s what the All Blacks are here. They wear the famous black jersey, hence the name.
“Thanks again for the fantastic sponsorship. We are so grateful to you and your friends. Regards Joy”
Our second charity, the Worldwide Fund for Nature, is using our donation to help with their Marine Environment Campaign, and they sent this recently:
“…I would just like to let you know that with regard to the marine environment we are continuing our important work with the North Island Hector’s Dolphin, the world’s smallest and rarest marine mammal (there are thought to be only approximately 100 left). We are planning to expand the work to include hands-on recovery programmes which will include community participation and leading edge science. Once the details are finalised I will fill you in on the proposal, we are planning to use the support from TheOneRing.net to assist with this project.”
So, that’s the latest news from our sponsorship programme.
One of the disadvantages of being an LOTR website that actually has a base in NZ is that we can’t post anything from the local papers and magazines without their permission and expect to get away with it. Luckily the Dominion is the only print journal that dislikes seeing its articles reproduced on the Net, so I’ll paraphrase their article of last Tuesday.
What interested me was the information that various allegations of cruelty to animals have been posted on the Net concerning horses on the LOTR set. “Every report is posted on the internet and is judged by the world,” according to the Dominion. I’d love to know more about that; it’s news to me. Is there some “LOTR Film Sucks and is Doomed to Fail (because it’s Evil)” website out there?
The allegations are that a horse was so badly injured that it had to be put down; that the film company dyed horses white with toxic peroxide; that a block and tackle was used to knock horses to their knees. One horse supposedly broke its back in a trick, another was put down after falling from a wharf, and another shot for a hide to cover Liv’s barrel-shaped ‘riding contraption.’
This sort of talk had the Ministry of Agriculture and the International League for the Protection of Horses worried enough that they came and inspected the way the animals were being treated. They had no concerns regarding what they found.
The rumours also worried the film company enough that they invited The Dominion’s reporter Alan Samson out to the Te Horo stables so he could see for himself. (Maybe this is a great idea – I’ll spread rumours of terrible demeaning cruelty to short people on the LOTR set and see if that gets me an interview with the hobbit doubles!)
Samson got to watch animal trainer Dan Reynolds making Shadowfax rear on command. Moments afterwards, according to the report, the horse “nuzzled his boss affectionately.”
The head wrangler, Dave Johnson, said the rumours seemed to be blown up from real but innocuous incidents. There was a lack of available white horses in NZ and the film crew had briefly worked with the idea of lightening a horse’s colour using human hair-dye, not peroxide, but the substance was ineffective. One of the Ringwraith horses had slipped when it was being unloaded onto a wharf, but it was given antibiotics and recovered.
A horse had died of colic, another of a heart attack – both regarded as natural causes of death. Among 70 horses, they had merely the normal kinds of injuries such as strained tendons and puffy joints, according to LOTR vet Ray Lanagan, who testified that the horses were well-treated and subject to less strain than, say, race-horses. “If horses could talk, they’d say they were pretty happy about what they’ve got here,” said Lanagan.
The questions are in! TheOneRing.net’s exclusive interview with Gary Gygax, creator of Dungeon and Dragons, is ready to go. Below is a list of the interview questions sent in by YOU, the fans. Look for the answers soon!
1. Do you enjoy the works of JRR Tolkien? If so, how did he influence your work?
2. Did you actively base D&D on Tolkien’s world, adopting some of the preferences of the species, their behaviours, and all that from Tolkien?
3. As many D&D fans know, the game has taken flak in the past from Christian and “concerned parents” groups regarding the game and its supposed occult/Satanic influence on some of those who play it. How would you respond to those that say D&D is a “gateway” to Satanic or dangerous practices?
4. Are you surprised that D&D and games like it have been as popular as they are? Were you aiming for a much smaller market, or did you imagine that this many people would enjoy what you enjoy creating?
5. How old were you when you actually began to create AD&D?
6. I would imagine that you invented D&D and played it for a long while before actually going to market with it; who, if anyone, inspired you to market the game?
7. I imagine you read fantasy novels quite a bit; do you have any favorite authors, or any favorite books in general?
8. In a recent issue of Dragon magazine, you said you would have developed a 2nd edition of AD&D differently than what TSR eventually came out with in 1989. What would have been your vision of a 2nd edition had you worked on it?
9. The Dungeon and Dragons game used to be billed as a “simple” game as opposed to those games like G.U.R.P.S. and Wizards and Warriors. Why has it become so complicated?
10. What do you have in the works as of now?
11. Thinking back, I seem to remember a Middle-arth role playing game. Were you involved in this? Is it still available?
12. Did you ever consider making the Lord of the Rings into a module?
13. What is your favorite book of all time (excluding your own)?
14. Who is Gary Gygax? What makes him tick?
15. In all of your world, who is your favorite creature or character you have created?
16. I know you have not seen the trailer because you dont want to spoil it, but what do you think of the Lord of the Rings movies being produced? What are your hopes for it?
17. Do you think the Lord of the Rings movies will create a surge in new fantasy fans?
18. When first creating D&D, did you ever expect to make a living at it?
19. What was the book that you read that got you hooked on fantasy?
20. And finally, what do you think of TheOneRing.net?
Today, March 11th, marks the seventh month in the shooting process for LOTR. A seven month shoot is particularly long, and considering they have another 5 or 6 months to go, it’s only about half way through.
What do we know they’ve done this month? Up to and including today we know for certain they’ve shot and completed scenes from The Last Alliance and The Black Gates, both in and around Mordor. They’ve also completed scenes in Chetwood Forest and at the Vale of Morgul, Emyn Muil West, Foot of Mount Doom, and the Gorgorath Plains.
Filming meanwhile at the Haywards Hill set has resumed; this time we shall see Gandalf fighting in and around Helms Deep taking place in the very near future.
As we all know, Hobbits, Dwarves, Elves and Men come in all shapes and sizes, but in the real world the actors who are playing these characters are of average size and build. We have all heard about the digital ‘shrinking’ that WETA and Peter Jackson are planning to use, but there are more realistic (yes I said more realistic) than CGI and much cheaper ways to get the process done:
Body Doubles
And in this case, it seems that almost every character has their ‘Large’ or ‘Small’ double waiting on the sidelines to step in front of the camera.
We realize that the actors playing the hobbits would need doubles of much smaller stature to stand in at certain parts of the story, but why would, say Gandalf and Legolas need ‘large’ doubles? Well, just flip the coin, and look at it the other way: if we have a shot of the Frodo body double walking along with Ian McKellen, it looks perfect, but what if we wanted a shot of Elijah Wood walking along with Gandalf? Elijah and Ian do not match the proportions of Frodo and Gandalf, so in comes the 7 foot tall Gandalf stand-in and suddenly Elijah is Hobbit-sized!
TheOneRing.net has learned the names of some of the ‘small’ and ‘large’ body doubles; these folks are unknowns, but work just as hard as the stars themselves!
From an earlier report we know that the Hobbit body doubles are mostly from India. I do think, however that most of the rest are local Kiwis, here they are:
Gimli (Small): Brett Beattie Legolas (Big): Paul Randall Gandalf (Big): Paul Randall Pippin (Small): Fon Merry (Small): Kiran Shah/Murugan Sam (Small): Bhoja Kannada
Most of the Hobbits, and as you can see Gandalf and Legolas, have the same body doubles… they must switch around from time to time.
We at Elemental Films wish to thank you for your continued support and interest in the “Elessar” project. Unfortunately due to many problems, communication and legality related, the project is on temporary hold until we can secure rights to Professor Tolkien’s fictional names.
You have all inspired us to deliver a film worthy of the high quality of Tolkien’s work, and to bring Middle-Earth (and maybe even some of Aman and Numenor) to life. We also do not wish to contend or misuse publicity from Mr. Jackson’s project — we all are tremendously excited about it (and will be front in line to buy tickets).
We will let you know if further progress is made. Included are some teaser production drawings not previously available to the public that might give you a glimpse of our ideas. Again, we thank everyone for their support.
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