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Charlie writes: British ringer here with a quick report on Collectormania 7, sorry no pics uploaded yet but will send asap!!
Saturday:
I got there about 4pm, and met Sean Astin, John Rhys-Davies and Kiran Shah. Sean was great but I got the inpression they were trying to squeeze as many people in to meet him on saturday as possible. Next was John Rhys-Davies who was really nice and chatty, even gave me some careers advice! Keiran was really nice but pretty quiet, I understand it was his first convention.
The LOTR talk
JRD Sean Astin, Lawrence Makore and Kiran Shah were at the talk. Most of the time it was Sean Astin or John Rhys-Davies talking, with the odd comment form Lawrence or Kiran. The banter between JRD and Sean Astin was pretty funny and the hour-ish went pretty fast!
Sunday
Sunday I met Bernard Hill. He was very nice, but again it seemed people were being rushed through.
Altogether I had a great weekend, it seemed collectormania was the place to be!!!!!
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Emma writes: Here’s my report on C7. It’s a bit of a long one I’m afraid but hopefully it’s interesting! I have some pictures too that I’ve attached. I only went for the day on Saturday and met Sean Astin, John Rhys Davies, Bernard Hill and Kiran Shah. Sean was a lovely guy to meet, seemed very happy to be there. My meeting with him was short but sweet. Something along the lines of:
“hey Sean how are you, having fun?”
*forms meditating pose with hands and closes eyes* hommm.. yes! I am!
“good good”
*signs picture*
“lovely to meet you”
“nice to meet you too”
*shake hands*
John RD was really nice too, very talkative. He carried on talking to my friend about what she was studying at University even as we were being ushered away to make room for the next person! He gave the impression he would have liked to have gotten the chance to spend more time with each person.Meeting Bernard Hill for me was also short but sweet. He seemed tired but was still happy to be there. Kiran Shah was nice, I didn’t say all that much to him but he was happy to have his picture taken with us etc.The LOTR Talk
The talk was amazing, so funny! First of all the entrance: the man at the front introduced all the actors and they all walked/jogged in and sat in their seats at the front, or in Sean’s case, ran in holding up his arms like he was a footballer running on the field or something lol, ran past his seats, back past everyone and out the other entrance, back in the first entrance still running. I think he enjoyed making an entrance and having everyone cheer!I can’t remember all the questions asked but I’ll write what I can: I think the first question was to Kiran (Sean said something like “this is Kiran’s first talk so Kiran make sure you talk slowly and clearly or we they won’t understand you” lol) about whether Elijah was bossy when instructing him how to be his body double. Kiran said he wasn’t often bossy, but sometimes he was!Someone asked which other character they would have been in LOTR given the chance.Sean: ARAGORN! *stands up and does aragornish pose* LOL
Kiran: Well seeing as I got to be all four hobbits I was pretty happy.
Lawrence: Someone who didn’t get killed.
Sean: Like an elf! They’re immortal.
Then they went on to another question and then Lawrence made a response to the above question. They kept doing that, like cutting the conversation off and coming back to it later.Lawrence: Sean, if elves are immortal, how come Haldir dies?
Sean: well he doesn’t die, you don’t actually see him die, he just gets the physical injuries of a battle.
audience: general response of “no Sean, he dies” Sean: no, well his PHYSICAL body dies but his soul is still alive.. c’mon help me out here guys!
Someone asked JRD whether, after being so successful/such a prominent character in the genre, he would like to branch out of the scifi/adventure genre of film. JRD said something along the lines of the parts he is offered are because of luck so he’s been lucky enough to be offered lots of good parts in this genre. Sean asked for a show of hands if they thought John got his roles because of actual talent rather than luck. (everyone put their hands up)Someone asked what they thought the movies add to the books, and went on to add a second question to that before they could answer it, so Sean put his hand up doing like an over-eager 6 year old trying to put it higher and higher and waving it around (lol!) while the lady was adding to the first question. JRD got the microphone first though and said he thought the movies added “pictures” to the books. JRD then passed the microphone to Sean who was still waving his hand around looking desperate. Sean said “sound!!” [as in the movies add sound to the books] and collapsed in a heap on the table. Sean then asked if anyone wanted to hear his proper answer to the question. We did. He asked if people wanted it to be under a minute or under 2 mins. We opted for under a minute (though it was still more) lol. He talked about his work with that Literacy for America campaign thing and gave us a few facts and figures. He said what the movies added to the books was a bigger audience/encouraged people to read cause so many people went and bought/read the books after seeing the movies.Someone asked Sean about his up and coming projects. He said he was trying to get a role of a murderer in a film at the moment, and that we should all start a petition and send it to the director so that he is cast for the role.Another question to Sean was whether his daughter Alexandra had expressed an interest in getting into the movie business and how he’d feel about it if she wanted to. Sean asked if this would go out straight on the internet or be exclusive to the room (I’m hoping he was joking seeing as its part of my account lol!). He said she has just announced to her Daddy she wants to be an actress, and wants her Daddy to be in her movies 🙂 John RD also added he wants to be in them. Alexandra has also promised she will get a degree before being an actress though, Sean said: “preferably a Science” but maybe something else, and it’s a promise he’s “holding her to” apparently 🙂 Someone asked about whether it felt weird when people spent so much time/effort to come to these things and meet the actors etc, and do they understand why people want to meet them so much. Sean said it didn’t feel weird and that he did understand. Then he said something along the lines of:”You think I’m giving you a short answer with that but I’m not. I understand. I understand that the material (as in LOTR/Tokien’s world) deserves all the attention it’s given, unlimited attention. Saying that, when I come to these things and meet all the fans, and when I’m doing my soul searching in their eyes, I’m checking that they aren’t in it TOO much. He added more to this bit but I can’t remember what it was!Sean asked if anyone had met Kiran that day and if they knew how tall he was. Some people put their hand up to say they had met him, but everyone said they didn’t know how tall he was, so Sean got Kiran to stand on the table, and Sean stood on the table too and he said he’s “this tall compared to me”.Someone asked whether they thought the Hobbit would get made and if they would want to be in it. Sean said he’d like to be Gaffer Gamgee, and depending on when it was made and whether he had a child of the appropriate age, he said his child could play Sam Gamgee. There was a recurring theme of “the incident at the nightclub” that John RD kept asking Kiran about, but unfortunately we never got to find out what happened!Sean also did quite a few John RD impressions including some lines from Indiana Jones, and said how the first few times he was around John, he couldn’t be in his presence without quoting from Indiana Jones, to the point where John said it was “verging on parody”! Also at the end of the talk Sean carried Kiran off on his shoulders! That’s all I can remember from the talk but hopefully other people will be able to add to it!All in all it was an amazing weekend. All the guests I met were lovely and the talk was the icing on the cake!
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Eva writes: Friday morning at 06:50 am I had my flight out to Heathrow, took a train to London and did the inevitable shopping for books, CDs and music t-shirts. Spent already way too much, but had a lot of fun in doing so. Too bad that tight Ramones shirt was out of stock… 🙁
One of the things I *really* wanted to do, was pay a visit to the Europe’s only Apple Store in Regent Street. An incredible place where I took some time playing with the latest Powerbooks, iPods, and the PowerMac G5 (Apple’s current Holy Grail) and then sent an e-mail home. Magnificent place, it serves as some sort of Internet cafe as well (only it’s free!! yay!!), so whenever you’re there and you have the chance (and are into fancy Apple stuff) ~ go see it!! [More]
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Ellie x writes: I met Sean on the Friday, although we weren’t supposed to have pics with him he said he didn’t mind and posed for me! My friend wanted one and he took the camera off her and held it behind him so she was in it too, it came out really well!!
The talk was brilliant! We were on the front row (pics to come very soon!) I remember a couple of questions no-one has mentioned yet, someone asked them what the films added to the books etc and Sean had his hand up for ages whilst John was answering, then he kinda exploded and said ” SOUND” banging his head on the table! v funny! Also they kept saying something about Kieran and nightclubs!!! Towards the end of the talk I asked Lawrence if he still visited the forums (Showmasters, who run the event, have Forums that Lawrence used to lurk on!) and he joked about it being Sala, not him to which Sean said they were together and started doing camp Sala impressions!
All 4 actors from the talk went to the Party afterwards. JRD was surrounded by people so I didn’t go and talk to him but I did manage to say hello to Sean and my friends and I chatted to Kieran and Lawrence, who pleaded the 5th amendment when we asked him about Kieran and the nightclub!!!
I didnt get to see Bernard on the Sunday because I was crewing elsewhere but we did get to say goodbye to Lawrence on the monday, who apparently told someone that Sala and he wouldn’t be doing any more European Cons. I hope they do come back, Collectormania isn’t the same without Sala and Lawrence is great fun!!
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With Orlando Bloom’s latest film ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ ready to hit the big screens next week, the publicity campaign has hit overdrive. Take a look at a few of these articles from various sites. Plus be sure to catch Bloom on various chat shows this week.
