Thanks to Sam for the pics!
Category: Old Spy Reports
Hobbits come to life
Liv Tyler’s surrounded by creatures great and small in The Lord of the Rings but some of them are real dummies.
After 50 years of waiting, the world has finally had its first real-life glimpse of perhaps the century’s most famous literary creation, a furry-footed hobbit. Deep in the woods and hills of the South Island, J.R. Tolkien’s diminutive fantasy creatures are the stars of the $360 million movie trilogy The Lord of the Rings.
As Woman’s Day’s exclusive pictures show, director Peter Jackson’s hobbits come in all shapes and sizes – and some are not even flesh and blood.
You won’t notice on the big screen, but Hollywood siren Liv Tyler, as Elf Princess Arwen, had only a plastic hobbit for company when she filmed a dramatic horse chase sequence last week near Wanaka.
The dummy was standing in for the pint sized actor playing Liv’s hobbit sidekick Bilbo Baggins as they escaped from a fearsome band of Ringwraiths, among the books’ eeriest bad guys.
Meanwhile, on another set in nearby Queenstown, the movie’s hobbit heroes Frodo and Sam Gamagee appeared, played by Elijah Wood and Sean Astin – who are both normal-sized. Peter and his team of special effects wizards have created an awesome computer system, called Massive, which will shrink the stars down to size on film – except for the giant hairy feet which are a hobbit’s trademark.
The torrential downpours that flooded Queenstown and Wanaka have wreaked havoc to the Lord of the Rings’ shooting schedule, trapping one unit in remote Te Anau and even washed some elaborate sets built on riverbanks around Lake Wakatipu.
The weather also took its toll on 22-year-old Liv. She may have become one of the movie world’s hottest properties after starring roles in Armageddon and Stealing Beauty, but she still needs a hot-water bottle under each arm as she waited for the cameras to roll. Luckily for her, it was Liv’s last day on set before taking a break back home in the US after several weeks filming.
Like the other Rings stars, she has been able to watch the floodwaters rising from her suite at Queenstown’s Novotel Saint Moritz Hotel.
And when on well-wisher asked her as she boarded a plane what her memories of Queenstown were, she said simply. “Lots of rain!”
Thanks to Julius for the tip!
From: Clinny
Hi, I’ve cut and cleaned up some of those NZtv storyboard images that have been around for months. You can really see some details now. 🙂
Images from NZtv.
Great work!
Thanks to Clinny
Xoanon here,
Having read what Dernhelm reports, I must say that it’s very akin to the scripts that I’ve read. The decapitation though, that’s new to me. So this will be regarded as a serious RUMOR and nothing more.
From: Dernhelm
I’ve heard some new rumors about the script from an insider.
With Eomer being out, Eowyn becomes queen of Mark, she still marries Faramir though. And it seems to be some change in Eowyns personality, she’ll be much tougher, maybe as some sort of mix between Eomer and Eowyn.
Also, the scoring of the shire will be a bit different, as it will not include Grima Wormstounge. He will be blamed by Eowyn for her last living relative’s(Theoden) death. And she will find him after Saruman left him, and she will decapitate Wormstounge, Theoden’s evil advisor.
Tehanu’s 3rd report is chalk full of news!
After being in Queenstown for a few days, I’ve chatted to a few people that know people in the production (well, that’s everyone in Queenstown actually) and I can answer some questions that have come up a few times.
1) Moria orcs have scaly skin – greenish, if I remember rightly. The Uruk-Hai are black and smooth-skinned. So, something for everyone there.
2)Legolas is fair-haired not dark, according to an orc I spoke to. You can all expend a lot of Internet bandwidth discussing this, I know. Legolas also wears two throwing-knives in a kind of back-holster (you’ll see the blades poking up over his shoulders) and a small bow which is beautifully made with laminated would and finely detailed inlay work. Let’s hope we get to see that ín close-up!
3)My source says that Orlando Bloom makes a great Legolas. He also had positive things to say about Liv as Arwen. I know some of you think that I’ve got a bias here (rah rah rah, everything’s going to be great etc.) but if so it’s one that all the extras I’ve spoken to share. Their bias could stem from the fact that they are having such a great time and are totally stoked to be involved in the film. On the other hand to offset that, I know that in New Zealand, the more famous somebody is, the more reluctant we are to be impressed by them. Especially if they’re from overseas. So if the local consensus is that Liv is doing a good job, then I’m looking forward to seeing her as Arwen.
4) Moria orc armour is leather and chainmail (actually fabric or knit mesh sprayed to look metallic, so my scepticism about that was unfounded!) with an overall spiky impression. The helmets are hard to see out of. In fact the layers of prosthetics are hard to see out of. Some of them had been in scenes to do with the breakup of the Fellowship, and several of them said that at first they were continually running into trees instead of doing whatever tightly-choreographed fight scene had been planned.
5) I asked about how PJ directed them, and they confirmed the impression I’d got from the ‘NZOnfilm’ article on the stuntmen: he keeps a close eye on things, but lets people work things out for themselves, and only offers suggestions when the result doesn’t work for him. One comment I heard was that he puts a good deal of trust in his assistant directors.
6) Somewone said of Boyd and Monaghan that they seem to have a naturally impish ‘hobbit-quality’ both in and out of character, and are pretty hilarious.
7) Ears-up for NZers – I heard a RNZ interview on the Kim Hill show with some guy who’d designed armoured boots to protect loggers from chainsaw injuries. The boots were co-designed by Warren Green, who’s one of the head armourers for LOTR. He came to armouring from a background in clothing design. I could hear Kim Hill’s interest perk up as Warren’s current fortunes on LOTR were described. “He must think all his Christmases have come at once!” she said, and I could almost hear her thinking, ‘Now THAT would be a good interview subject!. I wouldn’t be surprised if she tries to get an interview with him. If it happens, we want to hear about it!
There have been rumours circulating that Liv Tyler, during filming, accidentally steped on some moss, which she is allergic to, and is subsquently doing the remainder of her parts with blue screen, indoors.
Some reports state that she is doing all these back in the U.S, where she has gone to get treatment for it, others say that while she DID go to the States for treatment, she is now back in New Zealand to complete the filming.
As yet there can be no confirmations about this, or when it took place.