Old Spy Reports | Lord of the Rings & Tolkien News - TheOneRing.net Fan Community, since 1999

If you check Amazon.com’s DVD section for current “top sellers,” you’ll note that the FOTR “Extended Edition” is actually outselling the “Star Wars Episode II” DVD… and has been doing so for about a week now. This, unless I’m utterly mistaken, is an unprecedented amount of business for a second-release DVD.. especially considering that new “Star Wars” releases are usually predicted as the best-sellers of their respective years.

Amazon.com is the biggest of the online stores, and their pre-sales are usually a pretty good indicator of what national sales will eventually look like.

In other words: SW2 and FOTR:SE go head-to-head in stores on the same exact day, and so far the super-hyped high-profile SW2 first release is being outsold (at least according to Amazon.com’s numbers) by the less-hyped follow-up release for FOTR.

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The Norwegian website Ringenes Herre is claiming that TTT will run at 3 hours and 10 minutes.

Here is a translation, thanks to Øystein:

“The movie longer than assumed.

“Assumed length for LOTR:TTT has up to now been 2 hours 43 minutes. But director Peter Jackson has found cause to add on almost half an hour extra. Early this summer Jackson and his staff was back on New Zealand to shoot some extra scenes for TTT. The post-production with the new scenes and the extensive special effects has been going on for full since then. Distributer SF Norge claims the finished movie probably will be around 3 hours 10 minutes long. Which means 10 minutes longer than LOTR.

“It will still be a while before the norwegian censor is passed. SF Norge is hoping for 11 years, but since TTT contains more battle scenes and has a much darker tone than the predecessor, the result might very possibly be 15 years. In the US it has gotten the rating PG-13 which has the following meaning: (MPAA rating quote cut)

“LOTR:TTT is being issued in 96 copies domestically (FOTR had 76), which is a record for cinemas in Norway for such a long movie.”

However Mordo had the opportunity to guess the length of the movie by making some calculations from the information he had:

“I just wanted to comment on the running time of TTT. The length of the copies shipped to Germany this week are 15873 feet each. FOTR was 16130 feet. Dividing the length in feet by 90 yields the running time in minutes (give or take). Using this method gives us 2H59M for FOTR (only one minute off) and 2H56M for TTT. By the way “Running Time” includes the credits.”

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Our own ringer spies bring this little bit of interesting news in regards to wargs, Aragorn, and Helms Deep!

As Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, etc. are leading the people of Rohan to Helms Deep, they are attacked by warg riders. Aragorn engages one in intense battle as the others are led ahead. Apparently he is badly wounded and catches up only later.

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It was a pleasant day(not huge,but thrilling!)….and I’m happy to say is covered here already….

So I don’t have to! Small things then…. Brian and Jane were both models of courtesy,just superb. Andy seemed oddly shy for such a significant actor,very charming. I met three Americans,one lady who came in a lovely dress(you know who you are,ma’am!) and a chap who had crossed the pond just for this! B and J and A were all very pro with the children,they thankfully assumed the kids had brains and could keep up,,which you sadly don’t always see….

The later talk was fascinating,particularly Andy’s articulation regarding Gollum’s psychological makeup,and Brian’s revelation that certain things PJ had done,he would’nt have(he said he would have done something “more interesting” with Arwen)….and some things PJ did,he would have nicked!

I had a lot of questions,but time was short,so I kept it to,not a question,but a public thankyou to Brian(and Jane) for defending and praising LOTR in the press,often against those (Philip Pullman springs to mind) who blatantly have their facts wrong….

When I actually got to the signing,I hadn;t been able to afford the books….so I’d bought a printed picture of Eowyn(my current favourite) for them to sign.

Jane graciously signed,with a note to say she always empathised with Eowyn(I can’t remeber it exactly,so i don’t want to misquote her)…she felt proud of standing up for LOTR….

Now. I won’t go into detail,suffice to say Brian Sibley’s LOTR is part of my psyche.In my house,it,Hitchhiker’s Guide,Elgar and The Goon Show were played in rotation,and I could’nt have asked for better influences. His LOTR is certainly one of the reasons why some parts of PJ’s LOTR bother me,because they have less grace….put short,everything about BS’s LOTR is important to me….

So you can imagine how lovely it was last year at the Borders signing for the FOTR books,to meet him and say thankyou….

Now,this may sound horribly fanboyish,but as I say,his LOTR is very much loved by my little self….

He remembered me.Brian Sibley remembered me from a year ago,when I was just another scrotty herbert in a queue!!!!! He was very warm and friendly and so on and so forth(ahem!) Both he and Jane were a joy to meet,an absolute joy.

Lovely day. Oh,and again,the American lady with the robe/dress in central London(ie Hell)…..much respect!!! Tim

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Frodo’s Girl writes, “I stopped in the embassy tonight, and the special showing of the extended version of FOTR on 11/11 is a chartiy showing for the Embassy Trust. Tickets are $50 a piece and went on sale today (4/11). They told me we will be watching Peter’s own personal copy and it will be film, not digital. Wne and nibbles an hour or so before the film. I can’t wait!

“Figwit is in a show at the local fringe theatre, Bats, this week. It is called “Live:TraNZmissions” and is absolutely brill! I saw it last night. It is 3 radio plays that Brett McKenzie (figwit), Taika Cohen and Adam Gardiner wrote and perform. One of the 3 bits is a serial that is being broadcast live on [student radio] Radio Active each night. It is very clever and very funny – and I must say that Brett is getting some use out of his Figwit fame. The local news had a bit about the show, saying that Figwit was one of the actors! … Brett had a nice write up in the capital times a couple of weeks back, too.”

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