A little titbit that I picked up whilst speaking to John Rhys-Davies before x-mas and forgot about until I read the piece on him appearing at a comic-con in LA.
I asked JRD about the voicing of Treebeard and he mentioned the difficulties in translating the venerable ent to the big screen (slowness of delivery, long pauses etc.). He also mentioned that PJ and the sound department were experimenting in a ‘layering’ technique in creating the sound of treebeard’s voice.
He spoke of the attempt to integrate the sounds of a tree; creaking branches, straining boughs etc. into JRD’s performance which as you mentioned is yet to be recorded. He took pains to say that this technique was not by any means finalised and that if it didn’t work that they may abandon it.
I have just returned from a visit to my local games workshop store where I had a very interesting conversation with the manager about the rumor that they are going to be making the figures of Tom bombadil and goldberry.
He confirmed that this was true these miniatures will be produced some time this year. When I asked if it was true if the license that the Games Workshop had with New Line stated that they could only produce the figures that are in the films, he said this was correct.
He said in his own words that there is so much he is not allowed to tell anyone about, this guy is area manager for my region. So will we be seeing Tom and goldberry in the DVD, he would not say but he added we are making the miniatures you figure it out.
It is interesting to note, however, that our insider souces say that the chances of seeing old Tom and his lady on the DVD are very ‘doubtful’.
News from Fido: “CNN’s Showbiz Today reports that while New Line has NOT set an official release date for “The Lord of the Rings: FOTR” DVD yet, Peter Jackson has just said that the DVD will contain a Director’s Cut running at a little over 4 hours. This is different to the responses he gave last month indicating that there would be about 40 mins of deleted scenes with the disc, but NOT as a part of the film’s final print (ie. there would be no Director’s Cut).” [More]
Dr. Evil adds, “Hey, I used to work for Games Workshop in the U.S. and still know quite a few Managers in various departments. I called one and he explained that although they are producing miniatures of Tom Bombadil and Goldberry, and various others it is because their license is book based and allows them to “fill in the gaps” of characters not covered by Peter Jacksons films.
There sadly was no filmed footage from what he has heard or whether or not the minitures that are produced are based on WETA designs or not.”
Other people have sent me similar explanations of how Games Workshop have acquired the rights to make Tom and Goldberry despite the fact that they don’t appear in the movie. So sorry folks, the “Bombadil’s in the director’s cut DVD” rumour is untrue.
Adrahil has information on the same: “Here’s a quote from GW North American Product Manager Dan Rumley:
“There are rumors that Peter Jackson will revisit the Hobbit in the distant future but these are pure speculation. As to further licensing I can proudly announce that Games Workshop has the Literary license and will be rolling all types of great products and scenarios to allow players even more Middle Earth mayhem. So there is no doubt going to be the characters of The Hobbit showing up some time in the future.”
1) This is an update to your notice that Cate Blanchett is/was to be on today’s (Jan. 15) episode of “Fresh Air,” a radio interview program hosted by Teri Gross.
Ms. Blanchett was interviewed for roughly half an hour, several minutes at the beginning of which were devoted to discussion of LOTR. She talked about working with Peter Jackson, wearing ’70s disco boots while filming with the hobbits, dealing with special effects, and she revealed the existence of a scene (left on the cutting room floor) in which she and Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn) speak entirely in elvish.
The good news is that both current and archived interviews can be heard directly over the internet; it is not necessary that “Fresh Air” be broadcast on a local station. For those wanting to listen on Jan. 15, 2002, go to freshair.npr.org and click on “Listen to the Current Show” ; after Jan. 15, 2002, the show should be accessible by clicking on “archived shows.”
2) As the official LOTR site (news section) notes, the DVD of National Geographic Explorer’s “Beyond the Movie: The Lord of the Rings” (which aired on Dec. 23, 2001) will be available on Feb. 5, 2002. However, National Geographic is taking orders now for the DVD. To order, call 1-800-437-5521.
Amazing news from CNN via David: “A friend of mine was watching CNN today. They reported that the DVD version of Fellowship was going to be 4.5 hours long.”
Is THAT long enough for you all? And when does it come out?
According to this there’s a book being released on Amazon in May which is ” Published to tie-in with the launch of the video and DVD, this is the first of three books” [read the synopsis, you’ll see it.]
So look for the DVD in May, 2002. Thanks to Corsair of Umbar who noticed that.
Now, this is a rumour from Kevin, who notes a different time for the DVD release [July] but concludes that Bombadil’s scenes were filmed: “I just figured that I’d let you know that I recently got a chance to look at the 2002 release sheet for the LOTR Games workshop games. Now, Games Workshop has a 3-5 (not sure) contract with New Line which says that the only models they may produce in that time are models from the films. This release sheet showed that in July, around the time of the DvD release models WILL be released for Tom Bombadil, Goldberry, and the barrow wights. This means that it is a definite that the old forest sequence, in its entirety, was filmed, and that we will see Bombadil in the film.”
Well, it’s been a well-kept secret in the NZ film community if it has, but we’ll keep an open mind on that!
Looks like there’s a lot of people hunting for Hobbiton. This letter came in from one of our correspondents who lives on a farm near the ‘Hobbiton’ farm, in Matamata.
“I was in the Matamata Information Office today for just 20 mins and during that time 4 groups of people came in asking where to see the Hobbiton village!!! One English couple had driven all the way from Auckland especially and ‘wasted’ a day of their travel time! Another Japanese girl had caught a bus from Rotorua and had no idea what to do when told she couldn’t go to the farm!! (I’ve no idea how she was going to get there!!) Another group were visitors from UK, and then some Kiwis. Wow!!
Maybe that was because of the news item on tv last night about Hobbiton sign being stolen. But the demand is there and people [in Matamata] have no idea of the enormity of this whole thing!!”
Of course, they could make it easier on themselves and join other fans in one of Red Carpet’s coach tours to the locations… [More]
