From: James

I’m just back from the “A Journey to Middle Earth” show at Casa Loma in Toronto. You’ve no doubt received some other reports, but I thought I’d just toss in my own two cents.

Casa Loma, a 19th Century Gothic Revival “castle” in a posh neighbourhood in Toronto, was an excellent venue for the show, and they made good use of the spaces available.

On the main floor they had props and furnishings from Bag End, along with Elven, Gondorian, and Orcish costumes and banners. The costume quality was amazing: they seemed more like period clothing than film costumes. All through the show I was put in mind of Peter Jackson’s comment that he wanted to make LotR as if it were a historical film, and that feeling was in this show as well.

The second floor housed a collection of black-and-white portrait photographs of the film principles, which looked quite good, though they weren’t quite as entrancing as the actual props & costumes. I got a laugh from the cheezy fake plate armour that Casa Loma decorates its halls with — not the tiniest bit convincing next to these props!

We went up to the third floor next, to find that the show didn’t actually match the map in the booklet: the map says “attic” but shows the third floor layout — the next part really *was* in the attic, amongst the rafters. At one end of the attic were artifacts from Hobbitton, Bree, and Moria, including the Green Dragon from the Green Dragon Inn, Butterbur’s outfit, and Orcish helmets. At the other end, in the top of one of the castle towers, is more Moria matter, including Gimli’s axe, helmet, and boots; the Book of Marzabul; a mummified Dwarf corpse; and a large blow-up of the drafting diagrams for the Dwarvish runes. They had a wall done up in rune-work — I didn’t try to transcribe it, though I could make Balin’s name out in one line.

The largest part of the exhibit was undergound, which seems appropriate. Casa Loma proper is connected to its stables through an 800-foot tunnel, which was lined with prints and sketches by Alan Lee and John Howe. Included were things like incredibly complex blueprint diagrams of the Bag End parlour window and kitchen; plans for the buildings in Bree including the Prancing Pony; many diagrams and paintings of Rivendell and Lothlorien; and much more. One thing I found interesting was the Bree diagrams: Bree’s buildings are half-timbered houses with projecting second floors — you’ve no doubt seen the photos. But what isn’t obvious in those pictures is that the upper floors of these buildings are angled outwards by 5 degrees, to make them loom over the tiny hobbits. I’m curious to see how the effect comes off in the film.

At the end of the tunnel is the “Torture Chamber of Barad-Dur”. It features an Orc-figure set up doing some smithing-work; the only place in the show where a costume is actually set up to look like a character doing something, and it doesn’t *quite* work because the orc-mask (one which was created for an extra) is empty eyed and loose.

The next room is the Gates of Moria: a large rock-face which, when the light hits it right, shows the tracery that Tolkien drew outlined in silver.

The room after is not marked on the map. It contains a number of paintings of scenes from the book, and not all by Lee and Howe. Rivendell is there, as are various mountain ranges & the like. Like the photographs, it’s a nice piece of the show, but not as captivating as other bits.

Lothlorien is next. This room contains a number of costumes, including two of Galadriel’s and one of Celeborn’s. The detail is amazing: Galadriel’s dress is made of a fabric finely textured in white on white; I can’t imagine that all of the detail will show on film, but it’s there nonetheless. The room also includes many props, including Legolas’s bow and Galadriel’s Mirror — a metal bowl of amazing craftmanship — and her gifts to the Walkers, including the Vial and the cloak-clasps.

Off of the Lothlorien room are the last three rooms. The smallest is the Hobbit’s room at the Prancing Pony, with the beds all torn and feathers everywhere — and a Black Rider in the middle of it all. Also included are the Hobbits’ travel-packs (with Sam’s the largest, with many pots dangling from the outside) and Gandalf’s cart, loaded with fireworks.

Opposite the Bree-room is Orthanc, which was set up in the actual horse-stalls of the stable; this works very well, since the stalls all have iron gates across the front. This display includes several lamps & fixtures from Orthanc, an Orcish banner with the White Hand, Saruman’s outfit, and various well-cluttered tables from Saruman’s study — including books in which you can read excerpts from Numenorean history, specifically the reign of Ar-Pharazon, the king whose corruption by Sauron led to the downfall of Numenor, and the escape of Elendil and his sons to Middle-Earth where they founded Arnor and Gondor. Nice attention to detail!

The last room is called “Rivendell”, and is dedicated to the Fellowship. All of the Walker’s costumes are here, including Gandalf and the Hobbits, as are their weapons (with the exception of Legolas’s bow, which is in Lothlorien, and Gimli’s axe, which is in Moria). The workmanship on the swords is amazing; you can read the runes on Glamdring quite clearly. Of all of them, this was my favourite room.

This room (and the attic) contained a fascinating map of “Middle Earth in New Zealand”, which marked all of the filming locations — over 30 of them, all the way from the north to the south — and the locations of the artisans involved in the costuming.

Since we got our tickets through Ticketmaster, we got free copies of the Argonath poster, so we headed back through the tunnel to the gift shop. The shop was a disappointment, though: they had very little LotR-related material; about 3/4 of the books were different editions of The Hobbit, and the rest were movie-tie-in editions of “Return of the King” (the other two volumes weren’t there!) and a non-movie-tie-in edition of the all-in-one trade paperback. The fellow behind the counter was quite disappointed in what he was given to sell. I had been hoping that there might be early copies of the movie-guide books (due out November 6th), but no such luck.

He did tell us, though, how this show came to be: Casa Loma found that, after cancellations in the wake of 9/11, they had a huge gap in their schedule between Halloween and Christmas. They got talking to their marketting people, who got in touch with Alliance Atlantis, and they hashed out the idea for this show — Casa Loma is the “sole North American venue” for this presentation (which implies that there may be some outside North America later!). Further, he said that there will be a similar Harry Potter show early next year.

The show has a small paper booklet accompanying it, which features short essays on the movie production and maps of the exhibits. Unfortunately, there’s no proper museum-style show catalog, which I would have loved.

All in all, it was an excellent show. Not hype-ish at all; much more like a small touring museum show than a movie promotion. For that matter, it’s much better as a museum show than some such I’ve seen! And with only a couple of exceptions, the props and costumes stand up as museum-quality pieces. I once saw a show of Star Trek props and costumes, and was struck by how fake-looking they were up close in person; there was only one item which gave me that feeling here (a scepter in the Rivendell room, which was no doubt meant to be well in the back of a scene). I wouldn’t have minded had the show been larger, but it was a good size (about an hour to tour at a medium pace). The only thing missing was proper merchandise — they really should have *all* of the movie tie-in books, and a broader selection in general.

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My name is Kim and I just got back from the LOTR exhibit at Casa Loma and wanted to let you know that it was very cool. John-Rhys Davies (Gimli) and Dominic Monaghan (Merry) were both there doing the media thing but were also signing autographs. I was able to meet Dominic, he was very funny and seemed like an extremely nice guy.

There were 2 Ringwraiths outside before you first walked in who looked extremely spooky but cool. There were TONS of props, you could seriously spend hours going through everything. There were costumes (from just about each character), weapons, sets, drawings, just so much stuff you have to see it to really appreciate the magnitude of such an event. Anyway, just thought I’d let you know how it went if you wanted to post anything on the site.

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Our mailbox was flooded this evening with email about excited LOTR fans who were surprised to see a semi-new LOTR:FOTR commercial during a break of Game 3 of the World Series and an NBA Game. Take a Gander at some of them:

Just wanted to let you know that there was a new LOTR trailer shown at about 10:30 p.m. Eastern between innings of the World Series…maybe a new shot or two (I saw some amazing looking trees in a super-fast Lothlorien clip) but otherwise just snippets from the previous two trailers.

I was just watching the Wizards vs Knicks NBA game and a Fellowship of the Ring trailer played during a commercial early in the 2nd quarter. When they came back from the commercial, FotR was listed on the screen as one of tonight’s game sponsors.

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I am now taking it upon myself to describe the magnificent night of the 20th of September. Due to circumstances beyond my control I arrived quite late. My hobbit carriage did not arrive at the door until half past seven, allowing me only an hour to chronicle this madness. As I approached the door, I saw an older fellow dressed up as Gandalf. I felt nervous. This was a REAL Tolkien gathering! Perhaps I felt a bit like Bilbo on his first adventure outside Bag End. This was my debut into Tolkienite society. I walked into a crowded room of individuals talking. There were various people in costume, including one dressed up as Boromir—boy did he look like Sean Bean!!!!

I basically spent the next few minutes looking around, and feeling like a hobbit far from the native hole. I finally asked a lady in costume if she help get my bearings. I told her I was with TheOneRing.net,and would like to film the event. She went to inquire about this,and I eventually got a thumbs up from behind the desk. This is quite a marvel—considering still photography was not allowed. Isn’t it wonderful to be the press! 🙂 I meandered my way upstairs and came to the room where drinks and snacks were being served. I knew Leo from TORN was supposed to be there, and earlier that day I had gone to look at photos of him in the Cannes Archives to refresh my memory on what he looked like. I spotted someone whom I suspected may have been the right person, and with all the boldness becoming a Jedi Hobbit said “Are You Leo?” Apparently I had struck a bulls eye, for the entishly tall fellow replied “Yes I am….the one and only!” I in turn told him who I was (we had talked a few times previously in Barliman’s) and so that marked him down as the first EVER in the history of Barliman’s, TORN and my entire chat life on the web since early 1998. And just ask anyone at Barliman’s—especially Thorongil—I stay very close to the Shire. 🙂

I soon found my way to another room where more fans were gathered and people were signing a guest book. I signed in this….but do not ask for my real name….you must still call me Pippin! 🙂 On the same table were posters by Ted Nasmith. I told Leo who was nearby rather humbly “I don’t know what he looks like.” to which he graciously informed me that it was the man in the maroon shirt. Yes, my dear hobbits– THAT was how lost I was. I went up,and told him my name, and that I was with TheOneRing.net and was interested in interviewing him. Eventually we headed upstairs to the much quieter “Munchie” room (my name for the refreshment table). I turned and invited Leo to come along, and we all trudged up to what was going to be the interview room. Now I’d done it. I was the lone ranger with the video camera who Xoanon had asked to film the event. I had never interviewed ANYONE before,and here I was not only about to do exactly that— the interviewee was a renowned Tolkien illustrator. I had a tremendous weight and responsibility on my shoulders. I had NOT had very much experience doing camera work, and indeed I hardly knew how to even start the interview.

I informed Ted and the little group standing around that I was a greenhand in this— and inquired about how to start. A friend who I brought along gave me a hand, and so I began to roll the tape. I began basically by saying the interview was for TheOneRing.net, the biggest fansite on the web. A member of the audience asked with some suprise: “Is it really the biggest?” Leo handled that question. 🙂

If you want an idea of what Ted was like I will say this: he is a rather serious person—a quality that goes hand in hand with the profession I suppose. Nonetheless however, he was a very nice person as well. Intelligent and thoughtful. I must say also that he is a very talented artist. You may be amazed to hear that by the time I arrived at the Gallery a lot of the paintings had already been sold. I heard one man in a business suit say that his wife need not worry because there was hardly anything left to buy. 🙂 After the interview, Leo asked Ted a few things and then it was poster signing time! Much to my amusement, a young man said to his friend “Well—I got my Sainsbury receipt!” (that is a food store chain here in England) and later commenced in handing the crumpled piece of artistry to sign. Ah my dear children….a golden moment indeed!

I hope children,that you have enjoyed this tale of mine; and with the absence of great battles,of vengeful contests, of dragons and knights or glorious hronicles of ships that traverse the emerald deep…I do hope my dear ones, that you may not find this piece lacking in wit.

Check out our exclusive archive of Ted Nasmith work at Rolozo Tolkien!

The Chalk Farm coverage and interview will be seen in future chapters of TORN Digital!

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Ringer Spy Maragret sends along these great scans, take a look!

One of the many Toronto Star ads for the Casa Loma exhibit contained a gorgeous new photo of Gandalf in Rivendell- it really shows the depth of detail used in the sets! Also, the Star article you already posted was accompanied by two pictures in the print version, so I thought I’d send them to you.

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From: Torper

I don’t if this is old news – but I wrote to the Odeon Cinema in Britain asking when the tickets sales will begin, and I got the following response:

‘The date tickets will go on sale for “Lord Of The Rings” is November 16th. Although this is the date we have been given by the film’s distributors, the date is subject to change.

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