by Joe Fordham
Copyright (c) 2004 by Cinefex.
Hobbits, elves and black-tied gentry erupted with joy Sunday night at the Hollywood American Legion Hall as Steven Spielberg presented filmmaker Peter Jackson the best picture Oscar for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, capping an evening in which the final Tolkien chapter won in all eleven of its nominated categories. The assembly had gathered in the art deco Highland Avenue venue to celebrate the 76th annual Academy Awards, viewing the ceremony on a massive Jumbotron and cheering on the New Line Cinema epic, which in addition to best picture, took home Oscar gold for best direction, adapted screenplay, art direction, costume design, film editing, sound mixing, musical score, song, makeup and visual effects, tying it with previous Oscar record-holders Ben-Hur and Titanic.
Bringing to conclusion what, for some, was a seven-year odyssey, the awards recipients made their appearance at The One Party — a festive occasion organized by the fan website TheOneRing.net — speculating amid the hoopla about their work on the still-in-progress Return of the King: Extended Edition DVD release. “The cut is never locked!” stated film editor Jamie Selkirk, one of the evening’s winners and a veteran collaborator with Peter Jackson. “When you’re working with Peter, he never really locks the cut until the last minute. We actually ended up doing about four days’ editing on it recently, and he said: ‘Okay, that’ll do for now. I’m going to do this junket overseas, then the BAFTAs and the Oscars; then we’ll come back and have a look at what visual effects are finished. So we’ll cut when we get back; and, with any luck, it might be a lock!'”
Reportedly, the extended edition will contain anywhere between 40 to 60 minutes of new footage, added to the theatrical release’s 201-minute running time, and will include more than 200 new visual effects shots. “When we were working on the film,” said visual effects supervisor Jim Rygiel, “there were pieces that we almost completed that Peter then pulled out. I think the most infamous one was probably the Christopher Lee scene — and I think it’s a good guess that will be back in.”
After three years in New Zealand, Rygiel is planning to return to his Los Angeles home in April, after completing his work on the concluding chapter’s final version. Visual effects supervisor Joe Letteri will continue to supervise visual effects for Weta Digital on Peter Jackson’s upcoming King Kong. Tolkien trilogy animation director Randy Cook is ceding passage on Jackson’s voyage to Skull Island, pursuing directing ambitions of his own, allowing Paul Griffin to take up the reins as Weta Digital’s animation supervisor. Jackson’s colossal gorilla star has meanwhile been taking shape under the auspices of Weta Workshop co-founder Richard Taylor. “Creature design is pretty well advanced and a lot of the production design is coming right along,” noted visual effects director of photography Alex Funke. “It’s going to be a remarkable film; an amazing visual treat.”
Shooting plans for Kong have so far included discussions with Weta’s miniature and digital departments, and with director of photography Andrew Lesnie, who is also returning to the Jackson fold. “As soon as I get back to New Zealand,” said Funke, “we’re getting into a very intensive session of testing on some of the stylistic issues, working with Andrew Lesnie on which type of film stock we should use and exploring exposure issues in conjunction with the guys at Weta Digital. We’re going to get a complete system worked out in advance, so we’ll know exactly how the material will scan, or exactly how to place exposures.”
Funke mused on recent rumors that Jackson plans to film Kong in black-and-white — “That’s news to me, but I wouldn’t put it past Peter!” — and hinted at plans for creating the lush vegetation of Kong’s Skull Island habitat, building on Weta’s experience creating the miniature Fangorn Forest in The Lord of the Rings. “Richard Taylor is busy building many, many trees, and we’ve been doing some tests on the motion of the leaves. One of things that didn’t quite work for Peter in The Lord of the Rings was the static look of the miniature trees. In Kong, we’re going to be darned sure that we’ve got moving leaves on our miniature trees!”
With two year’s work remaining until Jackson’s giant ape bursts onto theater screens in December 2005, the quest for greater realism remains a benchmark for all concerned. “I think Kong is going to be harder than The Return of the King,” observed Joe Letteri, “because Peter’s not going to hold back. On The Lord of the Rings, we got more and more into the realism of shots — and that required incredible amounts of detail. That was hopefully apparent in The Return of the King, and it was certainly visible in the other work that we’ve seen recently. We can do so many things more or less routinely that were once really hard to do that a lot of directors and producers are opting to take shots into the effects realm, rather than saying, ‘Oh, gee, we have to do it that way.’ It’s changed the way we work. Visual effects are now more mainstream.”
Reprinted with permission from Cinefex Weekly Update, an e-newsletter on motion picture visual effects. Interested parties may subscribe, free of charge, by accessing the following link: http://www.cinefex.com/weeklyupdate.html
Posted in:
Share:
Mr ‘Oh Jean’ himself, Billy Boyd will be on The Sharon Osbourne Show today, check your local listings. Viggo Mortensen will also be on The Late Show with David Letterman tonight at 11:35PM on CBS.
Posted in:
Share:
Elijah and Dominic on TORN’s Blue Carpet
From TORn Staffer MrCere: There are many accounts of Sunday night’s Return of the One Party and will be many more. It was the kind of night where memories are golden but photographs are still required and sharing the experience is part of its social nature. … Permit me to give my version of the event. [More]
Posted in:
Share:
One Party Report
By MrCere
TheOneRing.net Staff Writer
There are many accounts of Sunday night’s Return of the One Party and will be many more. It was the kind of night where memories are golden but photographs are still required and sharing the experience is part of its social nature. Camera crews from literally around the world were on hand to record and broadcast the events and if rumors bear fruit, highlights might turn up in places that will pleasantly surprise you next fall.
Ian Smith will provide a virtually word-for-word account of the best moments and will mix them with his intelligent and sharp opinions and impressions and if we are lucky he may even drop in the impressions his honored guest had about the event as well. Others will catalog personal events not only of the big night but of meeting with other TORNados and drinking up the glitz of Hollywood. Mainstream media accounts will continue to pour in – and as a working journalist let me comment that I am bitter about the lack of understanding many reporters had about the event despite press releases and constant information feeding. I have read so far that it was free, that it was put on by the official fan club and that it was required to wear a costume. The Vanity Fair party is called that in print so why not name our party properly? Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Since nobody is likely to get the truth of what the party was from the Associated Press, permit me to give my version of the event.
It was a fantastic party. It was a gathering with remarkable fellowship. It was a labor of love. It was expensive – for both guests and hosts. It was TORn staff’s moment to prove its worth, individually and collectively. It was an historic moment in the history of fandom – and not just Tolkien fandom. It was the eruption of 1,000 anticipatory souls. It was a once-in-a-lifetime moment. It was fun. It was intense. It was sweet. It was hot (inside). It was chilly (outside). It was eternal. It was oh-so-brief. It was Hollywood. It was international. It was sentimental. It was fun. It was surreal. It was months of planning suddenly executed and over in a few hours. It was a rock concert. It was a festival of lights. It was many more things as well and probably a bit different for each person attending.
The American Legion Hall is on Highland Ave., nestled between the famous Hollywood Bowl and the Kodak Theater. It is an historical hall of heros, built by war veterans to have a positive impact on the community, fitting for our event.
The line for entry into the white tower started a few hours before the scheduled opening and by show-time, stretched to the end of the block and around the corner. When the gates finally opened, the procession led guests through a metal-detector (as do all paths in such times), past security, through check-in and into the building. Staff and various volunteers spent much of the weekend getting the place properly dressed for Middle-earth crowds. Banners adorned the walls, wraiths on steeds guarded entrances, Gollumn watched from his perch on stage, an oversized card for PJ waited for signatures, webs and spiders lined a downstairs hall, one-of-a-kind momento waited for bids or raffle tickets, signs were placed to direct guests, scents of food wafted through the corridors and bar maids stood ready to pour.
Eventually the Oscar telecast started and our Master of Ceremonies, Quickbeam – who to many is the face of TheOneRing.net – launched into his entertaining and warm welcome between Oscar’s commercials. I admit being amused at the time by the amount of folks getting together to simply watch television.
Unseen by fans were folks like staffer Arathorn, who had donned a tux only to stay in a hot little control room to run the myriad of electronic needs for the night’s happenings. Power went down far away at the TORn server and it was this unsung and, at this party, literally unseen hero who managed to get things going again so that there was even a web site at all during the night.
Before long he was out of his tux – after all, what was the point of wearing it while sitting in a dark room? Other outstanding technical folks were there helping with either equipment or extra fingers or knowledge. The party size nearly doubled via TORn’s live web broadcast of the events and it took computers and operators to make that happen. As I type Weetanya is holding things together while everybody else travels home or continues a vacation [Why thank you, MrCere! Keep talking like that and I’ll scrapbook all 400 of your photos. – Wee]. There are no shortage of invisible heros.
Not to toot staffer’s horns too much but others on that night directed volunteer work, advised security, escorted media members to keep the fire marshal happy, ran stores or raffles, checked in VIP guests, dealt with complaints, filled media requests for interviews and remained on-call to fill in as needed. Still, all these jobs might be the most fun one can have while “working” so nobody was complaining.
The telecast for me was a blur and I even had a difficult time remembering how many Rings Oscars had been given at a particular moment but I knew the mark was perfect. When the “Best Adapted Screenplay” was given to “Return of the King” it was clear that a sweep was entirely possible and even likely. I was walking through the art deco bar in the basement after helping some media conduct a “Lord of the Rhymes” interview (great funny stuff by the way) when this went down and the 40 people in that bar were nearly as loud as the 700 upstairs in the big arena. It was then that magic became a tangible sensation on my spine.
All of us lived the next bit in our own way but being with 1,000 screamers for “Best Director” and “Best Picture” (which were absolutely certain with so much across-the-board support) and having streamer cannons go off with the director announcement was something to behold and to feel. It was astounding. Literal tears were shed as people celebrated with hugs and handshakes and high-fives. It was a marvelous collective experience that cannot be duplicated at home with a television, no matter how big the screen or surround the sound. Being in the Kodak theater would have been an experience without compare but short of sitting with the LOTR crew, I would rather have been with my 1,000 friends.
The next part of my evening was individual rather than collective as I crowded among the impressive list of gathered media, getting elbowed by the BBC’s 2nd crew and the Associated Press and a mob of other world-wide news organizations. Our party was a happening news spot and was in definite demand among agencies across the globe. John Rhys-Davies arrived almost impossibly quick. Like those that came after, he was gracious with the press before heading in to talk to the fans gathered. From the blue carpet outside it was easy to hear the throngs responding to him inside.
After quite a long pause, the Oscar procession started arriving in force. The media was pleased to interview any and all of the winners but there was a whole new level of excitement when Peter Jackson showed up. From my observation, he has learned how to deal with demands on his time and he was polite and friendly but didn’t linger as long as others who might be new to being in such demand. The woman from the BBC commented, “Oh PJ has a great big stain on his shirt and his tie is backwards! I just love that!” Jackson indeed was disheveled but efficient and in control. With some cajoling he hoisted his Oscars for a photo.
He was almost the last of the group to arrive and as soon as the final folks straggled into the VIP tent, PJ led them immediately on stage in the main hall for what so many of you have read accounts of already. I snuck on stage to get the best TORn photos I could manage but the best shots were all from amidst the crowd who were eating up every word. PJ introduced each of the winners and pulled them to the microphone and again I leave it to others to relay the details but each had something to say and each was shown some TORnado love.
For the record, I hear from the horses’ mouth that Billy Boyd, Lawrence Makoare, Bruce Hopkins and Sala Baker had been at the official New Line party, hearing that they would gather there first and then hit the TORn party later. Ian McKellen, Sean Astin and others took the same approach which didn’t work since the fire marshal shut us down around 2 a.m., much to Baker and company’s chagrin.
Hopkins, Makoare and Baker visited the previous day during set up and actually were going to help lift a stone statue off of a stand to be used for the bronze Gandalf. It turns out the statue was bolted down but the trio and a few other heavy lifters were given a tour of the building’s war museum which was amazing and even included a Maori war shield and club. Now there is something you will not see in an AP report.
The evening’s worst news came as the final fans were filtering out and suddenly, gift-bags were gone. I am not in-the-know about how this happened but I do know there were once enough for everybody and then there weren’t. TORn is completely sorry about this and we hope those who missed out still enjoyed the festivities and weren’t too hurt by the absence of the bags. We are sorry.
The party was special in a number of ways. First, to have the winners of awards come to fans first and with such openness and sharing is a rare and perhaps unique event. Those not in attendance should feel a part of that as well. Those physically in the room were representatives for all those who couldn’t be. Jackson and company weren’t just speaking to 1,000 fans but all the fans. They appreciate the support they have received from all of us for much of the seven years they were filming.
However, even if not a single celebrity showed up, it wouldn’t have mattered. This was a physical gathering of friends who are usually linked by images and words by the shrinking power of the internet. Old friends were greeted, friendships were forged and seeds of the ever-growing Tolkien community were planted. This was, as far as I know, the culmination of the greatest fan base in film and literature, expressing its unity and good-feelings with each other to celebrate the film versions of a fantastic literary work. Tolkien’s own grandson Royd was there, which for me, is as important as having actors or art directors.
Quickbeam toasted the good professor and fandom and the film-makers and then the TORn staff gifted the four web site founders (Calisuri, Corvar, Tehanu, Xoanon) with personalized rings made by Paul Badali. These four set out to create something great on the web but even they underestimated the power and energy that would become TheOneRing.net. They were wise enough to let others lend energies to the cause and those who think the site has run its course now simply don’t get it. In the words of Jackson himself, “Let’s not shut TheOneRing.net down!” Fifty years of Tolkien fandom will not suddenly disperse. Would TORnados attend a TORn convention? I think so. If you think so too, let somebody at TORn know.
Fandom has changed over the last 20 years. Star Wars might have been the beginning of movie-fandom as we know it today but it took another leap forward with TheOneRing.net and although all film-makers don’t get it yet, the way films and fans interact is forever changed. Talk at the party was about “movie history” with the sweep of 11 Oscars but the event itself was history unfolding as well. Vanity Fair better look out.
Posted in:
Share:
Sideshow/Weta Collectibles has just posted the first partial pics of the upcoming Sauron figure in production. Check it out! [Click Here]
Posted in:
Share:
Ringer Spy Andy Goodman from New York City worked hard and provided us with a complete list of Academy Award nominations and wins for the three films. [More]
Posted in:
Share:
