TORONTO – Few things could be harder than staging the most expensive theatrical production in history. Fewer still could be harder than adapting 1,200 plot- and action-filled pages, each of them worshiped by generations of readers, to a 3-1/2 hour show and setting it to music. But perhaps the hardest part of bringing “The Lord of the Rings” to the stage is having to make major revisions just weeks before opening night. Tell the ruthless, faceless Orcs to put down their swords before giving them the news. Mount stilts, duck the stage lights, and look a three-story-high Treebeard in the eye when you break it to him. Bounce the revisions off Gollum and wait for him to say that he’s of two minds about it. [More]
Category: Original TORn
Kristen, Susannah and Sharon The ‘Letters to PJ’ Organisers write: Susannah and Kristen have recently returned from New Zealand where the completed ‘Letters to PJ’ book was successfully delivered to Peter Jackson through his associates. We encourage you to visit our website, letterstopj.com, for photographs and information about our trip. Get to it- our website shuts down in just a few months. If you have any additional questions or comments regarding the project and our time overseas, please fell free to send us an e-mail. We would love to hear from you! However, it could take us a while to reply- e-mails are flooding in and it’s taking a long time just to thank everybody! Thank you so much for contributing and/or assisting the project. Your support and enthusiasm did not go astray! ‘Letters to PJ’ has been an amazing, unforgettable experience in which you have played an immeasurable part. It has been lovely to meet you all and share stories. We hope that the Lord of the Rings will always be with you, just as the ‘Letters to PJ’ book and its heartfelt message will remain with Peter Jackson and all who made these films.
Anthony and Jessica of the North East Tolkien Society write: The proceedings from the 2004 Marquette University LOTR Conference have now been published. New research by twenty scholars of J.R.R. Tolkien is now available from the Marquette University Press. The articles were originally presented at the October 2004 conference, “The Lord of the Rings, 1954-2004: Scholarship in Honor of Richard E. Blackwelder,” organized by the Marquette Libraries’ Department of Special Collections and University Archives. The international conference celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Tolkien’s masterpiece, as well as the opening of Marquette’s new John P. Raynor, S.J., Library. More information and ordering is found here. [More]
LOS ANGELES, March 8 /PRNewswire/ — Weta Digital’s Joe Letteri, who was a member of the Academy Award©-wining Weta Digital teams that created the visual effects for “King Kong,” “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” and “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” will serve as the visual effects supervisor on the upcoming Walden Media, Beacon Pictures and Revolution Studios co-production “The Water Horse.” Most recently Letteri, along with Weta Digital colleagues Brian Van’t Hul, Christian Rivers and Richard Taylor, won the Oscar© for Achievement in Visual Effects for the groundbreaking work on “King Kong” at the 78th Annual Academy Awards on March 5th. [More]
Rosie writes: I’m a Stargate fan in addition to being a Ringer. I found this article on John Noble in the latest Stargate SG-1 magazine. There are some LOTR references, though it mostly talks about his role in the upcoming season finale of Stargate SG-1, which airs this Friday. [More]
A repeat airing of Sean Astin on ‘The Tony Danza Show’ is airing today, check your local listings. Or you can follow this link to watch the segment we posted when it originally aired. [More]