Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson needed to view what seven film crews were shooting. His solution: push the envelope on videoconferencing technology. In the pitch-black night of the New Zealand winter, Duncan Nimmo, information technology manager of 3Foot6 Ltd., and his two-man crew hoisted heavy equipment—including spools of military-grade fiber-optic cable, a battery pack, wireless computer modem and an eight-foot-high antenna—up Mount Ruapehu in Tongariro National Park. They had followed worn goat tracks up the slope, and were high in the clouds. A snowstorm threatened to blow them off the mountain. [More]
Category: Original TORn
Director Peter Jackson, whose remake of King Kong was released at the end of 2005, is best known for his epic Lord of the Rings fantasy trilogy. The ground-breaking and hugely popular trilogy – released between 2001 and 2003 – elevated him to A-list status in Hollywood. The final installment, The Return of the King, swept the board at the 2004 Academy Awards, netting 11 gold Oscar statuettes, and ensuring that his name went down in history as one of the most successful directors. [More]
People often wake up in the middle of the night if jolted by a nightmare. But when A R Rahman suddenly woke up from one of his power naps a few months ago, he was humming a tune. “I had to write it down immediately,” he says, “I was afraid I might forget it.” When he later played the tune to director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, who was in Chennai for the Rang De Basanti recordings, Mehra insisted he wanted the tune for his film. “I told him I thought there was no scope for this kind of song in his film,” Rahman says, chuckling, “but he said he would create the situation. I thought, well, it’s his headache.” [More]
The Lord of the Rings, the theatrical event premiering at Toronto’s Princess of Wales, will start Feb. 4, two days later than originally announced. “After four years of planning we are so close to delivering, to its first audience, a show we will all be extremely proud of,” producer Kevin Wallace said in a statement. “We had every expectation of putting this together in 17 weeks of rehearsal, including five full weeks of on-stage rehearsals. However, the process is going to take an additional 48 hours, and regrettably that means the first two scheduled preview performances will be moved and the first performance will now be on Saturday Feb. 4.” [More]
NEW YORK – Theatergoers curious about the lavish stage version of “The Lord of Rings” will have to wait two days longer for the first public performance in Toronto. The production will now begin preview performances Saturday at the Princess of Wales Theatre instead of Thursday, producer Kevin Wallace said in a telephone interview from Canada. “It isn’t that there is a problem,” Wallace said. “It’s just the volume of work. We need an extra 48 hours.” [More]
Greg writes: I often check out TheOneRing.net, yet I don’t know how to contribute to your news flashes. I have one from Toronto. I just received a call from TicketKing (ticket manager for Mirvish events) and I was told that the World Premiere Performance scheduled for this Thursday February 2nd has been cancelled as well as the performance for Friday. The new Premiere will be this Saturday February 4th at 7:00 PM. For those fans like myself that jumped on tickets when they first went on sale this is obviously a huge disappointment. Some Single tickets still are available for this Saturday’s performance.