Tolkien News Region
3rd/Mar/2000. 10:43
A few days ago I received an Email regarding a new Tolkien related internet publication. The new book written by Len Roberto, Jr. and is titled “Exploring Middle-Earth: A Guide to Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings”. It is aimed at both hard-core Tolkien fans, avid readers, the mildly interested and the completely oblivious, but is mainly for those who have not experienced Tolkien. The constructively mixed research and knowledge that makes up this 75 page book serves as an introduction and further reading for all those people who think they know all there is to know about John Tolkien and his many masterpieces.
The book is available in digital format only and has been published by fatbrain.com. The price of the book is $4.00, which allows you to download and then print as many copies as you want.
Click here if you are still interested.
3rd/Feb/2000. 14:11
Good news: I now have my own scanner so hear come the images, although uploading them into an already jam-packed Angelfire account is a little tricky… so hold tight.
5th/Jan/2000. 18:20
I just purchased the new Tolkien 2000 calendar illustrated by Ted Nasmith. I must say that this, in my opinion, truly beats all the other calendars, all the way from the 1974 JRR Tolkien calendar. Twelve full sized illustrations for the 12 months, plus one large added bonus painting, all from Tolkien’s “The Silmarillion.”
The first painting for January depicts the dreadful slaying of Beleg Cúuthalion by his friend Túurin:
1st/Jan/2000. 19:05
Seeing as how this is the first dispatch of news on this site I decided to make it a big one. In fact I had to scale it down quite a lot to fit it in, after all it is the biggest Tolkien related news of the century; I mean this literally, seeing as how the new century just began a few hours ago.
Three films based on Tolkien’s novel ’The Lord of the Rings’ is being filmed in New Zealand by the New Zealand director Peter Jackson with his production company WingNut films and his digital special-effects company WETA.
They are being made with the backing of the US film company New Line, which are providing most of the million dollar budget, allowing the films to be made on such a grand scale that should do Tolkien’s hard work justice. The other factor is that Peter Jackson’s company WETA has been able to produce groundbreaking digital imaging technology that will make the massive scale and fantastic nature of some of the scenes possible for the first time.
The director:
Mostly Peter Jackson works in NZ. His only Hollywood movie to date has been ‘The Frighteners’ which starred Michael J. Fox and was filmed in NZ and Oklahoma. His only other major film being the art-cinema film ’Heavenly Creatures’ about a friendship gone frighteningly wrong. This starring Kate Winslett as one of the teenage girls lost in a world of fantasy and obsession.
Just as Spielberg dreamed of making Schindler’s List, the NZ filmmaker has always wanted to bring to life Tolkien’s ‘The Lord of the Rings’.
He was 18, he remembers, an apprentice photo-engraver at Wellington Newspapers, and was headed on the Limited Express to Auckland for a trade-training course when he began to read the Tolkien trilogy.
He was entranced; completely captivated by the world of Middle Earth and it’s inhabitants, the hobbits and halflings, trolls and orcs. What a movie that would make, thought this kid who had borrowed his parent’s Super 8 cine camera to become a movie-maker at the age of eight.
Location:
The beautiful country of New Zealand will serve as a stand-in for Middle- earth. It is generally agreed that this country is the ideal place to bring the epic scope of the trilogy to life, with its variety of landscapes and diverse locations.
The country offers a huge range of landscapes that will need little alteration in order to make them look like a plausible ‘Middle-earth.’
Plains of volcanic ash and twisted lava for Mordor, snow-capped Southern Alps for the Misty mountains, creepy forests for the creepy-forest bits and most of the rest of the country for the Shire.
The set for Hobbiton is being built in the country south of Auckland, Rohan and some battles are being filmed in Central Otago (we think), Mordor will be on the volcanic plateau, central North Island, if it isn't on tiny inaccessible and poisonous White Island. Everything else is invisible due to conditions of utmost secrecy.
Jackson and crew will be making full use of the natural wonders New Zealand has to offer, filming in spots all around the country. The scenery will also be enhanced where necessary through the use of matte paintings and digital effects.
“New Zealand is the best country in the world to shoot this film, because of the variety of locations we have. If you look at Lord of the Rings, you go from the Shire to Rivendell, to the Misty Mountains to Mordor. Landscapes are very important in the story, and New Zealand has all those landscapes.” - Peter Jackson.
Writing Credits:
Peter Jackson himself turned the books into a screenplay, in collaboration with Frances Walsh, Philippa Boyens, and Stephen Sinclair. Jackson and Walsh shared an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay for 1994’s ’Heavenly Creatures’.
Casting:
All that is known at the moment is that Peter Jackson is using a mixture of ‘name’ stars and unknown actors, and as predicted some of the actors are from the States, some are British.
Casting unknowns is a strategy that has worked for Peter Jackson in the past. He was the first director to ‘discover’ Kate Winslett as a screen actress when he cast her in his first art-cinema film ‘Heavenly Creatures.’ Very major actors may well play important but short roles such as Theoden, Elrond etc - roles which don’t require an actor to take two and a half years out of their life to live and work in a country that takes a day or a day and a half to fly to.
current cast listings, 1st of January 2000: |
|
Frodo Baggins: |
Elijah Wood |
|
Sam: |
Sean Astin |
|
Merry: |
Dominic Monaghan |
|
Pippin: |
Billy Boyd |
|
Gandalf: |
Ian McKellen |
|
Aragorn: |
Viggo Mortensen |
|
Bilbo Baggins: |
Ian Holm |
|
Legolas: |
Orlando Bloom |
|
Gimli: |
John Rhys-Davies |
|
Boromir: |
Sean Bean |
|
Saruman: |
Christopher Lee |
|
Arwen: |
Liv Tyler |
|
Galadriel: |
Cate Blanchett |
|
Ted Sandyman: |
Brian Sergent |
Cuts:
All evidence points to the fact that Peter Jackson and collaborators are trying to stick as closely as possible to Tolkien’s original storyline in their film adaptation.
Since there is no possible way to bring every single element of the novels to life in the films, mostly due to time constraints, some aspects and characters that are not crucial to the advancement of the story will have to be left out of the adaptations. Jackson has assured fans that any characters removed from the story will be "clean lifts," not merges with other characters.
Such cuts as the journey of the hobbits to Rivendell at the beginning of the novels, witch will be made briefer to tighten up the flow of the story, but not entirely omitted. Early indications also point to the fact that the songs found in the novels will not be used in the films.
But not all is lost…
We do know that the love story between Arwen and Aragorn will be extended for dramatic effect, which in turn makes it necessary for the role of Arwen to be expanded as well (though she will not be a member of the Fellowship, as has been rumored). The death of Boromir will be moved from the beginning of ’The Two Towers’ to the ending of ’The Fellowship of the Ring’. Sauron’s active involvement will be increased so that he will have more of a presence in the movies, a requirement for the visual impact that is provided by a tangible villain. Reports and some early artwork, however, indicate that the increased presence of Sauron will be an advantage to the film, not a drawback. The character of Rosie will be expanded slightly, in order to allow us to see the origins of her relationship with Sam before his departure from the Shire. There will be several additional changes that will be necessary for the dramatic structure of the films; for example, ’The Two Towers’ will intercut back and forth between the adventures of Sam and Frodo and the happenings with the other characters in various locations, instead of being divided down the middle like the structure of the novels. Also, events that were told through flashbacks in the books will have to be told visually in the movies, such as the defeat of Sauron during the Second Age, Isildur’s death, Gollum’s history with the Ring, and Gandalf’s imprisonment by Saruman at Isengard. The important thing to remember is that changes are inevitable and necessary in order to translate the written word properly to the structure and flow of film.
Special effects:
“It’s a time when the technology of cinema now enables us to tell this story. I really think it would have been impossible to do Lord of the Rings before the advent of computers.” - Peter Jackson
WETA Limited, a special effects company owned by Peter Jackson, will be producing all of the visual effects for the films. ‘The Lord of the Rings’ Trilogy will contain approximately 1200 special effects shots, more than any other film in history. Many of the differences in sizes between major characters will be achieved through the use of special effects, while others will rely on film tricks such as forced perspective. For instance, the main actors playing dwarves and hobbits will be normal-sized actors who will be digitally shrunk in order to achieve the correct size. In many cases, two sets are constructed, each with identical objects in different sizes. In addition, special effects technology will be used to increase the scope of the films as a whole, from epic locales to stunning battle sequences. So far the only main completely computer-generated character is Gollum. The huge battle scenes will use 15,000 extras. The New Zealand army is being used for some of this. But to measure up the numbers to look like 250,000 warriors, a digital imaging technology called 'MASSIVE' will enhance some of the battle scenes by creating figures that recognize, respond to and fight each other, while also interacting with obstacles in the landscape.
“With computers, we’re arrived at a time when anything you can imagine can be put on to film, and obviously anything Tolkien could imagine can be put on film.” - Peter Jackson
Accents:
Hobbits will reportedly speak in an English accent, leaning towards a rural West-counties dialect. Dwarves will use more of a Cockney English accent, while the older characters, such as Gandalf, Theoden, and Denethor, will speak in a formal British manner, using much of the same type of language that Tolkien ascribed to them. Elves will have a slight Irish lilt and will also speak in their native tongue from time to time, and the Men in the movies will speak with an American accent.
Cost:
The three films combined have a total budget of $180 million U.S. dollars. However, this translates into roughly $350 million when the exchange rate in New Zealand is taken into account, a phenomenal amount of money for a movie project of any sort. A great deal of funding will be saved by filming the trilogy in New Zealand, due to the cheaper costs of most goods and services in that country. Money will also be saved because the films are not being shot in sequence, one after another, but are instead, being filmed at the same time. This method of shooting the movies will save both time and money in the long run. Where will all of this saved money go? More spectacular sets, epic battle scenes, stunning special effects, etc.
Dates and times:
Filming began on October 11, 1999, and will continue for 14 to 18 months, assuming everything goes as planned. The special effects team will be working on footage as it becomes available, thereby saving a lot of time in the post-production phase
The first film in the trilogy is scheduled to be released in the US around summer 2001, with the other two movies following at 6 or 9 month intervals. And is then expected to have a gradual spread to other countries across the globe. However, these dates are in no way set in stone and will very likely change. Recent speculation has indicated that the first film will not make it to theaters until the Christmas season of 2001.
“The intention is to make it neither childish, nor overly dark ... a good solid action adventure with intelligence and depth.” - Peter Jackson.
“It’s like the holy grail of cinema.”
My Email address:
Return to main Primary page.
