Regular LOTR film fans will remember the sudden dismissal of Stuart Townsend in ’99, a week into his role as Aragorn. Earlier this week we reported an interview where he sounded OK about that; this interview in the Irish Times gives a different story.

“Just to let you know, the entertainment supplement with todays Irish Times (17/01) contains an interview with Stuart Townsend where he briefly talks about his short time on the LOTR production.

Quote: ‘I spent two months working on it in pre-production in New Zealand,’ Townsend says ‘and then,the day before shooting started,I was off the picture without filming a single scene.’ His cheery demeanour changes at the mention of the film. It was a ‘horrible’ experience, he says, and not one he’s keen to dwell upon to any extent, although he is becoming more philosophical about it. ‘Now I am glad that I’m off it. I really am. It was a very interesting experience, but I’m glad because it left me free to do another big studio movie, Queen of the Damned, which was wonderful to do”

Eeeep! Thanks to Cormac for that.

Here’s a round-up of some of the interesting comments and guesses we’ve received concerning the trailer and the images on the official website.

“Did you notice it was Bruce Spence in the make-up section of the new official site? Check the pic! We know his part, but more interesting… he’s being retouching outdoor, which means we see him in his complete prosthetic stuff (you don’t glue another silicon part just before a shoot) -mouth and nose. That’s what they’re colouring with their lil brushes and pencils… no more no less. Now… What can we guess? Obviously, “the Mouth of Sauron” will be centered on a mouth! A rotten one, with a full helmet hiding most of the face.
I just hope they could manage two holes large enough to get to Spence’s particuliar stare.”

Thanks to Deagol for that. And Morten noticed this:

“As the story goes the Banner of Rohan with the white horse against the green background was inspired by the Wiltshire Horse and its like (huge horses carved by removing a layer of grass revealing the chalk below).

I’m sure you’ve already noticed but I just found it really cool that one of the banners (bottom right) on one of the desktop images (found under the Screensavers section of the official website) actually looks like one of these old carvings.”

JR. had a guess about the glimpse of Arwen in the trailer:

“I think I figured out what the scene of Arwen in the trailer represents. If you remember from the appendix, Aragorn and Arwen pledged their love for one another on a hill in Lothlorien. The hill was covered in flowers. This has GOT to be from that scene.”

Adam saw the same picture in a more sombre light:

“This is just a guess on my part but I remember Peter Jackson saying in an interview that they expanded Arwen’s part quite abit from the epilogue
following the Return of the King….in the epilogue Arwen refuses to join Elrond in the journey over the sea. If Arwen stayed she would lose her immortality but live longer than any man. Aragorn lived a very long time for a man but died in his kingdom. Arwen stayed there for a time in but eventually left thier kingdom and went into the forest. The epilogue says she laid under a tree and passed on into eternity. That’s my speculation with no offical source.”

Would they show this in the trailer? Would they show this in the film at all? I wonder if they add punch to Arwen’s hard choice by making her able to forsee her own death in a premonition, if she chooses mortality? That would work, visually.

From: Kerish

Are you guys interested in some pics of the recent Wingate set? They’re building what looks like a small village! It’s still kind of hard to tell what they’re doing, but they’re using a heck of a lot of space for the set, with parts of walls being right up against the front fence.

You’ll have to excuse the images as I only had my dingy little digital camera! However, it should be enough for you to get an idea of what’s going on.

This the main construction that being done just to the left of the bluescreen. It looks as if they are making a balcony which may be hoisted onto another structure once its completed. Also just below the balcony is one of the many rectangular pits they’ve dug up (you can just see little rocks along the edge). They have at least 5 of these around the set with the closest ones being a few meters form the front fence. Perhaps they’re building stuff to go over them.. who knows.

OK this one didn’t quite turn out how it should have!

This is of one of the walls they’ve placed next to the fence which is also close to one of the above mentioned pits…hmmm

I’m assuming some people would like to see what the props are made of …painted polystyrene on wood! But they look so realistic even at a foot away. You can only imagine how cool they’ll appear on screen..

Anyways enjoy,

Kerish :o)

Xoanon here,

After placing a call to Ethan Hawke’s agent, TheOneRing.net has learned that ‘Both Ethan and Uma are under considertation’ and that we will know more in the next couple of weeks.

More on this Dominic Monaghan as Merry thing, I’m placing calls as we speak…I love my cell phone šŸ™‚

Dwane, back from his exotic bird watching saffari in the far reaches of the Congo. Has come up with the latest rumor, (Thanks to Barry for the scoop)

Check out The Spy Reports

As it turns out, a letter from Mr. Deluca confirmes that Peter Woodthorpe will NOT be in LOTR.