Jef Murray writes: I’d like to invite all Tolkien folk that happen to be in town this Friday to swing by the opening reception for “Into the Woods: Tales of Myth & Magic”. The reception will run from 7-9pm, Friday Sept. 15, in the Defoor Centre defoorcentre.com. We’ll have some light munchies and a cash bar, and the event itself is free.
“Into The Woods” is a showing of over 60 of my latest oil-on-canvas paintings and oil-on-wood “cutouts”. The works include a sampling of sacred, Tolkien-themed, Lewis-themed, and fairy tale images. For a brochure of the show and/or to learn more, please see my website at: JefMurray.com
The show and the reception should be a lot of fun! And there will be plenty there for Tolkien folk and for kids of all ages: dragons, unicorns, mermaids, hobbits, plus scenes from the Shire, from Narnia, from Lothlorien, Rivendell, and even from Aslan’s country.
Please spread the word! All are invited! And please don’t hesitate to come even if you never purchase original artwork; this is, more than anything else, a celebration of the mythical and the magical, and a great excuse for a party!
Hope to see many of you there…please email me if you have questions!
Chestnut Hill Branch Library Free Library of Philadelphia 8711 Germantown Ave Philadelphia, PA 19118
Program: Large Screen showing of the extended version of Peter Jackson’s The Fellowship of the Ring
Date & Time: Saturday, September 23, 2006, 5:30 p.m.
The Chestnut Hill Branch Library, 8711 Germantown Avenue, Philadelphia, PA will host a large-screen showing of the extended version of Peter Jackson’s The Fellowship of the Ring. Join us for this unique opportunity to see the extended version of this award-winning film on the Library’s large screen. This showing of The Fellowship of the Ring, on the date that Tolkein himself marked as the day Frodo and his companions set out on their epic journey to save all of Middle Earth from Sauron and his evil, marks the beginning of a series of programs and film screenings based on Tolkien’s books and films. The series of diverse programs will include hands-on activities as well as discussions of both Tolkien’s books and Peter Jackson’s movies. Please use the side entrance of the library. For more information please call Margaret Brunton at 215-248-0977.
Celebriel writes: This year Kiran Shah, noted actor and stuntman who played the scale double for Frodo and other hobbits in “The Lord of the Rings,” was the Tolkien Track’s celebrity guest. He hosted a Q&A panel on Saturday, and appeared with “The Dork of the Rings” cast and crew on Monday. In between, he could be found mostly at The Walk of Fame over in the Hilton, greeting fans, signing autographs, and posing for pictures.
Kiran is knowledgeable, engaging, and a born storyteller in addition to being an actor and Guinness World Record stuntman with 29 years experience, as well as a director and published poet. Kiran was born in Kenya and spent some of his youth in India before moving to London with his family. From an early age he imitated the voices and mannerisms of his uncles. In India he decided he would be a Bollywood star. In London, he started his career as a mime for a few years for the Red Buddha company, responding to a magazine ad.
Kiran’s first film was “Candleshoe” (1977) with David Niven, Jody Foster, Helen Hayes, and Leo McKern. Master fight director Bob Anderson, who worked on the film, encouraged him to become a stuntman. He had been selected to play R2D2 in the first Star Wars movie, but Kenny Baker then decided to return to the film and he was bumped.
He worked with Jim Henson on “The Dark Crystal,” where, he explained he could only wear the large puppet head for about twenty minutes before resting his neck. The puppet head had to be redesigned to make it safe enough for Kiran to wear on a ten foot drop, landing on his back. He’s even played females, working as the stunt double for Miss Piggy in “The Great Muppet Caper.”
Kiran explained that his first meeting with Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh did not go that well. Having seen “Brain Dead,” he had trouble seeing Peter as the one to bring LOTR to the screen, and Peter and Fran were concerned that, given all his stellar fantasy and sci-fi credits, Kiran would not want to work with them. He didn’t learn the background to his first meeting until the London premiere of “Fellowship of the Ring,” when Fran told him their side of the story.
His funniest LOTR story came from the filming in Bree. Playing Frodo, Kiran was picked up by Viggo Mortensen, carried upstairs, and tossed into the bedroom. He explained that at first Viggo was extremely gentle, until he said, “Viggo, I’m a stuntman, you can throw me!” Some of the other scenes Kiran played, in addition to being Frodo’s scale double, include the rescue of Faramir from the funeral pyre and riding with Eowyn to battle. Because Kiran was doubling for all the hobbits, he was very much in demand at all the locations. He was shuttling around so much Barrie Osborne got him a helicopter, which he frequently changed in, as he only a few minutes on arrival to see the day’s footage and get ready to work.
He explained that, in the scene where he climbs into the cart with Gandalf in the opening of “Fellowship,” he proposed to Peter that he do the scene as a stunt, since in the book Frodo jumps into the back of the cart. Peter turned him down, saying he couldn’t afford to have any of his actors injured, and that if Kiran was injured, he didn’t know where he’d find someone else. Kiran didn’t give up, proposing a scene in the burning of Hobbiton where he would play a hobbit on fire coming out of his house. That wasn’t filmed either. Finally he got a bit of stunt work, playing Pippin falling to the ground from Treebeard.
Kiran enjoyed returning to New Zealand to work in the first of the Narnia films, especially since he was working as an actor not a stuntman. He described his conversations with Tilda Swinton on developing their respective characters. He wanted to make his character Ginarrbrik the dwarf more evil, motivated by his desire to one day stab the White Witch in the back and seize her power. As a result, he and Tilda basically ignore each other on screen except when they must interact. Off screen, they had a great relationship, as Tilda generously hosted cast and crew parties each Saturday while they filmed in remote areas on New Zealand.
Even with his years of experience, Kiran said he never stops looking at people, their mannerisms and walks, to pick up new moves and gestures. Continuing to branch out, Kiran and his nephew Kit directed the comedy “Young Lovers,” which is scheduled to open later this year. The film, his first effort as a director, also features Craig Parker.
Kiran has enough stories from LOTR, Narnia, Harry Potter, Titanic, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Superman, Greystoke, The Dark Crystal (and many more) to fill a trilogy of behind the scenes books! Maybe if he ever slows down he’ll consider it! Questions? Feedback? Email dianeroone@aol.com.
Celebriel reports on LOTR Dragon Con 2006 programs: Wow, how to summarize four wonderful days of LOTR and other fantasy/sci-fi franchise madness. It’s impossible to attend everything of interest, but where else can you hear fans, writers, and scholars passionately debate The Dork of the Rings, whether Dumbledore is really dead, how Star Wars Episodes 1 to 3 could have been made better, and how the portrayal of dragons, from Tolkien’s Smaug to Paolini’s Saphira, has evolved. Not to mention listening to Emerald Rose, watching sword fighting displays, learning how to apply costume prosthetics, and meeting the amazing Kiran Shah.
Saturday starts with the Dragon Con parade, which this year attracted about a thousand costumed participants. The Lord of the Rings was well represented as usual, under the banner of Arms of Middle Earth. New this year were two Corsairs (“The Pirates of Middle Earth”), and Young Sauron.
Saturday afternoon Tim Richardson, director of The Dork of the Rings, together with cast and crew members, discussed the making of their outrageously funny parody, which held its world premiere at Gen Con in Indianapolis in August. Co-director Jack Peterson, who bears an amazing resemblance to Peter Jackson as he appeared a few years ago, also attended and took questions from the audience. They also showed their making-of documentary, The Making of Muddle Earth, and discussed the challenges of making an epic film on a budget of about $30,000, especially given the amount of food consumed by co-director Jack Peterson. Randolf the Wizard, played by David Kiefer, roamed the halls talking about the film and posting for photos. At last count, he’d spoken to or been photographed with over a thousand fans.
The Dorkers were joined on their Monday panel by Kiran Shah, who introduces the film on DVD. Jack graciously invited Kiran to stay in his bathtub whenever he needed a place to stay, and to stay as long as he wanted. Questions were a mix of serious (mostly for Kiran) and parody (mostly for Jack). Jack also filmed some interview footage with Kiran. The Dork of the Rings was screened at 1AM Sunday morning, but I was already busy editing parade photos and missed it. More at: http://www.rpstudios.net/dorkoftherings/front.asp. Questions? Feedback? Email dianeroone@aol.com.
Ashlee & Rachel Scott write: Dragon*Con 2006 has come to a close after four long days of fun and excitement. Dragon*Con can be a success if you follow these three words: Divide and Conquer. With a 100 plus page program featuring dozens of guest and activities to enjoy, for newbies to Dragon*Con, like ourselves, it can be a bit overwhelming navigating through thousands of fans trying to get from one location to the next. Thanks go out to Ghost Hunters Steve Gonsalves and Bryan Hamois for rescuing us from the crowd and helping us find our way to the Ghost Hunters programming track or we might still be lost! Dragon*Con is extremely subjective since it’s not humanly possible to attend everything you really want to see. That’s where the “divide and conquer” come into play. A teleporter for future Dragon*Con’s would be extremely helpful since we did miss things we had planned on seeing simply because we were not fast enough to get from one location to another in time.
Regardless, we’re thrilled with what we were able to catch, plus we were able to spend time with some of our favorite people, such as LOTR’s Kiran Shah and Dean Haglund (Langley, one of the ‘Lone Gunman’ from the X-Files). Talking with “Night of the Living Dead” Director George Romero was a real treat, as was finally getting to meet the incredibly friendly “Ghost Hunters,” our favorite sci-fi show. Ghost Hunter Grant Wilson never failed to make a face at our camera. Favorites such as Kevin Sorbo (Hercules, Andromeda) went out of his way to embarrass us, you’ll see more of that on our documentary. And, it’s always wonderful hearing Emerald Rose perform. There were many interesting sci-fi/fantasy programming tracks to attend, including several LOST and Tolkien track programs. Elfstone, the Gandalf trivia challenges and improvs were especially fun. Our own LOTR fan films were screened at the Tolkien track on Friday and Sunday, plus we had a Monday panel, which was a lot of fun. Even if Monday’s crowd looked like a remake of “Dawn of the Dead” with all those worn out, zombie like people!
The evenings were unique unto themselves, with costumes galore and thousands of fans. Music and fan films could be found just about everywhere at anytime of the day or night. TheOneRing.net was one of many fan booths there, in addition to the dozens of dealer and vendor tables. There was the Dragon*Con parade and Masquerade Ball, and the Evening at Bree was entertaining and lively with costumes, music and dancing all evening long.
Dragon*Con had it all from Star Wars to Stargate and even a Miss Klingon Beauty Contest! Now there’s something you don’t see every day! The most amazing memory of the weekend for us would definitely be dinner with Kiran and our “Dork of the Rings” friends. It was just a relaxing evening laughing and telling stories. Rachel and I finally had the chance to tell Kiran how much his guest appearance on the X-Files has terrified us our entire lives! Kiran is hilarious and friendly, and we hope anyone that’s seen him in Chronicles of Narnia, Star Wars, the LOTR trilogy or any of his other numerous films has a chance to meet him one day. He’s more than just an actor and stuntman, he is also an incredible mime and illusionist himself. We look forward to working with him one day.
Everyone there brings home with them different experiences, but one thing is certain we all had a wonderful time even without food or sleep. We spent the entire weekend filming for our own Dragon*Con documentary so watch for that in the coming weeks on our website at: www.marsproductions.net For now, here are some pics for everyone to enjoy!
TORN Staffer MrCere writes: ATLANTA – It is a world all its own, enclosed in a few blocks and full of a phenominal array of the weird, the absurd, the strange and most of all, the fun! The Lord of the Rings is definitely an essential part of the landscape of fandom with over 30 dedicated tracks that take over Labor-Day weekend and suck every minute of fun both night and day.
Kiran Shah, who has a film credit list that reads like a catalog of geek-film history was on hand to share his experience of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films. As part of the Tolkien track of programming, fans were treated to an hour of the tiny actor and stuntman sharing his personal tale. He was nearly always on set in New Zealand to watch the historical film get made because of his key responsibilities to play as a stunt double for Frodo and all of the hobbits during production and post-production.
Shah was introduced and thanked the crowd for coming and then launched right in to a 40 minute monolog where he explained his personal involvement in the film from the early days of deciding to commit to such a big chunk of time to his personal injury from a horse fall that kept him out of the production for several months. The audience appreciated his humor and a his new perspective on a production that has been reported on from many different angles.
Shah entertained with tales of practical jokes including Dominic Monaghan impersonating Shah to producer Barrie Osborne. Monaghan apparently called Osbourne in the middle of the night in the stuntman’s voice and demanded more money to stay on the production. The real Shah was called to a meeting the next day to discuss the problem and while he assured everybody he didn’t make the call, it wasn’t until Monaghan confessed to doing it that Shah was off the hook.
He also shed some light on the Stewart Townsend situation at the beginning of the production of the films when the young actor was cast as Aragorn and left the film. After Townsend left the film, speculation swirled around what caused the split. After the LOTR production was finished, Shah worked on another film with Townsend and finally had a chance to ask what was really behind the move. Apparently the young actor felt the weight of the roll and was scared by what was required. He felt that he wasn’t right for the role and so left the film rather than not performing at a high level.
Other than the LOTR films, Shah listed The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe and The Dark Crystal as his favorite productions to be a part of. On that film Shah worked along with director Jim Henson and was able to implement new technologies in puppetry which he enjoyed a lot. Shah also fielded a few questions before time ran out on the featured guest who was available much of the weekend while he wandered around the wild and crazy lobbies with his nephew, a fine fellow who helps Shah when he travels and works.
DCon serves many different interests, and combined with creative costuming and dealers’ tables of every stripe, an incredibly wide spectrum of topics under the umbrella of sci-fi fandom is served by the event. However, there are some events which seem to appeal to nearly everybody such as the costuming contest, the annual costume parade, concerts in the ballrooms that last until the wee hours and most of all, people watching.
The core of the Atlanta LOTR fans remain a dedicated bunch and the transition to a new program director didn’t deter strong attendance at the Tolkien-themed programming. With Dr. Anne Petty filling the scholar’s role and Shah serving as the Tolkien-themed actor, the track remains vital and important. The Night at Bree party featuring the TORn-friendly Emerald Rose, was another smash with a costume contest and the TORn message board’s very own GreeDragon lending her vocals. A little dose of concrete news on a potential Hobbit film would give the Tolkien programming a jolt in the arm but the track is anything but finished, especially after a transition when TORn’s own Jincey stepped aside. West of the Moon continues to contribute a presence by hosting a fan table and adding vital numbers to the mix.
Tim Richardson’s “Dork of the Ring” parody film played as part of the film programming and the troupe was also featured in some Tolkien programming, including segments featuring young and talented film-makers Ashlee and Rachel Scott.
Sideshow Collectibles contributed mightily to TheOneRIng.net’s fan table. While we sold t-shirts and met with fans face-to-face, we also offered SSC gift cards (valued at SideshowCollectibles.com between $10 – $100) to those who managed to understand that ‘FREE’ really can mean free. We also distributed other Sideshow prizes by using a dice-rolling game that generated a number between 1-100, helping us find excellent homes for drool-inducing helms and weapon displays. Three lucky winners took away the daily grand prize, also provided from the Sideshow. They were a Galadriel Statue, an Eowyn Statue and a King of the Dead Statue, each highly prized by the Tolkien crowd. Thanks Sideshow and thanks to all the fans who supported our presence with the purchase of the new TORn t-shirt that says, “My house Elf is Tall, Blonde and proficient with his bow”!
