All-Canadian writes: I have been reading TORN site for over two years now, but never contributed sofar but would like to add to the trailer-confustion; A-films (the Dutch distributor for NewLine) has just announced to their relations that the trailer will be no earlier then September, but a teaser poster will be availiable in July. They quote NewLine:
TRAILER
The decision has been made to release only one trailer for ROTK but to make it the most “kick ass” trailer on screens this September, laden with spectacular special effects and powerful emotional elements. The exact debut date for this trailer will depend on how quickly Peter Jackson can finish the sfx shots so for the moment it’s a floating trailer release date, as early as the beginning of September, but no later than September 26th.
Brian sends along the 53 chapter titles that will appear on the TTT Theatrical DVD! Take a look!
1. The Foundations of Stone
2. The Taming of Smeagol
3. The Uruk-hai
4. The Three Hunters
5. The Burning of Westfold
6. The Banishment of Eomer
7. On the Trail of the Uruk-hai
8. Night Camp at Fangorn
9. The Riders of Rohan
10. Traces of Merry and Pippin
11. Treebeard
12. The Passage of the Marshes
13. The White Rider
14. Fangorn Forest
15. The Black Gate is Closed
16. The King of the Golden Hall
17. Simbelmyne on the Burial Mounds
18. The King’s Decision
19. A Daughter of Kings
20. Exodus from Edoras
21. The Forces of Ithilen
22. Gollum and Smeagol
23. Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit
24. Dwarf Women
25. The Evenstar
26. The Wolves of Isengard
27. Helm’s Deep
28. Isengard Unleashed
29. The Grace of the Valar
30. Arwen’s Fate
31. The Story from Lorien
32. The Window on the West
33. The Forbidden Pool
34. Aragorn’s Return
35. Entmoot
36. The Glittering Caves
37. “Where is the Horse and the Rider?”
38. The Host of the Eldar
39. The Battle of the Hornburg
40. Old Entish
41. The Breach of the Deeping Wall
42. The Entmoot Decides
43. Retreat to the Hornburg
44. Master Peregrin’s Plan
45. Osgiliath
46. The Last March of the Ents
47. The Nazgul Attack
48. Forth Eorlingas
49. The Flooding of Isengard
50. The Tales That Really Mattered
51. “The Battle for Middle-earth is About to Begin”
52. Gollum’s Plan
53. End Credits
They seem to be the talking point of the month for the Return of the King. Who will be in them? What will happen? And where are they located?
Well, we’ve previously tried to solve the first two questions – check out this AICN rumour and this TORn spy report if you missed them. Now a reliable TORn source who was involved in the production chimes in with some information on the third.
This source indicates he’s “pretty sure” these tents are at Dunharrow. He says this was in reality at the mouth of the Greenstone river near Glenorchy.
And, checking through our scrapbook, I discovered a picture of these tents that was taken way back in November 2000. Check this very old newspaper clipping from our scrapbook, then cast your mind back to the shapes of the tents in the background of Peter Jackson’s very recent MTV acceptance speech.
A little bit of further detective work around the internet reveals this tidbit on the Glenorchy Air website – the company which ferried cast to and from the sets.
“Turning left out of the Dart river valley we arrive over the Greenstone Valley, the location of Dunharrow which will feature in the last film.”
There’s also this complete list of filming locations, produced by the NZ Film Commission. Again, you’ll note, Dunharrow Encampment is listed – listed at Greenstone. Vitally, Dunharrow is also listed in the Wellington Region, which is where that old picture was taken.
And anyone who’s been casting their eye over the Herr de Ringe RoTK screencaps will note the shot with the ranks of Rohirrim assembled on a broad green field with a mountain quite close by – very close in my memory to Tolkien’s description of Dunharrow.
Who knows? Maybe we’ll see some of those stone Pukel Men, as well as hearing Elrond deliver the words of Malbeth the Seer to Aragorn.
Ringer Spy Sven informed us that Dark Horizons had got hold of a few images from the recent Licensing Exhibition 2003 in New York.
First of all, this lends more credibility to a report we received a couple of days ago about this event. You can check that out here.
Not a lot can be drawn from the pictures themselves.
This one is probably just before the Great Gate is destroyed by the seige engine Grond. Not hard to conclude.
Who is Aragorn looking at and/or speaking to? And where are these tents anyway? There’s surely no need to camp near Edoras or at Helm’s Deep. Perhaps it’s up near Isengard? Or could it be at the Pelennor? One suspects it could be related to those rumours of Elrond turning up to deliver some words of wisdom and/or a certain object vital to Aragorn’s kingly future …
Finally, Gandalf looking pretty much on the edge of his wits. Waiting for Faramir, perhaps, and news of FRodo and the Ring? Seems to be daylight, as opposed to the nightime looking shot of the Gondorian soldiers. I guess that could be altered with digital colour correction.
We got this from somebody who is apparently somehow working as an extra while visiting NZ [from France, judging by the email address.] How this came to be, he doesn’t explain, so I’m taking this all with a grain of salt:
“I’m writing this morning from my hotel in New Zealand, having informations which could possibly be interesting for you. Actually, I’m involved in shooting scenes as a Gondorian soldier (I’m not working today, so I’m writing to you now and will certainly walk around this afternoon).
“Well, what you will perhaps be happy to learn concerns yesterday’s shootings. These shoots included Viggo Mortensen, Liv Tyler and Hugo Weaving. I’ll try to tell you the most details I can, which is not easy because I was involved in a very little part of the scene.
“In fact, Mortensen was in a tent with Liv Tyler, bringing him his sword. My task, to me and five others, was to bring Hugo Weaving, dressed in a blue elvish coat, in the tent, announcing him to the two others. One of my fellows had to say something like “Someone is asking your attention”, or anything like this.
“This was in fact all I had to do : we had to do this 3 time, and that’s all. after that, I think they shooted what was happening in the tent.”
So, if this is true, we know a bit more about how Viggo gets Anduril back, and that it seems like Arwen and Elrond will both be around together seeing Aragorn either before or after the Battle of the Pelennor Fields.
Demosthenes here – just thought I’d add a few quick comments.
Coming pretty hot on the heels of the AICN report, this little snippet is very interesting. Now, it could be that the AICN spy simply neglects to mention any others in the scene by name. He/she does refer to “all assembled” at one point. But that could mean the crew. It’s vague.
However, I (personally) think Arwen’s involvement is very doubtful, given what Philippa Boyens said back in 2001 about Arwen not entering Gondor or Rohan until the wedding.
That means this report should also be considered pretty doubtful.
Of course, 2001 was a long time ago, and things may have changed in the storyline during that time, but (to the best of my recollection) we still haven’t scene any hard physical evidence that counters this statement.
In fact, the Helm’s Deep scenes tend to support Boyen’s quotes from 2001, rather than detract from it.
Hope for a teaser trailer soon, because that will clear up some of these wilder rumours once and for all.
Harry from AICN received this very interesting snippet from one of his spies. Underneath the amusing anecdote lies some interesting points for pondering. I’ve reproduced the report below because I wanted to throw in my own five cents of speculation afterwards.
Harry writes:
Some of my lowly Kiwi spies have informed me that Viggo Mortensen made up in Aragorn‘s scruffy unkept beard filmed a scene a few days ago with Hugo/Elrond aka Mr. Smith for THE RETURN OF THE KING.
It was a scene where Elrond comes into Aragorn‘s tent wearing a hooded cape that kept his face hidden in darkness. Jackson shot the scene a dozen times at least. In this scene Hugo slowly and with a certain amount of drama removes the hood from his face to seriously talk with Viggo.
Due to various reasons Hugo kept blowing his lines, so Peter shot it over and over. Finally the Director called for the insurance, or Champagne shot, and they ran thru it all for one final take with Elrond stepping into the scene face hidden from the view of all in attendance, buuuuuut this time when he slowly exposes his face he had on a pair of his patented “Mr. Smith” sunglasses and says something along the line of, “Join with the MATRIX, Mr. Aragorn” in his best deadpan delivery.
Mr. Jackson then called for the scene wrap.
That’s the end of Harry’s report. The Matrix gag is worth a titter, but why is Elrond meeting Aragorn, and where? What does this all mean?
Has Elrond come looking for his errant daughter? Or, is he bringing help and advice … or even congratulations? The fact he’s removing his hood, and his face has been ‘hidden from … view’ seems to indicate that he’s come in secret.
As an aside, the tent is one of those we saw in the background of Peter Jackson‘s MTV Awards acceptance speech.
It’s hard to tell if Aragorn is alone. Aragorn is the only one mentioned, and you’d think the spy would name any other actors in the scene, but maybe ‘all in attendence’ doesn’t refer to everyone who attended the shoot.
But I’m guessing the scene is not in Rohan. In fact, I think it’s probably after the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, and Elrond is being re-inserted into the action to provide advice at (or for) the Last Debate.
Alternate theories? I can’t think of many, though it could be just before the Paths of the Dead, and Elrond has come to deliver the words of Malbeth the Seer. That seems a less likely scenario to me though, since I expect Arwen will instead show up to deliver the banner, the sword and the words of the seer …
One things certain though, expect to see more Elves in Return of the King.
Update:
Count Zero believes that the scene will be in Rohan rather Gondor, though, citing the tents and Aragorn’s stubbly pre-King look as evidence. I’ll buy the scruffy look, but tents are pretty portable, Tolkien in fact wrote one in for Theoden for the meeting with Ghan-buri-Ghan.
But if Elrond were to bring the sword, what does this leave for Arwen to do in RoTK? Another inspirational dream sequence?
It would also seem to run counter to this picture from the June 25th trailer for the Two Towers with a cloaked-hooded figure that (I think) looks a lot like Arwen, lingering near the statue with the shards of Narsil at Rivendell.
But then, it could easily end up on the cutting room floor, just like all the footage of Arwen fighting at Helm’s Deep from Two Towers. The Extended Edition release may tell us more about the depth of Arwen’s role in RoTK. However, the folks over on TORC picked up this old tidbit from a piece that Tolkien scholar Bill Welden wrote on the Official Site way back in 2001.
“We talk about changes to the story. She clears up a number of points, chaff from the rumor mill of intense scrutiny surrounding this production. Arwen will not travel to Rohan, nor to Gondor until it is time for her wedding.”
If you’re interested, you can find that entire article here under the ‘special features’ section.
Jeremiah sent in this interesting thread of analysis that examines not only what Jackson might intend, but why …
One thought- this may be the answer to an interesting riddle from the cinematic Two Towers. The riddle is this: Why don’t we ever see Narsil/ Andúril? It’s possible Arwen took it with her, I suppose… but audiences are going to find it hard to believe that Arwen had it re-forged at Rivendell without Elrond’s knowledge. Furthermore, it’s all but impossible to believe the sword could be re-forged anywhere else. Not to mention the suspicion that taking the shards from Rivendell without Elrond’s permission would be the same as stealing…
So, where are the shards? Perhaps, when we last see Rivendell in Two Towers, they’re exactly where they’d been during Fellowship, laying upon the stone shield. Imagine this plotline. Elrond, believing his daughter safely escorted to the Havens, stays behind to do what he can to help win this war. He convinces Celeborn and Galadriel to send elite troops to Helm’s Deep, in his name. He sends his sons, and whatever Rangers of the North he can contact, to aid Aragorn through the Paths of the Dead. [I think that the Sons of Elrond will not make the cut, if I recall correctly. I just can’t recall the source of that information right now – Dem]
He has Narsil re-forged. And he personally carries the sword to Aragorn- which is the pick-up scene Hugo and Viggo were filming here.
I don’t believe this was the original, intended plotline for the sword. I think it has been well established that, as of two years ago, Andúril was to be carried to Helm’s Deep by Arwen herself.
I think Elrond’s role was much more of a cameo at that time- less substantial than Galadriel’s. I think all this has changed since Fellowship was released. The sorrow of the parting of the Elves is obviously a plot point the co-writers want to emphasize, and their method of highlighting how dramatic the loss of the Elves is to all of Middle-Earth is to make it all very personal.
Elrond and all the rest are leaving forever, and only Arwen will be left behind- the idea of eternal separation between father and daughter is a very powerful theme. To pull this off they needed to greatly increase the role of Elrond, give him more to do, to make him more memorable to the audience. Rather than being remembered as ‘the guy from the first film who ran the council’ he must be remembered as ‘a heroic Elf, and father of Arwen’. I think this is their answer- making him more personally involved in the War of the Ring, perhaps even putting him in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, or the Battle of the Morannon.
In short, I think Elrond is coming unannounced into Aragorn’s tent, either immediately prior to the Paths of the Dead, or immediately following Pelennor Fields. He is telling Aragorn that he must realize his destiny to become King. When Aragorn protests ‘Who in Gondor will believe that I am their rightful king?’ Elrond brings out Andúril. The relationship between the two becomes clear- Elrond raised Aragorn as a son after Arathorn died, and Elrond’s support is every bit as important to Aragorn as the sword itself.
