Julie writes: “I too saw Sean’s visit with Joan and Melissa just before the Oscars – I caught it on tape and here’s the conversation:”
Melissa: …star of Lord of the Rings one, Lord of the Rings two, and Lord of the Rings three…it’s getting boring. Sean: Is it? Melissa: No, I’m just kidding. But I do want to ask you, nominated for Best Picture, but not for Best Director. How disappointing is that for the cast for Peter? Sean: Ah, I don’t think any of the cast is focused at this moment on disappointment. Melissa: Right. Sean: So, we’re proud of Peter…we’re proud of his work, we continue to honor him and pray that he is able to keep mustering the strength to deliver the third film, and we’re going to be going down to New Zealand to do a little bit more work on it in the coming days. Melissa: Really. Sean: Yup. Melissa: And did you realize when you signed on that this was such a labor-intensive project? Sean: Yeah, I don’t think we had any illusions/delusions…yeah, we knew what we were getting into. I think…I mean on paper we knew what we were getting into. You never know, until you actually experience something, exactly what it is. Melissa: Tell me about it. Joan: Did you enjoy New Zealand? Sean: New Zealand is one of the most beautiful places on the face of the earth. Joan: That’s not what I’m asking you. Sean: Did I enjoy it? Well, I was so fat that it was hard for me to enjoy myself all the time. But I had my wife and my daughter with me, so experiencing New Zealand through their eyes and getting to work with really…yeah, I had a great time. Melissa: Now, before we let you do what you..the reason why you came up here, and I’ll tell you two things…one is that I want you to show everybody your cuff links. Sean: My cuff links. [shows them to the camera] Melissa: Yup, check those out. And tell us the significance. Sean: Well, my friend Michael Mue [sp?] picked them out for me and they…I think they’re viking ships but I liked that…they made me think of the middle east when he showed them to me and so I thought that they would look good on my arm even though you can’t really see them… [his jacket sleeve comes down over them]. Melissa: Check out…just while we’ve got you here look at Salma Hayek [camera shows her arriving on the red carpet] in black and white this evening, look how beautiful she looks. But more importantly, you came all the way over here from the red carpet to send a message to the troops. Sean: um…all right…yeah… Melissa: That’s what they’re telling me. Sean: I think this is a great opportunity to communicate to the American men and women serving in uniform. Before the conflict started I was praying for peace… Joan: As we all were… Sean: …every day on bended knee and now I’m praying for peace and victory… and I wish them all God-speed and a safe journey home…and we’re proud of you, we love you, we’re grateful to you, and you’re in our minds and hearts and spirits every second. Joan: That’s lovely. Melissa: That is so nice. A pleasure to see you as always…take care.
A few funny moments that we missed in our earlier reports, evidently: “I had attended the Scottish film festival in Burlington and during the question period I asked a question about the dwarvish moon runes and got a very large reaction from the crowd and from Mr. Boyd himself. Apparently he did not know what moon runes were let alone how to read them. This seemed to be a major source of entertainmentfor Billy and the rest of the crowd.” – Nillithwen
Brandybean writes: “I just thought I’d take the opportunity to add a bit more to the report about the Billy interview at Trent University, since my experience was a little different.
“I had gone to Trent to visit friends for the weekend and upon arrival heard that Billy Boyd was to be speaking there on the Tuesday. Naturally, I made arrangements to miss the two days of class and stayed with my friend until Tuesday night.
“I won’t go into details that were already covered in the previous report. I had gotten there early and snached a good seat in the second row. Billy, looking quite the part of a young, dashing movie star, came in and talked for a while, telling us mostly funny anecdotes. One of these was a story that was partially in the extended DVD: that in the scene where he was throwing stones, he accidentally hit the cameraman in the nose, breaking it. Apparently, the next day, someone on set had heard about Mr. Boyd’s aim (or lack thereof) and went to hide when they began to shoot more of the scene. But there was just no stopping him! One stone richoched off of a wall and hit the guy who was well concealed right in his… area. Billy also talked about comedy… “it’s all about………. timing.” Another moment worth mentioning is that at one point, a girl got up to leave, (presumably to the bathroom), and he stopped in mid-sentence, turned around and started screaming at her to! sit down. “I came all the way from Scotland to talk to you!” he yelled in mock anger.
“We watched three out takes from FOTR, and for some odd reason we were made to watch the entire scene from Moria. I kept hoping they’d cut the scene so we could continue with the interview. I never thought I’d see the day where I wanted to turn off LOTR! We also watched a bit from Sniper, and Billy made some excellent points about the loss of humanity when we create soldiers in armies.
“Anyway the interview progressed and finally it was time for some Q and A. I was the first person picked to ask a question, probably due to my arm’s incredible speed as it shot into the air. I asked him about plot details of this scuba diving movie project, and only got a vague response about how he had been working on it in Mexico with Dom. Oh, and that it was funnier than a penguin playing a banjo… I think I’ve heard THAT before! I had thought I was going to get some good scoop on it and be able to email you lovely staff members of TheOneRing with some really good new details… apparently not. Bother!
“After this, I rushed up to the stage for an autograph/picture but was quickly joined by a horde of fans! I managed to get what I wanted but couldn’t really escape so I was pinned rather helplessly in front of him and could only watch in horror as he signed autographs frantically and tried not to get crushed himself. I felt rather guilty about being a part of that, especially since the poor fellow had a cold, but when I had gone up there I didn’t realize everyone else was planning to as well. I have to hand it to him though, he was cool as a cucumber and sort of seemed to be enjoying the frantic attention.
“Don’t worry, it was a happy ending, and he was extricated just fine from the crowd by his cousin!”
Australia: “Further to your announcement of the Sydney outdoor screening of TTT, in Brisbane (QLD, AUS), on Saturday night starting at 6pm, they are screening FoTR at Southbank. If it rains, then it will be at the Suncorp Piazza. It doesn’t say whether it’s the normal or extended version, but I’m guessing it’s the theatrical version. ” Thanks to Lauren for that.
India: “I guess you already know that ttt premiers in India on March 28th. New Line really is doing a bad job of publicising the movie although they did worse with FOTR. They are releasing the movie in Tamil as well down South although I don’t see that it matters now that people who don’t know English wouldn’t have understood the first movie. I just hope the reviewers don’t trash it like they did to FOTR. The Indian Express gave TTT a thumbs up, though. NewLine is really lucky that the cricket world cup will be over by then. people are soo cricket obsessed now (including me) that movies are flopping at the box office… I just hope TTT isn’t cut short in India. We’re used to long movies! When people can watch Bollywood crap 4 hours long(with 2 intervals included), I don’t see why they can’t sit for 3 hours.” Thanks to Joyita for that.
There’s a plea from Brasil, where they’ve had no news of when or even if they will ever see an extended version of FOTR – it’s been three months now and there’s no sign of it.
And Karina wrote from Ecuador, “The LOTR Movies are subtitled in Spanish. But the DVDs are a problem.. Can you believe that the Special Edition does not have Spanish subtitles (or in any other language at all)?. We have not been able to get rented DVDs dubbed in Spanish. My cousin could not get DVDs subtitled for me in Texas either.
“But, I guess no real fan will request dubbed DVDs.. you loose so much with some translations that I think you rather read the titles below (it is always a pleasure to see the movie just to watch the scenes, you grasp the idea easily)”
A couple of comments have come in about this. Nathalie writes, “I saw in a french magazine named ONE today that Liv Tyler is going to follow in her father’s footsteps and that she would be singing the song we’ll find at the end of ROTK, when the credits roll. It’s supposed to be called Arwen’s song and Liv is supposed to sing it in elvish!” Dion found this: “While reading through Ian McKellen’s “Grey Book”, I found a small but interesting tidbit that confirms the report on the ROTK ending you posted on 3-18-03. Mr. McKellen writes in his entry of 8 August 2000: “For Bilbo’s last scene, Ian [Holm] wore a latex mask of wrinkles and scrawn before sailing away to the distant Havens where Tolkien’s good people achieve their rest. It was an odd experience because Galadriel was with us but Cate Blanchett was not — more scope for film magic to add the genuine Elf Queen who goes voyaging with Bilbo and Gandalf at the end.” [Grey Book]
Valerie noticed, “The calligrapher for the movies trained Ian Holm to write for “Concerning Hobbits”, and that he trained Elijah Wood as well. Well, in the book ” The Lord of the Rings: The Making of a Movie Trilogy”, on page 54 there is a picture of what at first appears to be Bilbo writing his book at the beginning of the Extended FOTR, but upon closer inspection is really Frodo! And for these reasons: a) he is wearing different clothes, b) his hair is darker, and c) the room is a lot tidier!”
And Micaela wrote, “Concerning the ending to ROTK, I’m still a newbie to the fan and film sites. So I’m doing a lot of poking around. So I was surprised to find this Q&A with Peter address the concern. Herewith: what Peter himself said about the ending:
“The fans at THEONERING.NET ask… Everyone has their favorite scene in LORD OF THE RINGS; what’s yours and why?
Peter Jackson: “I think my favorite scene of Lord of the Rings is really the end, the Grey Havens, at the very end of film three. To me it’s a culmination of the entire story, it represents what it is to give and what it is to lose – that is all encapsulated in that one scene, and I think that it’s probably the most powerful part of the entire story.”
Joanna added one more detail, “but in watching the commentary with Peter Jackson and the other writers on the fellowship of the ring extended DVD, one of them, either Fran Walsh or Philippa Boynes mentioned that Galadriel is the first and LAST to speak in the films and mentioned “last” being in the third movie. Of course things could have changed since then but I just thought that this was very interesting and could mean that she maybe mentions what happens to the fellowship beyond their parting?!”
Sean Astin appeared on Joan and Melissa Rivers’ miniature red carpet to send a message out to our troops in Iraq, via television. In short, he said that since the beginning of the war he got down on bended knee to pray for them, and that he’s still praying for them and for a victory, and that he hopes for their safe return. Also, Joan and Melissa asked him if it was a disappointment to them (the LotR cast and crew) that Peter Jackson wasn’t nominated. Sean replied by explaining that they had pretty much prepared themselves for disappointment with these films (implying that they are getting less credit than due). Overall, Sean was very serious and genuine, and kept a solemn air about him.
Robin Gamgee saw this on the CBBC page with the Andy Serkis interview, and says, “I know there have been rumours about whether or not the Smeagol/Deagol scene and the transformation into Gollum scenes will be included in the TTT EE DVD or ROTK. Here’s a little something I found that shows perhaps they WILL be in ROTK. Note that this interview is very recent, meaning that maybe (and this is purely speculation) the Gollum backstory issue has been resolved and we will be treated to it. “
Hannah, 16, Sutton I noticed that loads of the actors on Lord of the Rings had to have prosthetics. Are you particularly glad you didn’t have to go through that?
Andy Serkis: Well funnily enough in the third film – I’ll let you into a bit of a secret – I did have to go through that but I’m not going to say anymore.
