April Fresh writes:
What can I say, except that this movie is going to be great. The director, Carl Bessai, is amazing to watch; he’s the DoP too, so he was busy. He and Sir Ian seemed to have great communication going on, but I couldn’t really see much of what was happening because, well, I was a PA, the lowest form of scum on set. However, I got pie. I did see a little bit… Carl calls him Ian now, not Sir like he did on the news.
So it was like this: they were shooting in the Goolden Hall (not a typo) at the Royal Conservatory of Music from about 2pm to…uhh…..what time was it? I think it was 3am but honestly, it’s all a fog. I was told to show up at 7:30pm so I did, and I had the shortest day of anyone there. “The Scene” was a graduation ceremony, with Emile (Ian) recieving some sort of honorary degree from the University of Victoria (FYI: Props spelt “bachelor” wrong on the damn thing.) He was wearing a big purple grad gown and floppy hat over a three piece suit on the stage, he must have been dying of heat. Nice hat though. His personal assistant, a great guy named D.W., was running around a lot, getting water. I think Ian got cranky.
Anyway, Emile tries to make a speech, but ghosts from his past (with one bloody guy who scared the hell out of me) keep distracting him. I might be wrong about this by the way, I wasn’t really on set,I was watching doors. Or rather, watching THROUGH doors. Once, I didn’t know that the door I was watching was hot (being filmed) and I almost got in the shot. Big trouble! Oh well, I’m a volunteer PA, you get what you pay for. Sir Ian, however, was only a few feet away… I hope he didn’t notice.
What else? Ian signed autographs for the extras in the Gym between shots, what a nice guy. I saw a few of the autographs, he signs his name with a profile of Gandalf w/pipe. Awesome! I saw someone who got “the Hobbit” signed. Lucky extras. I had to help with food, and apparently when I was paying attention to the cookies (one each, please) Sir Ian passed about 4 feet to my left. Damn it!
Yeah, so the film does take place in Victoria, unlike everything else shot here, which is unprecidented. Earlier, I had thought that it was taking place in England. Sorry.
So that’s all for specifics, I think I’m forgetting something, I don’t know…oh yeah, I was dozing on a chair and I woke up seconds after Ian walked right past me. I’m sorry, it was three in the morning! Oh well.
Thanks for reading,
-April Fresh, film student (in Victoria, but from Gimli)
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Art writes:
Not sure if you want to use this – but I have a close source who tells me that when Ebert and Roeper taped their weekly show today at WLS here in Chicago, they both gave The Two Towers a thumbs up.
Roeper explained that he enjoyed it, but that it did not make him change his mind about not liking FOTR, and he wondered if all of the emphasis on fighting was in the true spirit of Tolkien’s work (he commented that since he didn’t know the books, he did not know the answer).
Ebert said (when he gave it a thumbs up) that he was really looking forward to the ROTK, and that when all three are completed that they will be a major achievement in the history of motion pictures. They also talked about how TTT was a whisper away from being rated R because of the violence.
On a lighter note, my source tells me that they had trouble pronouncing all of the characters names, especially Eowyn’s.
In Chicago –
Art
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Ringer Fans Luthien and Bellerophon have sent in the cream of their photos taken from the World Premiere of The Two Towers in New York (from the 5th December 2002). These photos complement Luthien’s great report of the event. [More]
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London: Rob writes: Thought your readers might be interested to know that there is to be an exhibition of Tolkien illustrator Ted Nasmith’s works at the Chalk Farm Gallery in London, England. The preview will be this Saturday, December 7th from 2:00 PM to 7:00 PM, and the exhibition will run until January 12th. The show — entitled “The Return of the King” — will feature paintings from the forthcoming 2004 Tolkien Calendar.
From NZ, Silvermoon writes: This sunday at 9pm EST the Travel Channel is having a show hosted by Karl Urban about New Zealand. They are also going to have a tour of the country by the Prime Minister. But it mentions LOTR being filmed there. Unsure if there will be any more about it, but Karl Urban is hosting! Date: Sunday, 15 December Time:9:00pm EST Where: The Travel Channel
From Costa Rica, Larvarela writes: Just to update about the auction going on in Costa Rica of 200 tickets to watch The Two Towers on December 17th….
Right now there are 310 persons participating and the total amount of money is around $5815
A lot of money to the childern of the Make-a-Wish Foundation…… look which is the real power of the ONE RING!!!!
Australian Ticket Buyers Screwed?
Nash writes: Ticket sales for Two Towers went on sale today, for non-corporate purchasers that is.
However Australian (NSW) Fans who would like to see it in style using Gold Class tickets or similar, are probably out of luck. It seems all Gold Class tickets for opening day (Dec 26th), and quite a few the day after were sold through corporate bookings already. The best I could get, after queuing from 9:00 am was Saturday (28th). I was 20th in the queue. Greater Union head office just confirmed to me there were no tickets available for gold class on opening day, they were sold before the tickets went on sale.
What makes it even worse was that anyone asking about tickets being available on the phone on the 11th were told that there were ‘plenty of seats available’ for the day. I’m sure the number of people queueing would be significantly less if we’d told the real story.
So not only do we see it last in the english speaking world, we can’t get tickets for it.
Fans in Italy are also upset: Italian distributor Medusa, after choosing to release Lord of the Rings – Fellowship of the Rings a month later (January,18 instead of December, 19) than United States and western Europe, announced that the next two episodes, The Two Towers and The Return of the King, will receive the same treatment. Medusa claims taking this decision because there are too many important titles presented during Christmas period in Italy, even if Peter Jackson’s movie was greeted with enthusiasm both by critics and public worldwide since 19, December and there is no doubt the same will occur in Italy.
LOTR fans, you’re not directly interested in the Italian release date, but please, consider what your reaction would be if you’d be forced to wait a month before seeing the next episodes of this masterpiece. With this petition we ask Medusa to listen to fans’ opinion and to release The Two Towers and The Return of The King at the same time with United States and European Community.
With confidence, Caltanet Cinema
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Elijah Wood says cinema goers will see a fight scene in The Two Towers which is not in JRR Tolkien’s book. He says his character Frodo will fight with Sam Gamgee, played by Sean Astin. [More]
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In NZ there will be a programme on ‘TTT behind the scenes’ on Sunday at 7pm (NZT) on Channel 2. Thanks to Fiver for the news.
Also in NZ, Aucklanders should hie themselves down to the Americas Cup Village and check out the Pavillion, which is doing a show celebrating innovative New Zealanders. Richard Taylor is one of the people featured there.
In Brazil it’s CONFIRMED that TTT will be released earlier than initially planned, on Dec. 27. – thanks to Ivan for the news.
Ali writes: I’d just like to let U.K Tornsibs know that the WB special ‘Return To Middle Earth’ will be on ITV1 on Saturday Dec 14th at 12:30pm.It will be 30mins long. Enjoy!
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