Different cities in India are seeing different versions of ROTK, it seems. Rulinian wrote again to say that the situation in Chennai had not improved: “At least for us fans out here in Chennai I can say that nothing has ended yet. And since we have no word or idea when the VCD/DVD releases, I guess we continue the Wait.” Ashlee wrote in the same vein: ” I think the cutting of the film was done only in Chennai, and it happened even in the first film: they cut out most of the Council and the parts with Aragorn and Arwen. ROTK was also released late in Chennai, on 5th March, while it was out on 30th Jan in the rest of the country. “
Kolya could confirm that in Delhi they were seeing the film with no cuts, and Mukund wrote to say that also in Bombay people were getting the full 3hours and 20 mins.
So it’s not an ideal situation – some cities are getting the complete version, and others not. We’re not sure how widespread the short’ version of the film is.
The Lord of the Rings: 1954-2004: Scholarship in Honor of Richard E. Blackwelder
On October 22-23, 2004, the Department of Special Collections will host “The Lord of the Rings, 1954-2004” The conference will offer new scholarship upon the 50th anniversary of the publication of Tolkien’s masterpiece.
Papers will be delivered by Douglas A. Anderson, Jane Chance, David Bratman, Marjorie Burns, Michael Drout, Matt Fisher, Verlyn Flieger, Michael Foster, John Garth, Wayne G. Hammond, Carl. F. Hostetter, S. Gary Hunnewell, John D. Rateliff, Christina Scull, Thomas A. Shippey, Arden R. Smith, Paul Edmund Thomas, Richard C. West, and Patrick Wynne.
A fall 2004 exhibit of sketches and drawings by J.R.R. Tolkien is also planned by Marquette University’s Haggerty Museum of Art. Early-bird registration is available online. http://www.marquette.edu/library/registration.html Price of conference registration goes up after March 31, 2004.
Ringer Spy Steve writes: Hello fellow Ringers! Thought you all might be interested in hearing about the wonderful Oscar party the Boca Raton, FL Trilogy Tuesday line group threw last past Sunday. Sure, Peter Jackson and the gang didn’t show up, but if you weren’t in L.A, this was the party to be at! And yes, it was a long expected one.
The front of the house where the party took place was transformed into a hobbit hole, complete with sod on the roof! As “Concerning Hobbits” played in the air outside, guests crouched through the front door to attend. (Watch your head Gandalf!)
Drinks were found outside at the Green Dragon. Barrels, mugs, ale and an eager to drink Frodo were all there.
Inside, the line party recreated the setting of Lothlorien for our Academy Awards viewing area. There was a fountain (complete with silver pitcher) candles, a blue hue set by special lightbulbs and many, many leaves…on the floor and on the walls. If anybody got hungry, the homemade lembas bread was found in this room as well. But that wasn’t the only food we ate!
We had everything from roast chicken, sausages, tomatoes, mushrooms and nice crispy bacon. For dessert there was an eye of Sauron cheesecake and Gandalf staffs. (chocolate dipped pretzels)All of the food sat on a table that was covered by a homemade tablecloth that featured a map of Middle earth. And just about every race from Middle Earth showed up.
Yes, costumes were worn. In fact, they were required! Hobbits, elves, humans and wizards were all in attendence. “So all you did was watch the Oscars, right?” Uh-uh, this was an ALL DAY CELEBRATION of Lord of the Rings. We watched both EE dvds, played a little trivia, sword battled, talked LOTR, etc.
“So after all of this, you just watched the Academy Awards, right?” Nope! š During the commercials we had our own…(wait for it)…Academy A-wargs ceremony! Winners in categories such as “Which LOTR character do you have a crush on”, “Favorite scene in ROTK” and “Best Weapon” were voted on and announced. Instead of the Oscars, we called them Orcs, Bombadils and Ostohers (the 7th King of Gondor!)
So, finally we watched the big show, and what a great night it turned out to be for us LOTR fans. A clean sweep with 11 wins! If you’re in the area and would like to join our group fun or have any comments, stop by our board sometime at:
The organizers of ‘Best of Both Worlds’ Convention to be held in Canberra, Australia next weekend regret to announce that Dominic Monaghan will NOT appear as scheduled, due to the filming schedule for Dominic’s newly landed television pilot.
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This is the latest re the Disney pilot titled “LOST”:
The pilot is now scheduled to begin in Los Angeles as of March 11, 2004 for 2 weeks and then Honolulu. All convention contracts must include the “commitments pending” clause, and as a result Dominic will not be joining us at BOBW 21 – LOTR.
The convention will, naturally, proceed with a couple of changes:
1) As the difference between a “Gold” place and a “Basic” place = $65.00 which represents the guarantee of an autograph place with Dominic, we will refund this difference.
2) We have secured 2 more guests to join us: Joel Tobeck (Orc Lieutenant) & Mark Ferguson (Gil-Galad).
3) To quote one of our guests: “Bad news about Dom. But I’m sure the rest of us will make sure all the guests have a great time”
3) Exclusive to Greater Union, Civic – ” One Weekend to rule them all March 12-15″
At the suggestion of one lady who is attending BOBW 21 – LOTR, we approached the management of the theater and asked if the trilogy could also be shown on Monday so our attendees could also have a chance to attend.
As a result, Greater Union in Canberra have “extended” the screening of the trilogy to Monday March 15th.
Thank you for your patience, and the numerous messages of support,
Richard Taylor with THE suit at the Wellington Premiere in December 2003
Umlaut writes: I went to the Video Effects Society Awards event last night in LA were ROTK picked up several awards including, Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects Driven Motion Picture (I think that was who won it was a late evening).
But I was writing to tell you that I got a chance to chat with the Weta guru himself Richard Taylor and his wonderful wife. Both had on outfits that had Elven writing written on them. I skipped Elven when I was in high school and took Spanish instead so I can not tell you what it said.
But chances are he will were it to the Academy awards at the end of the month.
Ringer Spy Nerdanel reports on the Los Angeles Film Critics Association awards dinner.
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The Los Angeles Film Critics Association presented their 2003 awards Monday night at the St. Regis Hotel in Century City. (These awards were announced January 7.) The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King won two awards: Best Production Design (Grant Major) and Best Director (Peter Jackson). Barrie Osborne accepted the award for Grant Major, who is in New Zealand working on King Kong, reading from an email from Major. At one point Osborne said “and then he thanks me, but I’ll skip that,” which got him heckled by Peter Jackson.
Peter Jackson accepted his own award. He thanked, among others, Fran Walsh, also in attendance. He explained that he had met Walsh 18 years ago when she was recommended to him as someone who was good with scripts. At the time, Jackson was working on Bad Taste, which had no script, so he asked her to paint part of a set. She was not very good at that, he said, but he discovered she was indeed good with scripts.
In a conversation with Ringer Spy Nerdanel after dinner, Jackson said he had just finished editing the Extended Edition of RotK and that it was 4 hours and 10 minutes. Nerdanel was either too polite or too dense to ask whether that includes the credits.
