Oh what to do? I am sad and blue. If only that I knew, that he would take The Precious! He had better flee, for I am thin and mean, and my eyes have seen, that he did take The Precious! Because the world demanded it (or somebody did, I guess), 2005 will witness the opening of the Lord of the Rings stage musicial in London (flash-heavy official site here.) Oh my, this sounds grisly. Will Troy McClure be in it?
Tag: LotR
Ghan-Buri-Gone.
In LOTR news this morning, the new official magazine offers some moderate spoilers about ROTK and TTT:EE, including what’s in, what’s out, and what Shelob will look like (don’t read if you haven’t read the books.) In related news, was Frodo in fact trying to obtain a PhD?
Cloudy Visions
A Kramervision version of the Return of the King EA footage (from which these stills were taken) has made it online. Atrocious quality, but fun nonetheless.
The Siege of Gondor.
“Great engines crawled across the field; and in the midst was a huge ram,
great as a forest-tree a hundred feet in length, swinging on mighty chains…Grond they named it, in the memory of the Hammer of the Underworld of old.” At long last, some new Return of the King images (via E3) have made it online. Looks like Gandalf the White will have his work cut out for him on the ramparts of Minas Tirith. Update: The official site releases a slew of pics too, including Aragorn in battle regalia and Sam with the light of Earendil.
Elvish Hegemon and the Subaltern Orc.
And now the terrible Orcs invade Balin’s tomb. Let’s be clear about a few things here. The Orcs are fighting a war of self-defense against the invading Fellowship. They basically busted in on the Orcs’ place here…One would think that if the Orcs were as bad as the corrupt Man-Elf coalition says, they would be a lot better at fighting. Via a friend of mine in the department, it’s the lost Fellowship of the Ring commentary track by Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn. Touche.
Prrreciousss…
News of The Two Towers (theatrical version) DVD (due August 26) breaks over at TORN.Net, with all kinds of enticing screen caps and sundry goodies. Apparently, the TTT-EE will show up Nov. 18, giving us a month of geek-out time before ROTK. Update: More information here, including Quicktime shorts of the (very nice) animated menus and the look of the EE packaging (It might look familiar.)
25% more Ents.
Still quiet on the ROTK front for the time being (other than [Spoiler] Eowyn’s big moment being reshot), but Peter Jackson has recently sounded off on the extended Two Towers due out in November. Apparently, it’ll contain 43 extra minutes (as opposed to 32 in the FOTR EE)…veddy nice.
It’s Not Easy Being Green.
Fresh from the Game Developer’s Conference, IGN Filmforce hosts a fascinating keynote by WETA Digital on their work for LOTR: TTT, with several Quicktime shorts on the evolution of Gollum, the Ents, and MASSIVE (and a few Toy Story-esque blooper reels). Definitely worth checking out, if you can spare the bandwidth.
Arboreal Poets, Schizophrenic Guides.
PJ talks briefly about the extended Two Towers cut, and sure enough it looks like we’re getting more Ents and more Smeagol. Not sure I really need to see Treebeard deliver bad poetry, but I’ll reserve judgment until I see the cut.
Fellowship of the Ringu.
For Sauron will have dominion over this Middle Kingdom, even unto the ending of the world.A Hong Kong newspaper imagines an all-Asian Rings trilogy.