[thechat] LotR

[Seb]

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>They've omitted Tom Bombadil completely. Total bummer
>when I first heard it, but I know that even doing the
>trilogy in 3 installments you'll have to leave out a
>lot. I've heard a rule of thumb of about a minute on
>screen per page of screenplay. You could end up with a
>5 hour movie just for Fellowship of the Ring that way.
>Then thinking about it, Tom Bombadil doesn't really
>move the plot along in any /essential/ way. So, a hard
>choice on Peter's part, but probably for the best.
>Also, it looks like Arwen takes Glorfindel's place at
>the ford. Hmm. Not sure about that one, but I have an
>open mind on it and won't decide until around noon on
>Dec. 19th, which, if I make it to an 11am showing
>might be when I actually see it.

I can understand a little of the reasons for axing Tom from the film. I 
have to wonder what PJ is going to do with Treebeard. That's one character 
who is going to be really hard to portray.

>I've read lots of stuff about the filming of LotR and
>everyone who's talked about Peter describe him as this
>delightful little hobbit who maintains are really
>upbeat kinda production atmosphere - no rantings and
>cursings and such.

I've just finished reading a fifty page article on the filming of LOTR, and 
almost every page contained a quote about how the film couldn't have been 
made without Peter Jackson helming it. (ooh, fantasy pun!) In fact, the 
only reason the films have been made was because he wanted to make one 
film, and New Line were so impressed with him that they told him to make 3, 
and gave him a coupla' hundred million to get his film on.

>For one thing, they somehow came up with some new
>cinematic technology which they showed to people with
>money and blew them away with what they could do. As
>for the most popular film ever, I'm really hoping that
>comes to pass.

Apparently the CG that WETA (Peter Jackson's CG company) are doing is 
waaaaay out there. I'm seriously into CG, and everything I read tells me 
this is going to redefine our expectations. Apparently George Lucas took a 
few excursions over to New Zealand to see what Jackson was up to, and got a 
bit uppity about it all. It seems that Lucas had thought this kind of 
project would only be possible with ILM, on 3 or 4 times the budget. WETA 
have done it starting mainly from scratch, and have written some phenomenal 
software and invented new processes along the way.

>Maybe he grew up or sumptin.

Check out the work of Sam Raimi. From Evil Dead to Spiderman. Similar kind 
of career path.

Seb.


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