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LOTR News 03/28
DVD And VHS Announcement For Lord Of The Rings (more pics added)
The Official Site has new look, check it out!
The official film ring is now available for purchase
Mortensen in the saddle for 'Hidalgo' at Dis
"Lord" rings up coin in Canada
Special LOTR feature on TV2 (New Zealand) on Friday
Prepare for The Two Towers Footage on March 29th
Hobbits under the hammer
New Line unveils "Rings" DVD plans, "Towers" scenes
UK release date announced for Lord Of The Rings video and DVD
And you thought the movie was long
Jackson runs rings around the Beatles
Stuff Entertainment
Thank Gollum they didn't let it be. This week at the Oscars The Lord Of The Rings director Peter Jackson met one his idols, Beatle Sir Paul McCartney, and it was revealed the pair shared common ground.
While waiting in the lobby of Hollywood's Kodak Theatre, Jackson said today, he asked Sir Paul if it was true the Fab Four wanted to make a Lord Of The Rings film in the 1960s.
"He said it was and they'd been thinking of talking to (director) Stanley Kubrick about it. It was something John (Lennon) was driving and (Rings author) JRR Tolkien still had the film rights at that stage but he didn't like the idea of the Beatles doing it. So he killed it."
Jackson understood that Sir Paul was going to be Frodo, Lennon Gollum, George Harrison Gandalf and Ringo Starr would play Sam. "There probably would've been some good songs coming off the album."
Jackson said he was pleased to arrive back in New Zealand yesterday after the Oscars in which The Fellowship Of The Ring picked up four awards. Now he wants to concentrate on post-production work on the next Rings film, The Two Towers, due out in December.
Jackson revealed it was likely Wellington would next year get the world premiere for the third Rings film, The Return Of The King. "I had more discussions with (Rings backer) New Line (Cinema) about that . . . they have already signed off on the idea."
Despite personally missing out at the Oscars, Jackson said he was still motivated to make the best films possible and The Two Towers would have a "smoother flowing story" than The Fellowship Of The Ring.
Mortensen in the saddle for 'Hidalgo' at Dis
Josh Spector
Hollywood Reporter
Viggo Mortensen is in negotiations to star in "Hidalgo," the Walt Disney Co. horse-racing tale scheduled to be a summer 2003 tentpole release.
Mortensen, fresh off his role as Aragon in "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring," will play a Pony Express courier turned international horse racer in "Hidalgo."
The film, which will be directed by Joe Johnston, is an action-adventure Western based on the true story of an 1890 Pony Express courier. It is the underdog tale of a cowboy who travels throughout the world with his mustang, Hidalgo, to compete against Arabian thoroughbreds in a dangerous race. Viggo Mortensen had been in negotiations to star in Myriad Pictures' "Borgia" but opted for the Disney Western instead.
"Hidalgo" is being produced by Casey Silver and is expected to start shooting in the summer. In addition to the "Rings" trilogy, Mortensen's credits include roles in "28 Days," "Psycho" and "A Perfect Murder." The actor is repped by CAA and manager Lynn Rawlins.
"Lord" rings up coin in Canada
Brendan Kelly
Reuters
MONTREAL (Variety) - "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" has become Canada's second-highest grossing film of all time, notching up C$50.2 million ($32 million). But it couldn't sink "Titanic" which pulled in US$43 million north of the U.S. border.
The fantasy-adventure is the highest-grossing film ever released by Canuck distributor Alliance Atlantis. "Lord of the Rings" is on 125 screens in Canada, but Alliance Atlantis will boost that on Friday when the film will have three minutes of footage from sequel "The Two Towers" added to the final reel. "Towers" is set to be released Dec. 18.
Special LOTR feature on TV2 (New Zealand) on Friday
The New Zealand Herald
Explorers, monks and even a hobbit on TV over Easter
Earlier on Sunday on TV2 (4.35pm), another major feat is profiled, that of the lovely Peter Jackson and his thousands of tireless workers in A Passage to Middle-earth: The Making of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.
Apart from having a long title, the nearly hour-long programme has a "video diary" kept from the earliest days of production. There's commentary from Jackson, plus cast and crew interviews.
Of all the extraordinary film-making feats Jackson has performed, surely the most extraordinary is the love and respect that all involved are still expounding. None more so than young Elijah Wood: "it's such an adventure ... truly wonderful", he says here.
Full article...
Prepare for The Two Towers Footage on March 29th
Paul Davidson
Film Force
If you needed an excuse to see The Fellowship of the Ring again, look no further.
March 26, 2002 - The Academy Awards have come and gone, unfortunately without Fellowship of the Ring earning the prestigious trophies its fans thought it deserved. However, that hasn't dampened New Line Cinema's enthusiasm in releasing an extra-long trailer of The Two Towers – the first completed footage from the second Lord of the Rings film to be screened in public.
On March 29, the new reel is being attached to the end of Fellowship in theaters across the United States, Canada, Great Britain, and in many other countries worldwide. Hopefully, theaters that have already ended their Fellowship run (like the one in my city has) will re-release the film with the Two Towers preview attached.
The new preview is reportedly chock-full of mouth-dropping shots of the events and characters of The Two Towers. Featured prominently in the trailer are Eowyn, Faramir, Grima Wormtongue, Theoden, the siege of Edoras, the battle of Helm's Deep, and many other new characters and locales. Ain't It Cool News has posted a shot-by-shot, spoiler-filled description of the footage; you can follow that link if you don't mind knowing ahead of time the marvelous sights that await you this weekend.
The Two Towers itself is due in theaters this Christmas.
Hobbits under the hammer
BBC News
A first edition copy of JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit is expected to fetch £5,000 at auction on Wednesday.
The book, containing a number of colour illustrations by the author, is said to be in such good condition because its owner, a woman now in her 80s, did not read all of it because it gave her nightmares.
Head of books at auctioneers Woolley and Wallis, Bill Hoade, said: "It is rare to find a copy in such good condition because it is such a popular and literally well-read book."
Prices fetched by Tolkien's books have risen since the release of the Oscar-winning film The Lord of the Rings.
New Line unveils "Rings" DVD plans, "Towers" scenes
Ben Berkowitz
Reuters
LOS ANGELES, March 27 (Reuters) - With the first ``Lord of the Rings'' movie still playing in theaters, New Line Cinema unveiled a two-pronged strategy for the film's videos and DVDs and is offering an early glimpse of the second installment of the ``Rings'' trilogy.
``We're positioning the 'Fellowship of the Ring' release as a five-month event,'' leading up to the (``Lord of the Rings:) The Two Towers'' debut on Dec. 18., said Stephen Einhorn, the president of New Line's home video division.
In addition to the video and DVD strategy, New Line unveiled 3-1/2 minutes of new footage from the second film, ``The Two Towers,'' to a crowd of movie executives here at the Warner Bros. film studio lot late Tuesday.
That footage will also be shown in theaters this Friday at the end of the ``Fellowship of the Rings'' first installment.
Full article...
UK release date announced for Lord Of The Rings video and DVD
Ananova
The video and DVD of the first Lord Of The Rings film will be available to buy in the UK from August 6.
The DVD will be a double-disc set featuring two hours of extra material and a 10-minute behind the scenes preview trailer of The Two Towers.
An extended version of The Fellowship Of The Ring is also to be released on video and DVD on November 12.
The extended versions will include more than 30 minutes of extra footage.
A four-disc DVD Collector's Box Set will also hit stores on November 12.
Discs one and two will feature the extended cut of the film, while three and four will contain six hours of original supplementary material
And you thought the movie was long
Interest Alert
When "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" comes out on home video Aug. 6, consumers will be able to buy the PG-13 version of the movie that grossed in the neighborhood of $290 million in U.S. theaters -- but when an extended version comes out Nov. 12, it will offer more than 30 minutes of added footage.
It's likely that the extra scenes will be graphic enough to earn the longer home video product an R-rating. That version will be in stores just five weeks before the scheduled release date of the second installment of producer-director Peter Jackson's "Rings" trilogy -- "The Two Towers."
The sequel is due in theaters Dec. 18.
The four-disc DVD package will feature more than six hours of supplemental material. The double-disc PG-13 DVD will feature a unique selling proposition of its own -- two hours of extras including a 10-minute preview of "Two Towers."
"Fellowship of the Ring" was nominated for 13 Oscars and won four -- for cinematography, makeup, original score and visual effects.
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