In the latest episode of the Movie Matters podcast, co-hosts Lee Howard and Michael Mackenzie embark on an adventure as they set off on the long journey of discussing and reflecting upon the strengths, weaknesses and enduring cinematic achievement of New Line Cinema's THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING, THE TWO TOWERS and THE RETURN OF THE KING. In addition to reviewing the films themselves, the hosts also share how they first became acquainted with the world of Middle-Earth, cast their eyes over the recent Extended Edition Blu-ray Disc release of the trilogy, and read out listener comments on all things LORD OF THE RINGS.
The music sampled in this episode is all from THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING, THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS and THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING by Howard Shore. Special thanks to David Mackenzie for audio support.
Please note that this episode suffers from some unavoidable audio interference during its first half as a result of a technical gaffe (a.k.a. not plugging the microphone in properly). We hope that these imperfections don't impair your enjoyment of the episode.
As mentioned in the podcast,
here is the summary of the screenplay for the aborted John Boorman adaptation of the books.
Re: one of the listener comments, I found this on Wikipedia:
ReplyDeleteTownsend was hired to play the part of Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, but was replaced by Viggo Mortensen the day before principal photography began.[4] According to Townsend:[4]
"I was there rehearsing and training for two months, then was fired the day before filming began. After that I was told they wouldn't pay me because I was in breach of contract due to not having worked long enough. I had been having a rough time with them, so I was almost relieved to be leaving until they told me I wouldn't be paid. I have no good feelings for those people in charge, I really don't. The director wanted me and then apparently thought better of it because he really wanted someone 20 years older than me and completely different."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Townsend
As far as ever purchasing these films again, at this point I'm just going to wait until there is an ultimate complete super deluxe BD box set with extended editions of the trilogy and the two Hobbit films.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info, Dan - very interesting. I suppose it's not entirely surprising that he would feel aggrieved at being let go like that ("left due to creative differences" almost always seems like a polite way of saying "was fired"), but the way he tells it, it does sound as if he was really screwed over. I have to say the whole "Jackson didn't know what he wanted until the cameras were rolling" does seem par for the course with the way these films were made - it seems a lot of major creative decisions were being made at the last minute, with the scripts continually being rewritten on set etc. Obviously on the whole these various gambles paid off, but it does seem like an awfully foolhardy way to approach production on such an expensive undertaking.
ReplyDelete