8-28-00

Report from Golden Bay Xoanon @ 8:53 am EST From: Half Brick The LOTR crew is here! They arrived yesterday with about 12 Trucks, 7 Caravans and 4 helicopters and set up at the Runway/Airport thing there have been helicopters going overhead all today and some of yesterday. They are filming up at Mount Olympus, which is helicotper acess and a bit too much of a mission to get to by foot.

8-27-00

LOTR Casting Call Xoanon @ 1:11 pm EST Ringer Spy The Jazza sends in a call for extras that was placed in a local NZ papaer recently.

8-25-00

Viggo news and signs of life on the Hutt River. Tehanu @ 9:37 pm EST The Wellington reporter wrote in to say that the Dominion newspaper had a snippet on Viggo Mortensen. Apparently during a fight scene he accidentally hit a starlet and 'sent her spinning' whatever that means. His apology afterwards was as handsome as his character, according to the paper. Which starlet, I wonder? There's not a lot of starlets in LOTR, and somehow I don't see Cate Blanchett doing fight scenes, plus she's not around right now. I'm not sure any stuntpeople or ex-Shortland St. actors are 'startlets' in this context. Which leaves only...Liv? Oh dear. XenArwen opponents are not going to happy with this turn of events. Or maybe they'll be delighted. Wellington Reporter goes on to say that he noticed the tell-tale conglomerate of trucks, tents and cranes setting up in the same spot on the Hutt River (near Wellington)where they were flooded out recently. Looks like we got the rain up north, so this time they could be luckier. Rumour has it they're filming Anduin scenes there. Thanks again to our very switched-on Wellington Reporter.

CGI stuff from WETA at a seminar in Auckland. Tehanu @ 5:42 am EST This arrived to the in-tray of one of our correspondents (via the Herald's reporter Russell Brown, at a guess): "SGI to open training suite with Rings preview. $100,000 central Auckland suite marks a dual first for SGI Silicon Graphics has lined up preview footage from Lord of the Rings to mark the opening of its new training suite in Auckland tonight. The company announced this week that Weta FX - a long-term SGI customer - had bought 16 dual-processor SGI 1200 servers running Linux as it builds capacity for post-production work on the Peter Jackson-directed films of Tolkien's trilogy. Weta has provided work from the project - although it's not clear whether it will be the same six-minute package shown to an industry audience at the recent ShoWEST trade show in Los Angeles, or new footage. The $100,000 central Auckland suite marks a dual first for SGI - in that it contains eight Linux workstations alongside another eight running the company's flagship Irix OS, and because it is the first of a planned string of training bases .." Sorry the rest was just tripped my boredom overload so I cut it. An alert local went and reported on this softwarefest: For my $7 parking fee I got a Silicon Graphics mouse pad, a Silicon Graphics yoyo, Compaq mini-frisbee ("for the office"), highlighter and ballpoint pen, drinks and food, and lots of good info on using Silicon Graphics O2 systems for digital video. Not too bad for the opening of a training suite that wasn't going to have technical info like that at it. (yeah, but nothing beats my cherished shirt from one of these things that says 'The power of a laptop, the personality of a thinkpad.' Whoever thought that up had the personality of a carpet tile. -T.) [And from the seminar this morning I got a free Sky City ballpoint pen that keeps on stopping (figures), a small pad of paper, and two plastic-wrapped mints that I was told tasted really bad (and so haven't eaten yet).] But in the "world premier" of what they showed (basically an interview about technical details on how many computers Weta uses and how much data they're pushing around) we DID see a computer generated horse in wire frame and shaded forms, and we can theorise on the implications of _that_ for the next one and a third years. And there's talk that PJ may apply a "Middle-earth" filter on the whole movie to make it look more "Middle-earthy".' Avid mousepad collectors may like to check out Amyd's SFX site for the details on SGI and Octane and all that stuff, if you're still curious. --

The Wingate set has changed again.... Tehanu @ 5:12 am EST "Hi Tehanu, a report on the Wingate set from The Watcher in the Water. The Wingate set has been converted into a swamp, yessss it hass. There iss a great black and gray cover over the blue screen, which gives the set a dark gloomy appearance, and there are weeds and clumps of long grasses in the large pool. Is this the Dead Marshes? We wonderss, yess we doesss." And another report along the same lines came in today: "Filming of what is believed to be the Dead Marshes scenes was happening at Wingate today. Frodo and Sam were seen on the set, and there was a lot of smoke that could be seen from quite a distance. Great secrecy surrounds the set, and a lot of trucks are parked to block the view from the street." This reporter also checked in a few days ago to say: "I went down to the Hutt River after they had removed all the sets, and I believe they were doing scenes of the Anduin. The locations were very nice. Here is something for the 'Silly LOTR rumour' file: Word has it around Wellington that some scenes for Russell Crowe's "Gladiator" movie were shot at the Helms Deep set at Haywards Hill. As the HHelms Deep set is of an ancient fortress, and looks nothing whatsoever like anything from any scene in "Gladiator" (Which I believe was filmed in the Mediteranian area), I don't know where or how this rumour started. Cheers Robbit the Hobbit"

8-24-00

Casting Call in Timaru Xoanon @ 2:57 pm EST Ringer Spy Laron sends in word on a recent casting call near Timaru on the South Island. I recently attended a casting session at a local high school, I got measured all over, had to draw around my foot, get my picture taken along with everyone else wanting to be an extra. Also I know Golden Bay quite well as my Dad lives in Collingwood, near Takaka. Just read the news post about The casting company , probaly the company that did the casting at the school here in Timaru. From what I have read so far, my guess is that they would have filmed on top of the Takaka hill where the Takaka gathering takes place each yeah, never been to the gathering my self but I have been over that hill many a time.

And like that...it was gone! Xoanon @ 2:50 pm EST this small tidbit of news comes to me via a reliable source we're going to call Puff. Puff has managed to score some great little bits of news (under different names) so that's why I trust his/her/its word. Take it away Puff: Apparently when they burnt down hobbiton, they didn't do it for the scouring of the shire, this may not be part of the script. There was a lot of speculation at the time and the farmer who owned the land wanted to turn the set into a theme park. After a few weeks of buzz on set someone asked Peter Jackson and Woof!! it was burnt down.

Wanna See Viggo as ARAGORN? Xoanon @ 9:18 am EST Ringer Spy Emmanuel sends in the goods!! Hi Xo, and all the TheOneRing.net team ! A little mail about the french mag Cinélive, (of September ) and new pics from LOTR ! That's all ! :-) Emmanuel

8-22-00

More from Edoras? Xoanon @ 10:57 pm EST Ringer Spy Wyatt Erp sends in another great pic from that amazing new set! Click to enlarge

New Set Pics!! Xoanon @ 4:03 pm EST Ringer Spy Justin sends in the latest from New Zealand! WOW, these are some great looking sets!! Hiya, Check out the huge picture on the front page of today's Press! I've attached pitiful blurry computer-cam pics of the two images, but at work (where I'll be in a few hours) there is a flatbed scanner, I can do a decent scan if you want one - the Edoras picture was quite large and has a lot more detail than can be made out from the image attached. Wow. Seeya Justin C'mon Justin!! get to work and scan these pics in nice and BIG! Click to enlarge

Interview snippet with an Elf. Tehanu @ 5:13 am EST The ever-vigilant Tiggy happened to record TVOne's Susan Wood interviewing Craig Parker, who's playing Haldir in LOTR. It's a bit incoherent, as real conversations often are, and it's clear he was avoiding saying too much. Another source tells me that in the movie Haldir accompanies Arwen wherever she goes,so the role isn't as small as all that. Thursday 17/8 (last week.) SUSAN So you're a tall elf, a six foot elf ? CRAIG Yes, I'm probably five eleven or five ten probably if I'm honest... I stand on blocks. The elves are about six (foot). SUSAN Are the blocks attached to your shoes? CRAIG We tried that on the first day of shooting for a big wide shot and I taped polystyrene to my feet but that didn't work - I fell over. It's magic - it's all done with smoke and mirrors. SUSAN You see the likes of Tom Cruise out of Hollywood and you know he's little. CRAIG Yes ... SUSAN Nicole towers over him. So how do you do it? CRAIG We've all sworn a blood oath to secrecy honest, but there's a lot of very complicated scale doubling and some fantastic actors who are about this size (indicates short) who they used in some shots - all magic stuff...sometimes the shots are forced, sometimes not. SUSAN So it's all trickery! CRAIG Confuses the hell out of me! SUSAN All trickery and confusion! CRAIG All trickery and confusion, yeah ! SUSAN What sort of explosion[sic] did it give you ? CRAIG I think the film is going to be fantastic. I have a smallish part in it that goes for ......cool stuff.......but I'm not moving to Hollywood or anything like that but it's great fun. I think in NZ we get to work on a lot of interesting things and for me the joy in it for me is just being there and doing it

8-21-00

LOTR Bookmark Pic Xoanon @ 11:11 am EST Ringer Spy PV sends in a great pic of that LOTR Bookmark from the promotional convention a few months back. I wants one!!! Xoanon, Here is a big pic of the the New Line Bookmark, oddly enough, the website listed on the BM says '.com' when it should really be '.net' ah well... PV Click to enlarge

Golden Bay Article Xoanon @ 9:45 am EST From: rapata Heres an article, out last friday. I have heard a few other rumours since then, but I seldom get into Takaka from my hidden valley in the mountains nearby. I am a bit of a farmer maggot type myself, and will be taking my horse and trap in tomorrow, so I'll keep my ear to the ground. It's quite possible that the "2 days" filming has been and gone. Did notice a few helicopters buzzing round these mountains at the end of last week and in the weekend. Lord of the Rings scouting for locations The Lord of the Rings film production crew has been looking for locations in Golden bay after heavy snowfalls further south ruled out the use of planned sites. Publicist Clair Askin confirms that the production company has recently visited Golden Bay looking for the right landscape to film a scene in the next few weeks involving many cast principals. Members of the cast include well known actors Cate Blanchett (Galadriel), Sir Ian Holm (Bilbo), Christopher Lee (Saruman), Liv Taylor (Arwen) and Elijah Wood (Frodo). New Zealander Peter Jackson (The Frightners) is the director and has written the screenplay. Accomadation for up to 170 cast and crew will be needed for around a week, with filming expected to last two days if the weather is fine. Local hostelries have signed confidentiality agreements and so cannot confirm when or if they will be supplying rooms. Around 60 people will be flown to a remote site in Kahurangi National Park in four helicopters. D.O.C. staff will be involved to ensure filming does not cause damage to the park. It is understood the film crew will not be using explosives or animals. The filming of JRR Tolkein's Lord of the Rings began in Wellington in October last year. Peter Jackson says: "We owe Professor Tolkein and his legion of fans worldwide our very best efforts to make these films with the integrity they deserve. The original books have sold more than 50 million copies worldwide in 25 languages since they were first published more than 50 years ago.

8-19-00

Moonshine Bridge Set Pic! Xoanon @ 2:57 am EST Not much to see in this pic folks, but I'm sure you're drooling with anticipation to take a guess! Xoanon You might be interested in this piece published on August 16th in the Upper Hutt Leader under the heading "Hutt River features in Rings movie set". Regards Deepdelver Click on each image to enlarge in our scrapbook