Recently in LotR Category

"Literally, like every week, what you discover writing the two movies...it changes. So, every week there's a discovery, and anything we say this week would be contradicted next week. Certainly that would be true in casting. Why create hopes or why create expectations if down the line you're going to go, 'You know what? That was not a good idea."

While promoting the Hellboy II Blu-Ray, Guillermo del Toro gives a brief status update on The Hobbit, and, in discussing Smaug, once again sings the praises of Matthew Robbins' 1981 Dragonslayer. "The design of the Vermithrax Pejorative is perhaps one of the most perfect creature designs ever made. So, what you have to be careful is not to try to be distinctive just to be distinctive, but Smaug has certain characteristics that make him unique already." (FWIW, along with Excalibur, Clash of the Titans, Tron, and The Black Hole, Dragonslayer is one of the films in that first post-Star Wars genre boom that I count among my earliest movie theater memories. It was also featured prominently in the fan-made Hobbit teaser of several years ago. Good stuff, that.)

Update: Apparently, del Toro is still thinking on Lovecraft as well.

Well, it's sometimes seemed to have more endings than Return of the King. But, tonight, it looks like the primary season is finally, really, truly at an end, with Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois our duly chosen Democratic nominee. In the days and weeks ahead, it'll behoove all of us, however hard, to let the primary bygones be bygones and to help reunite the party against our real foe, John McCain and the GOP. But, before we let the healing begin, I do have one more word to say about the Clintons, who above all else this campaign season has proven the truth of the old adage: "Choose your enemies wisely, for you will become them."

Now, I'm not going to recite the full litany of grievances against the Clintons' behavior of late one more time. I'd say that ground is already pretty well-covered in the election archives. But I will say this: It has become increasingly fashionable in the press and elsewhere to esteem Sen. Clinton -- regardless of her other political transgressions -- as gutsy, tenacious, a fighter. Say what you will about her methods, this line of thinking goes, she goes there. She does what needs to be done. In fact, argues otherwise discerning political observers such as friend and colleague David Greenberg, she is exactly the kind of fighter the Left has said they've been looking for. (Of course, she and her husband have been AWOL when it counted over the past seven years, but that's neither here nor there in this view.)

Well, simply put, this is all hooey. Sen. Clinton's behavior over the past six months and change has been exactly the wrong lesson for Democrats to draw from the politics of the last decade. I've said it here several times before, but, in a nutshell, here's why:

You don't wear the ring. You destroy the ring.

Or, in other words, the key to beating the Republicans is not by acting Republican. It's by rising above their tendentious garbage and working to restore reason and sanity to our politics. At the very least, a Democratic nominee for president shouldn't validate the base tactics of the GOP by wallowing in their wretchedness. For what shall it profit a woman, if she shall gain the whole world, and lose her own soul?

Nevertheless, seemingly blinded by ambition, Sen. Clinton very quickly chose the wrong path. (In the place of a Dumb Lord, we would have a Queen...) She embraced the Rove playbook and dabbled in Al Qaeda hysteria. She validated John McCain and threatened to obliterate Iran. She called her opponent elitist and derided the "elite opinion" of the reality-based community. She played nice with Limbaugh, Scaife, and FOX. She flirted dangerously with the race card and lauded hard-working whites. She, for all intent and purposes, became the Republican candidate in the Democratic primary. She, and her husband, became part of the problem rather than part of the solution.

To repeat something I said after Wisconsin in February, the night when Sen. Obama's primary victory basically became mathematically inexorable: "If you'll forgive the lapse into LotR metaphors, the treason of Saruman, once the noblest and wisest of our order, is almost subdued. The Battle for Middle-Earth is only beginning." So, as we move forward after tonight, I'll try as much as anyone to tone down the internecine fighting around here, and start focusing fire on our true opponents over on the Right. (That is provided, of course, that Sen. Clinton chooses to diminish, go into the West, and remain a Democrat.) But let's also draw the appropriate lesson from the Clinton candidacy of 2008. The Clinton era is over, and this general election is now a chance for we as Dems "to show our quality." We are not Dubya-Rove Republicans, and adopting their scorched-earth idiocies in a "tenacious" attempt to get elected is most assuredly the road to political, civic, and spiritual ruin.

Will James McAvoy play Bilbo Baggins? That's the current rumor. "[D]irector del Toro adds, 'I can tell you it's down to a few names that we all agree upon. For our first choice, completely magically we all have the same name.'"

"Like Guillermo says, apart from extreme circumstances, we would never recast a character who appeared in the LOTR trilogy. You can read The Hobbit and pretty much see which characters play a part. The unknown facter is Film Two, which we are still developing." Over the weekend, Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro ventured online to discuss The Hobbit. Not much in the way of news made (other than the quote above), although it's worth reading for Del Toro's thoughts on Smaug, among other things. It does sound like they're winging this second "filler" movie, tho', which could be real trouble.

Indiana is May 6. Indiana Jones is May 22. And, while WB's cadre of lawyers try to lock down various versions of the Dark Knight trailer, the new Kramerized Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull trailer has also popped up online. I'm still of 2 minds about Indy 4. It could be a great throwback, it could be Attack of the Clones...but at least we only have to wait a few weeks to know the score. (In fact, Indy IV will close out four weeks of Fanboy May(hem), beginning tomorrow with Iron Man, followed by Speed Racer (5/9) and Prince Caspian (5/16).

Regarding much-anticipated projects further down the pike, Guillermo del Toro has been confirmed for The Hobbit, as has Ian McKellen. "'Yes, it’s true,' he said. 'I spoke to Guillermo in the very room that Peter Jackson offered me the part and he confirmed that I would be reprising the role. Obviously, it’s not a part that you turn down, I loved playing Gandalf.'" I'm obviously hugely excited for this project, but, still...that second filler movie attached to The Hobbit sounds like it could end up being a colossally bad idea.

Update: Also out today, Edward Norton wrestles with the angry, powerful alpha male inside him in the new trailer for Louis Leterrier's Incredible Hulk. Pfff...Tyler could still take him in a fight.

The fruits of the Compass? After forty years from Reefer Madness to Semi-Pro (with, of course, PJ's Rings trilogy being the notable highlight), New Line Cinema is no more. "The company will lay off hundreds of employees and be merged into its corporate sibling, Warner Bros...In a sign of retrenchment that is increasingly prevalent in Hollywood, the company will now focus on making fewer movies limited to the kind of smaller, low-cost 'genre' horror and comedy pictures upon which it built its name." (Nevertheless, the Tolkien suit will go forward.)

"The Tolkien trustees do not file lawsuits lightly, and have tried unsuccessfully to resolve their claims out of court," Steven Maier, an attorney for the Tolkien estate based in Britain, said in a statement. 'New Line has not paid the plaintiffs even one penny of its contractual share of gross receipts despite the billions of dollars of gross revenue generated by these wildly successful motion pictures.'" Uh oh. The Tolkien estate sues New Line Cinema, putting the potential Hobbit films at risk. "The plaintiffs seek more than $150 million in compensatory damages, unspecified punitive damages and a court order giving the Tolkien estate the right to terminate any rights New Line may have to make films based on other works by the author, including 'The Hobbit.'" Obviously, this thing has to go to trial, but in light of PJ's earlier suit, one has to wonder: What the hell has New Line been up to?

"Few filmmakers have the cachet that del Toro has, as well as a deep love for the source material, an assured grasp of fantasy filmmaking and an understanding and command of geek culture as well as its respect." In a realm blissfully removed from the political fight engaging these lands, Guillermo del Toro seemingly gets the nod for The Hobbit. That works. I might've preferred Alfonso Cuaron, or a more adventurous pick, such as Peter Weir. Still, del Toro has proven he can probably do The Hobbit justice, and he seems just as Hobbity as PJ, in his own right.

Wait, what? Maybe I'm just late to the plastic pantomime, but my sister informed me over the holidays that Bret McKenzie of Flight of the Conchords was previously Figwit(!) Strangely enough, I'd never made that mental connection. In any case, in honor of one of my two favorite new shows of 2007 (the other being Mad Men), here's one of the funnier television moments of the year: Jemaine as Bowie (Ashes, Labyrinth.) It is quite freaky, isn't it?

Smaug awakens! "I'm very pleased that we've been able to put our differences behind us, so that we may begin a new chapter with our old friends at New Line. 'The Lord of the Rings' is a legacy we proudly share with Bob and Michael, and together, we share that legacy with millions of loyal fans all over the world. We are delighted to continue our journey through Middle Earth." Paging Glenn Yarbrough...Peter Jackson and New Line have made up, and he and wife Fran Walsh have been named as Executive Producers for two forthcoming Hobbit movies, to be shot simultaneously in the manner of LotR -- Production starts immediately. (This is no doubt partly the fruit of The Golden Compass bombing...New Line needs cash.) Of course, executive producing is not directing...does this clear the way for Sam Raimi to take the helm? Or what of Peter Weir? Martin Freeman as Bilbo? And how will The Hobbit, more of a simple children's adventure than Rings, be broken in two anyway? (Will they beef up the Sauron at Dol Guldur stuff?) We'll know in good time...But, PJ, I'm glad you're with us. [Freeman fake via here.] Update: PJ is definitely not directing.

"Zemeckis took the oldest and most important text of our ur-language, and turned it into a 3-D Disneyland ride so cheesy he should have called it 'Anglo-Saxons of the Caribbean.'...But the 'Beowulf' travesty is especially glaring, because of the obvious contrast with another work that mined the same ancient field: J.R.R. Tolkien's 'The Lord of the Rings.'" Taking issue with the "plastic entertainment' that is Zemeckis' Beowulf much more than I did, Salon's Gary Kamiya movingly explains what Tolkien understood about the poem, and how it informed his own work. "Tolkien's brilliant essay can be seen as a ringing defense not just of 'Beowulf,' but of the work he was soon to embark on, another great tower composed of ancient stones. And the themes of lateness, of heroic loss, being caught between one age and another (his world is not called 'Middle-earth' for nothing), are the deepest and most sublime parts of his own epic."

"After nearly 15 minutes of soul-searching, I have heard the call." Finally, the candidate we've all been waiting for...Charleston's own Stephen Colbert announces he's running for president in South Carolina, and South Carolina only, on both the Democratic and Republican tickets. (Sadly, Aragorn can't vote in the Palmetto State.) In The Atlantic, Joshua Green handicaps his chances. "I can’t point to anything other than truthiness, but I believe the 'drunken college student' demographic is being overlooked. Anecdotal evidence lends support. 'I’m surprised how many students seem to get their news from Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert,' Blease admitted. 'In the grand tradition of student mischief, you could see Colbert having a pied-piper effect.'" Update: But is he breaking the law?

"Notwithstanding our personal quarrels, I really respect and admire Peter and would love for him to be creatively involved in some way with The Hobbit." Oh really? Bob Shaye of New Line tries to kiss and make up with Peter Jackson, most likely to secure his ok (and a producer cred) for a forthcoming Sam Raimi-directed Hobbit."Raimi has previously said he would not take on the project without Jackson's blessing and is apparently leaning towards it as his next project rather than the 'Clash of the Titans' remake."

Peter Weir for The Hobbit? Hmm. I find that more interesting than a Raimi-directed outing, particularly after Spiderman 3, but I still think PJ should have right of first refusal.

"Peter Jackson might be the best filmmaker on the planet right now. But, um, I don't know what's going to happen next for me right now. First and foremost, those are Peter Jackson and Bob Shaye's films. If Peter didn't want to do it, and Bob wanted me to do it -- and they were both ok with me picking up the reins -- that would be great. I love the book. It's maybe a more kid-friendly story than the others." As Spiderman 3 gets its Tokyo premiere, Sam Raimi discusses the possible Hobbit in his future. Well, Raimi isn't a bad choice by any means. But, even despite New Line's bad behavior of late, this should really be PJ's film to make, and anything less will seem a disappointment.

As noted here last September, Christopher Tolkien has completed one of his father's earliest works, The Children of Hurin, for publication -- It comes out tomorrow. "Already told in fragmentary form in 'The Silmarillion,' which appeared in 1977, the new book is darker than 'The Hobbit' and 'The Lord of the Rings,' for which Tolkien is best known...The story is set long before 'The Lord of the Rings' in a part of Middle-earth that was drowned before Hobbits ever appeared, and tells the tragic tale of Turin and his sister Nienor who are cursed by Morgoth, the first Dark Lord."

Update: "I came away from 'The Children of Hurin' with a renewed appreciation for the fact that Tolkien's overarching narrative is much more ambiguous in tone than is generally noticed...What sits in the foreground is that persistent Tolkienian sense that good and evil are locked in an unresolved Manichaean struggle with amorphous boundaries, and that the world is a place of sadness and loss, whose human inhabitants are most often the agents of their own destruction." Salon's Andrew O'Hehir favorably reviews Tolkien's dark new tome.

The last thing I or my dissertation needs right now is another MMORPG. Nevertheless, as my sis-in-law points out, the free stress test for Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar is this weekend, if anyone out there is so inclined. (Right on top of Comic-Con? Boo hiss.)

"We will make such a chase as shall be accounted a marvel among the Three Kindreds: Elves, Dwarves, and Men." Need a new running goal? How about destroying Isildur's Bane? Web Goddess points the way to Tolkien-based mileage distances for your workout perusal.

"I don't want to work with that guy anymore. Why would I? So the answer is he will never make any movie with New Line Cinema again while I'm still working for the company." More troubling news for The Hobbit: In an interview with Sci-Fi Wire, New Line president Robert Shaye lays into Peter Jackson over the outstanding lawsuit filed by Wingnut films over ascertaining LotR revenues. (PJ's response is here, and I'm inclined to agree with him. What reason would New Line have to hide the books, unless they've been practicing shady math?)

Hello again. We've ventured from Mount Cook towards the South, and have now established a new base of operations at Glenorchy, northwest of Queenstown. (For those of you keeping score, we passed the Pelennor Fields, the Misty Mountains and the site of the Argonath on the way here, and Amon Hen, Ithilien, Isengard, and the entrance to Lothlorien are all nearby.) For this leg of the journey, we'll hopefully be getting in some jet-boating, canyon-swinging and/or bungee-jumping to go along with the hiking and trout-fishing, before we head off for the Milford Track later in the week. Hope all goes well in your respective corners of the world.

"This outcome is not what we anticipated or wanted, but neither do we see any positive value in bitterness and rancor. We now have no choice but to let the idea of a film of The Hobbit go and move forward with other projects...We got to go there - but not back again..." In an e-mail to The One Ring, PJ and Fran say they're off The Hobbit due to outstanding and unresolved matters regarding their lawsuit against New Line, who want to move on the project now before they lose the rights. MGM (who owns the distribution rights) says it ain't over yet, but, my, it's not looking good.

"As the hobbits are going up Mount Doom, the Eye of Mordor is being drawn somewhere else...It's being drawn to Iraq and it's not being drawn to the U.S. You know what? I want to keep it on Iraq. I don't want the Eye to come back here to the United States." Agh! File this one in the Tom DeLay loves NASA department: Right-wing freakshow and self-proclaimed Tolkien fan Rick Santorum invokes Lord of the Rings to justify Iraq. Sorry, Senator...you can't Wormtongue your way out of this one.

As MGM announces it's planning The Hobbit as a tentpole release (with New Line, and hopefully with Peter Jackson at the helm), PJ contemplates optioning the Termeraire books by Naomi Novik. Get back to Bag End, Pete!

Is something stirring in Middle Earth? While Peter Jackson announces he's producing a remake of The Dam Busters (to be directed by Christian Rivers, WETA's head animatic guy from LotR and Kong), very vague rumors emerge from the head office at New Line of a July 2007 start date for filming of The Hobbit. Let's hope they at least give PJ the right of first refusal...Giving this property to somebody like Ratner would be absolutely criminal. Update: Another intriguing LotR link (albeit from the Mises Institute), via Dangerous Meta: Tolkien v. Power.

"Until when chance came, it ensnared a new bearer..." Breaking news from Gondor: The first of what promises to be many re-issues of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy happens August 29, when all three films will be re-released as 2-disc sets ($28.98 each.) "For each film, disc one presents both the theatrical version of the film and its extended edition through seamless branching, while disc two features an intimate, never-before-seen documentary created by Costa Botes. The feature-length documentaries, with more than 300 minutes of never-before-available footage, focus on a number of complexities and circumstances [that] affected the making of the movies." Since I own both the theatrical cuts and three extended versions, I really have no business buying these, particularly as they don't seem to include the much-noted blooper reels or any of the still-missing footage (The Watchers of Cirith Ungol, for example.) But the hearts of Men are easily corrupted, and the Ring of Power has a will of its own.

"The message in The Lord of the Rings is, in a way, that the struggle to destroy the evil also destroys the good. The very effort to mobilize against the evil unalterably changes what you're trying to defend. So at the very end of that trilogy, the heroes -- Frodo the Hobbit, Gandalf and Elrond -- sail away. They can't live in this world that they've created, because it's so different from what they started out to defend. It's a metaphor; Abraham Lincoln didn't sail away, he was killed, but the world after the Civil War was not Lincoln's America anymore." By way of a friend in the program, Columbia's Eric Foner picks his five most personally influential books, and guess what made the list...

The World of Fellowship of the Ringcraft, a.k.a. Tolkien meets Worlds of Warcraft. I haven't played WoW or any other MMORPG myself, but this is still pretty funny if you've done any sort of online gaming. (Via Triptych Cryptic.)

Joyous news for both my dissertation research and my circadian rhythms (but ill tidings for Abe Lincoln of Minas Tirith): I picked up Civilization IV yesterday, but it has an as-yet-unfixed conflict with ATI video cards and won't run on my PC. So the unhealthy 36-hour gaming-binges that usually accompany a new Civ-iteration will have to wait another week or two. Speaking of which, I haven't written up a game update here in awhile. So, in brief:

"The enemy? His sense of duty was no less than yours, I deem. You wonder what his name is...where he came from. And if he was really evil at heart. What lies and threats led him on his long march from home. If he would not rather have stayed there...in peace. War will make corpses of us all." Alas, as Faramir predicted, Battle for Middle Earth (which I borrowed from my sister at the end of summer) is somewhat disappointing. A Warcraft-style strategy game based on Tolkien lore, it makes great use of Howard Shore's score, and admittedly there's something viscerally satisfying about watching your own contingent of Rohirrim cavalry cut a swath through some lowly orc footsoldiers. But, frankly, too much of the game is a grind. Most of the levels very quickly turn into wars of attrition, where you're just building units to send them to oblivion, over and over again, until you slowly but surely conquer the map. There's very little strategy involved, and, as such, even despite the fidelity to Tolkien (by way of PJ), I lost interest in the game relatively early on. Then again, Boromir was always the soldier.

F.E.A.R., recommended by my brother, is basically a Half-Life 2-ish FPS that's taken its cue from the recent wave of Japanese horror: The Big Bad is a ghostly little girl that for all intent and purposes could have materialized right out of The Ring. To its credit, F.E.A.R. displays impressive A.I. and includes a really fun slow-mo option for Matrixy melees. That being said, much of the (relatively easy) single-player game is standard FPS, whereby you face identical squads of enemies several times over. Frankly, F.E.A.R. could have used more Splinter Cell-type stealth missions or, better yet, some Infocom problem-solving and "lurking grue" caprice. The game starts out frightening, but pretty soon one figures out the only way to die is the usual manner: health to zero. And, ultimately, even despite the supernatural backdrop, that's rather mundane.

NBA 2K6 is the latest installment in the 2K sports series, which, to my mind, eclipsed the more popular EA NBA Live line several years ago in terms of gameplay and simulation. This one's a definite improvement over last year's ESPN 2K5, most notably in handle and free-throw shooting -- both are much more intuitive, and now, 85% free-throw shooters can actually hit 85% of the time, rather than 33% as before. If you're into building out your crib a la NFL2K5, as some friends of mine are, that's now an option here as well. And, whatever happens to the Knickerbockers this year, I gotta say, they turned out to be an offensively-lethal video game team -- Stephon has put up career numbers (although waiving Allan Houston has killed my 3-ball percentage.)

To EA's credit, tho', I'm not usually one for car-racing games -- They're often boring, repetitive, and nothing like driving, IMHO -- but Burnout 3 and now Burnout: Revenge are far and away the best racing games I've ever played (well, aside from the broader-themed Grand Thefts Auto.) True, most of the angst-rock, punk-lite soundtrack gets irritating after only a few minutes, Franz Ferdinand notwithstanding. But, aside from that, both Burnouts have a sense of speed and a visceral crunch to 'em that you don't find in a lot of Pole Position's descendants. Burnout 3, only $20 these days, is worth checking out if you're of the XBox nation.

"Have you ever been called home by the clear ringing of silver trumpets?" Alas, for the first time in three years, we don't have a new extended LotR DVD in the works this Christmas. But to ease the pain of its passing, the full, three-disc, 180-minute Fellowship of the Ring score will be released November 22, which will include a DVD-version in 5.1 surround sound. Presumably, the other two films will follow in due course. In the meantime, this site has assembled mp3s of some of the missing musical moments from the trilogy. (Unfortunately, they haven't yet included the culmination of the Rohan theme, as heard during the Ride of the Rohirrim.) I will go there, I will go there...and back again.

"Concealed within his fortress, the Lord of Mordor sees all. His gaze pierces cloud, shadow, earth and flesh. You know of what I speak, Gandalf -- a Great Eye, lidless, wreathed in flame." (Via Supercres.)

(And, while I'm quoting our fallen friend, Saruman of Many Colors: "The hour is later than you think. Sauron's forces are already moving. The Nine have left Minas Morgul...they crossed the river Potomac on Midsummer's Eve, disguised as judges in black.")

Uh oh...will The Hobbit end up being a Brett Ratner film? Peter Jackson's Wingnut Films is apparently suing New Line Cinema over its share of FotR profits. Well, this is surprising. I didn't realize relationships had cooled to that extent. Update: More details here.

This will just seem bizarre if you never caught the original meme (or, alternatively, its TTT incarnation)...but, via my sister Tessa, here's what might have happened had Harry Potter been assigned to Hufflepuff...

As if all the talk of Scalia being our next Chief Justice wasn't bad enough, it seems the power has really gone to his head of late. "Lamenting his inability to stop the Supreme Court's slide away from the principles of judicial restraint he espouses, Scalia said he felt like 'Frodo in "The Lord of the Rings," soldiering on.'" Excuse me? You, Sir, resemble in no way the Shire-folk, and you're definitely no Frodo. Perhaps one of the Nine, garbed in black?

In no surprise to anyone after the seemingly somewhat abbreviated RotK:EE, PJ announces a probable "Ultimate Edition" of LotR, to be released in a few years. The UEs would include more deleted scenes (not re-integrated into the films), more documentaries, and the blooper reels. (I wouldn't expect to see any of this until well after both Kong and the pending format wars.)

The LotR team -- PJ, Fran, and Phillipa -- have announced their first post-Kong project and, as rumored, it'll be The Lovely Bones. Judging a book by its cover blurb, the story -- about a murdered 14-year old girl watching her killer from Heaven -- sounds Oprah-esque and precious to me (and not in the Gollum sense.) But then again, I haven't read it. If nothing else, the project does seem ripe for some Heavenly Creatures-like FX throughout.

(But, wait, there's room for a little more.) I could say that I haven't posted here in two days because of the increased end-of-year work burden or the recent cable Internet outage at home base, and yes, those both played their part. But, to be honest, I've been spending most of my hours since Wednesday afternoon perusing the long-awaited Return of the King: Extended Edition. (Thank you, NYC fanboy underground...strangely enough, I ended up being one of the first to procure the precious, and have thus been answering spoiler-filled queries over at Tolkien Online the past two days.)

So, how is it? As with the FotR:EE and the TTT:EE, the Extended Edition is clearly a better film than the theatrical cut, with richer, denser characterizations, more Tolkien lore, and an improved sense of flow. Whatsmore, to my mind the two biggest problems with the RotK:TE have been rectified: 1) Denethor's screen time has been doubled, and -- while he still doesn't get his palantir -- the Steward is now much more multifaceted and grief-stricken than before. 2) Both Frodo & Sam's journey through Mordor and the time between Pelennor Fields and the Black Gates have been extended, giving the Land of Shadow much more heft and menace. As you'd expect, there's lots of great stuff here for fans of the book...Voice of Saruman stands out in particular as a scene laden to the brim with Tolkien's prose, and such iconic moments as the Crossroads and Sam seeing the star in Mordor now get their rightful due.

That being said, some fans are going to be disappointed by the short shrift given to certain chapters (and by King Elessar's blatant disregard for the rules of parley.) The Houses of Healing and the Eowyn-Faramir romance are touched on very lightly, and there is NO new footage included after the Crack of Doom. (I'd guess this is probably PJ's payback to all the "multiple ending" critics, but still, I was very much looking forward to more Grey Havens...particularly more of Frodo's final words. ("It must often be so, Sam, when things are in danger: someone has to give them up, lose them, so that others may keep them.")

In fact, the extended RotK is the first time I've felt that PJ & New Line may be deliberately holding back on some of the choice footage. On the writer-director commentary, PJ admits to not including certain very memorable scenes (the Watchers of Cirith Ungol, the various weddings and epilogues) in this cut for "pacing reasons" (?), and that perhaps they'll show up on the "25th anniversary" version. I don't want to ascribe nefarious motives to the guy after all he's done to create these amazing films, but this sounds to me suspiciously like a ploy to sell some HD-DVD box sets in a few years.

But, still, that's the ring talking. All in all, RotK:EE, like its predecessors, is a wonderful gift to the fans of Tolkien and Middle Earth. And, although we have come now to the end, these three DVD sets (which look great on the shelf together) will now live on forever as a beacon of hope to fandom.

"Like the first two 'Rings' DVDs, the extended 'ROTK' isn't just for obsessives. It's a flat-out better movie than the one that swept the Oscars. It's more emotionally generous and, despite the extra girth, more brisk and exciting." Along with visiting the set of Kong, Newsweek gushes over the RotK:EE, due out in the next few weeks (Officially, Dec. 14...unofficially, we'll see.) Speaking of which, the official site is supposed to be releasing a new clip sometime today, so keep an eye on the palantir for it. Update: It's up...including some choice new stuff from the Crossroads and the journey through Mordor. Update 2: Most of the parley with the Mouth of Sauron is now also available for download...he's a right rotten bastid, ain't he?

And, speaking of people screaming down the Murphometer, what the hell got into Philip Pullman? "The Lord of the Rings is not a serious book because it does not say anything interesting, or new, or truthful about the human condition,' he told [author Jeanette] Winterson in an interview in the December issue of Harpers & Queen." Hmm...really? Coulda fooled me. But, then again, I guess people have just found truth, meaning, and solace in Tolkien's trilogy for fifty years now because it has elves and wizards and dragons and stuff. Look, LotR may not be Pullman's cup of tea -- Lord knows, the last book of His Dark Materials certainly wasn't mine, what with all its Milton-wannabe sermonizing and anti-Narnia heavy-handedness -- but I see no real need to badmouth Tolkien so emphatically (and indefensibly.) Pullman was probably just trying to gain some indy cred with the fantasy-dismissive Booker prize types, but from here his remarks just come off as sour grapes. I really liked The Golden Compass, but, come on now...What a prat.

There's no Bagginses 'round here. They're all out in Flores.

In somewhat related news, a number of RotK:EE screencaps turn up online, including new and spoiler-filled looks at Voice of Saruman and the Mouth of Sauron. And, along the same lines, some official Episode III pics are released, perhaps to offset this extremely spoiler-laden review of the final installment. Update: The official official Ep. III teaser poster gets out, and, well, it's kinda lame.

Several choice clips from the RotK: Extended Edition materialize online, including more from the Gandalf-Witch King fracas, a longer Paths of the Dead, and a quiet moment between Faramir and Pippin. (Also, the Merry-Pippin post-Pelennor sequence has gone from day to dusk, thanks to the magic of digital grading.)

"Long have you hunted me, long have I eluded you...No more!" Finally, the official LotR site posts an extended edition preview, with new scenes involving Aragorn and the Palantir, Eowyn and Faramir, Saruman and Gandalf, and our best look yet at the Mouth of Sauron. Booyah! "I do not believe this darkness will endure." Update: Bigger version here.

You'll have to sit through a clip from ABC's Lost (which I tried to get into on account of Monaghan, JJ Abrams, and Party of Five's Charlie, but it didn't grab me) and some morning-show chatter with Dominic Monaghan on his post-LotR ups and downs, but buried in this Good Day interview is our first look at Merry pledging fealty to Theoden in the RotK:EE, a scene which was glimpsed in the pre-Thirteen Days teaser way back in early 2001 and now finally sees the light of day.

"On a bright sunny day at the end of the Third Age of Middle Earth, a new unelected king was crowned. His name? Aragorn, son of Arathorn. How did it all happen? Was it all just a dream? I mean, it looked real enough. The guys with the pointed ears were there, the short guys with beards were there, even those weird little hobbit guys were there. Who were these people, this elitist group of carnival freaks who wanted to control the fate of Middle Earth?" I can't say I much agree with its politics, and the same basic joke was made in this McSweeney's piece last year. Still, the Michael Moore parody Fellowship 9/11 is for the most part pretty clever, and worth watching...if nothing else than to see a mean Brad Dourif impression and to hear Gandalf the Grey croon "Let the Eagle Soar."

Human reinforcements arrive as Team Human Nature/Ian and Eowyn, a.k.a. Tim Robbins and Miranda Otto respectively, spell Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning in Spielberg's War of the Worlds. Good. I generally root for all of these actors, Code 46 notwithstanding.

With the seal broken on the RotK:EE, news is starting to fly fast and furious. DVD Answers has posted a few screenshots which include Aragorn challenging Sauron in the palantir and the names of some of the 18 new chapters (Eowyn's Dream, The Decline of Gondor, The Corsairs of Umbar, Merry's Simple Courage). Meanwhile, USA Today shares a new shot of Saruman atop Orthanc, tiny images of the Mouth of Sauron and Faramir at the Houses of Healing pop up here, and E! News (and Elflady) share an extended Paths of the Dead sequence. Update: High-res images here.

"Mr. Frodo, there's light and beauty up there, that no shadow can touch." Really, Sam? Tell it to the Witch-King. At long last, New Line officially announces the Return of the King Extended Edition, with 50 new minutes of footage, to be released on December 14. (Pre-orders begin Oct. 1.) For this, I am very thankful. Update: More info here, including a good bet at who kills PJ the Corsair Captain.

Sony beats out Time Warner and ends up snagging MGM Hmm...that'll make a film version of The Hobbit considerably more complicated.

Bill Hunt of the Digital Bits reviews the Star Wars Original Trilogy DVD box set, and includes screenshots of the various tweaks made since the 1997 re-releases. Hayden Christiansen replacing Sebastian Shaw is really lame, but thankfully the Madness of King George didn't extend to including Jimmy Smits and Natalie Portman at various points as earlier rumored. In other fanboy DVD news, The Return of the King: Extended Edition has (finally) been officially announced for Dec. 14. (Pre-orders start tomorrow, which hopefully will prompt New Line to release an official version of the Comicon EE trailer.) Update: New Line revokes the EE date. What's going on over there?

I also found this grisly pic of Angry Cheney on Looka (and Eschaton), and it reminded me of something that I couldn't quite put my finger on. But, while walking Berkeley this evening, it came to me. In fact, I think I might just have figured out the inspiration behind Karl Rove's whole two-faced strategy:

And, just to round out the meme...

(Pics via HalloweenTown. And a similar take on the Zellout can be found here, also via Eschaton.) Update: The Zellout also brought to mind this, but I ultimately thought it was a disservice to poor Bilbo. He wasn't that far gone in Rivendell.

Besides being one of the savviest television newsmen in the business today (which, admittedly, is a terribly low bar), The Daily Show's Stephen Colbert is also an LotR fanboy (and a South Carolinian to boot.) There's strength left in the world of men.

Boil 'em, mash 'em, stick 'em in a stew...the bizarre LotR-themed "Taters Song" now has its own Flash-y video. Well, I guess it helps pass the time 'til the Extended Edition trailer (which is currently rumored to drop on Friday.) Update: Ok, well, clearly Friday was wrong. The new buzz is at Dragon*Con over Labor Day weekend.

It is long since we had any hope...until now. At long last, details of the extended Return of the King are officially unveiled by New Line at Comicon: Apparently due out December (Some reports say the 10th, but that's a Friday), the film will be fifty minutes longer, and the deluxe version will feature this spiffy Minas Tirith model. Now, hopefully the four minutes of Comicon preview footage will make it on to the official site in the next few days. Update: Until then, we've got a shaky Kramervision version online (replete with aggravating shrieking fangirls) and a frame-by-frame analysis...booyah. I'm particularly liking Sam seeing the star in Mordor and the Witch King's cruel boast.

The rumors are true: Peter Jackson talks more about Andy Serkis (Gollum) as King Kong.