The Frodo Franchise by Kristin Thompson
 
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December 25 : 2009

More on Weta’s role in making Avatar

After a notable lack of information on Weta Digital’s part in creating the special effects in Avatar, there seems to be a flood of information coming out. Animation World Network has posted two pieces on the effects. One is an interview with James Cameron, “Cameron Geeks out on Avatar.” The other is “Avatar: The Game Changer.” The latter has quotations from Joe Letteri, the American special-effects expert who moved to Wellington after working on the LOTR film and now is a partner in Weta. As I point out all too frequently, this is relevant here because it demonstrates the impact that LOTR continues to have on the world of filmmaking.

[Thanks to Bill Desowitz for sending these links!]

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    The Frodo Franchise
    by Kristin Thompson

    US flagbuy at best price

    Canadian flagbuy at best price

    UK flagbuy at best price

    Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007.
    hardcover 978-0-520-24774-1
    421 pages, 6 x 9 inches, 12 color illustrations; 36 b/w illustrations; 1 map; 1 table

    “Once in a lifetime.”
    The phrase comes up over and over from the people who worked on Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings. The film’s 17 Oscars, record-setting earnings, huge fan base, and hundreds of ancillary products attest to its importance and to the fact that Rings is far more than a film. Its makers seized a crucial moment in Hollywood—the special effects digital revolution plus the rise of “infotainment” and the Internet—to satisfy the trilogy’s fans while fostering a huge new international audience. The resulting franchise of franchises has earned billions of dollars to date with no end in sight.

    Kristin Thompson interviewed 76 people to examine the movie’s scripting and design and the new technologies deployed to produce the films, video games, and DVDs. She demonstrates the impact Rings had on the companies that made it, on the fantasy genre, on New Zealand, and on independent cinema. In fast-paced, compulsively readable prose, she affirms Jackson’s Rings as one the most important films ever made.

    The Frodo Franchise

    cover of Penguin Books’ (NZ) edition of The Frodo Franchise, published September 2007. The tiny subtitle reads: “How ‘The Lord of the Rings’ became a Hollywood blockbuster and put New Zealand on the map.”