Many thanks to those of you who have written to let me know how much you will miss this blog. One such person was Calisuri, one of the co-founders of TheOneRing.net and also one of my interviewees for my Frodo Franchise book. He very kindly asked me to join the staff of TORn! I didn’t need to reflect very long before accepting. The people from TORn that I interviewed were incredibly friendly and helpful, and the whole site supported my book once it was published. It’s great to be able to keep up the friendships I made and maybe to participate in TORn events in the future–and to become a part of a wonderful institution that I came to know so well through writing about its history.

I’ll only be contributing to TORn on an occasional basis. I’ve always felt that the strong point of my blog has been when I can explain aspects of the film industry and help interpret news items–like when the lawsuits were going on and MGM was going through its bankruptcy process. Luckily nothing like that is happening at the moment, with The Hobbit safely into production and progress being made. Still, whenever I feel I can contribute something, I will. And now that I’m working on my book on Tolkien’s novels, maybe I can branch out and contribute occasional pieces about the literary side of things. I also frequent the Message Boards on TORn and occasionally post something, so maybe I’ll see you there!

I just got the new Weta newsletter, which is online here. (If you don’t get it regularly via email, you can sign up.) It features a new environment, the tower of Orthanc. Tolkien described Orthanc vividly in the book–more so than most of the other places where major events occurred. Alan Lee caught the description perfectly in his original book-jacket painting and the design he later did for the film based on that painting. Pre-orders start on July 31.

The newsletter also contains a link to the first part of an article by David Tremont, the designer of the Orthanc environment. He’s a senior model maker at Weta.

This would be a good opportunity to mention the new Gandalf statue recently announced. It’s not in the newsletter, but check it out on the Weta site. And for me, the most interesting new offer, a collector’s guide listing all the collectibles created by Weta Workshop over the past decade (including those done in co-partnership with Sideshow Collectibles). This includes items made for other films, of course, and the Dr. Grordbort’s weapons series. So now there is a book that is, in a way, about the franchise and yet part of the ongoing franchise itself.

I’m rather belatedly announcing the publication of an essay by me, “Stepping out of Blockbuster Mode: The Lighting of the Beacons in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003).” It appears in an anthology that the British Film Institute published in December: Film Moments (pp. 144-48). The idea behind the book, edited by Tom Brown and James Walters, was to bring together a large group of film scholars, each analyzing a single sequence from a film that he or she found interesting for one reason or another.

The lighting of the beacons is my favorite sequence in the LOTR trilogy, and I know a lot of other people love it, too. To me, it has always seemed like a little experimental film dropped into the middle of an epic Hollywood narrative. It goes one much longer than its simple contribution to the story would warrant. It challenges the viewer to moving the position of the tiny beacons around to completely different places from shot to shot, forcing us to scan the huge screen (theater screen, that is) to figure out where the next one will flare up. To top it all off, the final beacon appears in the far upper left of the frame, a place we don’t typically glance at all that often. My point is that, as in an experimental film, the filmmakers quickly teach us the rules of their little spot-the-beacon game and make us appreciate the composition of the shots, the colors, and other somewhat abstract qualities that we often ignore when we’re paying attention to the plot action.

I also have a section on press and fan reaction to the beacons sequence. It was mentioned in many reviews, and I note that it often crops up on fan-site message boards when people discuss their favorite or most memorable scenes.

I wrote The Frodo Franchise about the LOTR phenomenon because the trilogy was groundbreaking in many ways. These included the approach the making the film-based video games. Before LOTR, games designers got little access to “assets” from the films, like designs, sound clips, and detailed plot summaries. As I describe in Chapter 8, the filmmakers changed all that by cooperating extensively. For years Electronic Arts held the licenses for those games. Now they’ve announced that they discontinuing their online service because the licenses with Middle-earth Enterprises have expired. Here’s the schedule for the shutdown of these games, as listed on IGN:

Jan 11, 2011 Online Service Shutdown
The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth II for Xbox 360
The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth II, The Rise of the Witch-king for Xbox 360

Dec 31, 2010 Online Service Shutdown
The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth for PC
The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth II for PC
The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth II, The Rise of the Witch-king for PC

Warner Bros. now controls the film-based games rights for LOTR.

The people at EA were incredibly cooperative when I was researching my book. Thanks to Neil Young, who executive-produced the first LOTR games, Mark Scaggs, who executive-produced “The Battle for Middle-earth,” and Nina Dobner, director of partner relations for EA, all of whom I interviewed. I was lucky enough to talk both with Nina, who handled EA’s requests for film assets, and with Judy Alley, the merchandising coordinator for the films, who was responsible for providing the assets from Wellington. With their help, despite the fact that I’m not a gamer, I was able to put together a chapter that covered the logistics and business of game-making. In fact, the first review of my book (actually just of that chapter) was on a gaming site, Dark London, and it was favorable. I must say that I felt quite relieved at reading that!

Most people probably still think of The Lord of the Rings trilogy as a big studio blockbuster. But as I pointed out in the ninth chapter of The Frodo Franchise, New Line was an independent producer when it made the three parts of LOTR. That is, it financed the film in the traditional indie way by selling the foreign distribution rights to companies around the world.

Now the Independent Film & Television Alliance (whose executive vice president Jonathan Wolf was one of my interviewees for the book) is celebrating its 30th anniversary. It has selected the 30 most significant indie films of the past three decades. And, as Jonathan confirmed when I interviewed him, LOTR is definitely an indie. Here’s the story from the group’s website:

IFTA, marking its 30th anniversary, has selected the 30 Most Significant Independent Films™ from around the world produced over the past three decades.

In selecting the Most Significant Independent Films, IFTA’s 27-member Board of Directors considered independently financed films produced worldwide and a variety of factors, including features that introduced new cinematic styles; garnered awards; achieved critical acclaim; launched the careers of notable producers, directors or actors; or had other standout qualities.

The Most Significant Independent Films from each of the past three decades follows:

1981-1990: Amadeus; Blue Velvet; Dances With Wolves; Das Boot (The Boat); Gandhi; My Left Foot; A Nightmare on Elm Street; Platoon; Sex, Lies and Videotape; The Terminator (Honorary mentions: The Killing Fields; The Last Emperor; The Toxic Avenger)

1991-2000: Braveheart; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Fargo; Four Weddings and a Funeral; LIfe is Beautiful; Pulp Fiction; Reservoir Dogs; The Silence of the Lambs; The Usual Suspects; Where the Day Takes You (Honorary mentions: Basic Instinct, Good Will Hunting, Trainspotting)

20001-2010: Brokeback Mountain; Crash; The Hurt Locker; Inglourious Basterds; Juno; Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring; Million Dollar Baby; Monster; The Pianist; Slumdog Millionaire; (Honorary mentions: Bowling for Columbine; Memento; Twilight)

American Cinematheque has partnered with IFTA for the screening series which launches on Wednesday, September 29 at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood.

One of the reasons I decided to write my book was because I knew that LOTR would be a tremendously influential film. Its impact on filmmaking technology, on the economy of New Zealand, on the way video-game adaptations were made, on the use of longer DVD editions and supplements, on the international independent film market, and so on, have been every bit as great as I expected. It’s good to see it getting this kind of acknowledgement.

There doesn’t seem to be a schedule for all the screenings yet, but people in the LA area should keep an eye open.

I was alerted by Magpie over on the Message Boards of TheOneRing.net that Doug Adams has revamped his blog site in preparation for the publication of his long-awaited book on the music in the LOTR trilogy. Have a look here. Doug specifies that his book will come out this fall. Even those who don’t want to read close analysis of the musical tracks may want to buy the book anyway to get the accompanying CD (which I gather won’t be sold separately). It contains: “unused, alternate, and early-draft music from FOTR, TTT, and ROTK … and even a little discussion with Howard Shore and myself.” Doug has long had access to Shore for interviews, and there’s no one better qualified than he to create the definitive book on the subject: The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films.

I know a lot of us are eagerly looking forward to seeing this book at last. Some of the delays have been due to the formidable challenges of putting together an elaborate publication like this.

Doug has been very mysterious about the publisher. I’m curious, since of course this is a late entry in the continuing LOTR franchise, which this blog in part exists to update. Is this one of the official tie-in books licensed by New Line? Or is it an independent book that had isn’t licensed but has had to pay for the individual rights to reproduce the various musical notations, illustrations, and other material from the films? I’ll of course post a notice when the book becomes available, but in the meantime, you can follow Doug’s blog, which contains a link to his Twitter page.

It has been nearly six years since the release of The Return of the King, but its international distributors still look back on the three years of the trilogy’s distribution as one of their most lucrative periods ever.

As I explained in Chapter 9 of The Frodo Franchise, LOTR was technically an independent film, produced by New Line, then an independent company. It was financed in the traditional indie way, through sales of distribution rights to independent distributors abroad and through licensing fees for the tie-in products. Although those distributors had to pay hefty fees up front, before the film had even been made, and although they were naturally nervous about the prospects for success, they ended up happy and rich.

Indeed, New Line was the biggest supplier for many of these independent distributors. When it got absorbed into Warner Bros. early last year, that source of supply dried up. About a year ago, I wrote an entry on “Observations on Film Art,” discussing the companies that were possibly stepping in to take New Line’s place. Among the companies I mentioned was a relative newcomer to the American distribution scene, Summit Entertainment. At that point Summit had only released a few insignificant films in the US, though it had been producing films since the mid-1990s. Its main claim to fame was a long and successful track record for selling American movies to distributors abroad.

Summit’s producing efforts got a big boost in 2006. Paramount famously put Twilight into turnaround early in the year, and in October a producer brought it to Summit. (For a good background account, see this LA Times story.) In late 2008, Twilight was slipped into the original November 21 slot that had been announced for Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Although it wasn’t as immediately successful as the second entry in the series has been, it built into a hit. After less than two weeks in distribution, The Twilight Saga: New Moon has made an estimated $230 million domestically and is a big hit abroad as well.

Mike Goodridge, the editor of Screen Daily, has pointed out that the Twilight phenomenon is in some ways parallel to that of the Rings trilogy:

When New Line Cinema was absorbed into Warner Bros in early 2008, many of the world’s leading independent distributors lost one of their key suppliers of Hollywood-level product. Companies such as Entertainment in the UK and Metropolitan in France had gone through good times and bad with New Line over the years, but when they were good, as in the case of The Lord Of The Rings trilogy, they were very, very good.

Goodridge cites some figures to back this up:

Seeing E1 Films in the UK take nearly $20m in the UK, SND in France scoring $17m, Eagle in Italy $14.3m and Aurum in Spain $13.7m last weekend brought back the heady days of The Lord Of The Rings openings. In Australia, Hoyts Distribution brought in $13.3m for the biggest opening ever in the territory. In New Zealand as well, it took the all-time crown, the $1.9m gross beating, you guessed it, The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King.

Aurum, by the way, only exists today because of its success with the trilogy.

In my book, I suggested that LOTR, despite being a blockbuster, was enormously beneficial to international independent and foreign-language cinema. Now the Twilight series looks like it will have a similar, sustained effect. According to Goodridge:

What The Lord Of The Rings proved and the Twilight Saga reaffirms is that this kind of independent success is good for everybody. The Twilight distributors will have more money to invest in financing and acquisitions, benefiting other independent productions, while sales companies struggling to get films off the ground in a turgid distribution world will hopefully encounter a renewed buoyancy in the international markets.

The parallel is even stronger if we recall that LOTR was picked up by New Line when it was put into turnaround by Miramax.

The Hobbit will extend the franchise, but it won’t bring the same benefit to foreign distributors. New Line no longer handles its own financing or distribution. Warner Bros. will finance the film (perhaps with help from MGM if that studio manages to survive and put its economic affairs in order) and will distribute the film. There will presumably be no presales to independent distributors abroad.

There’s presumably no causal connection between the trilogy and the parallel Twilight phenomenon. Still, it’s good to see a similar windfall going to independent cinema around the world.

I have to admit that I’ve never sat through the last part of the credits on the LOTR extended-edition DVDs. That’s the section where all the charter members of the official fan club had their names listed–including such notables as Elijah Wood. It takes 20 minutes for all those names to scroll by. I don’t know how many names there are, either, but there are a lot of people out there happy to have their names linked with the trilogy.

You’d think more studios would have done the same sort of thing with their DVDs, but it turns out that they haven’t–until now. Given how important online fans were to getting Paranormal Activity a theatrical release, Paramount announced that all fans who signed up at the film’s official website by November 9 would have their names  included at the end of the DVD. I’m not sure how long before November 9 the announcement was made. Stories hit the news media around November 5, as in this story in on Video Business.

The story compares Paramount’s offer to the LOTR one. For the epic LOTR, the 20 minutes was a relatively small section to add onto the end. For Paranormal Activity, which runs a mere 86-minutes, a long roll of fan names could be a big chunk of the DVD’s length.

More evidence that, although we’re coming up on the sixth anniversary of the release of the third part of the trilogy, the influence of LOTR doesn’t quit!

Yesterday Variety posted a story, “Pros pick best places for filmmaking.” A few years ago, it was almost a given that New Zealand would be on the list. I was surprised and a bit disappointed not to see it there. Naturally for cities, Los Angeles, San Diego, New York, and some others were chosen. The foreign choices included Morocco for deserts. Fair enough, there aren’t any really extensive sand deserts in New Zealand. Further afield, Madrid, Barcelona, and the Canary Islands are favorites for their coastlines, high mountains, deserts scenery, and architecturally interesting cities. That’s where I guess I’d expect New Zealand to be most competitive.

For “Best Production Resources,” Sydney, Toronto, and Montreal were picked. (I briefly described Fox Studios Australia, the biggest Sydney facility, on pages 337-8 in The Frodo Franchise.)

Without new Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Narnia releases to display the beauties of the country’s landscapes, perhaps the thought of filming there has faded from filmmakers’ memories. True, huge productions have been based partly in the Wellington facilities built by Peter Jackson and his partners, but they’ve been using Weta Digital’s highly sophisticated special-effects capabilities: Avatar and Steven Spielberg’s Tintin movie. Between those and The Lovely Bones (which was partly shot in Pennsylvania), Weta is not in a position to take on every job offered. Besides, the Cameron and Spielberg films presumably won’t show off the New Zealand landscape much, if at all.

Perhaps The Hobbit will remind filmmakers why a few years ago everyone was aspiring to shoot in New Zealand.

[Nov 5: Variety has a brief story about how U.S. films are not shooting in Australia as much as they used to. The author notes that New Zealand is doing better, but the three titles mentioned–Tintin, Lovely Bones, District 9–are all Peter Jackson-produced items.]

District 9, which will be released in the U.S. on August 14, has been attracting a lot of attention recently. As most of you undoubtedly already know, it’s a horror film produced by Peter Jackson and directed by South African Neil Blomkamp. Yesterday Variety posted a favorable review. I spotted a number of my interviewees for The Frodo Franchise among the credits.

I don’t do a lot of coverage of Peter’s non-LOTR, non-Hobbit projects on this blog, but it did strike me that District 9 marks something of a turning point in the ongoing saga of the trilogy’s impact. more »