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March 01, 2002 - March 19, 2002

3-19-02

Never Before Seen TTT Pics!
Xoanon @ 11:04 am EST
Ringer Spy Anonymous sends along these great 3 pictures from The Two Towers! Some fearsome Uruk-hai possibly at the battle in Helms Deep, the lovely Miranda Otto as Eowyn and your first ever good look at Brad Dourif as Grima Wormtongue!

3-15-02

Japanese bestsellers all written by Tolkien...
Tehanu @ 1:38 pm EST
Brian wrote in to tell how Tolkien was catching on in Japan since the movies opened at the beginning of March:

"Well, I think it's safe to say that Japan is really starting to get into Tolkien.

"Here's a summary of LOTR's bestseller status for three of the biggest bookstores in Tokyo, as well as Amazon Japan. All bookstore lists are paperback bestsellers for last week, and Amazon Japan's list is for Literature. The Japanese paperback LOTR has 9 volumes, each selling for JPY 700 (about US $5.30)."

Kinokuniya (Shinjuku)
(only top 10 are listed)
1. FOTR 1
2. FOTR 2
3. TTT 1
4. FOTR 3
5. TTT 2
6. FOTR 4
7. TTT 3


Sanseidou
1. FOTR 1
2. FOTR 2
3. FOTR 3
4. FOTR 4
20. ROTK 1
24. TTT 3
25. ROTK 2
30. TTT 2
44. TTT 1


Yaesu Book Center
2. LOTR (full set)


Amazon Japan
3. Hobbit 1
4. Hobbit 2
7. FOTR 1
10. FOTR 2
11. Atlas of Middle Earth (Japanese)
14. TTT 1
16. TTT 2
18. FOTR 3
19. TTT 3
20. Silmarillion 1
21. Silmarillion 2
22. ROTK 1
23. FOTR 4
24. ROTK 2

Note: The LOTR full set is number 5 on Amazon Japan's current overall bestseller list, with Hobbit at 19 and 21. [More]


3-13-02

LOTR Around the World: India, Japan, Taiwan, Brasil, Kuwait.....
Tehanu @ 1:47 pm EST
"Just to let u know, FOTR releases all over India on the 15th of march. MTV is running a contest with tickets to NZ as the main prize. Also, oneearth.org is running a promo of theirs with the theme 'The power of one'. The music from the FOTR trailer is used in it.". - Neville

"I'm an Air Force wife, living on Okinawa Japan. Went to see FOTR at our local theater this Saturday - most of the shows looked to be sold out :-) ! They are also selling awesome souviners at the theater - our favorites were the "Wraith-topped" pen and the "Lothlorien Leaf" pin (much smaller than the real ones, but very nicely made!) I hope it plays for awhile, since the base theater has limited showings of each movie! - Octavia Caputo"

Taiwan: "The comment that most interested me was that people did not understand the history as portrayed in the beginning of the movie. They found it fast paced and difficult to follow. My personal opinion is that the Chinese subtitles must have been poor! What did impress me was that everywhere you go now you can see Chinese version of the Books and people are buying and reading the story. The Harry Potter syndrome had people buying those books in throngs! Now with this LOTR out, common folk are interested in knowing more about the story. The Taiwanese in general are great book lovers and by the time the next installment comes out I am sure that there will be a lot more people who will find it enchanting. Overall the movie has had an average response here, not bad but not outstanding." - Colin Bolger

"Hey there,

I noticed you were interested how the Lord of the Rings movie was faring out in India and China. I thought I'd write in about how it's doing in Kuwait (that tiny little country in the middle east south of Iraq, if you were wondering).

"I saw the movie twice already, once on the movie's opening day, (two weeks ago), and once this last Wednesday). Both of the theatres were some of the largest in Kuwait, housing over 200 people, and at both times, it was a full house, which is extremely rare to happen regularly here! Also, a lot of people are discussing the movie in school, and have either already seen it or expressed intent on seeing it. While it definitly won't get the cult status it has in America (Kuwait is a small country, with only a small percentage that can speak English fluently), it is definitely doing well here."

Khuffie

"And just to give a Brazilian scoop, hereīs how everything is going: Before all the promotion and expectations started, the books were always hard to find, and there were very few people who had read it or planned on reading it someday. Nowadays on every bookstore you find it at the same moment you enter. The complete edition has been the best selling fiction book now since the time the movie opened; "Unfinished Tales" is now at number three (note: this book wasnīt available in Portuguese until February/2002) and "Two Towers" is at number 10. The other two books up until last week were at the top 10 also.

The movie is a great hit. It opened on January 1st and this week it held the seventh place in the weekend top-ten. It has grossed more than Harry Potter and will continue on doing a good job at the box office. Warner (distributor of LOTR:FOTR here in Brazil) hasnīt made an official statement about the "Two Towers" preview, but apparently it will be available on March 29. More news yet to come. So there you have it. Hope you enjoy the news. Take care and keep up the good work!" - Gabriel from Rio de Janeiro - Brazil


TTT Trailer: Worldwide
Xoanon @ 12:25 pm EST
Tangelian Proudfoot writes: After I read your TTT-trailer info concerning the UK, I decided to write to the Swedish Film Association and ask them when the trailer was expected in Sweden. I got the following answer: "Unfortunately, this is just a rumor."

Meanwhile tomgreen writes: With regards to whether uk fans would get to see the Two Towers footage, I also contacted Odeon and got the following reply from 'Matt':"I'm afraid this is very doubtful we will have this new reel at it is coming to an end at most ODEON's now. Sorry for any disappointment caused,"

From Ned: I'm writing you from Finland, and my subject is the TTT trailer here. I called all the big movie theaters here and they all gave me a same answer, "we haven't heard anything about that".

3-12-02

FOTR Wins 'The Rotten Tomato' Award
Xoanon @ 8:56 pm EST
From: immortal683

Just wanted to inform you folks at TheOneRing.net that "Lord of the Rings" has won the Rotten Tomato Award with 100+ Fresh reviews and 96% on the Tomatometer! Congratulations LOTR!

Barely edging out Shrek , Monsters, Inc. would have been the winner of this year's RT Award if not for one movie. The best-reviewed movie of 2001 and the winner of the Third Annual RT Awards is Peter Jackson's phenomenal adaptation of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. From its impeccable casting to its breath-taking cinematography, The Fellowship of the Ring is a far cry from the 1978 animated version. It's a minor miracle that after sitting nearly three hours with the movie, patrons are left wanting more. Really, this is a triumph for director Peter Jackson and his crew for proving wrong the pundits who said the trilogy was too ambitious of a project. Congrats go out to everyone involved with The Fellowship of the Ring. We'll be eagerly awaiting The Two Towers.

3-04-02

LOTR opens well in Japan.
Tehanu @ 11:33 am EST
I was curious to know how LOTR was doing in Japan, where LOTR is less familiar than in the West and which has its own tradition of fantasy. It's been open for about a week [since Feb. 24 or so] and I've had a series of reports from Bruce, who lives in Yokohama, and while it's too early to tell whether it'll achieve the same cult status as it has here, the opening weeks look promising:

"There is the possibility that LOTR will be a smashing hit in Japan. That may have less to do with the tale found in the Tolkien books than with Peter Jackson's action filled movie, but that doesn't matter much, in the end, anyway. As evidence that is may be a biggie:

"1) As I mentioned in an earlier email, originally, there were to be only three "preview" shows to be shown on the 23rd at the movie theater that I normally go to. An extra showing was added, and the first three shows were sold out. I would guess that the last show was also sold out. This was in the biggest theater in the complex.
2) The movie theater chain has enough confidence that it is selling pre-reserved seats for the first week after the opening on March 2nd, expecting a big demand.
3) The movie has been dubbed in Japanese. Normally, foreign movies shown in Japan are shown with sub-titles. Dubbing means that there will be an expected younger crowd who would have trouble with reading fast enough. It also means that there will be at least two theaters out of eight booked up with LOTR.
4) There will be two TV specials on LOTR shown, at least. The first was shown last Saturday on Fuji Television, one of the sponsors for bringing the movie to Japan. Another will be shown as part of one of the more popular TV quiz shows. The show will be centered on Tolkien's England and the movie.
5) Full page ads have been taken out in major Japanese and English language newspapers.
6) In the past it was almost impossible to find Japanese translations of the Lord of the Rings at most bookstores. They were there, but you almost had to ask a sales clerk to show you. Now, when I go into a Japanese bookstore, there is a separate display only for Lord of the Rings. Besides the paper back books, there are hard covers versions, Japanese versions of the "Official Movie Guide" and even, a Japanese translation of Karen Wynn's Fonstad's Atlas of Middle-earth.
7) Japanese movie audiences generally do not cheer or applaud during and after a showing. However, when the credits started to roll, almost no one left the theater. Of course, May it Be and In Dreams was playing at that time, but even after that, as the credits continued to roll, people stayed on.
8) I've introduced three or four Japanese people to Lord of the Rings, showing my downloaded trailers, etc. They were all hooked. I am going again; they tell me that they are going again.
19) The main movie going audience in Japan are young people. By the time that the movie officially starts, the Japanese spring break (the major break of the school year) will have started. This great movie going market segment will be ready to fill the screens. There will be competition from Monsters, Inc. (opens 3/2 also) and A Beautiful Mind (opening soon). But LOTR should do very well indeed.

"None of this is really hard evidence of potential success, but I think the movie will do very well.


"...I went back to see LOTR on the day of its official opening on March 2. At the mutiplex theater we went to, there were 10 shows that day, in three different theaters. Seven of the shows were subtitled, three were dubbed. From what I could see, all the shows, with the expection of the first subtitled one, were sold out, even the late show which started at 8:50 pm - the one that I attended. Besides that, the theater was doing a brisk business selling the official movie pamphlet. So, in answer to your original question, I think that the movie is going to do very well in Japan. It is certainly in a lot of theaters in the Greater Tokyo area."

3-02-02

Report On Mortensen Poetry Reading At Track 16
Strider @ 12:57 pm EST
From Brenda and Valerie:

Arriving early around 6:30 put us in the front of the line, and in the front row. The show started on time, and Viggo was the first poet to read. Dressed casually in jeans and an orange-red shirt, he was nervous and relaxed at the same time. He talked a bit first, telling us that he had some works picked out, but would sort of be spontaneous and 'talk until they told me to shut up'. He read Meet, then Home, and then a new work, Communion, which had us weak in the knees. It was rather long, and he commented that it would most likely be edited down before being published. Then he read another new work, shorter than Communion. We did not, unfortunately remember the name of this work as we were still rather blissed out from Communion.

He was very attentive to the other poets, and seemed rather impressed by many of the Youth Speaks and Slam poets (who were truly amazing!). Henry was there, and sat beside his father for the duration of the reading, borrowing Viggo's legal pad to doodle/write/? on.

After the reading, we spoke with him briefly before he was deluged by the crowd.

We waited, and finally got to spend some time with him. He was great about taking the time to speak with each and every person who waited. He took pictures, signed autographs, and even drew the White Tree of Gondor in someone's copy of FOTR. When we got to converse with him, we mentioned how much we had loved Communion and that our opinion was that it should be published unedited. He told Brenda that the young poets from Youth Speaks had inspired him to write more. (yay!)

Brenda also spoke with him about Eomer. She mentioned being a Karl Urban fan, and his comment was "You are going to be blown away by his performance." This caused much excitement in us.

We thanked him for his work, spoke about his former movie roles, and talked about "Elendil" (his painting). He was very soft spoken, but very attentive to each person he spoke to, taking time to focus completely on that person. It was an intense and wonderful experience, and very personal. We were very impressed.

3-01-02

TTT: Talking Treebeard
Xoanon @ 1:23 pm EST
Annatar The Fair writes: And so the LOTR hype starts again (when did it stop? -Xo). And there are fantastic new characters coming, including Treebeard, leader of the Ents. Voiced by John Rhys-Davies, Treebeard will be a combination of animatronics and CG. "He's going to be incredible," Billy 'Pippin' Boyd revealed exclusively to Empire. "Somebody said it was the biggest animatronic ever. It lifted us up 30 feet, and it was such a hassle getting down that Dom ("Merry" Monaghan) and myself wouldn't come down for tea breaks. They'd just pass up a cup and a biscuit. And 20 minutes later, everyone would come traipsing back in." Boyd laughs. "There! The first anecdote from The Two Towers!"


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