Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Movie Spy Reports and Spoilers thread)

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[HairOfTheDog]

Beyond this point there be spoilers!

Like spoilers? – Keep reading!

Don't want spoilers? – Click HERE and don't look back!

Don't say we didn't warn you! Spoilers are what this thread is all about. So bring your rumors (substantiated or not!), spoilers, spy reports, and bones of contention about them here as the snippets of TTT news, photos and interviews come rolling in.

I wouldn't even recommend pinging people to this thread unless you know they want to see them. There are a lot of purists out there that hate to have anything given away before the movie comes out. I, however, am not one of those.

I will start a "TTT spoilers ping list" separate from the other Tolkien ping lists… so let me know if you want to be on the spoiler alert list!" If we use this thread for that kind of stuff, we won't shock people who don't want to see it. (though I bet they look anyway!)

Report 'em if you got 'em!

[HairOfTheDog]

I know... and losing the scouring as we know it sounds like a big hole in the story to me at this point too... but we don't know enough yet to formally freak out. The movie will have an end. Peter loves the story, and will be doing something that will please the fans. Before FoTR, I was freaking about changes along with everyone else. But after FoTR, he has earned benefit of the doubt from me this time around. I don't think I will be disapointed in what they put out there come 2003.

[Penny1]

Okay, here's a question...

Why let the cat out of the bag so early on? PJ surely knew it would be controversial, so did he admit the Scouring was out in order to prepare us for it? Or did he kind of want to know what fan reaction would be to its removal?

[Destructor]

Here's hoping that damnable "New Zealand Hobbit Hole" thread doesn't resurface!

[Penny1]

Does that clipping somewhere indicate which movie it's going to be in? I was pretty convinced that Saruman was meeting his end this way, but I'm still not sure which movie we'll see it in.

I suppose the indication of Isengard being flooded would point pretty definitively to it taking place in TTT...

So much for hoping for some sort of final exchange between Saruman and Frodo :( Oh well.

[HairOfTheDog]

Darling Destructor, our Hobbit Hole thread has never died, only moved! The New Hobbit Hole is still going strong at 5,754 posts and counting, so it is over a thousand posts longer than the original New Zealander thread! Amazing isn't it? That some people actually have a good time even though you don't like it?

[HairOfTheDog]

Probably too late to invest in the sets and time to film the scouring if it wasn't done originally. I think they have already packed up and abandoned the Shire set, so probably the "preparation" motivation!

Ginsus ready!

[Penny1]

I wasn't thinking that he would decide to include the scouring, but I was thinking (hoping) that he might see the kinds of character things people wanted to see that he might want to try to incorporate in other parts of the movie.

But you're probably right....

::: sigh :::

[HairOfTheDog]

might see the kinds of character things people wanted to see that he might want to try to incorporate in other parts of the movie.

Oh don't sigh! I don't doubt for a minute that he is doing that!

[Destructor]

I'm just glad it moved! Thank you for letting me know.

[GretchenEE]

Cool thread. Neat links in the replies, too.

[HairOfTheDog]

Does that mean you would like to be on the ping list?

[HairOfTheDog]

No problem! - although I wish it was still bothering you a little. Made me feel important!

[DonnerT]

I just finished my fourth reading since I saw the movie. I read it this time with Ecurb's timeline as guide. I think I liked it better that way. Can certainly see why PJ would do that in the TTT movie.

[HairOfTheDog]

Yes, that change won't bother me a bit! - I admit with a certain amount of shame that I usually read through the First half of TTT as fast as I can because I am eager to get back to Frodo and Sam!

[Penny1]

News from TORN:

Filming for TTT on NZ's Mt. Ruapehu. 5/20/02, 11:20 pm EST - Tehanu

News from an NZ Ringer: "People from the Powderhorn Chateau in Ohakune [a really nice hotel on Mt. Ruapehu - the cast and crew stayed there last time] said that Peter Jackson will spend two days filming there this month. At a waterfall scene up Mountain Road. It is for the second film."

[HairOfTheDog]

I bet fissh live in pool up the mountain road under waterfall, yesss, nice fisshes. Makes us strong. Makes eyes bright, fingers tight, yes!

Good find Penny! - I was there looking for snippets of news myself earlier... and couldn't find a thing!

[Penny1]

"Don't want fish."

hehehe.... ;)

[SuziQ]

Peter explained that the actual book The Two Towers is too short for a film so they have expanded a lot of the material. He emphasized that the film will be heavy in the development of Frodo and Sam with Smeagol and that there is a lot of development with Frodo and Faramir. So much in fact, that Shelob has BEEN MOVED TO RETURN OF THE KING.

I can understand that. If you remember, the last 1/3 of RoTK is the Epilogue about what happened to Aragorn and Arwen and some other characters. Nice info, not necessary for a movie.

I don't see any problem about Shelob being moved to ROTK; the story was cut off at the end of TTT and begun again in RoTK. It only makes cinematic sense to keep it all in one movie, kind of like they did with the 'burial' of Boromir putting it at the end of FoTR rahter than at the beginning of TTT.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

losing the scouring as we know it sounds like a big hole in the story to me at this point too.

I will miss the scouring very badly, since in some ways, it shows on a more concrete level a major point of the story, that the result of fighting evil may be the irreperable loss of what we value. But I think that this is a necessary decision due to the requirements of dramatic structure.

If Overtaxed was over here she could comment on this more knowledgeably than I, but we all know that when a drama reaches its climax it is important to finish the story and get everybody off stage as quickly as possible. This is even more important for a story which is highly dramatic in form, like LOTR. The climax of this story is the destruction of the Ring, and the coronation of the King. The scouring fits in literature, but it would be dreadfully anti-climactic in a motion picture.

[GretchenEE]

Does that mean you would like to be on the ping list?

Yes, please.