Lure of the Rings

Viewers, beware. the Two Towers, the dazzling second installment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, picks up exactly where the first one left off. No Star Wars-style scroll to bring you up to speed, no quick compilation of scenes from the first film, no opening Cate Blanchett narration?nothing. It begins in medias res, as though you had just stepped out for a few seconds to get more popcorn. If you didn't see last year's The Fellowship of the Ring, Peter Jackson, the trilogy's wizardly director, isn't about to cut you any slack.

"I know that New Line (the studio releasing the films) would have preferred us to have a little catch-up," says the director, sitting in an office in Wellington, New Zealand, speaking in a cheerful Kiwi accent and peering from behind a mop of curls and plate-size wire-rim glasses. "But I think that's a very TV kind of device. I figured the amount of people going to see Two Towers without seeing Fellowship would be fairly minute. If you can't at least spend $3 or $4 to rent it before you see Two Towers, there's no point in going."

You don't often hear directors telling you to stay away from their pictures. But Jackson is the definition of a purist. For him, The Two Towers is not a sequel to The Fellowship of the Ring; it's simply the three-hour second act of an epic nine-hour trilogy called Lord of the Rings. The complete dvd should be available in, oh, 2004.

At first, the co-chairmen of New Line, Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne, weren't at all happy about the lack of any kind of pro- logue, but they ultimately relented. It was another of their epic gambles. "We ended up agreeing with him," says Shaye, "because it wasn't the same old cliche, 'When last we saw the Lone Ranger ...' ''

When last we saw Jackson, one year ago, he was one very jittery Kiwi. His Lord of the Rings trilogy was considered perhaps the riskiest endeavor in motion-picture history. Based on J.R.R. Tolkien's mythical sword-and-sorcery three-part novel, the movies were all filmed at once during a mammoth 15-month shoot. Jackson, a relatively unknown director who seldom stepped foot outside New Zealand and who was best known for quirky, low-budget films, was given a $270 million budget. The cost ultimately climbed to $310 million. If the first movie had tanked, then New Line (which, like Time, is owned by AOL Time Warner) would have had two more bombs in the can, already ticking.

"The pressures on us before the first film came out were, obviously, fairly extreme," says Jackson, 41. "We never talked about that much. Nonetheless, it was there with you every single day." The gamble paid off. Fellowship turned out to be the second highest grossing film of 2001, just behind Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, and established Jackson as the Kiwi George Lucas. The movie went on to gross $860 million worldwide and was honored with 13 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.

Fellowship was released only three months after the Sept. 11 attacks, and its good-vs.-evil quest spoke to audiences looking for old-fashioned moral clarity. Just as readers in the 1950s (when the books were published) found parallels to World War II, and hippies of the 1960s delighted in Tolkien's peace-loving hobbits, a new generation has embraced Tolkien's nostalgic vision of a lost world, an imagined past both idyllic and brutal. Indeed, the passion for the first movie and this one is part of a new American obsession with fantasy, a national journey to a mythical past where evil is punished and virtue rewarded (see following story).

Even though it's hardly in doubt that The Two Towers will be a smash at the box office, Jackson is still on edge. "The pressure last year was, Is the studio going to survive?" says the director. "The pressure this year is, Are people going to like this one as much as the first one?" The answer is yes, or at least probably. Fellowship was often quiet and deliberately paced. Two Towers is an unabashed action film. Even Ian McKellen, as the wizard Gandalf, does his share of fighting. Those who appreciate the finer points of Tolkien's work may be taken aback by the new film's high-tech grandiosity. "It's impressive," says Two Towers star Viggo Mortensen, "but if you have that much emphasis on special effects, it's unavoidable that you'll lose some of the poetry and intimacy of the story." Still, those who prefer grunting, beastly warriors brandishing scimitars to gently dancing hobbits will be thrilled. Two Towers, says Jackson, "definitely isn't as cute (as Fellowship). It has a much more gritty kind of edge to it."

The film's vast scope ranges from the snowy, unspoiled peaks of Middle-earth (shot in various New Zealand locales) to the city of Isengard (a composite of models and computer-generated imagery), which is destroyed? spectacularly? by a brigade of towering, treelike creatures known as Ents. Meanwhile, the hobbit hero Frodo (Elijah Wood) continues his quest: he must destroy the magic Ring before the Dark Lord Sauron can use it to rule the world. Aragorn (played by Mortensen, who transforms himself before your eyes from brooding beefcake to full-blown movie star) embarks across the desolate plains of Middle-earth to salvage what's left of mankind. Arrayed against him is an armada of Uruk-hai, armor-clanking warriors who make Freddy Krueger look positively cuddly. The battle of Helm's Deep, a rather brief episode in Tolkien's book, becomes a battle for the survival of the human species and the breathtaking centerpiece of Jackson's film.

The director readily admits that of his three films, Two Towers departs most from Tolkien's work. "We were aware that we were making films for the hard-core Tolkien fan base as well as everyone else," says Jackson, who co-wrote the script with Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh. "In the beginning, it was a difficult tightrope to walk, but then we sort of abandoned thinking about it. If we make a good film, we'll be forgiven, whatever the crimes we commit to the book." Arwen, the beautiful elf played by Liv Tyler, doesn't appear in the book. But in the film, Jackson has love scenes between her and Aragorn?a romance based on an appendix that Tolkien later wrote about their doomed relationship.

The love scenes were added last summer. Though most of the trilogy was filmed during the initial shoot, which began in 1999, Jackson has done additional filming for both Fellowship and Two Towers. Even after six weeks of reshoots last summer, the filmmakers felt they were still missing a scene that tied all of Two Towers' story lines together. Last September Boyens and Walsh composed a monologue for Sam, the hopeful hobbit played by Sean Astin, in which he urges Frodo to stick with his mission. "There is good in the world, and it's worth fighting for," says Sam. The writers first thought it was too corny. "Doesn't that sound like something George Bush would say?" says Boyens. It's now one of the high points of the picture.

The Two Towers leaves off, naturally, with a cliff-hanger, which will be resolved in The Return of the King, the final installment, set for release next year. A rough cut of that movie has already been assembled and is in Jackson's vaults. Producer Barrie M. Osborne is trying to wrangle the cast back to New Zealand for more shooting next summer.

Ask Peter Jackson how Lord of the Rings has changed his life, and he answers, "What life?" For five years, he has devoted himself to Lord of the Rings, always with Walsh at his side. Though they have never married, they share two children (Kate, 6, and Billy, 7) and a rambling old house overlooking the bay in Wellington. They met at a screening of Jackson's first movie, 1987's Bad Taste, a gross-out horror flick about human-eating space aliens. What in the world did Walsh see in the young filmmaker? "I think it was the brain-eating sequence," says Walsh, who was writing for television at the time and shares Jackson's macabre sense of humor.

The two began working together almost immediately. Their screenplay for the brilliantly creepy 1994 Heavenly Creatures, about a well-known New Zealand murder case, earned them an Oscar nomination and put them on Hollywood's radar. Universal soon enlisted Jackson to direct The Frighteners, a 1996 horror-comedy starring Michael J. Fox. It didn't scare up much business, but it did enable Jackson to add a computer division to Weta Workshop, the struggling special-effects company he had formed years earlier with Richard Taylor.

Hoping to make use of the newly enhanced facility, he began musing on the idea of a fantasy film. "I thought, Nobody seems to be making those anymore," says Jackson. "Fran kept saying Lord of the Rings was the prototype (for fantasy), and if we can't think of something better, we shouldn't bother. Eventually we came up with the obvious question: What's happening with Lord of the Rings? Why don't we try doing that?"

He and Miramax chief Harvey Weinstein began planning a two-part adaptation of Tolkien's trilogy. Soon, however, Weinstein got nervous about the cost. And Jackson got nervous when Weinstein suggested they scrunch the tale down to just one movie. In 1998 Miramax allowed the filmmaker to shop the project to other studios, but on two strict conditions: whoever bought it would have just 72 hours to repay Weinstein the $12 million he had spent on preproduction costs, and Weinstein had to be guaranteed 5% of the gross.

It was a tough sell. "Harvey offered very severe terms," says Ken Kamins, Jackson's agent at ICM. "Also, people thought Peter was untested for something of this size." Mark Ordesky knew better. An executive at New Line?and an old friend of Jackson's?Ordesky championed Lord of the Rings to his bosses, Shaye and Lynne. "Everybody around the world knew about this series of books," says Shaye, who suggested they should make three movies. "It was so wonderfully presold. It was like Superman or Batman." By making them all at once, they reasoned, the cost per film would be diminished; most of the stars, for example, would take just 1.5 times their usual fees for all three movies, effectively working for half price. The studio also followed its usual business practice of selling off international rights to cover production costs. New Line's initial investment in the franchise was just about $25 million per movie.

Though Jackson's contract dictates that each film be no longer than 2 hr. 20 min., New Line agreed to a nearly 3-hr. running time for Fellowship. "The question was, How good is the movie?" says Lynne. "We all thought it was incredible." That's not to say that New Line and Jackson haven't had some strong disagreements. One of the most memorable battles was over the ending of Fellowship; New Line executives wanted a more action-packed finale. "But I don't think we ever got into a screaming contest," says Shaye. Jackson is getting more than 10% of the pictures' revenue, and much of that new fortune is being pumped back into his business. Besides the special-effects house, he owns a production company, also based in Wellington, and he is building a postproduction facility near his home. "Ever since I was a kid dreaming about being a filmmaker," says Jackson, "I've never imagined going to Hollywood."

Earlier this year, Jackson lost five weeks of valuable postproduction time glad-handing Academy members in the U.S. to win Oscar votes. "It was a rather unpleasant experience," he says. "If we're lucky enough to get any more nominations, I'll happily show up at the awards show, but I really don't want to do the parading around."

Jackson is also hoping his facilities will entice other Hollywood filmmakers to pour money into the New Zealand economy. Some of Tom Cruise's next movie, The Last Samurai, will be shot there. Jackson's empire is just a short drive down a winding mountain road from the house where he and Walsh live. They are a curious couple; she is as thin as he is round, and they amuse each other endlessly. Besides co-writing the screenplay, Walsh directed bits of the trilogy. "We have very similar tastes, and that leads to an enormous amount of trust," says Jackson. "These films are too big for one person." In a year he and Walsh will be nearly finished with Lord of the Rings, and they are already planning their next project. Jackson says it will be closer to the scale of Heavenly Creatures. "He owes me a small one after this," says Walsh. There's nothing small about what they have accomplished so far.

The only good thing about it really is the fact that Time revealed that we actually do get to see the Ents destroy Isengard.

That is to me would probable be the single most thrilling part if I recalled my Mind's Eye pictures envisioned during reading the books as a kid. I was madder than hell for treebeard/Ents as a kid and those walls had to come down. Now if they were going to add to the movie, I really would like the see the Ents meet their long lost loves other than some corny love seens. That probable was the saddest reality of the whole series, to fade out and die without the women for the Ents.

I feel like a durn tree-hugger somehow. LOL

What a softy you are...

I too hope Treebeard one day finds the entwives...

ENT:
When Spring unfolds the beechen leaf, and sap is in the bough;
When light is on the wild-wood stream, and wind is on the brow;
When stride is long, and breath is deep, and keen the mountain-air,
Come back to me! Come back to me, and say my land is fair!

ENTWIFE:
When Spring is come to garth and field, and corn is in the blade;
When blossom like a shining snow is on the orchard laid;
When shower and Sun upon the Earth with fragrance fill the air,
I'll linger here, and will not come, because my land is fair.

ENT:
When Summer lies upon the world, and in a noon of gold
Beneath the roof of sleeping leaves the dreams of trees unfold;
When woodland halls are green and cool, and wind is in the West,
Come back to me! Come back to me, and say my land is best!

ENTWIFE:
When Summer warms the hanging fruit and burns the berry brown;
When straw is gold, and ear is white, and harvest comes to town;
When honey spills, and apple swells, though wind be in the West,
I'll linger here beneath the Sun, because my land is best!

ENT:
When Winter comes, the winter wild that hill and wood shall slay;
When trees shall fall and starless night devour the sunless day;
When wind is in the deadly East, then in the bitter rain
I'll look for thee, and call to thee; I'll come to thee again!

ENTWIFE:
When Winter comes, and singing ends; when darkness falls at last;
When broken is the barren bough, and light and labour past;
I'll look for thee, and wait for thee, until we meet again:
Together we will take the road beneath the bitter rain!

BOTH:

Together we will take the road that leads into the West,
And far away will find a land where both our hearts may rest.'

I think the scenes with Arwen and Aragorn in TTT are all either flash-forwards or flash-backs. I don't think Arwen is in TTT in real time. I base this on PJ's statement in the FoTR SE commentary where Aragorn nods in farewell to her leaving Rivendell. PJ said, "As readers of the book know, it will be quite some time before they see each other again." I don't think they are really going to be a big deal. I am expecting, that like FoTR, that love scene means there are scenes that show their love, not to be confused with sex scenes.

I think there is a flashback and a flashforward.

I think Arwen sees a flashforward of Aragorn being killed by the Uruk-Hai and then him in his grave with her in funeral garb (as I think we've seen in a pic).
Then, when Aragorn is knocked off his horse and thought to be dead, floating in the river, after the Warg battle he has a dream, a flashback to when he first met Arwen, and their first kiss...and perhaps it's the memory of this kiss that causes to to wake up, then Brego the horse he freed from the Edoras stables drags him from the river bank and he rides off to Helm's Deep where the others already are, and think he's dead. And on the way, there's that famous scene where he sees the 10,000 Orcs marching to Helm's Deep.

Oppps, spoilers? Hehe....just guesswork really....honest!

I am not worried. I think his use of the word "crime" refers to any deviations that an absolute purist would consider sacrelige. I think Saruman and Sauron are still the bad guys, our fellowship are the good guys, there is a battle, and the good guys still win this one.

TTT is filler for me. When I look at the books, there is not a lot of stand-alone story in TTT. Not much happens that really moves us toward the eventual outcome. Frodo just barely enters Mordor, having moved about an inch on the map... Saruman goes down... that is a major event.... and the battle of Helms Deep is interesting but not pivotal to the outcome of the battle to come. The real events are a whole year away in RoTK, this year is the year of preparation and waiting. PJ will give us stuff to talk about! I expect mostly good things.

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