Though it has contributed to some of the highest-grossing movies of all time, including "Avatar" and "Avengers: Endgame," Peter Jackson's visual effects company, Wētā FX (formerly known as Weta Digital), was still in its infancy when it set to work on "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy. Jackson had co-founded the company with Sir Richard Taylor and Jamie Selkirk in the 1990s, when it handled the effects for his films "Heavenly Creatures" and "The Frighteners," along with the Robert Zemeckis sci-fi adaptation "Contact." However, neither Wētā nor Jackson had attempted anything on the scale of "The Lord of the Rings" before, and the majority of its VFX team had no prior filmmaking experience.
In a 2010 interview with HollywoodChicago.com, Taylor — who also serves as Wētā's creative director — was asked to pinpoint the thing he was most proud of when looking back at the legacy of "The Lord of the Rings.
In a 2010 interview with HollywoodChicago.com, Taylor — who also serves as Wētā's creative director — was asked to pinpoint the thing he was most proud of when looking back at the legacy of "The Lord of the Rings.
- 8/30/2022
- by Joshua Meyer
- Slash Film
After concluding his sixth Middle-earth film, “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies,” Ian McKellen praised Peter Jackson, telling Variety, “He’s invented technology to match his imagination.”
Jackson’s first “Lord of the Rings” film, “The Fellowship of the Ring,” premiered in December, 2001, and celebrates its 20th anniversary this month.
Jackson oversees five companies in Wellington, New Zealand, that were each started to fill the films’ needs:
— Weta Workshop was born for the 1989 “Meet the Feebles.” Jackson and Fran Walsh collaborated with husband-and-wife team Richard Taylor and Tania Rodger and their 5-year-old Rt Effects, who worked on models and puppets.
Weta Workshop has five divisions: Makeup and prosthetics, armor, weapons, creatures and miniature environments.
During a Variety visit a few years ago, the WW’ers were working on film and TV projects as well as museum installations, a sculpture garden, film projects and books. Richard Taylor told Variety,...
Jackson’s first “Lord of the Rings” film, “The Fellowship of the Ring,” premiered in December, 2001, and celebrates its 20th anniversary this month.
Jackson oversees five companies in Wellington, New Zealand, that were each started to fill the films’ needs:
— Weta Workshop was born for the 1989 “Meet the Feebles.” Jackson and Fran Walsh collaborated with husband-and-wife team Richard Taylor and Tania Rodger and their 5-year-old Rt Effects, who worked on models and puppets.
Weta Workshop has five divisions: Makeup and prosthetics, armor, weapons, creatures and miniature environments.
During a Variety visit a few years ago, the WW’ers were working on film and TV projects as well as museum installations, a sculpture garden, film projects and books. Richard Taylor told Variety,...
- 12/16/2021
- by Tim Gray
- Variety Film + TV
We’re all a little bit nervous about Netflix’s live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender after how the 2010 film turned out, but so far, everything seems to be pointing in the right direction for the series.
“When Avatar: The Last Airbender, one of the greatest animated series of all time, came to Netflix in May of 2020, the people started asking: What’s up with that new live-action series they were talking about? In 2018, Netflix announced that it would be retelling the story of the Gaang with real people, and fans were immediately piqued. They were also a little worried, and with good reason: M. Night Shyamalan directed a legendarily horrendous live-action film adaptation of the first season of the series back in 2010 that included one memorable scene where a team of powerful earthbenders move a pebble across the screen.”
Read more at Thrillist
Yeah, the Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer was great,...
“When Avatar: The Last Airbender, one of the greatest animated series of all time, came to Netflix in May of 2020, the people started asking: What’s up with that new live-action series they were talking about? In 2018, Netflix announced that it would be retelling the story of the Gaang with real people, and fans were immediately piqued. They were also a little worried, and with good reason: M. Night Shyamalan directed a legendarily horrendous live-action film adaptation of the first season of the series back in 2010 that included one memorable scene where a team of powerful earthbenders move a pebble across the screen.”
Read more at Thrillist
Yeah, the Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer was great,...
- 11/18/2021
- by Lee Parham
- Den of Geek
To hear celebrated production designer Grant Major tell it, New Zealand’s film industry was reborn in the last years of the 20th century, thanks to “The Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson, who pioneered, agitated and doggedly got on with things.
Today, the industry has grown far beyond its leading practitioner into one that is capable of simultaneously working on the next “Avatar” franchise movies, Amazon’s massive “The Lord of the Rings” TV series, as well as Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog.”
Despite its 4.5 million people, who are heavily outnumbered by sheep, New Zealand has also launched major talent such as Taika Waititi and Niki Caro. And at the same time, it is also building structures to nurture newer names such as Madeline Sami, Jackie van Beek and Tom Hern.
Because of its limitations, which include a small population, a geographic location far from...
Today, the industry has grown far beyond its leading practitioner into one that is capable of simultaneously working on the next “Avatar” franchise movies, Amazon’s massive “The Lord of the Rings” TV series, as well as Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog.”
Despite its 4.5 million people, who are heavily outnumbered by sheep, New Zealand has also launched major talent such as Taika Waititi and Niki Caro. And at the same time, it is also building structures to nurture newer names such as Madeline Sami, Jackie van Beek and Tom Hern.
Because of its limitations, which include a small population, a geographic location far from...
- 11/7/2019
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
You played a Street Demon in director Jason Lei Howden’s FrightFest favourite Deathgasm. Is the New Zealand film community that small?
I didn’t play a street demon; I am a street demon. The film community in Nz is small enough for most active people to know most other active people – but the genre scene is small enough for us all to know each other by at least one degree of separation. Many of my friends worked on or acted in Deathgasm and they needed a night shoot of ‘street demons’ so I donned my tie-dye and offered to help out. It was a lot of fun and I think Jason and the team did an incredible job.
Have you met Peter Jackson and do you see him as the ultimate Kiwi role model?
I have met some of his major long-time collaborators like Richard Taylor (production designer) who...
I didn’t play a street demon; I am a street demon. The film community in Nz is small enough for most active people to know most other active people – but the genre scene is small enough for us all to know each other by at least one degree of separation. Many of my friends worked on or acted in Deathgasm and they needed a night shoot of ‘street demons’ so I donned my tie-dye and offered to help out. It was a lot of fun and I think Jason and the team did an incredible job.
Have you met Peter Jackson and do you see him as the ultimate Kiwi role model?
I have met some of his major long-time collaborators like Richard Taylor (production designer) who...
- 8/16/2018
- by Phil Wheat
- Nerdly
“Jim’s vision was always so much bigger than what we created for the first film.”
Visual effects studio Weta Digital have announced it has begun work on the four Avatar sequels.
The Oscar-winning New Zealand-based facility created by Peter Jackson, Richard Taylor, and Jamie Selkirk worked on the original film, which grossed $2.7bn at the worldwide box office.
Joe Letteri is the current director of Weta Digital.
James Cameron said in a statement: “What Joe Letteri and Weta Digital bring to these stories is impossible to quantify. Since we made Avatar, Weta continued to prove themselves as doing the best CG animation, the most human, the most alive, the most photo-realistic effects in the world. And of course, that now means I can push them to take it even further.”
Avatar producer Jon Landau said the four sequels “promise to be even more ambitious than the first film”.
Letteri added: “Avatar is the ideal type of...
Visual effects studio Weta Digital have announced it has begun work on the four Avatar sequels.
The Oscar-winning New Zealand-based facility created by Peter Jackson, Richard Taylor, and Jamie Selkirk worked on the original film, which grossed $2.7bn at the worldwide box office.
Joe Letteri is the current director of Weta Digital.
James Cameron said in a statement: “What Joe Letteri and Weta Digital bring to these stories is impossible to quantify. Since we made Avatar, Weta continued to prove themselves as doing the best CG animation, the most human, the most alive, the most photo-realistic effects in the world. And of course, that now means I can push them to take it even further.”
Avatar producer Jon Landau said the four sequels “promise to be even more ambitious than the first film”.
Letteri added: “Avatar is the ideal type of...
- 7/31/2017
- by orlando.parfitt@screendaily.com (Orlando Parfitt)
- ScreenDaily
Wellington, New Zealand — A crate full of sushi arrives. Workers wearing wetsuit shirts or in bare feet bustle past with slim laptops. With days to go, a buzzing intensity fills the once-dilapidated warehouses where Peter Jackson's visual-effects studio is rushing to finish the opening film in "The Hobbit" trilogy.
The fevered pace at the Weta Digital studio near Wellington will last nearly until the actors walk the red carpet Nov. 28 for the world premiere. But after "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" hits theaters, there's more work to be done.
Weta Digital is the centerpiece of a filmmaking empire that Jackson and close collaborators have built in his New Zealand hometown, realizing his dream of bringing a slice of Hollywood to Wellington. It's a one-stop shop for making major movies – not only his own, but other blockbusters like "Avatar" and "The Avengers" and hoped-for blockbusters like next year's "Man of Steel.
The fevered pace at the Weta Digital studio near Wellington will last nearly until the actors walk the red carpet Nov. 28 for the world premiere. But after "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" hits theaters, there's more work to be done.
Weta Digital is the centerpiece of a filmmaking empire that Jackson and close collaborators have built in his New Zealand hometown, realizing his dream of bringing a slice of Hollywood to Wellington. It's a one-stop shop for making major movies – not only his own, but other blockbusters like "Avatar" and "The Avengers" and hoped-for blockbusters like next year's "Man of Steel.
- 11/25/2012
- by AP
- Huffington Post
Sweeeeeeeeeet. The image above is pulled from the newly launched official website for the 2012 adaptation of Kenneth Grahame's wonderful book, "The Wind in the Willows," adapted and directed by Ray Griggs. New Zealand-based effects studio Weta, founded by Peter Jackson, Richard Taylor and Jamie Selkirk in 1993, is handling the visuals for the CG-animated flick. The story follows four animal friends, one of whom is named Toad (guess which animal he is). Toad loves automobiles and is a very, very dangerous driver. He's also the inspiration for Disney World's greatest ride ever, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.
The teaser that you can view at the website linked above gives you a first look at Toad and not much else. There's no story, no dialogue, no anything... just a flying camera and a dark, woodland setting. It's enough for me though-- I look forward to seeing more. What do you readers think?...
The teaser that you can view at the website linked above gives you a first look at Toad and not much else. There's no story, no dialogue, no anything... just a flying camera and a dark, woodland setting. It's enough for me though-- I look forward to seeing more. What do you readers think?...
- 7/16/2010
- by Adam Rosenberg
- MTV Movies Blog
Richard Taylor is the co-founder and co-director of the celebrated New Zealand-based Weta companies. He is the creative director of the Weta Workshop that he started with his partner Tania over 20 years ago. They wanted to develop a special effects company for the local film and TV businesses in New Zealand. Over the years, they worked on the films of New Zealand director Peter Jackson. Jackson, Taylor and producer Jamie Selkirk then joined together and became the co-directors of Weta. The company created special effects for ads and many TV programs. Weta Workshop has become famous for their work on Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy movies. Workshop staffers worked on the design, fabrication and on-set...
- 4/18/2010
- by Sue Klasky
- Monsters and Critics
King Kong
The gorilla is great, the girl terrific, sets are out of this world, creatures icky as hell, and the director clearly does not believe in the word "enough." The new "King Kong" from Peter Jackson is both the measure of what striking images the world's most imaginative filmmakers can now put onscreen with digital effects, motion capture, models and miniatures and the drawback to these very toys.
Firmly believing that nothing succeeds like excess, Jackson and an army of technicians up the visual-effects ante with each passing minute. The wonder and excitement this initially inspires ebb gradually away in the third hour. It never completely disappears -- the movie does have a wow finale, after all. But expect debates to break out in theater lobbies over that blurry line between tongue-in-cheek exaggeration and directorial self-indulgence.
Following up on the triumph of his "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, Jackson has a slam-dunk worldwide boxoffice hit in "Kong". This is spectacle filmmaking at its best, where a director is in tune with the story's underlying emotions and his own boyish love for adventure fantasy. While sticking in outline to the 1933 classic by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, Jackson has added (and padded) the tale with action sequences, knowing dialogue and plot twists that wink back at audiences familiar with the original.
Jackson and longtime co-writers Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens envelop you in a world of movies: "Kong" is not just a remake of an old film but a movie about the making of such a movie. Realizing memories of the original linger in the minds of many, the writers retain the Depression-era setting while turning the voyage to Skull Island into a movie-making expedition.
Jack Black plays a risk-taking, Orson Wellesian producer-director, Carl Denham, who books a tramp steamer to uncharted South Pacific territory in hopes of turning out a travelogue/adventure film. When backers get the jitters and his actress takes a powder, he suddenly needs to bundle the crew aboard ship with a new actress overnight.
He persuades down-on-her-luck vaudevillian Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts) to slip into the other actress' costumes -- both are size 4 -- to star opposite B-movie leading man Bruce Baxter (Kyle Chandler, having great fun with the part). Denham all but kidnaps hot young playwright-turned-film-scenarist Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody). Because no cabin is available, Jack must hammer out the script in a cage meant for dangerous animals in the ship's hold, one of several amusing digs at the movie business throughout "Kong".
The crew consists of testy Capt. Englehorn (Thomas Kretschmann), his level-headed assistant Preston (Colin Hanks), the eager youngster Jimmy (Jamie Bell) and the young man's steady minder in first mate Hayes (Evan Parke). Even during the ocean voyage, where mostly character development is taking place, Jackson builds tension through the steady beats of moving engine pistons, crew members sucking on cigarettes, fearful glances out to sea and composer James Newton Howard's musical swells.
On Skull Island, where the ship runs aground in a fog bank, the CGI really kicks in. The exaggerated topography takes in the fossilized remains of an ancient civilization, twisted and deformed vegetation, skulls and bones everywhere and ominous deep chasms spanned by rotting tree trunks, all this crawling with predatory life forms.
In an encounter with frightening-looking aborigines, the natives capture Ann to use as a sacrifice to the island's No. 1 Alpha male. Kong doesn't put in an appearance until the 70-minute mark, but he lives up to his billing. Jackson's go-to guy for live performance capture, Andy Serkis -- he played Gollum in "Rings" -- "acts" the Kong role, bringing a welter of emotions to his facial expressions and body contortions while encased in a gorilla muscle suit. Using the motion capture, Kong is then rendered on the screen with digital animation and miniature environments enhanced with CG matte paintings.
The courtship begins in earnest when Ann becomes the first eatable creature to ever provoke Kong's interest. In desperation for her life, Ann performs her vaudeville routines for the gorilla. This key relationship then develops logically and even whimsically. She represents to him a respite from brutality and killing while she recognizes in him the years of loneliness and ferocity that has lead to his "anger issues."
Surprisingly, the visual effects on the isle are sometimes shaky. A fight between Kong and three T. Rex beasts goes on too long. A Brontosaurus stampede with actors running here and there among huge feet is phony looking, a puzzling lapse from a director in love with visual effects. A sequence involving huge sucking, biting, burrowing, devouring creatures and Jimmy machine-gunning them off the bodies of his compatriots is downright silly.
After Kong's capture and journey to wintry New York -- How? Not in that bucket of rusty bolts! -- the movie is ready for a somewhat anti-climactic third act. The filmmakers do manage a charming interlude before the Big Guy's rendezvous with the Empire State Building; he and Ann disengage from mayhem in Manhattan for a friendly slip-slide on the ice in Central Park. Then, in the final moments atop the tower, the movie does achieve a sense of the tragedy in the huge animal's inescapable death.
Watts is such a good actress that she can scream as well as Fay Wray in the original while vesting a B-movie character with genuine integrity and truth. Brody disappears from time to time but makes an effective counterbalance To Kong for the affections of Ann, a sort of Arthur Miller-ish intellectual wooing the blond actress. Black's filmmaker is fun but too shallowly conceived, making him little more than a collection of cliches about Hollywood insincerity and callousness.
Arguably, the film's most stunning achievement is its re-creation of 1933 New York in 3-D, which allows the movie to fly anywhere in this virtual city. Meanwhile, designer Grant Major re-created a city set that reportedly occupied seven acres of the New Zealand film studio while capturing the grit and glitz of Manhattan in the Depression. Cinematographer Andrew Lesnie gives everything a soft vintage glow, as in an old postcard, while Howard's music feels as if it were lifted from a 1933 movie.
KING KONG
Universal Pictures
A Wingnut Films production
Credits:
Director: Peter Jackson
Screenwriters: Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson
Based on the story by: Merian C. Cooper, Edgar Wallace
Producers: Jan Blenkin, Carolynne Cunningham, Fran Walsh, Peter Jackson
Director of photography: Andrew Lesnie
Production designer: Grant Major
Music: James Newton Howard
Co-producers: Philippa Boyens, Eileen Moran
Costumes: Terry Ryan
Editors: Jamie Selkirk, Jabez Olssen
Cast:
Ann Darrow: Naomi Watts
Carl Denham: Jack Black
Jack Driscoll: Adrien Brody
Capt. Englehorn: Thomas Kretschmann
Preston: Colin Hanks
Kong/Lumpy: Andy Serkis
Hayes: Evan Parke
Jimmy: Jamie Bell
MPAA rating PG-13
Running time 188 minutes...
Firmly believing that nothing succeeds like excess, Jackson and an army of technicians up the visual-effects ante with each passing minute. The wonder and excitement this initially inspires ebb gradually away in the third hour. It never completely disappears -- the movie does have a wow finale, after all. But expect debates to break out in theater lobbies over that blurry line between tongue-in-cheek exaggeration and directorial self-indulgence.
Following up on the triumph of his "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, Jackson has a slam-dunk worldwide boxoffice hit in "Kong". This is spectacle filmmaking at its best, where a director is in tune with the story's underlying emotions and his own boyish love for adventure fantasy. While sticking in outline to the 1933 classic by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, Jackson has added (and padded) the tale with action sequences, knowing dialogue and plot twists that wink back at audiences familiar with the original.
Jackson and longtime co-writers Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens envelop you in a world of movies: "Kong" is not just a remake of an old film but a movie about the making of such a movie. Realizing memories of the original linger in the minds of many, the writers retain the Depression-era setting while turning the voyage to Skull Island into a movie-making expedition.
Jack Black plays a risk-taking, Orson Wellesian producer-director, Carl Denham, who books a tramp steamer to uncharted South Pacific territory in hopes of turning out a travelogue/adventure film. When backers get the jitters and his actress takes a powder, he suddenly needs to bundle the crew aboard ship with a new actress overnight.
He persuades down-on-her-luck vaudevillian Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts) to slip into the other actress' costumes -- both are size 4 -- to star opposite B-movie leading man Bruce Baxter (Kyle Chandler, having great fun with the part). Denham all but kidnaps hot young playwright-turned-film-scenarist Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody). Because no cabin is available, Jack must hammer out the script in a cage meant for dangerous animals in the ship's hold, one of several amusing digs at the movie business throughout "Kong".
The crew consists of testy Capt. Englehorn (Thomas Kretschmann), his level-headed assistant Preston (Colin Hanks), the eager youngster Jimmy (Jamie Bell) and the young man's steady minder in first mate Hayes (Evan Parke). Even during the ocean voyage, where mostly character development is taking place, Jackson builds tension through the steady beats of moving engine pistons, crew members sucking on cigarettes, fearful glances out to sea and composer James Newton Howard's musical swells.
On Skull Island, where the ship runs aground in a fog bank, the CGI really kicks in. The exaggerated topography takes in the fossilized remains of an ancient civilization, twisted and deformed vegetation, skulls and bones everywhere and ominous deep chasms spanned by rotting tree trunks, all this crawling with predatory life forms.
In an encounter with frightening-looking aborigines, the natives capture Ann to use as a sacrifice to the island's No. 1 Alpha male. Kong doesn't put in an appearance until the 70-minute mark, but he lives up to his billing. Jackson's go-to guy for live performance capture, Andy Serkis -- he played Gollum in "Rings" -- "acts" the Kong role, bringing a welter of emotions to his facial expressions and body contortions while encased in a gorilla muscle suit. Using the motion capture, Kong is then rendered on the screen with digital animation and miniature environments enhanced with CG matte paintings.
The courtship begins in earnest when Ann becomes the first eatable creature to ever provoke Kong's interest. In desperation for her life, Ann performs her vaudeville routines for the gorilla. This key relationship then develops logically and even whimsically. She represents to him a respite from brutality and killing while she recognizes in him the years of loneliness and ferocity that has lead to his "anger issues."
Surprisingly, the visual effects on the isle are sometimes shaky. A fight between Kong and three T. Rex beasts goes on too long. A Brontosaurus stampede with actors running here and there among huge feet is phony looking, a puzzling lapse from a director in love with visual effects. A sequence involving huge sucking, biting, burrowing, devouring creatures and Jimmy machine-gunning them off the bodies of his compatriots is downright silly.
After Kong's capture and journey to wintry New York -- How? Not in that bucket of rusty bolts! -- the movie is ready for a somewhat anti-climactic third act. The filmmakers do manage a charming interlude before the Big Guy's rendezvous with the Empire State Building; he and Ann disengage from mayhem in Manhattan for a friendly slip-slide on the ice in Central Park. Then, in the final moments atop the tower, the movie does achieve a sense of the tragedy in the huge animal's inescapable death.
Watts is such a good actress that she can scream as well as Fay Wray in the original while vesting a B-movie character with genuine integrity and truth. Brody disappears from time to time but makes an effective counterbalance To Kong for the affections of Ann, a sort of Arthur Miller-ish intellectual wooing the blond actress. Black's filmmaker is fun but too shallowly conceived, making him little more than a collection of cliches about Hollywood insincerity and callousness.
Arguably, the film's most stunning achievement is its re-creation of 1933 New York in 3-D, which allows the movie to fly anywhere in this virtual city. Meanwhile, designer Grant Major re-created a city set that reportedly occupied seven acres of the New Zealand film studio while capturing the grit and glitz of Manhattan in the Depression. Cinematographer Andrew Lesnie gives everything a soft vintage glow, as in an old postcard, while Howard's music feels as if it were lifted from a 1933 movie.
KING KONG
Universal Pictures
A Wingnut Films production
Credits:
Director: Peter Jackson
Screenwriters: Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson
Based on the story by: Merian C. Cooper, Edgar Wallace
Producers: Jan Blenkin, Carolynne Cunningham, Fran Walsh, Peter Jackson
Director of photography: Andrew Lesnie
Production designer: Grant Major
Music: James Newton Howard
Co-producers: Philippa Boyens, Eileen Moran
Costumes: Terry Ryan
Editors: Jamie Selkirk, Jabez Olssen
Cast:
Ann Darrow: Naomi Watts
Carl Denham: Jack Black
Jack Driscoll: Adrien Brody
Capt. Englehorn: Thomas Kretschmann
Preston: Colin Hanks
Kong/Lumpy: Andy Serkis
Hayes: Evan Parke
Jimmy: Jamie Bell
MPAA rating PG-13
Running time 188 minutes...
- 1/9/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
New soundstage added to Jackson's N.Z. empire
WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- New Zealand's biggest international soundstage was officially opened Wednesday by Prime Minister Helen Clark. The NZ$10 million ($7.2 million), 24,500 square foot facility is the newest addition to Peter Jackson's Camperdown Studios complex in Wellington and is where he has just wrapped King Kong. Camperdown is co-owned by Jackson's fellow Oscar-winners for The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Richard Taylor and Jamie Selkirk.
- 4/13/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Editors discuss state of their art
The art of editing and advances in edit systems were the topics foremost on the minds of the Oscar-nominated editors participating in the fourth annual Invisible Art/Visible Artists seminar organized by American Cinema Editors. Panelists included City of God cutter Daniel Rezende, Cold Mountain's Walter Murch, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King editor Jamie Selkirk, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World editor Lee Smith and Seabiscuit editor William Goldenberg. The panel opened to a standing-room crowd Saturday morning at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood and was moderated by Alan Heim. The Oscar-winning editor played a clip from All That Jazz (1979) showing Roy Scheider spooling film on a now dated Moviola editing system. The clip inspired a discussion on the evolving nature of edit systems.
- 2/29/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
'King' earns Eddie's honor
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King added another notch on its awards-season belt Sunday as the final installment of Peter Jackson's epic trilogy earned the American Cinema Editors' honor for dramatic feature. King editor Jamie Selkirk, on hand for the 2004 ACE Eddie Awards ceremony at the Beverly Hills Hotel, praised the "fantastic" direction and script delivered by Jackson and his team and called his work on the LOTR features during the past six years a "wonderful experience." He also noted dryly how much of a gamble the undertaking was for all involved. "It would have been a bit of a disaster if the first one had failed," Selkirk said. The trio of Craig Wood, Stephen Rivkin and Arthur Schmidt got the nod for comedy/musical feature for cutting the Johnny Depp swashbuckler Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. The documentary trophy went to Yana Gorskaya for Spellbound, a chronicle of the national spelling-bee competition.
- 2/16/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Opens Wed., Dec. 17
NEW YORK -- An epic success and a history-making production that finishes with a masterfully entertaining final installment, New Line Cinema's adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" is a soaring legend in its own day and destined to be cherished for many ages to come. "The Return of the King" is the longest and most complicated of the three "Rings" films and probably fated to be the biggest moneymaker. Sure to be an Oscar contender in many categories and a breathtaking argument for director Peter Jackson winning every award there is to give, "King" has none of the usual deficiencies that frequently scuttle third films.
Opening unexpectedly with a flashback to the day when the twisted Gollum was a healthy Hobbit-like fisherman named Smeagol (Andy Serkis), who commits murder to possess the powerful One Ring, "King" deftly resumes the story after the events of "The Two Towers". After a brief encounter with the talking lord of the forest Treebeard (voiced by John Rhys-Davies), Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), Theoden (Bernard Hill) and other survivors of the Battle of Helm's Deep go to ravished Isengard. Within minutes, we're reintroduced to the many characters, including Hobbits Merry (Dominic Monaghan) and Pippin (Billy Boyd), Rohan fighters Eomer (Karl Urban) and Eowyn (Miranda Otto), Faramir (David Wenham) of Gondor and the one new human character, Denethor (John Noble), the Steward of Minas Tirith, site of the next great showdown between the mighty forces of evil Sauron and the free peoples of Middle Earth.
Frodo and Sam (Elijah Wood and Sean Astin), guided by the vengeful Gollum (again a wondrous combination of special effects and Serkis' inspired performance), finally enter Mordor, but the divisive influence of the Ring almost ends the fellowship of the two heroic Hobbits. When the three infiltrators pass by Minas Morgul (the dead city where the Nazgul reside), they watch another army of Sauron march to battle under the command of the Witch-king.
Eventually, this Black Captain of the Nazgul, who rides one of the dragonlike beasts first seen in "Towers", has a fight with Eowyn and Merry in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, outside the walls of Minas Tirith, that readers have been waiting decades to see. It's a gloriously crowd-pleasing moment, while overall the lengthy siege is tremendously exciting and visually unparalleled.
Huge elephantlike Mumakil and trolls pushing the giant battering ram known as Grond join hordes of Orcs in a gargantuan assault on Minas Tirith, a fight which faithless Denethor turns away from when he gives into fear and fatherly pride by sending Faramir to certain death. It's the leadership-tested Gandalf (Ian McKellen) who commands the defense of the city. Although Denethor comes off too as enigmatic compared to the original material, he sure has a spectacular final scene.
Jackson and co-writers Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh make noteworthy departures from Tolkien, including such crucial moments as what happens when Frodo is finally standing on a ledge over the Crack of Doom inside the volcano where the ring must be destroyed, and how Aragorn makes use of the Army of the Dead that only he can command. Whole swaths of the book have been condensed and eliminated, but Jackson and company usually realize splendidly whatever they take on.
There are only brief moments with the saga's Elvish beauties: Arwen (Liv Tyler) refuses to abandon Aragorn. Galadriel (Cate Blanchett) makes a crucial connection with Frodo near the story's climax. Dwarf fighter Gimli (Rhys-Davies) provides much-appreciated humor with his sarcastic remarks. Fearless Elf bowman Legolas (Orlando Bloom) delivers the best battlefield action, while wise Elrond (Hugo Weaving) provides Aragorn with the restored sword that defeated Sauron long ago.
The thunderous conclusion to the story of the Ring that includes the end of Frodo's journey and the battle outside the Black Gate winds down to a sublime denouement, leaving only 20 minutes to wrap up when Tolkien took a hundred pages. The extended DVD should bind "King" and the other two films into one awesome movie deserving of regular revivals in theaters. But who can resist right now a classic fantasy adventure that never drags and is simply ravishing to look at thanks to the thousands of craftsmen, performers, animals and postproduction refiners?
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING
New Line Cinema
Wingnut Films
Credits:
Director: Peter Jackson
Screenwriters: Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson
Based on the book by: J.R.R. Tolkien
Producers: Barrie M. Osborne, Fran Walsh, Peter Jackson
Executive producers: Robert Shaye, Michael Lynne, Mark Ordesky, Bob Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein
Director of photography: Andrew Lesnie
Production designer: Grant Major
Editors: Jamie Selkirk, Annie Collins
Costume designers: Ngila Dickson, Richard Taylor
Music: Howard Shore
Visual effects supervisor: Jim Rygiel
Cast:
Frodo: Elijah Wood
Gandalf: Ian McKellen
Gollum/Smeagol: Andy Serkis
Aragon: Viggo Mortensen
Sam: Sean Astin
Gimli/Voice of Treebeard: John Rhys-Davies
Merry: Dominic Monaghan
Pippin: Billy Boyd
Arwen: Liv Tyler
Legolas: Orlando Bloom
Elrond: Hugo Weaving
King Theoden: Bernard Hill
Faramir: David Wenham
Eowyn: Miranda Otto
Eomer: Karl Urban
Denethor: John Noble
Galadriel: Cate Blanchett
Running time -- 200 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
NEW YORK -- An epic success and a history-making production that finishes with a masterfully entertaining final installment, New Line Cinema's adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" is a soaring legend in its own day and destined to be cherished for many ages to come. "The Return of the King" is the longest and most complicated of the three "Rings" films and probably fated to be the biggest moneymaker. Sure to be an Oscar contender in many categories and a breathtaking argument for director Peter Jackson winning every award there is to give, "King" has none of the usual deficiencies that frequently scuttle third films.
Opening unexpectedly with a flashback to the day when the twisted Gollum was a healthy Hobbit-like fisherman named Smeagol (Andy Serkis), who commits murder to possess the powerful One Ring, "King" deftly resumes the story after the events of "The Two Towers". After a brief encounter with the talking lord of the forest Treebeard (voiced by John Rhys-Davies), Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), Theoden (Bernard Hill) and other survivors of the Battle of Helm's Deep go to ravished Isengard. Within minutes, we're reintroduced to the many characters, including Hobbits Merry (Dominic Monaghan) and Pippin (Billy Boyd), Rohan fighters Eomer (Karl Urban) and Eowyn (Miranda Otto), Faramir (David Wenham) of Gondor and the one new human character, Denethor (John Noble), the Steward of Minas Tirith, site of the next great showdown between the mighty forces of evil Sauron and the free peoples of Middle Earth.
Frodo and Sam (Elijah Wood and Sean Astin), guided by the vengeful Gollum (again a wondrous combination of special effects and Serkis' inspired performance), finally enter Mordor, but the divisive influence of the Ring almost ends the fellowship of the two heroic Hobbits. When the three infiltrators pass by Minas Morgul (the dead city where the Nazgul reside), they watch another army of Sauron march to battle under the command of the Witch-king.
Eventually, this Black Captain of the Nazgul, who rides one of the dragonlike beasts first seen in "Towers", has a fight with Eowyn and Merry in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, outside the walls of Minas Tirith, that readers have been waiting decades to see. It's a gloriously crowd-pleasing moment, while overall the lengthy siege is tremendously exciting and visually unparalleled.
Huge elephantlike Mumakil and trolls pushing the giant battering ram known as Grond join hordes of Orcs in a gargantuan assault on Minas Tirith, a fight which faithless Denethor turns away from when he gives into fear and fatherly pride by sending Faramir to certain death. It's the leadership-tested Gandalf (Ian McKellen) who commands the defense of the city. Although Denethor comes off too as enigmatic compared to the original material, he sure has a spectacular final scene.
Jackson and co-writers Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh make noteworthy departures from Tolkien, including such crucial moments as what happens when Frodo is finally standing on a ledge over the Crack of Doom inside the volcano where the ring must be destroyed, and how Aragorn makes use of the Army of the Dead that only he can command. Whole swaths of the book have been condensed and eliminated, but Jackson and company usually realize splendidly whatever they take on.
There are only brief moments with the saga's Elvish beauties: Arwen (Liv Tyler) refuses to abandon Aragorn. Galadriel (Cate Blanchett) makes a crucial connection with Frodo near the story's climax. Dwarf fighter Gimli (Rhys-Davies) provides much-appreciated humor with his sarcastic remarks. Fearless Elf bowman Legolas (Orlando Bloom) delivers the best battlefield action, while wise Elrond (Hugo Weaving) provides Aragorn with the restored sword that defeated Sauron long ago.
The thunderous conclusion to the story of the Ring that includes the end of Frodo's journey and the battle outside the Black Gate winds down to a sublime denouement, leaving only 20 minutes to wrap up when Tolkien took a hundred pages. The extended DVD should bind "King" and the other two films into one awesome movie deserving of regular revivals in theaters. But who can resist right now a classic fantasy adventure that never drags and is simply ravishing to look at thanks to the thousands of craftsmen, performers, animals and postproduction refiners?
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING
New Line Cinema
Wingnut Films
Credits:
Director: Peter Jackson
Screenwriters: Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson
Based on the book by: J.R.R. Tolkien
Producers: Barrie M. Osborne, Fran Walsh, Peter Jackson
Executive producers: Robert Shaye, Michael Lynne, Mark Ordesky, Bob Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein
Director of photography: Andrew Lesnie
Production designer: Grant Major
Editors: Jamie Selkirk, Annie Collins
Costume designers: Ngila Dickson, Richard Taylor
Music: Howard Shore
Visual effects supervisor: Jim Rygiel
Cast:
Frodo: Elijah Wood
Gandalf: Ian McKellen
Gollum/Smeagol: Andy Serkis
Aragon: Viggo Mortensen
Sam: Sean Astin
Gimli/Voice of Treebeard: John Rhys-Davies
Merry: Dominic Monaghan
Pippin: Billy Boyd
Arwen: Liv Tyler
Legolas: Orlando Bloom
Elrond: Hugo Weaving
King Theoden: Bernard Hill
Faramir: David Wenham
Eowyn: Miranda Otto
Eomer: Karl Urban
Denethor: John Noble
Galadriel: Cate Blanchett
Running time -- 200 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
- 2/6/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
ACE splices together Eddie noms
The picture cutting that most impressed the American Cinema Editors this year includes a vivid Civil War battlefield sequence, a poignant karaoke crooning party, at least two battles on the high seas, a heroic soccer competition and a nail-biting national spelling bee intercut with scenes of parental angst. As a prelude to the 54th annual ACE Eddie Awards, the board of directors of the honorary Hollywood society announced the prime cuts in seven categories. Competing in the best edited dramatic feature film race are Walter Murch for Miramax's Cold Mountain, Jamie Selkirk for New Line Cinema's The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Lee Smith for 20th Century Fox's Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Joel Cox for Warner Bros. Pictures' Mystic River and William Goldenberg for Universal Pictures' Seabiscuit.
- 1/14/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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