Background | Credit Cate Blanchett | Image Gallery | The Cate Blanchett Library |
News | Cate Blanchett Interactive | Email Us | Links | Back to Main

	LOTR News 26-6-00 LOTR NEWS UPDATE Hi everyone! Our Cate has a few things to say regarding LOTR in the July issue of Vogue (US): The films she’s currently shooting in New Zealand are very big-budget, indeed. J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, which Peter Jackson is directing. “I’m really looking forward to it”, she says, “because it’s not a territory I’ve ever stepped into before technically.” I (journalist Vicki Woods) search my memory for female roles and remember that it was an hombre kind of series. Gandalf? Frodo? Bilbo Baggins? Whom does she play? “Galadriel” I don’t recall Galadriel. “Queen of the elves”, she says. “Small but significant”. Hmmm. Not nearly significant enough to break the $20 million barrier, even if she’s already been fitted for prosthetic elf’s ears. “What do you want that much money for”, she challenges. A small silence grows (during which I think busily about what you or I, personally, might want that much money for. “I can pay my electricity bills”, she continues. “I can afford to…fly home and spend time with my…” Blanchett takes forever to come to the point and constantly veers off at angles. Offscreen, her voice is agonizingly slow and she’s the best deliverer of the unfinished sentence I have ever met. She likes to leave things half-formed, curling through the air, like cigar smoke. Eventually, she says, “But who knows? In five years’ time, if I’m placed in that position, then I’ll have to make those choices. But I’m not actually creating those choices.” According to the Evening Post, cast and crew of the $360 million The Lord of the Rings film trilogy are taking a break from filming. Filming will resume on July 24. During the break, five of the stars (but not our Cate) and the producer will be guests at Queenstown's Winter Festival. American actor Elijah Wood, who plays the hobbit Frodo Baggins, Sean Austin, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Orlando Bloom and producer Barrie Osborne will be guests of honor at the festival's Hollywood ball on July 21. In the June 30th issue of Entertainment Weekly magazine, Peter Jackson was listed on their annual "It" list as the "It Hobbit Wrangler". The article: Age:38 Why him? After building a critical rep with edgy, quirky features like Heavenly Creatures and The Frighteners, the New Zealand filmmaker is doing something no director has done before: shooting the big, expensive, F/X-heavy three part adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings back to back-to-back (total scheduled on-set time:14 months), due in theaters for the holidays 2001, 2002, and 2003, respectively. Work Ritual: When exhausted from the "grueling length of the shoot," which started last October, Jackson asks himself, "'Is there anything else I'd truly rather be doing?' I always say 'No.'" Influential Movie: King Kong. "It transported me 100 percent into another world." Biggest creative crutch on Rings: "Having wonderful source material." On-set Mantra: "Make it feel real. That’s off for now. We’ll leave you with this stunning advance flyer from New Line. See you next time! LOTR News 7-5-00 E! Online's latest "Ask the Insider" turned its attention to "LOTR" this past week. Some of the Q&A: Music and songs are a big part of LOTR. Any news on the score for the movies? Will the characters be singing any of the songs that appear in the books? No formal announcements yet, but Peter Jackson had mentioned previously that he's interested in music with a Celtic theme, keeping with his vision of LOTR as a historical drama set in prehistoric Europe. Canadian folksinger Loreena McKennitt and James Horner (composer of the Titanic soundtrack) are rumored to have been approached, but nothing has been finalized. Frodo and some of the other characters will sing a few songs, but they'll probably be short tunes to save film time. And when the merchandising dust settles, it's safe to say there may be a soundtrack album--or three--available. Will animation be used as well as live action? The answer is no, and if you've seen Ralph Bakshi's disastrous 1978 version of LOTR, you know why. Most of the Hobbits, Elves, dwarfs and humans are being played by real actors in Jackson's trilogy. But many of the effects and some of the characters (including Gollum and the trolls) will be computer generated. Did Tolkien's estate have any say in the script? Tolkien's estate approved the project, but it has no direct involvement with the script. However, Tolkien's illustrators, Alan Lee and John Howe, are working as conceptual artists. Will Bilbo's original adventure from The Hobbit be handled as a flashback? Not likely. Ian Holm's Bilbo is very much as Tolkien writes about him in the novels--middle-aged, eccentric and falling under the evil power of the Ring--and there are no plans to hire another actor to play a younger Bilbo for flashback sequences. In the books, Bilbo's story is narrated at the Council of Rivendell, and Gandalf and/or Bilbo may narrate some of this story in the Rivendell scenes in the film. Of course, if it's flashbacks you crave, certain controlled substances used in conjunction with the previously mentioned Bakshi version may do the trick. The New Zealand Press offered this LOTR casting news story: Ringing around for elves, warriors (WELLINGTON) -- Lord of the Rings casting director Liz Mullane has unexpectedly and publicly opened the doors for new extras wanting to find a place in the Peter Jackson-directed film trilogy. Mullane, fresh from accompanying the films' massive cast at shooting on Mount Ruapehu, could be seen back on the streets of Wellington looking out for talent. Issuing an invitation to a new batch of hopefuls - "the more the better"; - to present themselves between 11am and 3pm at the New Zealand Dance and Drama centre in Wellington tomorrow and Sunday, she warned that this could be "the last opportunity". Unlike previous auditions, this latest search would be for specific body types: "Very tall, slim people, and soldier types". Mullane, well-known as a comedian on Issues, More Issues and That Comedy Show before she joined the Jackson team - said the need was mainly for elves and the warrior Uruk-hais. Elves were "tall and slim, very beautiful and stylish, 5ft 10in (1.8m) and over"; the soldier types should be of "good, fit sorts of build, 5ft 9in (1.75m) and over". Both men and women were wanted, though men were preferred for the soldiers. "Hobbits are out", Mullane said. "We have no need for children at this stage." As for those other types - "the more the better." "It could be a long process", she warned. "So bring a book." Also, this past week turned up the first industry trade ad for "LOTR" that we have seen. This ad, celebrating the huge success of the internet preview download, ran in VARIETY: Since we shared our LOTR industry ad with our pal Xoanon at TheOneRing.net, he was kind enough to share this bit involving an encounter with one of his "spies" and our Cate: Cate Talks Galadriel Cate Blanchett, aka Galadriel was recently spotted at a photo shoot for Vanity Fair in Hollywood. TheOneRing.net Spy, Cuthalion, managed to square off a few tender moments with our lovely Elven Queen to talk LOTR, this is what Cuthalion reports: (Cate) is PERFECT! When you are in the room with her, its like she's glowing. Her voice is perfect, her face is ageless. We are in luck. Also, Cate hasn't even had time to read the books in her busy schedule. She is listening to them on tape. A direct quote, on her role as Galadriel, "I hope I do it justice!" She says Peter Jackson is an amazing director. She had some preliminary pics from Alan Lee with her but was unable to retrieve them. She will start filming in a month. She is perfect and queenly! She is a stunning woman. We as Tolkien fans should be honored. She says elves will have general english accents, but with a welsh-ish sound, like tapping R's as such. Cate hasn't seen the internet preview, so I gave her lordoftherings.net. She hopes to download the internet trailer. That's all! We are blessed! Thanks to Cuthalion for the impromptu interview! And finally, as reported by Cinescape, Christopher Lee is back home in England after wrapping his scenes in the 'Lord of the Rings' project. While appearing on the UK's "Big Breakfast" morning show, Lee was asked about his opinion of the production. Lee is said to have answered, "It's sheer magic, and that's not something I say lightly." LOTR News 1-5-00 Our friends at Lord of the Rings Movie News passed on a story from Scoop this week: Early Snow Causes Problems "I wonder if this is a contrivance of the Enemy", said Boromir. "They say in my land he can govern the storms in the Mountains of Shadow that stand upon the border of Mordor. He has many powers and many allies." - The Fellowship of the Ring According to a report from Scoop, it looks like Jackson and company have run into a bit of trouble as an early snow in the Ruapehu area, where the Misty Mountain scenes are being shot, is making filming a bit more difficult. The following report of recent happenings in the Ruapehu area - the site of the latest filming of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy - was sent to Scoop by a recent visitor to the area. "Apparently the 700 crew have been filming last week (pre Easter) around Whakapapa. We went up to the skifield (top of the Bruce) and a lot of equipment, lighting rigs, cables, etcetera, were set up in Happy Valley skifield - at the time (Saturday), totally snowless, very rocky and misty, wonderfully atmospheric. Lots of trucks and boxes (well metal sheds) labelled "tech", a big lighting unit up on the ridge overlooking the happy valley skifield (that ridge that goes steeply down into the valley beyond - if you know the skifield). Also a big lighting boom/crane thing that looked like it was able to be swung around with a big light set on the end. Not a lot of people or security was seen, just some suspicious Wellington looking guy in a trench coat waving a polaroid. He wasn't saying anything. It kinda looked like there would be room to film mid range close-ups of people fighting, not panoramic, but body length, also room to pan down the skifield for charges etc. At the entrance to the skifield, there were a lot more trucks and sheds including a large Marquee tent. On Tuesday morning the ski lodge owner where we were staying said that this Marquee tent was Weta's 300 person costume tent and had been snowed under during the night, and part of it had collapsed causing damage. Also, he reckoned that it was going to stuff up the shooting schedule (....well thats unusual), as they were filming in areas that had no snow that were now covered (On Tuesday it snowed for several hours in the afternoon down to around 1000 feet I think, below Waitonga Falls, all the trees were covered, and everything was a bit dim, but extremely picturesque). The walking areas were all carefully fenced (metal stakes and "hotsite" plastic tape), and adjacent scrubby areas were carefully covered with green garden netting to protect them. I guess a fairly active skifield is also a good way to get around some of these issues. The lady at the Ohakune visistors centre said that they had been filming round Whakapapa that week, over Easter near Tukino and this week were moving round to film on the Turoa side of the mountain. Mostly the discussion was on the attendant lack of accommodation, in that everything was booked out. Mostly everyone's in motels though (especially film crew), not backpackers, though the ski lodge guy said that yeah they would put extras in places like this (one of the nicest backpackers I've been in), but even then they get there own room. Bloody Hollywood. Furthermore at the Powderhorn - the hippest bar in Ohakune - they kept closing the hot pool bar at 6pm because the lady said they had "very important guests upstairs" and because the noise travels and they didn't want to disturb them. In other news, our pal Xoanon at Onering.net retrieved a nice article from The Sun Herald on one of our faves, actress Miranda Otto, a fellow NIDA grad and co-star with Cate in LOTR. Off point, but if you've never seen the film, "Love Serenade", give it a go. Miranda is absolutely delightful as the awkward, rather goofy younger sister, Dimity. This article may be seen via scan in two parts. Miranda discusses losing the role in "Being John malkovich" to Cameron Diaz, and the LOTR shoot amongst other things so check it out @ Miranda Page One and Miranda Page Two. Catch ya next time!	EMAIL US Back to ACBO Aussie Cate Blanchett Online [ACBO] © 1999,2000 Lin, Dean, Lance. Heading design and layout by Lin. 800x600 screen size recommended. A proud Australian Site.