February 24, 2002

3:52 PM

Lord of the Rings sweeps BaftasIt must be wierd for Peter Jackson to be working on the final two acts of his trilogy when the first part is winning awards. I think this is what can be termed 'pressure to perform'.
posted by feelinglistless (9 comments total)

The two sequels are already in the can. So no pressure there, just relief that the completed trilogy will have an eager audience when the final two parts are released in December '02 and '03.
posted by Zurishaddai at 4:11 PM on February 24, 2002

The two sequels are not "in the can" -- there is still a large amount of post-production work still going on (visual effects, sound effects, music etc), and there are "pick ups" which will involve the primary actors still needed for The Two Towers and The Return of The King. It's expected that work will continue until the last minute -- as is the norm for big films like this.

Although, for tax purposes, the second film was finished by September last year -- purely so the foreign production companies can take advantage of a loophole in New Zealand tax law. The third film is being financed by a German firm taking advantage of a similar sort of loophole.
posted by John Shaft at 4:17 PM on February 24, 2002

> The two sequels are not "in the can"

Understood. I'm still glad Jackson and co. did it the way they did, shooting as much as possible as soon as possible. I can forgive Frodo for looking 14 when he's actually supposed to be 50 (i.e., per the book, the same age as Bilbo during the short back-to-Gollum's-cave flashback when Bilbo in fact looks fiftyish, or maybe a depraved 39) but I would not forgive him (by which I mean the "suspend disbelief" business, no, real problems there) for looking 14 when he should be 50 in movie #1, 15 when he should be 50.45 in movie #2, and 16 when he should be 50.997 in movie #3. Ghod knows what could happen to a poor teenager in two years. His nose mght get as long as Gandalf's. He might get terminal zits and die. It's happened.
posted by jfuller at 5:06 PM on February 24, 2002

The entire production company of this trilogy has had the pressure to perform from the get go. This is perhaps the single most anticipated project in cinematic history. Ever since Tolkien published his first book of the trilogy, ever since the first person read it, people have wanted to see it brought to the world in a visually stimulating form.

Awards don't change that. They are in fact part of the fruits of those labors. It tells them they got it right; that they're on the right track. Maybe some people will see these films after reading the books wishing something had be done differently, but with the technological prowess that mankind has achieved in the past century, now is the ideal time to get it as right as mankind can possibly get it.
posted by ZachsMind at 5:14 PM on February 24, 2002

jfuller, Frodo's appearance is in the movie isn't inaccurate"per the book". He stopped aging when he inherited the ring, right after passing his 'tween' years. Elijah Wood was 19-20 when filming (not 14).
posted by lhl at 6:21 PM on February 24, 2002

hmm, interesting. cut and paste error... correct url: http://www.tolkien-movies.com/forum/2001/05-23-01a.shtml
posted by lhl at 6:22 PM on February 24, 2002

not only that, but Elijah Wood isn't a teenager. He's 21, and probably past the awkward nose growing and terminal zits stage.
posted by David Dark at 6:32 PM on February 24, 2002

Only cause Tolkein was British......

Look at all international awards and the frequency with which their ties wins national contests.
posted by Mach3avelli at 7:00 PM on February 24, 2002

Does Wood only look 14, because of our tendency to cast adults as teenagers in movie after movie?
posted by KirkJobSluder at 6:56 AM on February 25, 2002