LOTR Doc Cut Without Consent of Director
Filed under: Documentary, Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, New Line, Home Entertainment, Remakes and Sequels
According to their director, the brand-new documentaries that appear on the Lord of the Rings special edition DVDs Scott told us about a couple of week ago have been edited without his input or consent. Costa Botes claims that he was essentially locked out of the editing room when New Line went to work on his docs. The director shot over 800 hours of footage during his unrestricted access to Peter Jackson's film sets, and seems to have produced his own final cut, which he then turned over to the studio. There was some footage, however, to which they objected, including a scene of orcs singing Stand By Me (Not too creepy, but the rights to the song were too expensive.), other shots that involved music (presumably for the same reason) and footage of the tops of New Zealand's Mt Ruapehu and Mt Ngauruhoe, which are apparently sacred to the country's indigenous Maori's people.So yeah, it sounds like the cuts were made for practical reasons, rather than in an effort to hide on-set debauchery or something -- no scandal here. The most troubling thing about The Guardian's report on Botes, really, is the fact that his deal with New Line means that he'll get NO ROYALTIES from sales of the DVDs featuring his work. Doh!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-03-2006 @ 7:57PM
marty said...
What idiot would sign a deal where he gets no royalties after shooting 800 hours of documentary footage and then editing it all? Even if he received .00005% of gross DVD sales, he would be set for life!
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7-04-2006 @ 2:18AM
Earl Carvalho said...
Well, in my opinion, you really can't put a price on having complete behind the scenes access to The Lord Of The Rings sets (and whatever else), right from Prologue to Epilogue (not to mention everything in-between). Mr.Botes does have a right to feel how he feels, but I wouldn't exactly say he was an "idiot" to do everything for nothing. There's many who would pay and not ask to be paid to do what he did. I would (assuming I had the cash, of course).
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7-04-2006 @ 3:57AM
Elrond Hobbert said...
Feh- "THE DIRECTOR" gimme a break. This is standard b-roll footage and every big film has a yahoo running a camera. Please don't tell me the auteur theory is coming for BTS hacks. All ya gotta do is keep DV tape in the camera. C'mon...
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