Lord of the Rings Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Slugging through the cold Monday morning, I took a moment to read the latest xkcd (a huge image through the link), and they've managed to boil some major cinematic experiences down into line charts. The latest installment of the web comic tackles Movie Narrative Charts; most specifically, the movie character interactions in Lord of the Rings, Star Wars (original trilogy), Jurassic Park, 12 Angry Men, and Primer.

The charts are actually a pretty intricate set of lines showing how each character progresses through the movie -- who they meet, and the main events and conflicts that take place. However, the big wow for me is in the overall look -- how that mass of lines evokes the same memories of confusion, or lack thereof, watching the films. There's the rolling but easy-to-follow storyline of Star Wars, the pure simplicity and ease of 12 Angry Men, and best of all -- the confusion of Lord of the Rings and Primer.

I could never get into the books, so watching Rings was an exercise in intrigued confusion -- trying to keep the characters straight, waiting for a slow moment to whisper a question, and trying to make sense of a thick storyline funneled into a film. And on the other end of the confusion spectrum, there's Primer -- the film that spins around and evokes stunned, hard-to-define confusion, the spiraling lines also mimicking a lot of the wide eyes of "what the f...?!" I saw after the film's screening at TIFF.

Sometimes it's terrible storytelling, sometimes it's confusion as an art form, and sometimes it's just the mind trying to deal with mass amounts of information. Xkcd managed to lay out some of the main moments of my cinematic confusion, but what are yours? What films leave you trying to follow and make sense of the narrative?

After a preview screening of District 9 -- by the way, make plans to go see that, right now. Seriously, stop what you're doing and clear your calendar on August 14 when the film opens -- we spent a couple of hours sitting down with Peter Jackson to talk about District 9, Halo The Hobbit, The Lovely Bones, and pretty much everything else he's working on. Plus, you won't believe what he does in his spare time. Suffice it to say, he's not cruising a luxury yacht around the world and eating caviar all day.

Read on beyond the jump for the full writeup of the event (which we were sadly not allowed to videotape), and to get all the goods. He also showed us four and a half minutes of footage from The Lovely Bones, which looks incredible. The trailer for that will be on iTunes on August 6th, and then will be playing in theaters in front of Julie & Julia. Jump through for all things Peter Jackson, including an update on all of his projects, and a rundown of his hobbies.

On Friday night at 7pm, after most fanboys had already fulfilled their quotient of nerdgasms and geek-freakouts, Peter Jackson and James Cameron appeared together at a panel hosted by Entertainment Weekly entitled "The Visionaries." Rather than just talking about their current projects, however, the two iconic filmmakers offered a sort of State of the Cinematic Union, addressing problems and challenges they face, even as they addressed a few rumors about what their respective futures hold.

The most important of their observations and revelations:

During the visionaries panel at Comic Con, Peter Jackson and James Cameron spoke about converting some of their older films to 3D -- specifically how Titanic is already going through the process, and how it's going to take about a year to fourteen months before it's completed. Thus, look for a huge re-launch of Titanic on the big screen in 3D at some point in 2011. If I were to wager a guess, I think they'll re-release it around the holidays and try to get as much bang for their buck as they can. Cameron says he's seen a couple of minutes converted and so far it "looks spectacular." Personally, I don't know how cool a film like Titanic would look in 3D. Maybe the last hour would look decent; the shot of the ship right before it breaks in half would look pretty wicked, but other than that ... eh.

Meanwhile, Peter Jackson was asked the same 3D question with regards to his Lord of the Rings franchise. Will that be getting the 3D conversion treatment as well? Unfortunately, it sounds like Warner Bros. isn't ready to commit to the conversion. Though Jackson wants all three films in 3D and has suggested it to the studio, they're hesitant either because there aren't enough 3D screens yet or for some other reason. There's a fun little back-and-forth between the two after that, with Cameron saying that they'll make more screens if they know The Lord of the Rings movies were in 3D.

Check out video from this particular conversation after the jump. What do you think about Titanic in 3D? Would it look cool? Or how about Lord of the Rings? Is the conversion worth it?

If you can't get enough of hobbits, elves, dwarves, and trolls, we have good news for you. A fan site has heard "a report that negotiations are under way for a third film," meaning that The Hobbit, already slated to be released as two separate pictures, may be extended to become a trilogy.

An anonymous source told TheOneRing.net that the main sticking points are the contracts for Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro to allow for three more months of principal photography and "temporarily suspending some of their other projects." The same source speculates that the third film would delve "into the back-story of the Istari (Wizards) including Gandalf and Saruman's youth in Valinor." Our own Elisabeth Rappe previously wrote about the desire of seemingly every Lord of the Rings actor to appear in The Hobbit, and this rumor might allow for that.

Del Toro has spoken about The Hobbit as "two episodes, or two parts, as if they were a single piece of narrative," so maybe the story has become so rich and complicated that he and Jackson don't want it to ever end (kind of like the concluding hour of The Return of the King). The original announcement of del Toro as director mentioned that he would be moving to New Zealand for four years to complete The Hobbit and its sequel, so what's another few months? Though I'm not a huge fan of the original LOTR trilogy, I am a huge fan of del Toro, so the more, the better. As it now stands, The Hobbit is due for release in December 2010, with its sequel to follow in December 2011.

If Walt Disney ever got around to churning out his own version of Lord of the Rings, perhaps it would've been close to this fan-made version featuring some of Disney's iconic characters in the roles of Frodo, Legolas, Gimli and Gandalf. (But where's Aragorn?) Funnily enough, there's all sorts of stories and urban legends online that tell of Walt Disney's attempts or non-attempts to adapt Lord of the Rings. Some indicate that Disney held the film rights to J.R.R. Tolkien's masterpiece for 10 years before giving up and selling them over to United Artists. Others argue that Disney wanted to animate The Hobbit at one time, but couldn't get past the fact that the story didn't contain the ideal, humorous family-friendly vibe that Disney wanted for all his films.

None of these tall tales ever came with any hard proof, though, and the funny thing about it all is that Tolkien apparently despised Disney. In a letter discussing illustrations inside the American publication of The Hobbit, Tolkien noted that he would " . . .veto anything from or influenced by the Disney Studios (for all whose works I have a heartfelt loathing)." For much more on the Disney-Tolkien love (hate?) affair, check out this pretty detailed resource. View a larger version of the image above in the gallery below.



[via Superpunch]

Cartoonist Dan Meth has created what he calls The Trilogy Meter, which, as you can see above, is a chart that lists several different movie trilogies and then rates them on a high-low scale. The image above is smaller than the actual completed version (view that by clicking the image below), which goes on to include other trilogies like Die Hard, Godfather, Alien, Terminator, Rocky, Batman, Rambo, etc ... As Dan explains over on his blog: "I know other movie geeks are going to have disagreements and that's fine. And yes, I know some of these movies went more than 3 sequels, but none were ever meant to. These are rated purely on my enjoyment level on each film and nothing else. Frankly I'm surprised by how many sequels were better than the original. And I'm not surprised that the 3rd movie is never the best."

Honestly, I'm not surprised so many sequels (or the second film in a franchise) are better than the original since it's easier to just jump right into the action, what with the characters and backstory already introduced in the first film. This doesn't necessarily pertain to straight up action flicks like Die Hard or Rambo, but definitely movies that feature a grand universe (Star Wars) or a comic book character (Spider-Man, X-Men).

What do you think of this chart? Where did Dan go wrong? And will we ever find a third film that's better than the two that came before it?

December films can mean a lot of things. For critics, it's a marathon of award contenders, many of which seem important at the time and quickly disappear into the cinematic mists, but many of which catch on and last forever. It can also mean trips to the movies with family, breaks from shopping, ways to get out of the cold, holiday-themed movies, kids' movies, etc. Like the holidays themselves, December movies can conjure up many memories. It's also the last oasis before the January dump comes along (featuring the latest horror remakes, and Martin Lawrence and Larry the Cable Guy films).

1a. The Lord of the Rings (December 17-19, 2001-2003)
This just goes without saying, doesn't it?

1b. The Exorcist (December 26, 1973)
The Exorcist is a perfect Halloween movie, with its colored leaves and chilly autumn winds. But here's a secret: it opened the day after Christmas, 1973. I can only imagine: you and the family are slightly hung over from turkey dinners and an overabundance of gifts. You yawn, put down your empty egg nog mug, step over the discarded wrapping paper, move past the Christmas tree, past Grandpa Fred asleep on the couch, wrap up in scarves and hats, pile in the car, drive down to the movie theater, and buy tickets for... this? For spinning heads and pea-soup vomit? Yet it worked, and it was a huge hit. This was what people wanted to see that winter. Perhaps it was a reflection of those dark times. Just last year, during our own dark times, AVPR: Aliens vs Predator - Requiem opened on Christmas Day. I have an AVPR ornament on my tree to prove it.

If the current financial crisis is getting you down, how about a post-apocalyptic vision of poverty and murder to cheer you right up? Or, then again, maybe not. The Hollywood Reporter announced that Dominic Monaghan (LOTR) and Freddy Rodriguez (Planet Terror) have signed to star in the horror-thriller, Fortuna.

The flick is set in a future of extreme wealth and poverty. The world's elites have devised a way to reduce poverty by offering citizens the chance to compete in a mysterious game known as Fortuna, in which one person will be whisked away to life of riches and luxury -- what could go wrong? Well, if you have ever seen a movie before you can probably guess that maybe the prize isn't all it is cracked up to be.

Writer-director Barthélémy Grossmann will appear alongside Rodriguez and Monaghan as one of the contestants, and the film is expected to start shooting on location in Bulgaria. According to THR the production is already underway, and, "ghetto like sets are being built for a film Zilber compares to 1973's post apocalyptic thriller "Soylent Green."

Grossmann is a relative unknown to most of us in North America, and this appears to his first foray into English film making (but the recognizable faces of Monaghan and Rodriguez should help the project earn a little attention). Even though it might not be the most original idea for a film (I like to think of it as Running Man meets Regannomics) but I guess everyone has financial collapse on the brain anyway, why not turn it into big-screen entertainment?