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"Lord of the Rings" Quicktime Preview Available
esk writes "A QuickTime 4.0 preview of the upcoming Lord of the Rings movie is now available at the official site." There's only about 30 seconds of actual footage from the movie in the two-minute trailer, but it's enough to give you an idea of what the characters will look like -- and they came out almost exactly as I have always envisioned them, even the Trolls and poor, sad Gollum. Yessssss!
Sorry this was just a Troll.
Good news, the guys at movie-list.com have a good download link. /. the poor place :-)
Now, let's everybody rush there all at once so we can
Hey - it worked.
/video/lotr.rxml
I'll put the MPEG files up at http://house.ofdoom.com/~hungerf3
They'll go up as they finish encoding, and stay up until someone asks me to take them down.
I don't think I can get this converted to mpeg.
I'm making one more attempt by trying to edit the file headers to get around some annoyances, but I have little hope of it working...
-Pathwalker
Sorry - I can't get a good encode - I think I need to reinstall premiere. Every file I've encoded has had something wrong with it...
Here's how I downloaded it:
1. Download little 2k stub file.
2. set netscape to prompt before opening quick time files.
3. click on stub movie.
4. when netscape asks, choose save.
simple. Now getting it into a different format is much more tricky...
Mind sharing how you converted it?
I gave up after resorting to hexediting the header in an attempt to disable the sprite tracks so premiere might be able to load it...
-Pathwalker
Not this file - it disables save an export...
I'm working on it - this one is more tricky than most - It's crashed premiere twice so far...
If/When I get it converted, I'll post a URL.
You've received a lot of good answers here, but this pointlet has been overlooked so far:
Sauron was a overwhelming, mass-power, crush-and-dominate kinda guy. He expected the Ring to be taken up by some sort of Hero, and openly used against him. He was searching for the Ring so desperately not only because he wanted the power of it for himself, but because he feared it in other hands.
To him, the concept that the forces of good might actually wish to _destroy_ it never occured to him.
And Gollum had shown (via Gandalf's interrigation of him) that it was possible to slip into Mordor unnoticed, if you were inconspicuous enough.
Want to learn about race cars? Read my Book
McKellen has some interesting notes on his website Worth a read...
Jón
Right click on the link, and save it to the disk!
That doesn't work because the links on the Apple and New Line page connect you to some incy wincy 9k
You still need to have the QuickTime player to be able to receive and watch the stream, but then at least you can save the file. Just look for the temp file on your drive (they try to hide it soemwhere) where QuickTime buffers the stream -- it saves the entire file so you can jump around and watch more than once without downloading again, but it deletes it when you (I'm not sure which) close the window or quit the application. The file is called something like "QTPluginTemp1234567", or just search for files created today, sorted by size. Then just copy it somewhere else before it gets deleted.
I do wish they'd quit trying to obfuscate things this way; it's so silly. For one thing, like CSS, SDMI, etc., it can never really work, so all they'll accomplish is making legitimate use (not that there's necessarily even anything illegitimate about the other uses, even if they don't like them) less convenient and pissing off customers, but they also should not even try. I understand that the "content providers" want to keep some control on where their content goes, but half the point of putting it on the web in a digital format is that people can save it, to view at their pleasure, or to show off to friends. Especially that last -- given that this is a trailer for an upcoming movie, wouldn't you think that they'd want it to be seen by as many people as possible? Letting us keep local copies can only be good for them. Probably half a dozen people will see this as a result of my keeping a local copy who wouldn't see it otherwise. They should pay me for the publicity.
But even when it's not actually better for them, they should realize that accessibility is desirable. If I just wanted to watch the content as they present it, I'd watch it on TV instead of in a low-res window on a small screen; hence, if they only want me to watch it that way, they should just broadcast it on TV. Keeping the file is what I as a customer want, and it doesn't cost them anything, so why should they go to all that trouble trying to inconvenience me, especially when it won't work anyway?
David Gould
David Gould
main(i){putchar(340056100>>(i-1)*5&31|!!(i<6)<< 6)&&main(++i);}
roamer,
One little problem: how about giving us record label and the catalog numbers for your Blind Guardian's albums? I'd like to get them but without that information, I'm not going to be able to order them online....
Raymond in Mountain View, CA
I've been hearing the rumours for this film for years upon years, I'm so glad it is FINALLY in production. If there is one trilogy that is really under exposed to the world it's Tolkien's. Star Wars is nice and all and gets props for technical wizardry but if you want good depth (Star Wars is a typical space opera with higher budget effects) you HAVE to go with LotR. I find it a bit depressing that all of the LotR stuff I have ever seen has been such poor quality and had little depth. The Super Nintendo video game sucked troll balls and I've never seen a good game reproduction of the trilogy. Maybe now with the movie exposure it will make its way into other media forms. I'd buy a MMPG if it were based on LotR or the Hobbit. Besides those you could easily use the world of the Silmarilion or the Second Age with Numenor. Fanboys unite!
I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
http://www.webslacker.com/lotr
Show me some FTP space, I'll show you a 60MB trailer. Email me.
http://www.webslacker.com/lotr
If you have mirror space you'd like to spare, email me with the info.
I'm not sure if I can get around this anti-saving stuff, but in case I can, I'd like some volunteers for mirrors.
At work, I have a WinNT box on my desk and access to a RHL 6.1 box. Can someone tell me how to convert the QT file to MPG (either in Win or Linux)? I might make it available if I can convert it...
Eric
Huh??
:)
"Back to the Future" was released in 1985, part 2 in 1989 and 3 in 1990. There weren't going to BE any sequels originally, but when the green light was given, Zemeckis wanted to do 2 and 3 back to back to shorten the time between films.
That's 5 years between 1 and 3, while Star Wars was 1977, Empire in 1980 and Jedi in 1983, making 6 years between 1 and 3. How is this so different?
and OF COURSE the re-release of the Star Wars trilogy was not drawn out: the movied were ALREADY MADE!
Geez, I was 6 when Star Wars came out, and I remember getting totally jazzed up for both Empire and Jedi.
I mean, come on, it takes time to make movies, ya know
Pope
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
While Tolkien steadfastly denied any metaphor for WWII politics, many scholars tied the Shire to England, the Elves to France, Mordor to Germany, Saruman's Orthanc to Japan, and the Rohirrim/Gondor pair as USA's two-fronted war.
May be a bit off topic, but I've heard that LOTR is a favorite read among neonazis. Probably a result of the very clear differences between wrong and right, good and bad etc... It might also have to do with the obvious skin colour of elves and orcs, but I've never asked a neonazi...
IANAN but I can see that there are certainly elements that might appeal. I always found it interesting that Tolkein and C.S.Lewis had free, white, wild Northern and Western kingdoms that were under attack from the South and the East. In LOTR there are cruel Haradrim with dark skins and oliphaunts who are a mixture of harsh noble cruelty and corrupt evil. There are the swart Southerners that have been interbred by Saruman with orcs to make slant-eyed half-men such as Bill Ferny's friends or the Isengard servants. In Lewis's work there are the Calormen to the south who have curved swords and eat oil on their bread instead of good honest English butter. The orcs in LOTR always have scimitars too instead of decent upright straight swords.
I think that this "foreigness" is a quick way to feel that the other group is not human. That supposedly is what racists and neo-nazis are all about - emphasizing difference. Tolkein was doing it for dramatic effect, utilizing something that really was probably quite common, a feeling that "Foreigners are fiends and abroad is unutterably bloody" and that "The wogs begin at Calais" [quotes from one of Nancy Mitford's characters.
All that said I still find those writers (especially Tolkein, he's not as in-your-face-Xtian as Lewis and his world has a much greater depth not matched by any other fantasy author) amazing.
I am torn about whether or not to see the movie though. I am afraid that its images will pollute the private ones that I have....what to do what to do!
The Council of Elrond discussed this very issue, and two reasons were given.
* ...or Eye. Get it?
Slashdot - News for Herds. Stuff that Splatters.
>If I recall, there were no trolls in Lord of the Rings; they're not organized by Mordor
Trolls are explicitly mentioned as being among the troops commanded by the Captain of Minas Morgul on the battle before the Gates of Mordor, staged to distract Sauron from the hobbit who was at that same moment climbing the slopes of Mount Doom with the Ring. Actually these were a special kind of troll bred by Sauron, called Olog-Hai. Pippin saved Beregond by killing one.
Slashdot - News for Herds. Stuff that Splatters.
In trying to save the movie myself, before reading these comments, I discovered yet another way to do it. It's significantly more complicated than the rest, and I don't really recommend it, but here goes.
1. Get Quicktime Pro (by whatever means necessary) and try to save the movie. It yells at you. Apparently, they don't want you to save the movie. Reminds you of the whole DVD mess, doesn't it? Anyway...
2. Look at the page that launched Quicktime. No hints. Fire up filemon, and notice that it's reading some file in windows\temp.
3. Look at the file. It's zero bytes. What the hell? Quit Quicktime. The file disappears. argh.
4. Download the whole movie again, since they don't want you to save it anywhere... and try to copy the file. Bzzt: Sharing violation. Tricky bastards.
5. Now the fun begins. With Quicktime still running, kill Windows. Entirely. Turn off the power.
6. When the computer restarts, let Scandisk run. It'll find about 28 MB in lost clusters. Save the file.
7. Back in Windows, look at the file with a hex editor. It starts off with something that is apparently the Quicktime file header, and then either random bytes or the actual movie. Assume that it's the movie, and trim off the end of it since there's some extra crap there, but that shouldn't be too hard. (You can also look at other QT4 files and see how many ASCII 0 characters to leave at the end of the file, if you want.)
8. Watch the movie. It works. Brag to your friend about your 1337 sk1lz.
9. Accidentally delete the file that just took two hours of hacking to get. Complain to your friend because you're such a dumbass.
10. Go read the comments on Slashdot to see if anyone else has managed to get the file. Not surprisingly, someone has.
11. Not content to just blindly accept someone else's solution, try it yourself. Load the movie yet again, save it to your favorites, find the file that stores the favorites, and get the URL out of it.
12. Have Quicktime crash, completely screwing up the graphics in Windows, and requiring another restart. (Granted, this step is somewhat out of your control, but with a little luck it'll happen.)
13. Finally, just download the file (it's all one URL... complaints about this later.): http://a912.g.akamai.net/5/912/51/7f33d9e39a6b87/ a 40938a41385e948b71d7cf058bd1c8ef765cc3 f
1a1a1aaa2198c627970773d80669d84574a8d 80d3 cb12453c02589f25382
f668c9329e0375e81785ea61cd36
/lo tr_640_full.mov
14. Post your method to Slashdot (Hey Rob, what's a "lameness filter"?) and hope somebody moderates it up as Funny^H^H^H^H^HInformative.
Have a nice day. :-)
--- this comment is presented in WIDE SCREEN STEREO!!!
Actually, for the most part - yes...
There is one main guy they (meaning "Hollywood") hire to do the voiceovers for trailers (I can't remember his name) - he is on nearly EVERY trailer. It is something about his voice, and the way he does it - he can make a comedy trailer funny, and an action trailer "quickening", and a horror trailer downright scary.
There are very few of these trailer voice "actors" - and this guy is one of the top dogs...
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
. . . the cartoon I will be pissed. They are going to do the movie in three installments. Each appearing about a year apart. The cartoon also did it this way, but they never finished the two towers and return of the king. I'm sure this movie has enough financial backing that it will get done. There are enough people who have read the books and loved them who will go see the movie. I'm sure that it will be better than Star Wars.
...before somebody converts it to MPEG?
I use Macs for work, Linux for education, and Windows for cardplaying.
Slightly off topic, but fitting in the same thread, any of you Tolkien fans might want to try out Blind Guardian. They are very deep, hard-hitting band that writes 90% of there music around Tolkien's stories and themes. Definitely not for the faint of heart or wannabe fans- it is pretty heavy stuff, and most of the songs relate more to the Silmarillion than the Lord of the Rings (ex. "Curse of Feanor", "Mordred's Song", "Noldor (Dead Winder Reigns)"etc). Some of their stuff does pertain to the Lord of the Rings- for instance "The Lord of the Rings" song is just a rendition of the opening verse on the books- the Orchestral version of it is excellent! (for the record, these guys have been doing symphonic metal for years, way longer than Metallica S&M, and unlike Metallica, Hansi from Blind Guardian actually rights all the music for all the instruments you here in all their songs). Anyway, just a quick promo for an excellent Tolkien based band...moderate me down if you think I need it, I don't really care. Whatever you do though, check out their album "Nightfall in Middle Earth". Oh, and just a warning, Yahoo lists them as a death metal band, but don't let that worry you, because death metal they are not (I loathe death metal), they are pretty different though. For more information, go to http://www.ba-stuttgart.de/~bziller/blind_guardian /
or feel free to contact me.
Icq#:25834656
I don't respect your opinions, but I respect your right to hold them
The Ents would have had a difficult time with the Great River between Fangorn forest and Mordor.
[
I recall the big gap between Star Wars movies in my childhood, and it was way too spread. Almost all interest had died out in one before the next one began.
As for LotR, I wonder what they'll do to boost the second volume, "The Two Towers." Most people find that volume to be a hard bridge to cross between the more exciting introduction and conclusion volumes. Lots of very important things happen in TT, but it holds less interest if you're not interested in war strategy.
[
If I recall, there were no trolls in Lord of the Rings; they're not organized by Mordor.
In the Hobbit, three trolls were kept up past their bedtime, and they turned to stone.
I just want to see their rendition of Shelob. Do it wrong, and that half-goddess giant spider will come off very unbelievably.
[
He expected the Ring to be taken up by some sort of Hero, and openly used against him.
Yes, and this is actively used as a strategy by Aragorn - that is why he uses the Palantir before venturing on the Paths of the Dead - he challanges Sauron, so as to hope that Sauron is fooled into believing that Isildur's heir weilds the Ring.
This draws more of Sauron's forces out of Mordor, thus making it easier for Frodo.
Aragorn does admit later however, that he didn't expect the response to be as swift as it is - he barely comes in time.
How'd it get it's power?
Sauron actually made it and let a 'large part' of his power pass into it. He learnt the skill from Celebrimbor, a High-Elvish descendant of Feanor (see The Silmarillion) who made the Three Rings. They appear to have collaborated on the Seven and the Nine.
You'd think a descendant of Feanor (and Celebrimbor is only four or five generations down) would have been wary of Morgoth's lieutenant.
Dracos
"Integer: a number that represents any valid floating-point value"
Morgoth was the rogue of the Valar and was taken down by his own kin. Sauron was the strongest of Morgoth's Maiar(sp?) servitors. I haven't reread the Simarillion since my freshman year of college, wheras I reread TLotR in the past couple of years.
I was actually thinking of Earendil and Beren(?) the one handed who retrieved one of the Simirils from Morgoth's crown. Men played a minor role in the war of the elves against Morgoth and his servents, and they were rewarded with the Isle of Numenor, within sight of Valinor. The elves of Beleriend and other Noldor fortifications were nonetheless potent enough to stick in Sauron's memory. He respected their power, but learned to warp it against them by insinuating himself in their circles to betray them to his master Morgoth.
By the third age, most of the power displayed by remnants of the high elven lords appears related to words and the light of the last remaining Simiril: Earendil's star. Sauron was pretty well familiar with the power of the Simirils. IIRC, as soon as Sam used the Phial on Shelob, Sauron's eye started to drift his way. Sauron was not worried, however, as he had one of his most potent allies watching the path: Shelob.
You are completely right in your recounting of the fall of Numenor, etc. I was just mixing things together in my mind a bit.
B. Elgin
B. Elgin
"Read at your own risk; feel free to ignore."
Short Answer from someone who studied the books (including the Simarillion) too closely for his own good...
Sauron did not take hobbits seriously. Nobody would entrust the fate of the world to a gaggle of pint-sized twerps. Elves on the other hand were a well known enemy. He had been fighting the high elves to one degree or another for millenia. He watched his lord and master Morgoth brought down by a combination of high elves and the men Aragorn was decended from. These enemies had specific patterns he could watch for. The moment Sam invoked the Phial of Galadriel to fight Shelob, Sauron knew something was up, because that was high elven magic.
Legolas was sent because he was a grey elf. High elves were simply too distinctive and obvious. Sending a high elven lord like Glorfindel or Elrond's sons would be like sending in a panzer armed with a searchlight and a cannon into a sniper position. As soon as it fired once, you would know exactly where it was. It's trail would not be too hard to follow either. Grey elves didn't have that same type of power, because they never left Middle Earth to go dwell with the not-quite-gods.
B. Elgin
B. Elgin
"Read at your own risk; feel free to ignore."
For those w/o QT 4.1.1 (yes, 4.1.1), http://www.theonering.net has teaser broken out into frames with some commentary on each -- the whole presentation takes up 8 screen pages.
J. M. Tisdel jmt@jmichaelt.org
The answer is pretty simple really: gathering together a kickass army of elves, ents, humans etc and trotting off to mount-doom to take on The Enemy directly would have been too risky. Sauron had become too powerfull and The Ring would have been captured and Suaron would win etc etc (and anyway, the Elves would never again ally with man - the last defeat of Sauron was the Last Alliance of Mena and Elves: but that's a whole other story). Now, the only option left was to get the Ring into Mordor by stealth. Hence the ligh-footed Hobbits. Gandalf knew much of Hobbit lore and knew that they were a hardy bunch and would putt up with much to acheive their goal.
For more info on this, read the Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales and/or TheOneRing.net
Quix0te - Wales, UK
It should also be noted that hobbits were very resistant to the power of "fading" and to the evils of the ring itself. This is pointed out numerous times in the books. The fact is that hobbits are very tough concerning resisting magic.
Yessss, precious, we haves the first postesses!
This wasn't THE most important event in the entire history of Middle-Earth, but it was certainly one of the three most important. In order, those would have been: The casting out of Morgoth (and the end of the First Age), the defeat of Sauron at the hands of the Last Great Alliance of Elves and Men (end of the Second Age), and finally the destruction of the One Ring (ending the Third Age).
There are a number of reasons that Elrond and the White Council chose not to use force to destroy the Ring, but instead sent a small Fellowship to destroy it. The first reason is that the strength of the Elves and Men of Numenor was much less than that in previous Ages. Many of the greatest Elves had been slain in prior Wars against Morgoth and Sauron, and many of the rest had returned across the Sea to Valinor. The only Elven strongholds with the strength to combat Sauron were in Rivendell and Lorien, and few of the race of Numenor remained as well (including the Rangers of the North and the Stewards of Gondor). They simply did not have the strength for a full-on assault on Mordor.
Additionally, who would they give the Ring to? Gandalf? Galadriel? Aragorn? The desire to use the Ring would quickly overwhelm anyone with that kind of power, and they would find themselves in a position to overthrow Sauron; however, they would quickly be corrupted by the pure Evil of the ring. Of all the Ringbearers, only Frodo and Bilbo Baggins were pure enough of heart and free enough of desire and ambition to actually have a chance of resisting the temptation of the Ring, and in the end, Frodo even succumbed to the Ring's desire.
Also, they did not send Frodo off "with just any friends he found along the way". Yes, the four hobbits seemed like unwise choices at the outset, but they all proved their worth by the end. However, Gandalf (in truth Olorin of the Maia) was one of the most powerful forces in Middle-Earth at the time (remember, he faced a Balrog one-on-one and defeated it). Aragorn was the Heir of Isildur, and probably one of the few Men in Middle-Earth that Sauron actually feared, and he wielded the blade that had originally defeated Sauron at the end of the Second Age. Boromir was the Heir to the Steward of Gondor, and a great warrior in his own right. Gimli and Legolas both proved to be outstanding warriors as well, felling over ninety orcs in the battle of Helm's Deep between the two of them.
When given all of the options (hiding the Ring, sending a massive force to destroy the Ring, or sending a small Fellowship to destroy the Ring), this was the ONLY choice that had any reasonable chance of success.
They are making a trilogy .... 3 full length movies .... not 1
Fundamental to the lore of the ring is the fact that while it gave immense power to whomever wore it, it also possessed that individual totally. Witness the effect the 9 lesser rings had on the riders.
... or their hero. He selflessly sacrificed himself to destroy something everyone else knew they wouldn't have the courage to do.
Gandalf himself said he could not even hold it in its hands lest he become enthralled with the power it held. The ring needed to be carried by somebody who didn't care for its power and was innocent. That person would take longer to be possessed by the ring. It took the immense willpower and self control for the elf queen not to keep the ring when Frodo gave it to her... even then she had to give the ring back to Frodo before the desire for power consumed her.
There is also the additional side-effect to the person that destroyed the ring. The ring gradually transformed those who wore it into wraiths. Thus, when the ring was destroyed, in all likelyhood, he who wore the ring would be destroyed as well as much of what gave him former sustenance would be gone. In a way, Frodo was the guinea pig of the wizards and elves
And, on a final note, in the end even Frodo failed. Were it not for Golum, the ring would have fallen back into the hands of Sauron
Do not spread "09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0" over the internet, thank you.
Two orc battles in LotR.
The human Riders of the Rohirrim, who knew nearly nothing about the saga of the Rings, but were next-door neighbors to the smooth charlatan, Saruman. It was Saruman's Uruk-hai (white hand) orc armies that were defeated on the Plains of the Pellenor.
Sauron's orc army remained in Mordor, until there was a clash at the front gates; this was fought by the humans of Gondor.
Elves don't breed like rabbits, humans do. Elves were giving up on life, waning in power and will to go on. Rivendell was an outpost, and Lothlorien was an enclave.
It has been years since I picked the books up, but I self-studied it pretty deeply at the time. If I'm inaccurate here, forgive.
While Tolkien steadfastly denied any metaphor for WWII politics, many scholars tied the Shire to England, the Elves to France, Mordor to Germany, Saruman's Orthanc to Japan, and the Rohirrim/Gondor pair as USA's two-fronted war.
[
Even though the first movie is a year and a half away, I think this is a better trailer than some that are showing in theaters now.
The most technically impressive shots are the two that show the orc army marching through Mordor...Massive is probably the best cg software in existence. And, watching the letters get burning into the ring is just awe inspiring.
I'd love to be a fly on the wall when George Luca$ watches this. He wanted to make LOTR in the mid-eighties but couldn't get the rights to it. What did we get instead? Willow. Sad but true.
www.theonering.net has a shot by shot analysys here.
I was in their chat room earlier...watch for the preview to be mirrored around the web.
Dracos
"Integer: a number that represents any valid floating-point value"
Here's the URL for the 27.5MB 640x320 mov, direct from akamai.net. I tried severaly times putting this all together and properly "a href"'d, but slashdot just gives me a "Lameness filter encountered: post aborted" (is that because the URL is too long or something???)... so you'll have to cut-and-paste from below. SOrry!
7 /
3 c02589f25382f668c 9329e0375e81785ea61cd36a40938a41385e948b71d7cf058b d1c8ef765cc3f
http://a912.g.akamai.net/5/912/51/7f33d9e39a6b8
1a1a1aaa2198c627970773d80669d84574a8d80d3cb1245
/lotr_640_full.mov
lotr_640_full.mov (29 MB) (Now I really hate the damn AI of /., it didn't let me put the absurdly long direct URL into a href)
QuickTime Installer.zip (8 MB) (Win32 version)
I, as many others, like to actually download the files instead of downloading a downloader program which downloads something which perhaps downloads something, that you can't even save to your HD after downloading it. These links work as of my writing, let's hope nobody changes the URLs.
For some reason, Apple or New Line have rigged it so that you can't save the trailer to hard drive. Fortunately, there are two ways to get around this.
Right, I need an answer to this question from a Lord of the Rings fan. The question is this:
Given that the Ring was so goddamned important, and that its destruction was literally the central event of the entire history of Middle-Earth, why did the supposedly wise Elves entrust this mission to a young hobbit with no military experience, supported by any friends he happened to pick up along the way? Particularly as the hobbit in question had never previously been more than a few miles from his native village.
Surely, the obvious solution would have been to assign a company of elven cavalry with magic swords, supported by Ents, and accompanied by guides familiar with the terrain. It's clear from the book that the elves could raise a huge military force when they had to -- why not use it for this mission?
The really annoying thing is that there *is* a reason why this was not an option, and a Lord of the Rings fan told me what it was three years ago. I forgot it, though, and it's been driving me mad ever since.
thanks, streetlawyer
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