Lord of the Trailers

Kurobara writes: "just thought everyone would like to know that the NEW LOTR trailer is avabile online (stream only for now). I'd give a description but I'll let the trailer speek for itself, suffice to say it rocks ^_^ (spotted on theonering.net)" It's not at all easy to find the new trailer - if you see the flame and ring, you're looking at the old one. First words of the new one are "Legend tells of a ring...". Ah, here we go: Old Wolf writes: "The latest trailer for Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring can be streamed here, or downloaded in full. Only Real format at this stage unfortunately. A collection of .jpg stills and commentary can be found here at TORN."

Comments

Spoiler...

[Anonymous Coward]

Geesh, I could have lived without knowing that Paul Rubens was playing gollum. That's gonna ruin it for me.

About JRRT (was Re:These movies ought to be banned

[Cheakamus]

The Silmarillion represents the real life's work of Tolkien. He started his writings in 1916 (during WW1, while in the trenches), where he wrote the stories of Fall of Gondolin and Turin Turambar. I'm a bit rusty on the sequence of his life, but after the war he was a professor of Old English at the University of Leeds and also served on the staff of the Oxford English Dictionary. Through the 1920s he continued to develop several mythical languages (based upon Welsh and Finnish) that provided the basis for the cultures of his mythologies. During this time he was appointed to a professorship at Oxford.

When JRRT wrote The Hobbit (published in 1937) he initially did not place it in Middle Earth. Actually the original story was quite different in one crucial respect - Gollum shows Bilbo out after he lost the Riddles game and they part on friendly terms. If you ever find a first edition of The Hobbit you can read the original version of the story - (good luck! B&N had a copy for sale for $12,500!). The Hobbit was so successful that the publishers immediately demanded a sequel. It was at this point that he rewrote chapter 5 (Riddles in the Dark) to set up the story that became The Lord of the Rings.

The LOTR started in much the same style as The Hobbit, and he struggled for many years with it. He really wanted to publish his epic mythologies, and not to work on a sequel. Towards the later part of the 1940's he got into the swing of it and cranked out LOTR, published in three volumes in 1954 and 1955 (it is NOT a trilogy - it's three volumes of the same tale). It was during the composition of the LOTR that he tied The Hobbit to the mythologies. It also provided a framework for the eventuality of his epic works, later laid down in The Silmarillion. The Silmarillion is actually several books in one:

• Ainulindalë, the tale of the Music of the Ainur and the creation of Arda (Earth).
• Valaquenta, the tale of the Valar, in which the nature of each of the Powers is described.
• Quenta Silmarillion, the longest tale, which gives an account of the history of Arda from its beginnings until the end of the First Age.
• Akallabêth, the tale of the Second Age, which concentrates on the history of Númenor until its Downfall, and
• Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age, which spans the late Second Age and the Third, telling of the forging of the Rings of Power and their history up to the War of the Ring.

Tolkien died before he felt thatThe Silmarillion was completed. His son, Christopher, took it upon himself to select from his father's writings all of the material that would constitute a complete story and published it posthumously to his father.

Reading The Silmarillion for the first time is a fairly brutal endeavor. It's so packed full of information that it took me several readings to really start to grok it. Karen Wynn Fonstat's Atlas of Middle Earth is essential, as is J.E.A. Tyler's reference (the name escapes me, but the second editions includes The Silmarillion content).

Unfinished Tales contains more detailed information from the stories in The Silmarillion, but they were never deemed to be complete enough to be included in The Silmarillion. Christopher Tolkien's 12 volume series The History of Middle Earth breaks down all of JRRT's writings into chronological order and discusses in great detail the evolution of the stories (well worth the read if you like scholarly studies of fascinating characters).

Also read The Letters of JRR Tolkien and his biography, both by Humphrey Carpenter, if you want real insight into Tolkien's life and beliefs. He was a truly remarkable man.

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re: submitter comments

[the_tsi]

> suffice to say it rocks ^_^

Is anyone else annoyed by the "^_^" emoticon? I mean, it's not even a smiley face: it looks like someone who's died. The mouth is taut and the eyes are looking upward.

No one actually turns their head to look at the "classic" smileys, we all recognize them as they are printed. Orienting an emoticon so that it is readable along with the text is unnecessary, especially if it doesn't show the range of emotions previously available.

For some reason, I find that the people who do the ^_^ face tend to be anime zealots. Is there a story behind this that I missed while watching live action movies?

-Chris
...More Powerful than Otto Preminger...

That domain name

[Sebbo]

Does anyone else keep reading it as "theonionring.net"?

Mmmm. Onion rings...

The domain is free, btw, if anyone wants to snap it up and see what WIPO has to say about it.

Why should I go watch this?

[revscat]

Seriously, why? It's not like I need convincing to go see the movie. I want to be surpised as much as possible when Xmas 2k1 rolls around and this baby hits the theater. Eru knows I've read The Silmarillion 8 dozen times by now. Commercials & trailers will only spoil the fun for me. My two bits. And this fucking thing better be of higher quality than TPM. Otherwise I'm taking hostages. Grr. - Rev.

Re:Why should I go watch this?

[bonoboy]

It's not Hollywood. The screenplay was written by Jackson himself, a New Zealander who's also directing it. It was also filmed entirely in New Zealand, with the majority of the effects work being done there as well. Sure, it's American money, but the direction is foreign.

I suggest you check out Bad Taste his first film, which was completed on weekends over a couple of years with friends, if I remember. You won't get it, it's mostly kiwi jokes. What you might get is Meet the Feebles a Muppets parody with some really sick shit in it. Basically, his roots are effects and schlock stuff. But he also did Heavenly Creatures, an excellent look at the Parker-Hume murder. If he's ever proven anything, it's that he's got incredible range.

That being said, I'm right with the group here suggesting you assume it's crap until you see it. I think TPM has prepared us all. The last guy who tried to do this, Ralph Bakshi, left it half finished. Don't quote me, but I'm pretty sure he died of cancer half way through. His Vaughn Bode-esque experimental animation put alot of people off, but in truth was quite an amazing adaptation. But perhaps a little too experimental for many peoples' liking. I'm certain Peter Jackson won't make the same mistake, being a true fan.

For a pretty interesting interview with John Kricfalusi (of Ren & Stimpy fame) discussing Bakshi, go here.

Download mirror

[ender-]

You can download [no stream] from here:

LOTR Trailer

Ender

Re:These movies ought to be banned

[Enoch Root]

Actually, there are plenty of very Christian references in LotR. JRRT himself was very Christian. One example that comes to mind is the use of language for magic: every act of magic, whether from Gandalf or the Balrog, comes from the voice, since it was the belief of Tolkien that the Word was the founding principle of Creation. Additionally, Gandalf and the other wizards were more or less gardian angels. All this is detailed in the Silmarillion.

Greatest Cinematic Epic

[selectspec]

I know this is going to get flamed beyond belief, but we all know where this is leading. A war that rivals the Windows vs. Linux fued, dwarves the KDE vs. Gnome rivalry, snuffs out the Emacs vs. Vi debate and makes World War II seem like a petty disagreement:

The Lord of the Rings vs. Star Wars.

The battle lines are being drawn, and the forces are mustering. The Jedi are rallying behind the Force, while the Rangers summon the courage of the Numenor. The Skywalker family against the Isildur lineage. Darth Vader vs. the Nine. Obewan up against Gandalf the Gray. Dead/Ghost Obewan up against Gandalf the White. Bobafet vs. the Balrog. Storm Troopers vs. Orcs. I can feel the calm before the storm.

Re: submitter comments

[Mononoke]

Is anyone else annoyed by the "^_^" emoticon?

Nope. =_=

Orienting an emoticon so that it is readable along with the text is unnecessary, especially if it doesn't show the range of emotions previously available.

No range of emotions? ;_;

For some reason, I find that the people who do the ^_^ face tend to be anime zealots.

Many normal anime fans do it also. *_*

Is there a story behind this that I missed while watching live action movies?

Yes, and until you get over your immature prejudices against various types of storytelling, you'll never know. ^_~

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Re: submitter comments

[Yosho]

Nope, ^_^ is just pretty much an anime thing. Typically, whenever an overly happy anime character shuts their eyes, they're shown in a shape similar to a ^ (but more curved, of course). Coincidentally, overly happy anime characters tend to shut their eyes a lot. I'm sure most people would prefer to have another curve for a smile instead of a _, but there isn't a character for that, really...

Also: Orienting an emoticon so that it is readable along with the text is unnecessary, especially if it doesn't show the range of emotions previously available.

Ah... How so does ^_^ not show the "range of emotions previously available"? Is it not as happy as :-)? (Actually, I think it looks happier, but that's just me) If you're referring to the fact that there are many variations upon :-), such as ;-), >:-), :-D, and so forth, there are also a number of variations on ^_^. Ones that spring to mind include -_^ (winking), -_- (eyes drooping/frustrated), ^^; (anime sweatdrop -- nervous, apologetic. No, I don't know why the _ is typically dropped), O_O (amazed), o_o (frightened), =^_^= (cat-smiley; one of my favorites), and so forth. Many people also replace the _ with something else, so you could have ^.^ or ^o^.
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It was fortold...

[shut_up_man]

One Site to tell them all,
One Site to remind them,
One Ring to bring them all
and in the darkness completely Slashdot them.