I know this is Slashdot but the conspiracy theories about selling more DVDs are bullshit.
Peter Jackson has nothing to gain from crippling his movie so that MAYBE more DVDs are sold. I doubt he sees any additional income based on DVD sales.
As a professional editor I find his explanation of the way the Saruman scenes impact the narrative and structure of the 3rd film to make complete sense. As he says - Sauron is now the villain, not Saruman.
Films of books are often worse than the books because they are different mediums with different requirments.
In order for ROTK to be a great film - and probably the best 3rd in a series ever (no ewoks) - it's only reasonable that the Director makes sacrifices in terms of the original books to ensure the film is as good as it can be.
Peter Jackson is not crippling his film in order to sell DVDs. He has nothing to gain and everything to lose. He is simply demonstrating his understanding of the feature film medium by adapting the original narrative for the screen.
HonkyLips.
I liked the way that the 1541 disk drive would keep your pizza warm during long nights of coding. Very considerate of the Commodore engineers to design a floppy drive which doubles as a heater.
As you said, SETI is cool. Who wouldn't want to be the owner of the computer that discovers intelligent, extra-terrestrial life?
However I think the coolness is what is needed to attract volunteers... while protein-folding is more relevant to immediate advances in science/ medicine, it lacks the mystique of SETI and the unknown factor which the general public can easily grasp. SETI is romantic, protein folding isn't - although I agree it is more important.
Having said that, I'm more likely to donate my spare cycles and bandwidth to protein folding than SETI...
I know this is Slashdot but the conspiracy theories about selling more DVDs are bullshit. Peter Jackson has nothing to gain from crippling his movie so that MAYBE more DVDs are sold. I doubt he sees any additional income based on DVD sales. As a professional editor I find his explanation of the way the Saruman scenes impact the narrative and structure of the 3rd film to make complete sense. As he says - Sauron is now the villain, not Saruman. Films of books are often worse than the books because they are different mediums with different requirments. In order for ROTK to be a great film - and probably the best 3rd in a series ever (no ewoks) - it's only reasonable that the Director makes sacrifices in terms of the original books to ensure the film is as good as it can be. Peter Jackson is not crippling his film in order to sell DVDs. He has nothing to gain and everything to lose. He is simply demonstrating his understanding of the feature film medium by adapting the original narrative for the screen. HonkyLips.
I liked the way that the 1541 disk drive would keep your pizza warm during long nights of coding. Very considerate of the Commodore engineers to design a floppy drive which doubles as a heater.
As you said, SETI is cool. Who wouldn't want to be the owner of the computer that discovers intelligent, extra-terrestrial life? However I think the coolness is what is needed to attract volunteers... while protein-folding is more relevant to immediate advances in science/ medicine, it lacks the mystique of SETI and the unknown factor which the general public can easily grasp. SETI is romantic, protein folding isn't - although I agree it is more important. Having said that, I'm more likely to donate my spare cycles and bandwidth to protein folding than SETI...
Or maybe: "That's not a ping.... now that's a ping"