UNITED KINGDOM: BRITISH FILM PREMIERE OF THE FIRST PART OF PETER JACKSON'S "LORD OF THE RINGS" TRILOGY " FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING"

Record ID: 392434

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: BRITISH FILM PREMIERE OF THE FIRST PART OF PETER JACKSON'S "LORD OF THE RINGS" TRILOGY " FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING"
  • Date: 11th December 2001
  • Summary: LEICESTER SQUARE, LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM (DECEMBER 10, 2001) (REUTERS) SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) ELIJAH WOOD "Very excited but nervous as well. Sweaty palms as you can tell, you know, this is a long time in the making. To finally arrive and be this massive which I don't think any of us anticipated is pretty wild. It's kind of the stuff of dreams, so." HOW DOES A HOBBIT PREPARE FOR THIS KIND OF EVENT? "The hobbits don't prepare for this kind of event. Frodo, if he came to an event like this, would go running for the shire, you know probably be sitting in The Green Dragon Inn having a pint of beer trying to calm his nerves down. Hobbits I don't think can handle this, it's a bit too intense." YOU WENT TO GREAT LENGTHS TO GET THIS PART DIDN'T YOU? "I did, yeah, I made my own video tape, I just felt like doing my own tape would be something a little special, a little different. I felt an added pressure to do a specific English accent because they were looking for an English actor so I really had to pressure that in there. So I did my own tape, I got a hobbit costume, I went into the woods and filmed those scenes and sent it to Peter. That's basically how I got in." AND IT WORKED "Yes, it did. It was very effective thankfully!" WIDE OF CELEBRITIES AND PAN TO CHRISTOPHER LEE TALKING TO MEDIA SCU LIV TYLER BEING INTERVIEWED SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) LIV TYLER SAYING "Well I actually didn't know very much about Tolkien at all so I was floored when it happened, they offered me the part and I really wasn't very familiar with the book at all so I felt a mixture of a lot of things and when I then read the books and read the scripts I really wanted to be a part of it." WIDE OF IAN HOLM BEING INTERVIEWED SMV IAN HOLM SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) IAN HOLM SAYING TO QUESTION WOULD YOU HAVE BEEN HAPPY BEING A HOBBIT? "Well I'm not far off as it is - I'm only five foot six! But yes, I think hobbits are great and I love the character of Bilbo I mean he's pretty impish. He's also quite grumpy, and I'm quite grumpy - that's why my grandchildren call me grumpy and not grandpa." WIDE OF DIRECTOR PETER JACKSON BEING INTERVIEWED SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) DIRECTOR PETER JACKSON "When you're making a movie the premiere seems like such a distant aim and it's so far away. You know we've been working on this movie for six years so it's definitely is an amazing moment to stand here now." SMV DOMINIC MONAGHAN BEING INTERVIEWED SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) DOMINIC MONAGHAN SAYING ON SPENDING A YEAR AND HALF FILMING IN NEW ZEALAND "To a certain extent it was yes, a year and a half of fun. And I got the opportunity to meet all these people and work with Pete and you know do a great job. Yeah it was great. It was the best job I've ever done and probably ever will do so it was fun." SMV ORLANDO BLOOM BEING INTERVIEWED SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) ORLANDO BLOOM SAYING "I'm very well, I'm very excited." YOU MUST BE, HAVE YOU SEEN THE FILM YET? "I saw it in New York about three weeks ago, maybe four weeks ago, but this is going to be the first time we see it with an audience. that hasn't seen it, and there's a big audience so I'm hoping it's going to be good."
  • Embargoed: 26th December 2001 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LEICESTER SQUARE, LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA2A2TAB1DHNO41JBKMHB52J3GD
  • Story Text: The magic of Middle-Earth came to London's Leicester Square on Monday night as the first installment of Peter Jackson's epic 3-hour adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings received its world premiere.
    The epic "Lord of the Rings" film was launched at a glitzy world premiere on Monday with critics already hailing the mammoth fantasy as a masterpiece.
    The J.R.R. Tolkien trilogy that attracted at least 100 million readers over the last half century has been turned into three movies costing $270 million and taken New Zealand director Peter Jackson 18 grueling months to film with a cast of 2,400.
    "Fellowship of the Ring" is the first of the three films to be released every Christmas for the next three years and showbusiness razzmatazz reigned supreme at the London premiere.
    The film looks set to propel its diminutive hero, American actor Elijah Wood, to international stardom. Hollywood veterans such as Liv Tyler and British horror star Christopher Lee were on hand to watch Wood's turn as Tolkien's Frodo Baggins thrust him into the firmament.
    "I actually didn't know very much about Tolkien at all so I was floored when it happened!" said Liv Tyler of when she landed the part of elf-maiden Arwen Undomiel.
    Elijah Wood, on the other hand, got the part of Frodo Baggins after much research and passion for Tolkien's creation: "I made my own video tape, I just felt like doing my own tape would be something a little special. So I did my own tape, I got a hobbit costume, I went into the woods and filmed those scenes and sent it to Peter."
    Ian McKellen made a special trip back to London from New York where he's currently appearing on Broadway with Helen Mirren in Strindberg's Dance of Death. Cate Blanchett, who plays Galadriel, could not attend the premiere as she has just had a baby.
    The film, a dark tale of the fight between good and evil played out by hobbits, elves, wizards and orcs, could go head to head with another magical mystery tale -- "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" -- when it is released on December
    But both films faced an equally tough time -- convincing readers, movie fans and film moguls that they could pull off the celluloid trick.
    The first "Lord of the Rings" feedback from critics was euphoric.
    "The movie works. It has real passion," Newsweek declared.
    "I really got a sense of awe and grandeur," said the film critic for Entertainment Weekly. "The effects are blended in extremely well with the fabric of the movie," Variety said.
    Jackson said he did feel nervous about how the public would receive the film but was heartened by the early reviews.
    "I'll be relieved to have people finally see the film because it has been the buzz on the Internet, there have been spies (on set), it has been gossip and rumour for three years now," he told Reuters.
    "Three years is too long. People have just got to see it.
    It is just a movie and it needs to have an identity as a film now and not as this Internet buzz. I'll be relieved when it is out there."
    Christopher Lee, who plays the fallen wizard Saruman, said he was seeing the film for the first time at the premiere but was confident it was going to be fantastic.
    The 79-year-old veteran called Jackson one of the greatest film directors of the age. "Someone asked me what my greatest ambition in life is and I replied that it was to live to see the third film," Lee said. Wood said the film was breathtaking and he hoped it would inspire a whole new generation to read the books.
    "I love it, I think it is wonderful. Everyone involved has done such beautiful work."
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