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Science Fiction and Fantasy News
The Lord of the Rings
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AFI proclaims "Fellowship" best film of 2001 |
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Michael Martinez, Saturday, January 5, 2002 |
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Peter Jackson's "The Fellowship of the Ring" was awarded Best Film for 2001 by the American Film Institute. Jim Rygel won Best Digital Effects and Grant Major won for Best Production Design. Producer Barrie Osborne, accompanied by Bob Shaye and actors Elijah Wood (Frodo Baggins) and Sean Astin (Sam Gamgee), accepted the award for Best Film. |
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Parma Endorion updated, released as eBook |
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Michael Martinez, Saturday, January 5, 2002 |
Parma Endorion: Essays on Middle-earth, 3rd edition, has been published as a free eBook by Michael Martinez. The new Parma Endorion features selected artwork by Anke Eissmann and Rich Sullivan and updates essays originally composed for the original Parma Endorion Web site in late 1996 and early 1997.
Covering topics such as "Planning the Middle-earth Wedding", "The Wonders of Middle-earth", "What does an Elf do in Aman?", and "What does a Woodman do all day?", Parma Endorion's award-winning essays have been utilized by Tolkien scholars, teachers, librarians, and students around the world. The Web site proved to be so popular it was redesigned for easier use in 1998, and has been translated in whole or in part into Polish, French, and Italian. In addition to new information and corrections, the 3rd edition features fan artwork. The images used represent some of the best noncommercial Tolkien-inspired arwork available today.
Martinez is a highly respected Tolkien researcher and commentator. His work has garnered mentions in TV GUIDE and WIRED magazines, and he has been interviewed by journalists around the world in their coverage of Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" movies. Martinez has been writing a regular column on Tolkien and Middle-earth for Suite101.com since 1999, and in 2000 he self-published a collection of essays as Visualizing Middle-earth. Martinez also directed the Tolkien and Middle-earth programming track for Dragoncon (http://www.dragoncon.org/), North America's largest fan-run convention, in 2000 and 2001. The author has also provided consulting services for several Tolkien-related businesses.
The current Parma Endorion Web site (http://www.xenite.org/parma/title.htm) was selected by Yahoo! Internet Life for inclusion in its "Great Lord of the Rings on the Net Contest" in December 2001, in the "Best Site for Serious Tolkien Fans" category. The Yahoo! reviewer says, "these pieces don't play around -- Martinez...can quote chapter and verse from Tolkien's opus" (http://www.yil.com/daily/lotr/index.asp?date=011210).
Artists Anke Eissmann and Rich Sullivan have contributed artwork to popular Web sites such as Tolkien Online (http://www.tolkienonline.com/) and TheOneRing.Net (http://www.theonering.net/), both widely recognized as authoritative resources for fans of J.R.R. Tolkien and Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" movies. The artists were selected from among hundreds of fan artists who have displayed their skills on numerous sites across the World Wide Web.
The Parma Endorion eBook is available for free download as an Adobe PDF file from Free-eBooks.Net (http://www.free-ebooks.net/fan_fiction.html). Free-eBooks.Net is a member of the eBooks'n'Bytes network (http://www.ebooksnbytes.com/). A Spanish-language translation is expected later this year.
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Suite101 to cease paying contributing editors |
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Michael Martinez, Sunday, December 30, 2001 |
Suite101.com has announced that, in order to reduce its costs, it will no longer pay its contributing editors for their articles.
Suite101 is a community-oriented Web site which has managed to survive the dot-com meltdown despite having no revenue model to speak of. The Canadian company's stock trades for pennies per share after having peaked around $12 per share in early 2000.
Xenite.Org founder Michael Martinez has been writing a popular column on Tolkien and Middle-earth for Suite101 since August 1999. Some of his Suite101 essays were published in Visualizing Middle-earth in 2000. A planned sequel is being considered for publication by a small press.
At the end of November, Martinez announced that his contributions for the Tolkien and Middle-earth topic would be reduced from weekly essays to monthly essays. He is currently engaged on a book-length project which prevents him from maintaining the weekly schedule. Martinez has not responded to the Suite101 decision.
Some of Martinez' Suite101 essays have been republished on other Web sites with the author's permission. All rights to the essays revert to the author after 90 days, according to the standard Suite101 Contributing Editors contract. It is not clear what rights, if any, Suite101 will claim in the process of changing its business plan. |
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Tolkien Enterprises clamps down on Other Hands |
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Michael Martinez, Sunday, December 30, 2001 |
Tolkien Enterprises has issued a cease and desist order to the gaming journal Other Hands.
Other Hands is published by Chris Seeman, a former assistant editor for Iron Crown Enterprises. I.C.E. published an authorized role-playing game based on J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings for 18 years, until its license was revoked by Tolkien Enterprises in 1999. I.C.E. went bankrupt and ceased operations in 2000.
Since the demise of the I.C.E. role-playing game, Other Hands has kept part of the old MERP gaming community supplied with new adventure ideas and resources. Some former MERP writers have contributed to the journal, which boasts a world-wide circulation in excess of 100 subscribers, including some of the most respected members of the Tolkien scholarly community. Other Hands has published original research and commentary about the works of J.R.R. Tolkien in conjunction with a handful of other small journals.
Seeman reports in a message sent to subscribers that he has been informed by a legal representative for Tolkien Enterprises that "Other Hands, both the biannual periodical and the website reprinting many of the pieces therefrom, constitutes an unauthorized derivative work of the Tolkien works under the Copyright Act. Other Hands is not limited to commentary on the Tolkien works nor on authorized derivatives thereof."
Seeman acknowledges that Tolkien Enterprise's copyright concerns are reasonable, and he has stated his intention to comply with the order immediately, while seeking clarification from Tolkien Enterprises and/or its legal representative to assist in determining what may or may not be included in future issues.
"If ... all we can do is review products and 'comment' on MERP and LotR RPG," Seeman told his subscribers, "the usefulness of OH may be at an end -- at least the magazine itself".
The cease and desist order is only the latest in a string of legal actions undertaken by Tolkien Enterprises since word was first announced of Peter Jackson's intention to produce one or more movies based on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien in early 1998. As Xenite.Org has reported in the past, Tolkien Enterprises withdrew licensing from Sierra Online (now a part of the Vivendi Universal media conglomerate) and Toy Vault.
Industry insiders have alleged that Tolkien Enterprises may have been seeking to eliminate potential competition to movie-related merchandising deals. Toy Vault cancelled production on its line of Middle-earth Action Figures a year earlier than its contract called for, apparently due to pressure from Tolkien Enterprises and/or New Line Cinema. Toy Vault never issued a final statement concerning the matter.
Other targets for legal action or pressure have included several Web sites deemed to be violating intellectual property rights. A widely publicized court order issued against one of the founding members of TheOneRing.Net was initiated by Three Foot Six Productions for unrelated reasons, but the order was quickly withdrawn after receiving worldwide criticism and attention in the media.
Tolkien Enterprises, a division of the Saul Zaentz Company, administers the film and merchandising rights to The Lord of The Rings and The Hobbit. J.R.R. Tolkien sold the rights to United Artists in the 1960s, and Zaentz acquired the rights in the 1970s. |
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Electronic Arts finally gets its LoTR game |
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Michael Martinez, Sunday, December 23, 2001 |
Electronic Arts has finally announced a license to produce electronic games based on Peter Jackson's 'The Lord of the Rings'. It is more than 18 months since the first rumor about an EA deal began circulating.
REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 18, 2001--Electronic Arts (Nasdaq:ERTS - news) officially announced today that they have signed an exclusive deal with New Line Cinema to create games based on the upcoming The Lord of the Rings movies. New Line Cinema will release three movies based on J.R.R. Tolkien's classic literary works, beginning with The Fellowship of the Ring (Dec. 19, 2001), followed by The Two Towers (Holiday 2002) and The Return of the King (Holiday 2003). The license grants EA the exclusive rights to develop and publish products based on the movies for next generation video game consoles and handheld platforms.
EA will launch the first of their games in Fall 2002, in conjunction with the second motion picture, The Two Towers. Information on the subsequent games will be announced at a later date.
http://www.ea.com/eagames/home/home.jsp |
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Rough cuts of 2nd, 3rd films done; more filming scheduled; mixed fan reviews |
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Michael Martinez, Sunday, December 23, 2001 |
Peter Jackson has told reporters that rough cuts of 'The Two Towers' and 'The Return of the King' have already been made. Both movies are expected to last 2-1/2 to 3 hours.
The Dark Horizons Web site indicates that as much as 45 minutes of footage was trimmed from "The Fellowship of the Ring" before it was released to theaters. Fans around the world have already identified several scenes shown in trailers and spy reports which had been cut. Among those confirmed by Dark Horizons are a scene where Gimli falls for Galadriel and some footage where members of the Fellowship share their feelings about being involved with the quest to destroy the Ring.
Actors are scheduled to return to New Zealand in May and June for additional filming, if any is deemed necessary. Although "The Two Towers" is mostly finished, "The Return of the King" is still in very rough shape, and could be altered.
Despite rave reviews from the media, a growing number of Tolkien purists have been speaking out against "The Fellowship of the Ring". The most common complaints concern the pacing of the film, radical departures from the literary storyline, and the scene where the Company of the Ring traverses a crumbling stone staircase in Moria before reaching the bridge. Liv Tyler, who plays Arwen, has received many compliments from a by-no-means unanimous purist community regarding her performance as Arwen.
Sir Ian McKellen is almost universally being hailed as the perfect Gandalf. Viggo Mortensen, Sean Bean, and Elijah Wood have also earned high praise from the usually reluctant purists. In what may be the most ironic turn of events, many online reviews complain the CGI battle scenes are overdone. It was the revolutionary software, called Massive, which received most of the critical attention from mainstream media in the years leading up to the release of the movie.
Nonetheless, thousands of reviews have appeared in online discussion groups, Web sites, and in newspapers and magazines around the world. The movie which many are calling the best film of 2001 has met with widespread success and appears to be in no danger of failing. Early reports of box office receipts have been careful to point out that the nearly 3-hour flick is longer than "Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone" (not to mention most other movies) and opened on far fewer screens, so its box office receipts will not be as impressive as Potter's. |
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Maximwear is Hobbit forming |
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Michael Martinez, Saturday, December 22, 2001 |
Maxim Online has scans of male cast members from Peter Jackson's 'The Fellowship of the Ring' showing off the latest winter fashions.
Check out the 'Hobbit Forming' article before the December issue scrolls to the archives.
Maxim Online is an upscale magazine for men (contains no explicit nudity, but some frank articles with sexually related content). Maxim is famous for photo layouts of actresses opening up to the camera in very sexy poses and outfits.
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Fellowship of the Ring plot summary updated |
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Michael Martinez, Wednesday, December 19, 2001 |
We have updated our plot summary page for 'The Fellowship of the Ring' with the actual plot from the movie.
Xenite.Org has been maintaining Plot Summary pages for all three Peter Jackson movies. We have now updated our Fellowship of the Ring plot summary.
The movie plots for "The Two Towers" and "The Return of the King" remain highly speculative, as they are based on rumors and spy reports, as well as some guesswork. Updates will be posted as required and as our schedules permit us to.
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Who's afraid of the big bad purists? |
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Michael Martinez, Wednesday, December 19, 2001 |
I've now seen "The Fellowship of the Ring" and it seems to me that people just have to see the movie for themselves in order to make up their minds.
Unforgiving Tolkien purists will probably be offended. I think they have pretty much painted themselves into that corner. There is no saving grace in the movie for the hardcore fans who have dreaded the release of this picture, and who wish it had never been produced.
There are Tolkien purists, however, who (like me) will do their best to separate their feelings for Tolkien's work from their reactions to Peter Jackson's work. I have to admit that it's not easy to watch this movie without thinking, "Well, that was different from the book."
But each time I found myself reacting that way, I reminded myself that I had come to watch the movie, and not to condemn or criticize it. Picking every little nit at this point isn't going to do anyone any good. The deed is done and we either live with it or not, but either way we have to get on with our lives. Besides, "The Two Towers" is coming in a year, and angst-driven personalities need a little breathing space before they start gearing up to bemoan the onset of that movie.
As movies go I cannot say that this was the best movie of the year for me. It certainly wasn't the worst movie. I think that, if I were to compile a list of flaws in the film, and set them in a scale, the balance would be tilted in favor of the action-packed finale -- that is, I think the good by far outweighs the bad in the scale of Purist Justice.
Peter Jackson likes to tell a very visible story, and in so doing he tends to exaggerate certain elements. He brings an intensity to the screen which is absent in other directors' palettes. Of course, every director paints a different picture. One cannot help but interpret the interpretation according to one's own desires and expectations.
Read the full article here |
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A midnight winter's review of 'The Fellowship of the Ring' |
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Michael Martinez, Wednesday, December 19, 2001 |
Thenamir's Houston Line Party for Peter Jackson's 'The Fellowship of the Ring' was a sellout success.
More than 1,000 people filled at least two auditoriums at Houston's AMC Gulfe Pointe 30 cinema to watch the first of Peter Jackson's three "The Lord of the Rings" movies. Fans began arriving at the theater by 8:00 PM and because of the chill weather they were permitted to start seating themselves by 8:30.
Event oranizer Thenamir dressed up as Gandalf the Grey. Accompanied by an assortment of Elves and Dwarves, he proceeded to keep the arriving fans organized and entertained.
Prize giveaways commenced around 11:00 PM. Sideshow Toys and Weta, AMC Theaters, author Michael Martinez, and New Decipher, Inc. contributed prizes. Some of the prizes were handed out randomly and enthusiastic fans scrambled to get posters, bookmarks, keychains, buttons, and whatever trinkets or literature could be. Drawings were held for copies of Visualizing Middle-earth and busts of Aragorn.
When midnight rolled around the audiences quickly became quiet and enthusiastic, although strong cheering broke out for Sam Raimi's "Spider-man" preview. Some weak booing accompanied a screening of the preview for George Lucas' "The Attack of the Clones" preview titled "Forbidden Love" (see our Star Wars movie news page for a link to view the trailer and the latest news about Star Wars).
The audience watched "The Fellowship of the Ring" in almost total rapture for nearly three hours. Barely a sound outside the movie's own effects and dialogue could be heard throughout most of the event, although a wild round of cheers erupted spontaneously at one point before the end of the film, and the audience gave an ovation when the movie was finished.
Michael Martinez has reviewed the film at Suite101. |
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John Gormley radio interview |
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Michael Martinez, Monday, December 17, 2001 |
I'm being interviewed by John Gormley on CKOM 650 AM radio today, Tuesday, December 18, at 11:45 AM (Central Time).
We'll discuss J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and Peter Jackson's three-film adaptation. We'll also take questions from callers about the books and movies (or whatever won't get me into too much deep water).
CKOM Radio 650 AM is broadcast throughout Saskatchewan, CA.
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Enya "May it be" video now online |
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Michael Martinez, Sunday, December 16, 2001 |
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A fan's eye view of 'The Fellowship of the Ring' |
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Michael Martinez, Sunday, December 16, 2001 |
Ben Milder of The Tolkien Trail has posted his full review of 'The Fellowship of the Ring'. Milder is co-founder of both The Tolkien Trail and Entmoot.
One of the youngest Tolkien Webmasters to come along in years, Ben Milder has cut a swathe through online Tolkien fandom many an older fan would be proud to carve out for him or herself. The imagination and creativity that have gone into Milder's Web projects have earned him and his coalition partners growing recognition.
When New Line Cinema recently offered Tolkien Webmasters an advance opportunity to purchase tickets to the New York premier at half price, Milder leaped at the chance to be part of a once-in-a-lifetime event. Proceeeds from the event benefitted victims of the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center.
Read Ben's review of "The Fellowship of the Ring".
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Galadriel graces the cover of Doll Costuming |
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Michael Martinez, Sunday, December 16, 2001 |
The March 2002 issue of Doll Costuming magazine features a porcelain Galadriel doll on the cover.
 The article is titled "Creating a Fantasy Doll" and is summarized by the following text on the Doll Costuming Web site:
Beverly shares how she transformed her doll dreams into reality in her Galadriel doll. Detailed photos show the exquisite beadwork.
Thanks to Eratriano for the tip.
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