Kalimac
January 11th,2003, 06:40 PM
Massive SPOILERS Below
Here's an article with some pretty heavy spoilers for the plot line
for Return of the King . . proceed with caution.
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Empire Magazine
For want of less suggestive description, the three Lotr films have been building to a climax. The Return Of The King, the grand finale to Peter Jackson's monumental project, is where the shake-down finally occurs, where good and evil finally face off and the quest comes (sorry) to its conclusion. In movie terms this means part 3 will be massive: there are three separate battles (compared to Towers'one), Frodo and Sam reach the shattered earth of Mordor, and there is a final, devious twist in the tale. Put it this way, the mission both fails and succeeds.
"In film 3 the scale gets even bigger,"boasts executive producer Mark Ordesky."You get to see Minas Tirith, you get to go to Gondor, you see the mountain of fire. It gets progressivelly bigger."
Slowly all the separate narrative strands will knit back together again. Aragorn , with Gimli and Legolas, comences on the trail that leads him on his destiny-the throne of Gondor. As Mordor launches its attack on the forces of good, he will travell the Paths of the Dead to unite an army of, ostensible, living dead.
Gandalf and Pippin head on to Minas Tirith, capital of Gondor, where they find Boromir's father, Denethor (John Noble), has slipped into insanity. The city is plunged into crisis when their enemy lays siege outside the gates, equipped with catapults projecting the heads of fallen warriors over the walls. Merry joins the soldiers of Rohan in an almighty charge to come to Gondor's rescue, lead by Theoden and Eowyn, disguised as a male warrior. And all three parties will unite to fight a vast battle on the plains outside Minas Tirith.
"The battle scenes are going to be stunning," says Dan Hennah, the art director. " There's 250 real horses galloping with spears. I tell you, the energy of that is a pretty amazing sight. And you wait until you see Minas Tirith-you'll see the seven walls and the shining, white tower. Staggering stuff." For Frodo and Sam of course, things get gradually worse and worse. Betrayed by the conniving Gollum, they are attacked by an ancient , female CGI spider known as Shelob who guards a secret passage into Mordor.
Ultimately, it falls upon the broad shoulders of Sam to save them from disaster.
Jackson has already admitted that the books end-piece, the Scouring Of The Shire, has gone. This sequence, involving Saruman's corruption of the Hobbits' homeland was felt extraneous to central plot and has already been paid lip service as Frodo gazes into Galadriel's mirror in part 1.
Overall, expect something bigger in scope than even the previous two films-tens of thousands of Orcs, accompanied by Nazgul on Fell Beasts (pterodactyl-like creatures) laying waste to Gondor. It will also be far more intense (Frodo is all but destroyed by the power of the Ring), with every character having to confront their own demons before the end.
In fact, as visual effects supervisor Jim Rygiel puts it, you ain't seen nothing yet. "Simply," he smiles, "we have moved on ten-fold with The Two Towers, and The Return Of The King moves on ten-fold again..." And the oscar surely has to go to...?
IAN NATHAN
Here's an article with some pretty heavy spoilers for the plot line
for Return of the King . . proceed with caution.
S
P
O
I
L
E
R
S
.
.
.
.
.
Empire Magazine
For want of less suggestive description, the three Lotr films have been building to a climax. The Return Of The King, the grand finale to Peter Jackson's monumental project, is where the shake-down finally occurs, where good and evil finally face off and the quest comes (sorry) to its conclusion. In movie terms this means part 3 will be massive: there are three separate battles (compared to Towers'one), Frodo and Sam reach the shattered earth of Mordor, and there is a final, devious twist in the tale. Put it this way, the mission both fails and succeeds.
"In film 3 the scale gets even bigger,"boasts executive producer Mark Ordesky."You get to see Minas Tirith, you get to go to Gondor, you see the mountain of fire. It gets progressivelly bigger."
Slowly all the separate narrative strands will knit back together again. Aragorn , with Gimli and Legolas, comences on the trail that leads him on his destiny-the throne of Gondor. As Mordor launches its attack on the forces of good, he will travell the Paths of the Dead to unite an army of, ostensible, living dead.
Gandalf and Pippin head on to Minas Tirith, capital of Gondor, where they find Boromir's father, Denethor (John Noble), has slipped into insanity. The city is plunged into crisis when their enemy lays siege outside the gates, equipped with catapults projecting the heads of fallen warriors over the walls. Merry joins the soldiers of Rohan in an almighty charge to come to Gondor's rescue, lead by Theoden and Eowyn, disguised as a male warrior. And all three parties will unite to fight a vast battle on the plains outside Minas Tirith.
"The battle scenes are going to be stunning," says Dan Hennah, the art director. " There's 250 real horses galloping with spears. I tell you, the energy of that is a pretty amazing sight. And you wait until you see Minas Tirith-you'll see the seven walls and the shining, white tower. Staggering stuff." For Frodo and Sam of course, things get gradually worse and worse. Betrayed by the conniving Gollum, they are attacked by an ancient , female CGI spider known as Shelob who guards a secret passage into Mordor.
Ultimately, it falls upon the broad shoulders of Sam to save them from disaster.
Jackson has already admitted that the books end-piece, the Scouring Of The Shire, has gone. This sequence, involving Saruman's corruption of the Hobbits' homeland was felt extraneous to central plot and has already been paid lip service as Frodo gazes into Galadriel's mirror in part 1.
Overall, expect something bigger in scope than even the previous two films-tens of thousands of Orcs, accompanied by Nazgul on Fell Beasts (pterodactyl-like creatures) laying waste to Gondor. It will also be far more intense (Frodo is all but destroyed by the power of the Ring), with every character having to confront their own demons before the end.
In fact, as visual effects supervisor Jim Rygiel puts it, you ain't seen nothing yet. "Simply," he smiles, "we have moved on ten-fold with The Two Towers, and The Return Of The King moves on ten-fold again..." And the oscar surely has to go to...?
IAN NATHAN