Ancanar - production and release date speculation

[IronHills Dwarf]

Someone has asked already about possible release dates so I figure we can have a thread for that. :)

Basically we don't know when it will be released. I'd also hate to hazard to much of a guess because as far as I know shooting hasn't wrapped yet. A while back they got studio backing of some kind (though they haven't let on yet as to which studio) and decided to reshoot the entire thing. So it could be christmas.... it could be spring of 2006, I really don't know.

[Ithildiel Noldoran]

I hope it'll be Christmas!!!!:hyper: The more I hear about it, the more I want to see it!! :blush:

[IronHills Dwarf]

Christmas could work for or against the film I think. It would have to compete with Narnia. I'm not sure it's got the profile to do that, I think it'd do better being released at a time when it had no other fantasy genre competition. Of course it's also unknowned if it will be a major theater release, it appears that it will be but no confirmation as of yet.

[Ithildiel Noldoran]

Hm...Not only Narnia; it might also have to compete with the first installment of His Dark Materials, if it hits the theatres around the holidays, as rumours say it will!!Stilll, I think, with the righ promotion,it should be able to compete favourably!!As a film, it seems to have everything it takes-from the production stills and trailer I have seen, at least! :blush:

[IronHills Dwarf]

Everything but a huge book based following. ;) I dunno, I have a feeling it won't hit theaters till next year anyway.

[Lynx]

And let's not forget King Kong- I believe this is also coming out around the Christmas holidays! I think spring 2006 would be a better time to put the film- less competiton and I think it will garner more attention. I do hope it makes to at least a few major theaters in the TO area.

I've heard great things about this production from the very beginning, and I do hope they have a good studio to back them up. :)

[Manveri Silverleaf]

Well with the whole Ancanar sessions planned, I think it won't be until after summer 2006. A fall release could work - it doesn't compete with any major movies (that I know of), and they'll have a great load of publicity with The Gathering.

[IronHills Dwarf]

Hmm, no comment on the Ancanar track at the Gathering. Lets just say I disagree with it being there.

I dunno if it'll work in it's favor though. You have to keep in mind that this film was at the Gathering 03, I'm wondering if people will be a little surprised its A) still around and B) not finished yet. If it's to be positive publicity I think they'll need to throw a nice long teaser together.

[Lynx]

Well, I'm not privy to the programming decisons for the Gathering, but I think its good that it's there. It seems that Ancanar fans are Tolkien fans as well, so to me it makes sense. In 2003 I had no idea who or what Ancanar was, until it was promoted at the last Gathering, and now I'm looking forward to the film. I think the fans will understand why it's taking longer than expected to finish the film.

[IronHills Dwarf]

Well I'm torn between wanting to learn as much as possible about Ancanar and failing to understand why it belongs at a Tolkien event. The directors have been clear that it's not Tolkien so why should it be at a program devoted to Tolkien? It's also slightly discouraging to see the list of guest stars for the program including more Ancanar people than anything else.... I just smacks of "pushing" to the film to me.

[Lynx]

Ok, yah I see what you mean. Hmm, I guess it's there to show 'here is a really great indie fantasy film, and if it wasn't for Tolkien, the director might never have been inspired to make it'. Maybe. They are pushing the film quite heavily, but it doesn't bother me. I just hope it doesn't turn out like another "Westlander"- that indie fantasy film was awful, mostly bad acting all around, except for one actor.

Do you mean the programming as a whole? Because to my knowledge, there will definitely be more Tolkien guests on the way, and possibly some of the actors like in 2003. They just haven't been put up on the site because their attendance need to be confirmed.

[Manveri Silverleaf]

True, the current guest lineup includes more Ancanar folks than Tolkien folks, but that could also have accounted to scheduling conflicts. It's quite possible that many people they wished to have were unable to make it due to scheduling conflicts, so you do have to take that into account. Plus there's no guarantee that all of the Ancanar folks will make it. Personally I don't really see much of a problem with Ancanar being shown - in the grand scheme, Ancanar activities will only consist of one day, and possibly not even the whole day at that. I could understand if Ancanar was taking up half of the total programming. But it's still early yet, and the guest list may grow to include more Tolkien artists, speakers, maybe even some of the actors.

[Dunthule]

Hmmm .. I always thought it'd go straight to DVD.
I imagine that if it makes it to the theaters, it would be released as an "indie" film.
Does anyone know if a major distributor has picked up this film for release??

[Eowyn]

There's a bit on here (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0315187/combined) if you scroll down to the bottom of the page.

[IronHills Dwarf]

Ancanar - What We Know of the Filming Progress:

This is currently the big question with Ancanar, what is happening with the filming? Is it finished, have they started, when will it be done? There are unfortunately no definite answers. The crew and cast are keeping the lid firmly on the script, filming dates, and production status. Spy reports and leaks just don't seem to happen. What can be said about the production's state is this.

1: There's a revised script (12th version last we know of but that was in 2004) that has expanded on the script that the original film was shot with. The original film meaning the one that the footage from the ancient "original" trailer was pulled from.

2: The original film was shot all in California, we know that the production has scouted locations in Scotland now as well as California. This speaks of course of more funds (this also shows in the range of props that have been commissioned from LMF) which brings us to our next point.

3: There's more (much more) money involved with the production now. We know of two production companies involved. Elemental Pictures and Light Pirate Pictures. So who are these companies you ask? Light Pirate Pictures is a mystery, with no website and little in the way of Google returns it's hard to get any info. Elemental is connected with Sam Balcomb, but the exact details remain unknown (Elemental's website is singularly unhelpful). But those two companies were listed on the old "original" trailer. As of late we know precisely zip on who's involved. My guess is funding is coming the same way most of the production's stuff has come, grassroots, private contacts, in short - connections. My bet's on private backers, which doesn't mean this is a even medium budget film with $10 million or so to play with but it's gotta be a heck of allot more than the $20,000 the director and producer managed to shoestring together for the original project.

4: Most of you have probably seen the development trailer which was released early in 2005. That footage is NOT representative of the new script and that exact footage will NOT appear in the final release of the film. This footage was shot expressly for the trailer and has certain inaccuracies with the script (for instance Ancanar will not have all the war-gear at this point in the story). Furthermore the director has indicated that the final film with shot on 35mm, which this development trailer scene was not. This also pretty much eliminates the chance of any of the original footage from the original shoot (again this is going back years to that early trailer) will find it's way into the final film because it'd look cruddy spliced in.

5: The director has been absent from the forums on the Ancanar.com site for a while which some are taking as an indication that things are happening. I can't testify to the reasoning of that but it seems plausible that filming is now underway.

The biggest questions about this film are twofold. When will it finish and how wide will the release be. On the former I feel it's almost pointless to speculate, the director and crew have shown that this one won't be done till they feel it's as near their vision as it's going to get. Don't be surprised if post-pro lasts for ever. With regards to the latter I am becoming of more and more the opinion that this will turn into a major theater release. Why, because the fantasy genre is making a hard hitting comeback. Narnia, Harry Potter (though the enthusiasm for this series is being stretched by the number of films), Eragon, Dungeon Siege, Dungeons and Dragons, The Runelords, Bran Mak Morn, Cry of the Icemark, Inkheart, His Dark materials, Terabinthia, etc... Hehe, I bet there were a few in there you didn't know about. Ancanar looks to offer a very high quality and competitive brand of fantasy. So if they can finish this dang thing before the bottom of the market for this genre drops out (which it will in five years, trust me, unless Hollywood does the unthinkable and gets the mix right in most of the films upcoming) Ancanar shouldn't have huge difficulties picking up a top distributor unless the director and producer absolutely khack the thing. That'd mean a nationwide release if they picked up one of the majors for distrib. The really great thing about this is Ancanar won't have had a major studio involved during production which means, while money probably has been a major headache, Ancanar's team will have been able to make their film without a huge studio breathing down their neck and forcing them to conform everything to the Hollyweird mold. Since most of us can probably handle a little more "interesting" content than the intellectual midgets in L.A. are used to spoon-feeding us we should be jumping for joy even if we have to wait till 2010 for Ancanar to arrive. Currently I'm craving some fantasy that goes beyond inane magic and miscellaneous quests to defeat evil tyrants. But then, if Hollywood asked the big questions, they just might be expected to articulate themselves. Sure I like the pretty pictures and will faithfully fork over my $10 bucks to see 'em but I'd hand over twice that to see something that actually made me use my brain.

[Stormcrow]

Cool! That was great of you to post all of that, thankyou. It is awesome to know all of that. :)

[IronHills Dwarf]

The latest buzz from the Ancanar forums is that Ancanar is currently in discussion with production companies.

This is good news, hopefully by the time the Gathering roles around more will be released (probably at that event).