Looking back at the LotR gamble 20 years on

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https://deadline.com/2021/07/the-lord-o ... 234785740/

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I read the article a couple of days ago and meant to post that it was a good read, but for some reason I forgot.

It was a good read! I was only vaguely aware of what was going on at the time of the Cannes footage, and I don't recall how much I heard about it. I just remember having a lot of trepidation about what was going to happen when I went to theatre to see FOTR, and having virtually all of it dissipate as soon as I heard Cate Blanchett say "The world has changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth."

[Alatar]

I was really eagerly following every tidbit of news at the time, checking all the websites and chatrooms daily. Its funny though that its taken 20 years before they started talking about tensions over money. Around the time of the movies and in all the Appendices and interviews, everything was sunshine and roses about Newline.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Funny (as in 'curious'), but not really surprising!

[Jude]

The trailer that was shown at Cannes - is that available to view?

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I don't believe so, but I could be wrong.

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No I don't think so! Maybe on the 20th Anniversary Collector's Edition

[narya]

Well there's this trailer:

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I remember downloading that overnight. Quicktime player

Cannes was the following year. A 20 min presentation that was never released to public. Harry Knowles of Ain't it Cool News wrote a gushing review.

[Alatar]

Actually it was Moriarty from the same site

http://legacy.aintitcool.com/node/10098

The lights come up.

And I’m sitting in a screening room just off Beverly Blvd. It’s a Wednesday morning. Everything’s back to normal.

Only it’s not. Because I’ve seen what I’ve seen now, and there’s no turning back. I’m not just eager to see these films at this point. I’m rabid. I’m manic. I’ve never seen anything like the images I saw yesterday, and neither have you.

You think you’re ready. But you’re not.

You think that you get it by reading my description or Harry’s description or Smilin' Jack Ruby's description or the recent description over at TheOneRing.net. But you don’t.

You think you understand after you see the new TV trailer that debuted last night. But you can’t.

On December 19th, it all changes. What we call a blockbuster, how we view fantasy on film... changed, transformed by two hours and forty-five minutes that will transport you through time and space to Middle Earth. You will take that journey with the Fellowship, and along the way, over the course of three films, we are going to be treated to a spectacle of imagination the likes of which we have not seen in years. Technology and storytelling and design and performance have all been drawn together masterfully by Peter Jackson and his amazing cast and crew, and if 30 minutes of footage can turn me from an interested observer to an evangelical loon, then the whole film may just reduce me to that humbled, awe-stricken child who first fell in love with movies and their potential so many years ago.

At least, I hope so. Dear God, I hope so.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

No I don't think so! Maybe on the 20th Anniversary Collector's Edition

Indeed it will be (see my post in that thread).