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| Kit Rae is well versed in such "Lord of the Rings" nitpicking. As a product designer at United Cutlery of Sevierville, Tenn., Mr. Rae was in charge of developing a line of souvenir weapons inspired by Peter Jackson's film version of the trilogy. For one of those products, a pair of Elvish weapons known as the Fighting Knives of Legolas, he selected a yellowish hue for the handles. The online protests were legion, as many fans insisted that the handles should be white. "With something like that, where there's a specific color people feel it's supposed to be, you're just not going to make some people happy," Mr. Rae said. Despite the complaining, the Fighting Knives of Legolas, priced at $163.49 a set, remain a top seller for United Cutlery — a testament to the staying power of the "Lord of the Rings" brand. Though the last installment of Mr. Jackson's trilogy hit movie theaters nearly two and a half years ago, licensees are still selling affiliated products with aplomb; Mr. Rae, for example, estimates that his company has sold approximately 20,000 Legolas sets in the last two years.Not every product bearing the "Lord of the Rings" label is guaranteed to be a runaway success, as United Cutlery has discovered. Consumers have proved much more receptive to weapons wielded by the films' heroic elves than by its villainous orcs, a trend that Mr. Rae credited to the relative beauty of the Elvish aesthetic, which he characterized as having a "sweeping, organic, serpentine look." The development of the knives took 10 months. It began in 2001, when Mr. Jackson's staff sent United Cutlery a prop version of the knives that Legolas, played by Orlando Bloom, would be using in "The Two Towers," the second installment in the trilogy. Mr. Rae was initially baffled by how to replicate the vinelike design on the handles; the company usually etches such patterns with acid, but that process was too clumsy for replicating the prop's intricacies. So Mr. Rae enlisted the services of a company that fabricates circuit boards, and thus had the equipment needed to burn minute swirls into wood. United Cutlery released the Legolas knives, crisscrossed on a plaque, in 2002, and was quickly taken aback by the demand. Waiting lists extended for a year until the company could arrange for its factory in Taiwan to increase production. The early buyers, meanwhile, debated the handle color on "Lord of the Rings" message boards. While sensitive to the argument that the handles should be white, Mr. Rae points out that the Legolas knives do appear slightly jaundiced in some scenes from "The Two Towers," thanks to post-production color processing. |
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| An unfinished tale by J.R.R. Tolkien has been edited by his son into a completed work and will be released next spring, the U.S. and British publishers announced Monday. Christopher Tolkien has spent the past 30 years working on "The Children of Hurin," an epic tale his father began in 1918 and later abandoned. Excerpts of "The Children of Húrin," which includes the elves and dwarves of Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" and other works, have been published before. "It has seemed to me for a long time that there was a good case for presenting my father's long version of the legend of the `Children of Húrin' as an independent work, between its own covers," Christopher Tolkien said in a statement. The new book will be published by Houghton Mifflin in the United States and HarperCollins in England. |
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| Have you been collecting the merchandise? Bits yeah. I used to get phone calls from friends saying "My mate just went into Burger King and picked you up with his hamburger". I've picked up bits. I get sent the choice stuff, not the willy nilly stuff. My mum is going slightly bonkers as the Lord of the Rings memorabilia is accumulating at our family home. :lol: |
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| "I definitely enjoy doing mad stuff -- I did these bungee jumps in New Zealand. They were the freakiest kind of experience -- to summon up the courage to jump out of a cable car with something tied to your feet -- and it was pretty surreal. That was definitely the most exhilarating to date." |
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| It all kicked off when Orlando Bloom and Sean Bean taped up the whole of Monaghan's trailer, leaving him stranded outside.... |
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| Though Tyler may not have felt completely comfortable on horseback, co-stars Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn) and Orlando Bloom (Legolas) certainly did. In fact, on days off, they could often be found riding their four-legged co-stars around the New Zealand countryside. Aragorn's bay horse, known in character as Brego, was the faithful mount who finds him and brings him back to his companions after a battle with the evil orcs. Brego was played by a former FEI dressage horse, a warmblood stallion called Uraeus, and at the end of filming, Mortensen purchased his main film mount to keep as a friend and to continue to pursue his new passion for riding. |
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| Bloom's Emotional Goodbye To Legolas Lord Of The Rings hunk Orlando Bloom found saying goodbye to his Elvish character Legolas an emotional experience. The sexy Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl star shot to fame in the screen adaptation of JRR Tolkien's mystical trilogy, and he found finishing the series a real wrench. He says, "I've been back to New Zealand (to do some reshoots). It was really emotional to sort of say goodbye. We've done the wig for the last time. We've done the pointy ears. I'm done. "I did three days and then they cut together a little clip for me of all the Legolas moments with music. And it was really kind and fun and sweet and sad. "They let me keep my bow and arrow and the clapperboard from my last scene. And an ear or two." |
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| This month, Mortensen debuted his first post-"Rings" feature with the cowboy adventure “Hidalgo.” Astin had a cameo role in “50 First Dates” in February and last year Bloom proved his star-power in “Pirates of the Caribbean. Fans identify with different actors and have various crushes on actors so going to see them [in another movie] is exciting,” he said. “Orlando Bloom fans in particular are really, really hardcore.” Bloom was barely out of acting school when he was cast in as Legolas, the arrow-wielding elf in “Rings.” And from the looks of it, his star will continue to rise. He has six more movies in the works, including “Pirates of the Caribbean 2" and a role alongside Brad Pitt (search) in “Troy.” |
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| A massive volcano crater lake has burst its banks, sending a huge mudflow down the slopes of New Zealand's Mount Ruapehu. The 9,175ft mountain was the location of Middle Earth in the Lord of the Rings trilogy of films. The potentially deadly 10ft mix of rocks and acidic water known as a lahar broke through a rubble wall, triggering an early warning system. Civil defence authorities quickly sealed off roads and halted trains. Witnesses described a flash flood of water, mud and volcanic debris sweeping down the southern side of the mountain towards Tangiwai. There were no reports of injuries or damage associated with the natural phenomenon, apart from flooding on some farmland. In 1953, a similar event killed 151 people when the mud flow washed away a railway bridge and a passenger train. Mt. Ruapehu is one of the most active crater lake volcanoes in the world and scientists had been expecting a significant lahar soon. A naturally occurring 23ft wall of volcanic ash and sand known as tephra sits on top of the mountain. It holds in millions of gallons of acidic water, and this wakk had been breached, regional council chairman Gary Murfitt said. |
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| Dominic Monaghan and Orlando Bloom both chose to have their tattoos on the arm with which they did most of their weapon work. Dominic’s is on the shoulder of his sword arm. His left arm features the line "Living is easy with eyes closed" from the Beatles' song "Strawberry Fields Forever." He also sports a pair of stars (one black, one white) on his right foot. Bloom, who portrays Elf archer Legolas, has his Rings tattoo on his right forearm, his bow arm. If you watch the fashion magazine photo layouts you can sometimes spot it (that is, if the tattoo hasn't been airbrushed out). In this picture, it's just visible on the inside of his right forearm. Orlando had gotten one tattoo prior to his Fellowship tat: a tribal sun design below his navel. You can get a few quick glimpses of Orlando's Elvish tattoo if you watch the DVD of PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN. Watch for it on his right forearm during the sword fight when Sparrow (Depp) taunts Will (Bloom) about being a eunuch and again when Elizabeth (Keira Knightly) and Will talk about how she took the medallion from him when they were children. (photo of Dominic Monaghan: Pauline Neal) Sean Astin and Billy Boyd both had their tattoos placed on their ankles. They felt this was significant to their experiences as hobbits and all the time spent in “Feet,” the two hour process by which the faux hairy feet were glued over their own every morning. Both men have remarked in interviews that they inadvertently added to their own discomfort in that they were still making the movie when they got tattooed and then had to have hobbit feet glued onto their healing ankles. The Men of the Fellowship also had tattoos prior to this commemorative one. Viggo Mortensen has a few tattoos, most notably a design that combines the initials of himself, ex-wife Exene Cervenka and son Henry. Only recently he revealed that his Elvish nine is on one of his shoulders. It made sense for Sean Bean to place his Fellowship tattoo on his right arm like some of the others, especially since his left upper arm sports his famous “100% Blade” tattoo in support of his beloved Sheffield United Football Club. Bean had already finished filming and left New Zealand when the tattoo idea arose and he was the last member of the group to be tattooed. He got his ink in New York City, accompanied by Orlando Bloom and Elijah Wood. Those who saw him perform on the stage this fall got to see it for themselves. |