h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I agree about Prof Tolkien's phrasing. I'm not so sure about that of the screenwriters. They seemed to be overusing some stock sentence structures.

Anybody heard any news about the ROTK preview to be added onto the end?

whew... thought I'd killed the thread.

Tolkien wasn't that good of a storyteller, which extends to his language. It's noticeably that of a thorough academic; like those books you get of traditional mythologies, which always use stock structures and sometimes kill the action in the process.

No, what I'm saying is Tolkien's dialogue was better than the movie's.

Saw it again. Some observations:

* They never got to eat the rabbit stew.

* All the elves at helm's deep died.

* What were the hobbit children from Bilbo's party doing in the caves of helms deep?

* What a shame.

* Except Legolas.

* Did we even see the caves?

We certainly did. There were numerous shots of the rohan refugees in the caves, including the director's children, whom he seems to be fond of showing off, such as at bilbo's party, which is what I was attempting pointing out. I got ed instead. Oh well.

Did you stay to watch the credits - I noticed in the cast list 'Cute cave children'.

Strange, I've seen the film twice and can't recall that scene. Wait, there was a thing of Éowyn sheltering in the caves - odd after her earlier determination to fight.

Maybe she just popped in to use the ladies' loo and by the time she'd finished the door was locked.

well with the extended DVD of Two Towers just out and Return of The King released soon, I thought it would be time to re-start this old one!

I was (I think I said earlier) dissappointed witht he cinema version of TT, but the extended DVD version makes it all so much better, the stroy flows more, characters develop more and it isn't so jumpy.

It still has amazingly cheesy lines "Gentelman draw your swords" being the maximum cheese ("Actually, me lord, I thought we should invite the Orcs to discuss their problems in a non-confrontational way")

And I have been told that the trailers for ROTK look amazing!

CHawke

The extended version of TTT is excellent as you say... By the way, I haven't actually found a RotK trailer on there yet... Where is it
(I have found Gollum's Acceptance Speech at the MTV Movie Awards though
)

Oh and in answer to a couple of questions asked a loooonngg time ago

They never got to eat the rabbit stew. - They do in the extended version

* All the elves at helm's deep died. - Can't honestly remember

* What were the hobbit children from Bilbo's party doing in the caves of helms deep? - I think you'll find that was Pete Jackson and Fran Walsh's kids doing their cameo... Didn't spot PJ himself in there though

I loved the extended edition - where was that hidden feature? I haven't found it. I liked the deleted scenes (all 14 of them!) especially Legolas and Gimli argueing over the number they'd killed at Helm's Deep. I got the extended edition of FOTR too - they're definetely worth the money, plus they're pretty cheap from Amazon.

the trailer was seen yesterday in "Love Actually" - which is why I haven't seen it - Hugh Grant - YUK!

CHawke

The easteregg's in the same place as those on the FotR extended version

Disc 1 - Chapter menu - last four chapters - highlight the last chapter then press the down arrow and a ring should appear towards the bottom of the screen, click on it and away you go... (make sure you don't happen to have a cup of coffee in your hand or a mouthful of beer as you're watching it though, you're likely to redecorate your TV set)

I did not know about that.

Must check it out when I get home!


Geggs

Any comments on reports that all of Christopher Lee's scenes from ROTK have ended up on the cutting room floor and what that's going to do to the storyline regarding the Hobbits' return to The Shire? My opinion - they'll put them back in when the extended version DVD comes out

PJ has already said that 'The Voice of Saruman' scene will be restored for the Extended DVD.

He has also quite plainly said that he had no intention of filming the Scourging of the Shire. And so he hinted at it when Frodo looked in the Mirror of Galadriel, knowing that it would never appear in it's entirety


Geggs

Lets face it... from a purely cinematic point of view the ending of the book just wouldn't work... once the ring quest itself is concluded then all tension would go out of the film, If you're desparately trying to keep the film to under three hours in length then I think you'd have to consider the Scouring of the Shire as unnecessary to the film itself...


mind you, I'd hope it'd be included in the extended version.

Well, I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed.

The Scouring of the Shire was not planned, scripted, or filmed. There was never any intention of including it in any version of the film. Can't see PJ changng his mind on that now.

I'd still like Sam to have the last line though.


Geggs

always wondered if it would be in - but I do hope the very final chapter (Grey Havens?) will be in.

Shame if Christopher Lee is to be edited out - he is a massive Tolkien fan and I heard him on the radio the other day saying one of his scenes in the final film was absolutely crucial! Not sure if part of the story or a flash back scene.

CHawke