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Lissuin
Doriath
Dec 18, 3:24am
Post #1 of 5
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Ian McKellen's LOTR filming blog beginning in 1999
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Now that a group of friends have got our tickets for the LOTR extended showings at the Wellington Embassy Cinema in Jan/Feb 2026, I've been reminiscing about those years. One of the best things I found years ago while living on the other side of the planet from Middle-earth, NZ was Sir Ian's blog he posted then - when blogs were still a pretty new thing. I've been re-reading it today, and what a joy it is to have a first-hand account of what the filming experience was like. Sir Ian being Sir Ian it is humorous, insightful, joyous, and very detailed from an actor's viewpoint. It's like a written account of the days we see in Peter Jackson's behind-the-scenes videos. Each post is so detailed I find I am happy to read just a few at a time. That's fine with me as it means I'll have many delightful sessions of reading before I see the films on a big screen again.
A look through the LOTR board did not turn up a reference to them. Perhaps they were posted in the First Age of TORn and have disappeared with other posts from that time? I hope that posting the link to the blog will revive good memories of the first time you read them and delight those who will see them for the first time.
Thank you, Mister Gandalf!
Enjoy, All!
https://mckellen.com/cinema/lotr/journal.htm
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CuriousG
Gondolin
Dec 18, 8:45pm
Post #2 of 5
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Awesome, thanks for sharing here, Lissuin!
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This is charming and fun to read, and they are quite lengthy, clearly a writing style from 25 years ago whereas today people just scrawl a few emojis to caption a photo and they're "done" with their description.
Example:
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Christopher Lee proves that a distinctive voice is an asset in the movies. Stars are not just pretty faces, so to speak, they must sound good too. His 200 (or is it 300?) films have robbed theatre audiences of a resounding Shakespearian. Spread across the black throne under Orthanc's vasty roof, he looked like King Lear in age and authority. He is 78 years old, handsome and powerful. When he speaks, all I see and hear is Saruman, my old associate gone wrong. Except once when he rounded off a speech, at Peter Jackson's suggestion, with a snarl. To be within four feet of a Lee snarl is unsettling. I was glad he wasn't wearing his fangs.
He loves stories about actors and I amused him last week with one he didn't know, which I was told by Brian Bedford:
"Noël Coward reads a poster: Michael Redgrave and Dirk Bogarde in The Sea Shall Not Have Them! 'I don't see why not — everyone else has.' "
I like making Saruman laugh.
*****This same entry has a detailed speculation on the future of Hobbiton's sets, doomed to be destroyed, and speculation on a Hobbiton theme park.
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Once the opening scenes of The Lord of the Rings had been completed, outdoors in the rolling pasture of New Zealand's North Island, there was speculation as to the future of the film village. The farmer who owns the site apparently wanted to retain the film's landscaping and hobbit holes once they were vacated by the production. Perhaps he was planning a supplementary income from tourists who would be visiting the geysers and hot water activity in nearby Rotorua.
In January, as I clip-clopped along in Gandalf's cart, or bumped up and down the gravel tracks in an open jeep from base camp to location, I could anticipate the thrill that Tolkien's fans would enjoy, peeping through Hobbit windows or maybe spying the distant silhouette of a wizard's hat, as they were driven slowly by in a open tramcar perhaps. There will, it turns out, be no such Hobbiton Theme Park, at least not one which features our film sets. I gather that these have been destroyed as part of the filmed action. Perhaps their charred remains will be rediscovered by bemused archaeologists sometime in the next century.
(This post was edited by CuriousG on Dec 18, 8:46pm)
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Ioreth
Ossiriand
Mon, 11:36am
Post #3 of 5
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suddenly feeling oooooold.
I soooo remember still when I found out about the movies being made in the spring of 1999. And all the nice 20+ Tolkien messageboards I was blessed to be part of under all those years before, during and after the releasing of these movies.
Still have lots of MB of saved stuff in archives somewhere :)
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Eledhwen
Forum Admin
/ Moderator
Wed, 10:00pm
Post #4 of 5
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we did post about these back in the days when they were live 'news', as real news from the sets was in short supply. I wish we still had those posts! I've just had a rewatch so it's nice to reread these from the perspective of that.
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Eledhwen
Forum Admin
/ Moderator
Wed, 10:19pm
Post #5 of 5
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And I'd forgotten he used one of my photos!
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There is a small, very bad photo by me on the blog entry from the FOTR premiere. I had forgotten that! He (or his assistant) must have picked it up from TORN.
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oh my
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