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ShireHorse
Rohan
Jul 2 2015, 12:20am
Post #1 of 7
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PJ in Oxford + The Cushion Vote!
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PJ couldn't pick up his Saturn Award the other day in person (RA did instead) because he was in Oxford, visiting Exeter College, Tolkien's alma mater, doing a Q&A session in the magnificent Sheldonian Theatre, then having tea with students in the beautiful Exeter College gardens.
One thing that came up in the discussion was that he had been asked to Americanise LotR but he refused. Thank goodness for that!
http://www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk/...ien%E2%80%99s-oxford
Then I clicked on a link to another page about the Bot5A premiere in London, only to find a very entertaining article.
Apparently, the trip to Exeter College had been arranged to occur at the time of the premiere but everyone became ill after their flight from NZ. Instead, the reporter was given a ticket for the premiere as a consolation prize.
He also attended the drinks party afterwards when he found that sofas were decorated with cushions that had the faces of Hobbit actors on them. These were eventually stolen, LOL!
"After a few cocktails, the whole room decided shame was acceptable. My plus-one shoved Thorin under his arm. There is no surer indicator of a celebrity’s relative popularity than a cushion vote. Most of Sir Ian McKellen’s cushions had already gone by the time I’d turned to picking, whereas Orlando Bloom’s remained untouched. I am deciding whom I most prefer when we turned around to see Luke Evans — Bard the Dragonslayer himself — taking the covering of his own face off the cushion and stuffing it in a bag. I could only feel awe and camaraderie toward him."
http://www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk/...on/hooray-hobbitwood
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Ataahua
Forum Admin
/ Moderator
Jul 2 2015, 1:03am
Post #2 of 7
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if by 'Americanised' he means the proposed changes we've heard about, such as removing two of the Hobbits and merging Eowyn and Arwen into one character?
It seems an odd label to put on it, though.
Celebrimbor: "Pretty rings..."
Dwarves: "Pretty rings..."
Men: "Pretty rings..."
Sauron: "Mine's better."
"Ah, how ironic, the addictive qualities of Sauron’s master weapon led to its own destruction. Which just goes to show, kids - if you want two small and noble souls to succeed on a mission of dire importance... send an evil-minded beggar with them too." - Gandalf's Diaries, final par, by Ufthak.
Ataahua's stories
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dernwyn
Forum Admin
/ Moderator
Jul 2 2015, 1:40am
Post #3 of 7
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They put their faces on cushions?
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Oh, good grief, that's hilarious, who ever came up with that!
Very nice articles, thank you for finding them! I especially like the bit about PJ & Fran popping incognito into the Bird & Baby for a drink. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I desired dragons with a profound desire"
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Ilmatar
Rohan
Jul 2 2015, 7:18am
Post #4 of 7
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Thanks for the links!
This sounded weird to me:
‘The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, I’m sure I’ll see them one day,’ he reflected. ‘It’s a strange thing. You’re making a film you want to see, but when it’s finished you don’t want to see it.’
Said jokingly, but still that sounds as if he hadn't even been to the premieres - unless I missed something. (And therefore he would not be able to see the infamous shortcomings in regards to certain characters' screen time presence etc., as many on this forum have hoped.) Maybe there's a difference in "watching a film" and actually SEEING the film with a concentrated/analytical eye, and he had (or has) not done the latter.
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dormouse
Half-elven
Jul 2 2015, 9:43am
Post #5 of 7
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What a fascinating encounter - I wish I'd been there to hear it all.
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ShireHorse
Rohan
Jul 2 2015, 10:16am
Post #6 of 7
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When I think of the Americanisation
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of classic English stories, Ataahua, Disney films spring to mind: Winnie the Pooh with his Southern drawl and Robin Hood with the country and western songs. I enjoy them in their own right, but they have certainly not got the feeling of the original stories. People make excuses for RH because it is a legend and, somehow, legends belong to the world. WtP is harder to swallow because it is such a very, very English story. The current Paddington film is the right way forward but some years ago, Hollywood seemed to think that unless films had an American flavour and were full of well-known American actors, then an American audience just wouldn't be able to relate and they wouldn't sell.
But, Tolkien wrote a mythology for England and it would have felt so very wrong without the large number of English actors that PJ used and everyone using British accents, for instance. I must admit that, although I sort of enjoy the cartoon Hobbit on one level, it offends me on another: the Ameican accents and the country and western songs, although charming in one sense, do not say 'Tolkien' to me. It just hits the wrong note.
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ShireHorse
Rohan
Jul 2 2015, 10:20am
Post #7 of 7
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that the journalist will write another article in which we get a blow by blow account of the Q&A session. Or perhaps they have made a vid. It seems strange that the writer was the interviewer and yet we get so little about what PJ actually said - unless he plans to write more.
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