| The ancient
Maori name for New Zealand is Aoetearoa, 'The Land of the Long
White Cloud' and, flying low out of Auckland airport in the
North Island last week, I could see why. An hour of murk south
to Wellington and bumping through the depression, rain
splattering the windows, we safely landed on the sodden runway.
Northern hemisphere readers should remember it's winter here.
Matt Cutfield, my driver, was there waiting, as he has been so
often on this job - because I was back in Middle-earth, to
complete work on
The Two Towers movie. Gandalf was home again for a couple
of weeks.
Home with friends from the cast - only
Orlando Bloom, filming 'Ned Kelly' in Australia, was too busy to
return, but the rest of us have made it back. Elijah Wood and
Liv Tyler look ever so slightly older than 18 months ago and
John Rhys-Davies has been losing weight, but make-up and padding
will disguise these developments. Little else has changed as the
local crews return to work, but there is a new shared confidence
that with one success out in the world, another one can't be far
behind. Peter Jackson may be exhausted but is still smiling,
even relaxed. He tells me 'It feels like we are making a home
movie rather than a blockbuster,' a point I made when we were
filming 18 months ago.
The Oscar winners are back - Peter Owen
overseeing make-up and Richard Taylor still busy at WETA
workshops overseeing those collectible mementoes (www.sideshowweta.com).
Howard Shore has also been here, scoring the extra footage which
has been added to 'The Fellowship of the Ring' for the extended
DVD version, which I shall see before I leave. Andrew Lesnie is
back too, still mourning his gaffer Brian Bamsgrove. We all have
a commemorative t-shirt for Brian holding a scaly catch: 'Woman
want me. Fish fear me'. Ngila Dickson has escaped from
pre-production on 'The Last Samurai' which Tom Cruise will soon
film in New Zealand, Japan and California - and her wardrobe
team are the same as ever.
So why exactly am I here? Well, no one
should think there is a problem with the second movie but there
is so much yet to be done. All those blue and green screens have
to be replaced by scenery and background action. The special
effects - don't ask me how! - are being created. The music will
be recorded in London in August.
Andy Serkis has been here for weeks
helping to perfect the digitalised Gollum for whom he provides
the action, facial expressions and of course the voice. Over
lunch he explained how this is done - I encouraged him to write
a book as it seems that transferring his performance into a
computer and then out again onto film is pioneering stuff and
his participation should confound anyone who thinks that actors
will soon be unnecessary in digitalised film-making. Gollum will
astonish, delight and move you - Cave Troll fans ain't seen
nothing yet!
Once a rough assembly had been made, it
was decided to adjust the story-telling of 'The Two Towers'
marginally as far as Gandalf the White is concerned. So I have
re-shot 3 brief scenes with Theoden, Aragorn and Shadowfax in
the Golden Hall of Edoras and its stables, as well as (with
Legolas and Gimli doubles in the Forest of Fangorn, which grew
overnight in the airless studio in Wellington that once housed
Bag End. It gives me a childish thrill to clamber over real
rotting roots and moss and earth surrounded by polystyrene
Ent-ish trunks and overhanging branches knowing that 12 hours
previously the space was nothing but an old paint factory floor.
Easy to sense that Treebeard is nigh.
Although no-one can see a full version, to
get me in the mood and crucially remind me of what Gandalf the
White looks and sounds like, Peter showed me all his scenes in
The Two Towers. (Incidentally the notion that that title
should be changed in respect for New York's sensibilities has
rightly been resisted. Further, the North American premiere will
be in Manhattan, with the European opening in Paris.)
So I have seen the Balrog again onscreen -
wowee fans! - marvelled at the first heart-stopping entrance of
the super-equine Shadowfax (Blanco the trusty white stallion)
and some of the Helm's Deep battling as Gandalf commits himself
samurai-like to the fray. When Bernard Hill and Brad Dourif
introduce the central saga of Theoden and Wormtongue with total
confidence they match the magnificence of the Edoras sets below
the snowy alps of the South Island. It is all looking up to,
even beyond, the standards of the first movie.
The rain has continued but who cares? Last
Friday in a corner of the dining tent for 400, the string
quartet who dropped by a few times during principal photography,
was back with selections from the score to cheer us up during
lunch. And there have been other supportive distractions. Two
Sundays ago, the crew regrouped for free under Sean Astin's
direction to shoot a short film
The Long and short of it, playing on the Tolkien theme of
disparate heights. Another home movie from the Jackson family.
— Ian McKellen, June 2002 |
