Tuesday, December 30, 2003

Gandalf the Wired

Sir Ian McKellen has been kind enough to post scans of the additional dialogue recording scripts used in the final recordings of Return of the King. It is interesting to note how, even at almost literally the last minute, the dialogue was continually being refined... the script pages have words crossed out, changed, added.

Ian McKellen's site has a lot of great information about his experience making the films. McKellen's journal from the primary filming days (the Grey Book) and his journal from then on (the White Book) are great, and he's also got galleries of photos that show the filming from his point of view.

I think everyone did an awesome job on the films... there was simply no way to capture the entire LOTR in its every intricate detail, and I felt like they honored the original story very well. Elijah Wood was a little cherubic, and nobody sounds good in a fake British accent, and Sean Astin was... Sean Astin, so the two main hobbits didn't do much for me, but the rest of the cast really put quite a bit of energy into their roles, and the design work is astounding.

McKellen's site continues in the grand tradition of the extended DVDs, providing us with behind-the-scenes information and insight into how and why things were done... the additional documentary DVDs are better than many feature DVDs that are coming out these days. I'm glad they decided to share that content with us; it seems like just another facet of the care and respect with which they created and presented the films.