October 21, 2003

The Elven Statues, TTT Art, and Oscars
Bob Praz

Imlar, the elven statues that appear twice in the official site galleries are from Rivendell. They were in the Extended Fellowship DVD galleries as well. That's not the first time I've seen pictures or concept art from either Rivendell or Lorien being associated with the other elven realm. I suppose it's because some of the designs are similar enough that they decide to feature them in either gallery.

By the way, I just got the "Art of The Two Towers" for my birthday. For those who don't know it, it's a book featuring much of the important concept art for the movie. It's great! But what intrigues me the most, is that in the first chapter they show plenty of art featuring the Balrog after it's been underwater. They have a lot of cool ideas of how the demon's fire dies and its skin cools down and hardens, while in other cases it becomes some slimy, skeletal creature stripped of its outer layers of fire and lava. Anyways, just to say that I wonder if PJ ever considered putting much more than we see in the film about Gandalf's struggle with the Balrog in the depths of Moria and the Endless Stair, as they seem to have done a lot of conceptual art for it. Just an idea.

As for the Oscars, it's too political to even bother. I certainly hope they award PJ for either Best Director or Best Picture (although I doubt it would be both), and I believe it would be their best option this year, as there seem to be few good movies that could pose competition and even politically I think it would be wise to reward such a grand-scale film that is so widely critically-acclaimed. Rewarding ROTK, as has been said before, would be a way to reward all three films as a whole. Also, if the third film is as good as it is claimed to be, they may have no choice anyhow.

P.S.: Where is everyone? Is it just me or have there been barely any posts lately? There's plenty of topics, especially with the trailer out! What does everyone think of Minas Morgul and the green spire signal?