November 8, 2003

Man, I Don't Know What to Say About This...
Bob Praz

I don't know how many of you have read the news from AICN lately (also posted on TORn), but if not, than here's a big (and probably disappointing) spoiler...

The Saruman and Grima sequence has been CUT OUT of ROTK. Peter Jackson has confirmed that the Isengard sequence in the third movie has been cut from the theatrical version and will only appear in the Extended Edition. You can read the full article over at theonering.net (it's a transcript from Aintitcool.com). In short, however, PJ said that the Isengard sequence was creating pacing problems, and the theatrical movie now has a running time of 3hours and 12 minutes.
I still don't know how seriously this will affect my enjoyment of the movie, but as I said before, I trust in Peter Jackson's judgement (just don't fail me now, PJ!). I was quite curious and perhaps skeptical as to how the Saruman scene would fit in ROTK, but it seems now I needn't worry about that at all (until the Extended Edition).
Very large "sigh" on my part, people. Conflicted emotions. There's no time like december.

PS: Here's a link to the article:

www.theonering.net/staticnews/1068240351.html