LOTR movies

[Joanne Collins]

>Ian Holm is going to play Bilbo, actually.  Elijah Wood is playing 
>Frodo, and I don't mind that at all.  He is about the right age, and 
>the images I have seen so far do not contrast too much with my own 
>image of Frodo.  

Elijah Wood is very young (I don't think he's twenty yet). Is Frodo a young
character? That would make sense.

>Tall and tall...  As I recall it, men are supposed to be of taller 
>stature than elves nowadays; I am absolutely positive one of 
>Tolkien's writings (either in the Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales or 
>one of the History of Middle-Earth-books) has a reference going on 
>the order of "in the old times, when the Elves were young and strong, 
>and as tall as Men are now".  It's all part of the elves growing 
>weary of this world, I think.  I picture the height-relationship 
>between men and elves as generally being 9:10.

Sounds rather interesting. I have The Silmarillion somewhere or other, I
think. Like many of us, I have an overcrowded bookshelf.

>I have seen a picture of Legolas (a still from the new trailer), and 
>from what I can see, he does have the long hair, but they have 
>completely avoided making him feminine, a far as I can tell (the 
>above-mentioned comic-book had less luck in that regard; you'd have 
>had to read the books beforehand to realise that those were in fact 
>male characters).

I believe this role may be the one played by Viggo Mortensen, Sean Bean or
Hugo Weaving (I know the actors, not the characters, and these are three of
the ones who could get me into the theatre alone). I don't think any of
these actors could look feminine if they tried, or at least without a
*very* long session in make-up and wardrobe.

>I note also that they have given Arwen a more active role in the 
>movie, apparently replacing Glorfindel in rescuing Harry at the fords.

There's a Harry in LOTR? Arwen is to be played by Liv Tyler, who is
actually my main reason for seeing the movie. I have liked her since seeing
Armageddon. I read an interview with her in which she said something about
her character being mentioned only in the appendix of the first volume(?)
and that the screenwriter brought her into the main narrative.

I also read something online that said that casting her was an 'insult'. I
didn't go back to *that* page!

Joanne.

-- 

Look, you're my best friend, so don't take this the wrong way. In twenty
years, if you're still livin' here, comin' over to my house to watch the
Patriots games, still workin' construction, I'll fuckin' kill you. That's
not a threat. Now, that's a fact. I'll fuckin' kill you. Chuckie (Ben
Affleck) Good Will Hunting