Reyndar ekki öll myndin því hún er ekki tilbúin. Eins og flestir vita þá er kvikmyndahátíðin í Cannes í fullum gangi. Þetta er stærsta kvikmyndahátíð í heimi og hér reyna menn að auglýsa myndir sínar. Nú hefur New Line Cinema lagt allt að veði og er með meiriháttar auglýsingaherferð fyrir Lord of the Rings.Þeir leigðu kastala rétt fyrir utan bæinn þar sem verða ýmsir hlutir úr myndinni og allir leikararnir verða á staðnum. Í gær var svo 26 mínútna bútur sýndur í kvikmyndasal í Cannes þar sem 140 blaðamenn og ýmsir aðrir voru. Þetta er töluverð áhætta því ef hann hefði mælst illa fyrir hefði New Line ekki verið í góðum málum. Fyrst var sýnt frá byrjun myndarinnar þar sem Gandalfur var sýndur og hobbitarnir á héraði. Því næst var sýndur 14 mínútna kafli sem gerist í Moría námunum. Blaðamenn áttu ekki orð yfir hvað þetta var flott og margir sögðu að George Lucas mætti fara að vara sig. Eftir Moría kaflann voru sýnd stutt myndskeið frá mynd 2 og 3. Í dag hefur svo birst gagnrýni hinna ýmsu blaða og hefur ekki nein einasta verið neikvæð. Allir sem hafa séð þennan bút áttu ekki yfir orð af hrifningu. Tæknibrellur, búningar, leikur, útlit og allt annað er talið verið byltingarkennt. Hafi ég verið spenntur fyrir þessari 300 milljón dollara trílógíu þá veit ég ekki hvað ég er núna. Einnig er orðrómur um að það sé nýr trailer að koma í júní (jibbí). Fyrir þá sem vilja fylgjast með þessu geta skoðað heimasíðuna www.theonering.com sem hefur sinn eigin mann á hátíðinni. Myndin verður frumsýnd hér á landi 21 desember. Einnig birti ég hér gagnrýni úr nokkrum blöðum:


The Toronto star

HOBBIT FORMING: The hottest movie here yesterday drew a capacity crowd that needed a secret location and two sets of I.D. to get in - and all we saw was 25 minutes of it. But when you're talking The Lord Of The Rings, the biggest thing since Star Wars, it's to be expected. Director Peter Jackson was on hand to show a select press audience clips from all three chapters of the $300 million (U.S.) LOTR trilogy, the first of which, The Fellowship Of The Ring, arrives in theatres in time for Christmas.

Judging by what we saw, long-suffering fans can finally expect to get the screen adaptation they've always wanted of the beloved Tolkien classic about the hobbits, elves, dwarves and various other inhabitants of the tumultuous world known as Middle-Earth. Ian McKellen is perfect as the wizard Gandalf, Ian Holm makes a fine shire squire Bilbo Baggins and Viggo Mortensen is the brave Aragorn who will make female hearts beat a little faster.

As for the special effects, which gloriously convert the mountains of New Zealand into Tolkien's world, one comment will suffice for now: George Lucas, watch your back.


Boston Herald

The scene was a theater not far from the Grand Palais at the Cannes Film Festival, but the occasion was a trip to Middle Earth.

New Line Pictures yesterday gave a select group of international entertainment journalists a 24-minute preview of its epic ``Lord of the Rings'' trilogy.

It was a bit of a gamble. If the press wasn't properly impressed, the studio's $270 million investment had slight chance of ever recouping since the first film, ``The Fellowship of the Ring,'' doesn't open until December and bad news would spread like wildfire.

So the pressure was on New Line CEO Robert Shaye and Peter Jackson, the New Zealand filmmaker whose 1994 ``Heavenly Creatures'' launched Kate Winslet's career and whose filming of this entire trilogy simultaneously over the past 18 months puts him in the record books.

``It is kind of strange as a filmmaker to show something six months before it opens, and we thought long and hard what we could screen,'' said Jackson, a bearded, stout man who might well be cast as a Hobbit.

The preview opened with a summary of the plot and snippets of the different characters. That was followed by ``The Mines of Mooria,'' 14 minutes of film with original music. Finally came a three-minute preview of films II and III.

The reaction was, well, a ringing endorsement. Commented one journalist, ``The best film at the festival isn't even in the festival.''

Jackson's lush imagery has created a magical, wondrous world and his casting and costuming - not to mention the ease with which he helmed the action scenes - was a perfect embodiment of JRR Tolkien's fantasy world.

Standouts in this brief look were: Sir Ian McKellan's lordly and very tall Gandalf the Wizard; Sir Ian Holms' Bilbo Baggins, the hobbit; Elijah Wood's Frodo Baggins, the hobbit hero of the trilogy; and the swash-buckling Robin Hood-style Aragorn of Viggo Mortensen. Liv Tyler's Arwen appeared only fleetingly, as did Cate Blanchett's Lady Galadriel.

The mind-blowing mine sequence featured a mixture of action, suspense and digital special effects. A group of nine - the Fellowship of the Ring - encounter an army of fearsomely ugly and ferocious Orcs and a giant ogre who nearly kills Frodo.

The underground chase continues with an amazing race over a crumbling bridge amid a deluge of Orc arrows and ends as a massive, fire-breathing demon appears. As the Orcs scatter, the demon takes on Gandalf.

On Sunday night, New Line presents a party with the cast, ``Come to Middle Earth.''

Security will be tight.





Premier

The real excitement starts with one sequence of Gandalf leading his troop across hostile mountains before escaping into rocky tunnels. Here we feel Howard Shore’s deep sonorous orchestral score with the brass and strings. Beside this, the score is actually temporary, right out from Last of the Mohicans and others.

A negligence get them noticed and soon attacked by agressive underground residents.

Frodo almost dies in a thrilling fight against a Green Giant. The deeper they crawl down through the mountain, the stronger tension rises. Each step of a gigantic stairway collapses one after the other behind them before they meet the abyss keeper, a spider devil. This staggering sequence offers us new sensations we didn’t think possible anymore in cinema.

The last minutes from episodes 2 and 3 emphasize the size of the production with great battles in gigantic and dreamlike locations. And that is exactly the idea this preview screening left in us : size. Even if we knew it beforehand, we still get blasted by the scope of the finished work. «Peter Jackpot» gave forms to Tolkien’s world with a stunning vigour.

The other good news is Peter Jackson’s style we still find in every shot. As surely as we recognize a Tim Burton skeleton, every single monster, every knight, every detail here is the result of an evolution we can trace back in every movie of this author. That is not that surprising when you see him. He looks exactly the same mischievous way he did when he came over here to present Bad Taste 15 years ago. Nothing compared to all the weeks we will have to wait before we see the first episode of the Trilogy in december 2001.