i was finally able to take advantage of the fact that I live in LA this past weekend.

(you know, other than finding the person i'm planning on spending the rest of my life with and all...)

the egyptian theatre had a showing of all three lord of the rings films, friday thru sunday. exciting enough on its own for a geek like me, but wait, there's more! ...famous people! now, i'm not like a celebrity hound or anything, but sure, i get a little excited when uncle leo from seinfeld is in front of me in (on?) line at the bank. i kinda look at it this way; when i get a cd i really dig, i like being able to go to the show, check the band out live, and let them know i enjoy their shit by yelling the occasional "wooooo!" and clapping furiously. so considering the hours i've put in over the past few years what with multiple trips to the theatre for each flick, then repeated upon repeated viewing of the dvds, so it was pretty fucking cool to be able to let peter jackson know i enjoyed his shit by clapping furiously and letting loose the occasional "wooooo!"

friday was fellowship, and PJ did a Q & A after. moderated by frigging chris connelly. i can't stand that guy, but he was alright i guess...
before they got to the Q & A though, PJ was presented with his own chair at the egyptian (a tradition and honor) by one of his idols, forrest j ackerman. this is the creator of famous monsters of filmland, a magazine you would have read if you were into horror and sci fi flicks when you were a kid. like me. he was thrilled and thanked 'forry' for letting him see what was going on behind the scenes back before the DVD age.

PJ got a standing O for about 5 minutes, then he let us know that he just came in from NZ, and had just finished cutting the ROTK extended edition DVD. four hours and ten minutes. 4:10.
that got him another 5 minute standing ovation...
50 extra minutes. awesome. awesome. although i'd take an hour and fifty if i could get it.


he was great. he talked about how king kong was the movie that inspired a 9 year old kiwi to want to make movies.
he related the recurring nightmare he has during every movie he's ever shot; he's lying in bed, exhausted to the point of incapacitation, and all the cast and crew are surrounding his bed, demanding he tell them what to do next.
he talked about how the 'dark beauty' of howard shores scores for silence of the lambs, the fly, and crash made him realize he was the musician he wanted to work with on these films.
and more. lots more. it was amazing.

after a final round of clapping furiously and "wooooo"ing occasionally, it was over.

saturday was the two towers, with elijah wood, sean astin, howard shore, and ngila dickson, and then sunday was return of the king, with PJ again, fran walsh, phillipa boyens, mark ordesky, and bob shaye. i'll write more about those tomorrow, as i really haven't done fuck-all at work yet today...


posted by scott 3:41 PM