The White Council

Re: Steve Buscemi may be Gollum

Tolkien and Inklings Discussion

: : I'm sorry, but Arwen prancing around the Trollshaws is bad : : enough. Now we have Liv Tyler prancing around the : : Trollshaws? Ugh. Don't get me wrong, Liv Tyler is beautiful. : : But she is a terrible actress.

: I've only seen her in "Armageddon" and I saw no problems with her acting there. I don't believe she is a GREAT actress, but she's young. She has time to develop her craft.

: : And Steve Buschemi? Please...one can only hope this is a : : horrendous rumor, but then that's what I was hoping when I : : heard that Liv Tyler might be involved.

: Well, I'm not in a position to verify rumors, but since I know that a lot of people have had contact with Jackson's organization, I don't see any reason to doubt what is being said. These Webmasters who are spreading the rumors want people to come back to their sites, and that will only happen if they are careful and don't lead folks down the wrong path every time.

: : Jackson seems like a reasonably well-intentioned fellow, but : : he's trying to fit The Lord of the Rings into the pop culture : : of this day, and that's damnable.

: Oh, I think he's trying to do more than that. Yes, he wants to appeal to the pop culture. Any producer of a movie or television series will have to do that in order to succeed. But I think Jackson is trying to bring Tolkien's world to life in a medium for which it was never intended. He is not inflexible. He may not agree with you or me on every detail of the book, but I believe that given the right information he'll make a fair and good choice.

: His primary goal here is to tell a story in movie format which is recognizably adapted from J.R.R. Tolkien's THE LORD OF THE RINGS. I don't believe he hopes to do better than that. He knew he was damned before the word got out. He's showing a lot of courage by doing this project in the face of so much criticism (which may or may not be mounting).

From reading the posts at AICN it appears that most people approve of the casting choices so far. The majority of those who do not like the casting are at least willing to say that one or two bad casting choices won't ruin the film for them. As for the rest, there are a few who at every casting choice have cried that the film is now entirely ruined. They are in the minority thank goodness. I have refrained from getting into the casting debate, since in my view it's bogus. It's like debating on which flavor of ice cream is the best. There is no answer to that anymore than there is an answer about who is most beautiful. It's all too personal and subjective. Jackson's choices are his choices, and while they may not match the image we have in our minds, they are just as valid.