It's been almost two months since I've made an entry to this Blog. I've been busy.
Last week I did an interview with a new movie director. Reclaiming the Blade, a documentry about the history of the swoard, will definitely be of interest to fans of Middle Earth and Narnia. The bonus features include an interview with Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn), who talked at length about Eärendil and The Flame of the West—Narsil, the sword that was re-forged. For information and links t my coverage, see The Interview and the Bonus Features.
I thought I'd also give you a glimpse at the News Blogs I am responsible for keeping at Hollywood Jesus. (I also contribute other articles there as well.) Here are the latest from The Hobbit ... Whole and the Narnia News Blog.
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What is Your Narnia?
There has been very little news to report about the Chronicles of Narnia movies lately. As I have reported, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is now scheduled for the end of 2010, and most of the filming is apparently going to take place beginning in a few months in Australia. Please peruse Narnia News for all my recent reports.
As I search the Internet daily for new reports, I have been struck by how the term “Narnia” is used in our society, becoming synonymous for an idyllic place or “dreamland.” Of course, people’s ideas of what their Narnia is differ dramatically. Two recent stories come to mind.
In today’s online version of UK’s The Guardian, actress Juliet Stevenson gives some biographical background to explain her “family values.” She equates the Buckinghamshire cottage in which she lived as a young girl with the Narnia she was reading about at the time.
In stark contrast, there is the report out of NYU of a dorm room that had been transformed into a haven for sex and drugs that was called Narnia. I suppose that some would say that the NYU dorm room was a place where Freshmen could find a home and live a bit of a fantasy life. But, at what cost?
C S Lewis did not create Narnia as a mere escape. Our journey to “dreamland” should help us to appreciate, and live in, the real world.
Sources: Guarian.co.uk • Washington Square News
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What if Disney Produced The Hobbit?
Cinematical has a fan’s conception of what a Disney version of The Lord of the Rings would have looked like. According to The Animated Movie Guide and other sources, Disney held the movie rights until they were sold to United Artists in 1968. But there is apparently no hard proof that Disney ever held these rights. It is well known that Tolkien despised Disney, and did not want his characters “Disnified” (Tokien’s spelling). As I contend in another place, Bakshi came close enough in the Warner Brothers 1977 animated release of The Hobbit.
Sources: Cinematical.com • 2719 Hyperion Blog • The Letters of J R R Tolkien, Houghton Mifflin 1981 Edition, pp. 17, 119
