. . . muttered the ogre

From Michael Jennings, “how the corporate downsizing of AOL Time Warner led to a mad New Zealander making three movies of JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.”

But, for now, some stories can have happy endings. (At least one insane bearded New Zealander is now insanely rich. And I think a world in which insane bearded New Zealanders can become insanely rich by making ludicrously over-ambitious movies is better than one where this is not the case).

(Link from Scott Wickstein, The Eye of the Beholder)

I understand that all three parts of LotR were shot together. I wonder, though, whether a producer of an effects-heavy series might think it wiser to make the parts in order, so that the last part won’t suffer by comparison with other films that appear in the same year but use somewhat more advanced effects. (I noticed some differences in effects quality between the two Potter chapters.)

Last night I watched Red Dwarf series VIII, and was struck by an injustice that nobody seemed to notice: Captain Hollister blamed Rimmer and Lister for the dinosaur, created by Kryten’s clumsy use (encouraged by Kochanski) of the time-wand – of which Rimmer and Lister were entirely ignorant until after the fact.