Return of the Ring

By Michael Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer

Liv Tyler is Arwen, whose love for Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) is tested in all three "Rings" films. Photos by Pierre Vinet, ©2003 New Line Productions

Sir Ian McKellen returns as the wizard Gandalf in "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,: which opens Wednesday." The earlier movies won Oscars for cinematography and visual effects.

Co-producer Rick Porras, for one, says he wasn't even a Rings fan growing up. It wasn't until he was a student at Stanford University that Tolkien's books made any sort of impression on him.

"I had a summer job working in the library just moving books around," he says. "One day I came across these old volumes of 'The Lord of the Rings.' I blew the dust off the first one and sat there and read through lunch. I spent the next few days hiding out and reading each book beginning to end."

Still, given the success of the movies — the final installment, "The Return of the King," hits theaters nationwide Wednesday — and their credibility with hard-core fans, a confluence of broad popular and critical approval rarely seen, one can be excused for theorizing about what went on behind the scenes.

In an interview with the Advertiser last week, Porras talked about the atmosphere that director Peter Jackson fostered in the year and a half the cast and crew spent filming the three movies in New Zealand (as well as the ensuing years of production and editing) and of the intense focus that grew out of working in a closed environment for such a length of time.

"It was an all-consuming passion for us," he says. "And there was a different dynamic because as a team we were built for the long run. Things would get intense, like they do on any set, but we handled it differently because there was such a warm, friendly, family atmosphere — and all of that came from Peter."

Porras says the sense of intimate community was bolstered by the physical proximity of the Jackson-owned Weta Digital, Weta Workshops and other production facilities within a quarter-mile area.

Immersed in that unusual environment, Porras began his formal education in Tolkienology starting in 1998.

"I wasn't that steeped in the history of the books," Porras says. "I didn't read all the unfinished stories or memorize all the appendices, but I got a real schooling when I started on the movie.

"It was like getting a Ph.D," he says.

Porras broke into film production working with Robert Zemeckis for eight years. He previously worked with Jackson as a production supervisor on the 1996 movie "The Frighteners."

Filming all three "Lord of the Rings" movies at the same time gave the collective project an unusual level of continuity and nearly all of the same people collaborated in the production of each of the films. Thus, by the time "The Return of the King" came around, Jackson, the producers and the rest of the crew had become highly refined in the specialized art of "Lord of the Rings" filmmaking.

"You always try to do better than the last time," Porras says. "And we were at the end of the learning curve when we did this movie. We were able to work with a kind of shorthand; there was a kind of synergy between groups."

Still, Porras says, even in the final stages of production, he and other creative principals kept Tolkien's books close at hand to ensure that the subtle tweaks and abridgements necessary for the story to work on screen did not compromise the spirit or messages of the original work.

That's the type of fidelity that keeps Tolkien fans like Michelle McGurr of Kaimuki in the fold.

"Tolkien put so much effort into creating a whole new universe," McGurr says. "It's such a magical place. And what's not to like about a good-versus-evil story, especially in times like these with war and the tearing apart of the environment? Those are issues that Tolkien was concerned about.

"When I heard the movies were coming out, I was skeptical," she says. "But then I saw what a great job Peter Jackson did with the first one and I put my faith in him."

Fans have invested more than their faith in the movie trilogy. The first two installments — "The Fellowship of the Ring" and "The Two Towers" — have taken in a combined $1.8 billion and are among the highest grossing films in history. Around the world, midnight premieres for the first two installments sold out within minutes.

In Hawai'i, tickets for Trilogy Tuesday, a marathon screening of all three "Lord of the Rings" films, sold out two months in advance despite minimal publicity. Advance tickets for the Wednesday premiere screenings are also selling briskly, according to managers at several Consolidated and Signature theaters.

Expectations for "Return of the King" are almost impossibly high.

The world premiere in Wellington, New Zealand, was a high-profile success, with fans flying in from around the world. And advance word is already spreading that "Return of the King" is the best of the trilogy.

The first two films have already racked up Oscars for makeup, cinematography, visual effects, original score, digital effects and sound editing, and there has been a prevailing feeling that voters were waiting on the final film to bestow major honors like best director and best film.

Reach Michael Tsai at (808) 535-2461 or mtsai@honoluluadvertiser.com.