Tuesday, 21 May 2013

Doing LOTR in Earnest.

The village hall committee here in the Shire is always looking for ways to make money, so I had this idea. Why don’t we stick a big screen up at one end of the hall and show the extended version of LOTR – seven nights a week for three weeks, one for each of the trilogy? People would come from far and wide, I’m sure they would, especially if the locals came in character to make the ambience complete. So let’s see…

My landlord is virtually an ent already, so he’d make a great Treebeard. The vicar is tailor made for Saruman. There are plenty of professional types who could easily carry off the Ringwraiths. There’s a woman who looks like Rosie Took’s mother. We have plenty of Sams, Merrys and Pippins. We could go and find the guy in Ashbourne to do Gollum. And I would happily go as Bilbo (post-relinquishing the ring, of course) or Grima Wormtongue, or maybe Gimli. We have no Galadriels or Eowyns, unfortunately, but we do have an Arwen.

And there are plenty of horses that we could tether round the front to put people in the mood… and the pub could send up a firkin of Pedigree Bitter and call it ‘Elven Ale.’

Sorted. I think I should have been an entrepreneur.

4 comments:

Della said...

That's hilarious, but it sounds like fun. The extended version of LOTR is worth seeing b.t.w. if you haven't already. It makes more sense and you get to hear Aragorn sing about Beren and Luthien, some back story to Tolkien's mythic universe, making it seem all that more real. Hope you're well J.J., I've been looking in from time to time via my Google Reader. It's a time saving way to skim my blogs of interest, which is about all I can manage these days. Still working on my growing YA/mystery novel, weaving many confounding threads and as yet, half-baked characters. Hopefully something will come of it before 2020 :) Family fine, growing up, getting old(er) ;)

JJ said...

I'd love to see the extended version. I've been watching a lot of clip compilations on YouTube, and they include many scenes that aren't in the theatre version. But how? There's no way I'm going to buy the boxed set, not unless I find one cheap in a charity shop. I suppose it'll come to me if I need it. Or maybe I'll just read the books next winter.

Anyway, you sound busy; that's good. Glad the family are well and the novel's coming along. Nice to hear from you, Della. It is.

Della said...

If you were closer, I'd lend it to you. Do you think the library might have it? I'm wondering if one can copy DVDs...will find out, I'm so relatively un-savvy with these technical things (with lots of eye-rolls from children on this).
Will keep in touch. Take care!

JJ said...

Library loans don't give you time to watch three films of that length, but it seems you can get a used copy for about £11 from Amazon. Maybe it will go onto my winter shopping list. I really want to see it.