Last night, Tom Joad and me (Harry) sat down and watched every film that Peter Jackson has made. Did this help us to believe in Peter? Yes. Why? Because each film was the perfect tone for the subject matter being presented. From BAD TASTE to BRAIN DEAD to MEET THE FEEBLES to HEAVENLY CREATURES to THE FRIGHTENERS to FORGOTTEN SILVER, they are each tonally perfect. He knows the instrument that he is playing, he knows the time the piece is being played in, and he never varies from it. He is rock solid.
BUT HARRY... NOTHING MAKES IT LOOK LIKE HE COULD ADAPT A NOVEL LIKE TOLKIEN's MASTERPIECE!
Very very true. You have seen no evidence that Peter Jackson can do this. I have. I've read Peter's KING KONG script that Universal had it's head firmly lodged in their anal canal and passed over.
KING KONG IS NOT LORD OF THE RINGS, HARRY!
True. But Peter and Fran Walsh had a perfect understanding of how to adapt the classic film. In the film, there was no quirks, no wacky stuff, it was a straight forward telling of the story, but fresh. My god, so fresh it made ya cry. So good that you'd kill Universal Execs one after another till you could sign in their own blood the order to make the movie.
HARRY, YOU FAT FAN FUCK, YOU'RE ON SOME SORT OF DRUG TRIP, GO SIT IN THE BATHTUB TILL YOU COME DOWN, THEN WE'LL TALK!
Hey, fuck you. I'm not stonnnnnnnned. I'mmmmmm feeeeeeeeling Grooooooovy. All kidding aside. I've talked to people on this project, MONTHS AGO, that had read the script, and knew it inside and out. It kept Tolkien's language, it didn't take liberties, it didn't have a female Sam Wise, it didn't have a GAY RELATIONSHIP between FRODO and SAM. At no point did Gollum joke about eating out them Hobbit bitches. The language and tone was dead on. Why on earth do you think I've been friggin shaking with anger every time someone fucked with this project.
But enough. Now it's out in the open. Peter has come out of the closet and said, "Fuck it, I'm gonna make the coolest films ever!" (actually he hasn't said that to my knowledge, I'm quoting rhetorically upon a hypothesized level of uber-fucking coolness)
So here we are. I've been reading all the TALK BACK on this, and it seems that most people love the CONCEPT of the project, but have doubts as to how right this Peter Jackson, this man that loves brain matter on his screens, will work out with Tolkien's work. Well, have you seen A SIMPLE PLAN?
HARRY, WHAT THE FUCK DOES 'A SIMPLE PLAN' GOT TO DO WITH LORD OF THE FUCKING RINGS?
Ahem... Sam Raimi. You know him as a filmmaker that is a tricky son of a bitch. He loves his rapid camera movement, his flash editing, his imposing and obvious scores. You know Sam for high camp, blood and guts and not as a master of character development. His films are wonderfully cool, but you'd never place him with the master storytellers like Scorsese or Coppola.
I've seen A SIMPLE PLAN... I'd put Raimi beside those names, and he is a master friggin storyteller. Nothing that Raimi has done can prepare you for the maturity and the restraint he expresses with A SIMPLE PLAN.
Before Spielberg did SCHINDLER'S LIST could you imagine Steven "E.T., HOOK, ALWAYS, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, ETC" Spielberg doing a film like Schindler's? Not I. I mean for crissakes, Jurassic Park came right before. There was a film that had the least developed characters in the world, that had very little emotional resonance, and then 6 months later he's playing us like a fiddle in a Seymour Square Dance.
My point? My point is the good directors... strike that.. the GREAT directors don't sit around regurgitating the same tonal work. Peter Jackson is a child of Harryhausen and Willis O'Brien. He has in his office one of the original KING KONG models... specifically the one that you saw in that shot on the EMPIRE STATE BUILDING. It still has some fur. He has two french one sheets from KONG. He lived and breathed FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND. He is a fucking geek. Just like you, but he may be a much better director. This is Peter Jackson's moment. This will be his defining project. He's not doing this for the ego of Peter Jackson. He's doing it for his love of film, Tolkein and his country. He's going to show UNIVERSAL how stupid they were. He's out to show the world MIDDLE EARTH with all it critters and all it's magic.
Me? I'm out to get a place in line. Sure I've seen these films, we all have, each and every one of us that have read those tomes. We have that film right in front of that sparkling silver screen in front of our mind's eye. But you know what, I haven't seen Peter Jackson's version. But I will, and for that I rejoice. I cheer as loud as I can, I dance myself a hole all the way to New Zealand. I'm happy, I'm excited. Why? Because this is new. This is not something I've seen in a movie theater. Am I setting myself up for the biggest disappointment ever? Could be, but damn if my head ain't going to be throwing three-dimensional images from The Fellowship Of The Ring, Two Towers and Return of the King, all around. Damned if my friends and cohorts won't get into extensive friggin dialogues about how cool, how sucky, how right these films will be.
And you... I hope you join in on all the merriment and excitement. I love this part. The part where we don't know, where it's all on the tips of our tongues, when our asses aren't clenched and we can pass the shit around. This is going to be one helluva ride...
Harry
