This is the entry for that weekend from My On-line Blog

Okay ... well, I had a pretty busy weekend ! To begin with, I saw The Lord of The Rings trilogy...yes, all three movies..at the Egyptian Theatre over the three days. Plus, the cast and crew were there. So it was very much the event. In case you didn't know, I do have a Lord of the Rings Page on my website. I try to keep the page current, but there is so much LOTR stuff out there.... Well, I took both Friday and Monday off to enjoy the weekend and be well rested. Let me go through each day:

Friday - February 6, 2004 The Fellowship of The Ring screening was at 7:30, but I got in line at about 5:00. Since I volunteer, I am a Member, and the member line always goes in frst. I got my favorite seat in the theatre. They showed Fellowship of the Ring, then Peter Jackson came out to talk afterwards. He got a standing ovation, of course. I heard from another volunteer, that there were alot of people there fron The One Ring.Net. I looked at the website, and it is a great page for LOTR info. I so wanted to ask Peter Jackson a question. But there were alot of hands that went up. My favorite questions had to do with the Casting Process. Viggo Mortenson was the last person cast, and he started 4 days after filming started. Ian McKellen was running late because he had to finish X-Men, and they were worried he wasn't going to make it. Then ... the story I had heard about Elijan Wood was right ...straight from Peter Jackson's lips. Elijah Wood wanted the role so much, he went to a forest-like area in Los Angeles, put on a Hobbit outfit, and filmed himself. When Peter Jackson saw the tape, he knew right away that was who he wanted for Frodo. Jackson said he had never seen any of Elijah Woods other films, and had no idea who he was. As an actress, this story gives me so much inspiration - there is hope for us all ! For pics, go to WireImage.com - Friday

Saturday - Friday February 7, 2004 "The Two Towers" started at 4pm. I got there about 2:30 for the line. Both Elijah Wood and Sean Astin spoke before the movie started. It was wonderful. I loved their stories. And I don't care if Elijah Wood is half my age - he is still dern cute ! They talked more about Elijah's audition tape, which I enjoyed hearing more about. Also there was the Ngila Dickson, Costume Designer, and Howard Shore, the Composer. If you'd like to see Pics, they are at WireImage.com - Saturday I learned later on, that Peter Jackson was at the Directors Guild winning their acheviement award that night.

Sunday - Sunday February 8, 2004 "Return of the King" started at 5 pm. I was running alittle late, and got there about 3:45 - and the Members line was already out to the street. But I was still lucky enough to get my favorite seat. The discussion was before the film. Peter Jackson was there, his co-writer Fran Walsh, producer Mark Ordesky, and Bob Shaye, the head of New Line Cinema. This discussion was alittle more technical than the others. But it was still very interesting. And he got a big standing ovation for his DGA Award last night. This was the first time I had seen "Return of the King", and I am so glad I waited to see it when all three movies played together. You can see pictures, at WireImage.com - Sunday The only down part of the weekend was I was reading The One Ring.net, and found a link to a Christian on-line magazine Boundless.org that had an interview with the cast members - none of whom seemed to be aware that LOTR contained many Christian references. There were some quotes that some of the cast members made that I do not understand where they were coming from. I don't think I could be in a movie without reading up on what I was making, and the history behind the great classic. For example, last year I did a staged reading about Lyndon Johnson. I knew nothing about him, so I read a biography about him to prepare - and I had a very minor part in the Reading. Whatever, after reading that article it makes me now want to read all of Tolkien's works. Being a Christian, I can see the Christian influences in the film, but I would now like to see now how the Tolkien himself presented it. So...... as you can tell it was not my normal weekend. But very fun, and very tiring. I'm glad I took an extra day off from work.