Variety
11 May 2001
Big 'Rings' wingding
Newline pic gets snazzy launch
By TIMOTHY M. GRAY
CANNES -- New Line kicked off its three-"Rings" circus in a big way this week.
Cannes is famous for its film promotions, but it's hard to remember
a pic with a splashier launch here than "The Lord of the
Rings" trilogy.
As part of its worldwide media launch, the company has flown in
the filmmakers and a dozen stars for four days of tubthumping
that began May 10 with a screening of footage from the three pics.
It culminated May 13 with a "Rings" wingding, where
designers, sets and mammoth props were flown from New Zealand
to dress up a chateau just outside of Cannes.
It's no surprise that New Line is pulling out all the stops. At
a press confab at the chateau May 11, Fine Line Features prez
Mark Ordesky (an exec producer on the films) admitted to an aggregate
budget of $270 million for the three films. While denying the
studio's entire future rests on the pics' success, he said, with
smiling understatement, that it's "the most ambitious thing
we've ever attempted."
The first pic bows Dec. 19 in the U.S., with Europe, Australasia
and Latin America openings in the following 10 days.
Looking surprisingly relaxed and unsurprisingly enthused -- the
media reaction to the 25 minutes of footage ranged from upbeat
to wildly enthusiastic -- Ordesky declined to tell Variety the
marketing budget. He only said it's "commensurate with the
investment we've made in these films," and then laughed at
his own corporate-speak.
However, since the marketing budget for the second "Austin
Powers" movie was estimated in the $30 million-$40 million
range, it's safe to bet "Rings" will at least fall in
that shagadelic neighborhood.
Rolf Mittweg, prez of worldwide distribution and marketing, agreed
with Ordesky that they don't want to "hype" the pic
-- in other words, they'll market it, but they don't want the
public to overdose on it before it's opened. ("You'll notice
we don't have any posters on the Croisette," Ordesky pointed
out.)
Mittweg told Variety, "We've rounded up some amazing promotional
partners," but declined details. Still, the promo push will
shift into a higher gear this fall.
Ordesky added that Cannes was the logical place to kick off the
media launch. The company closed pre-sales on the film here last
year, and the "Rings" launch has three goals: "Our
partners are here and we wanted to show them their money had been
well placed and was up on the screen"; second, the worldwide
media is gathered here for the fest, with 150 of them gathering
for the junket meets with stars and filmmakers; and, tied in with
that, the company wants to get the word out to the public and
fans of the books.
Their challenge is marketing a work that, said Ordesky, is "so
well known, so loved" to so many (100 million copies have
been printed of J.R.R. Tolkien's three books in 40 languages),
but totally unknown to large segments of the world, including
many American teenagers.
The films will be released each December through 2003. Though
principal lensing has wrapped and three teams of editors are working
simultaneously, each will be finished only shortly before its
bow.
At the press sesh, director-producer-co-writer Peter Jackson said
he set about making "one big, long movie." Producer
Barrie Osborne said all three shot simultaneously, mostly for
logistical reasons: They had to build roads into remote areas
of New Zealand and, since it was protected land, the roads had
to be removed immediately after end of filming. Thus, it made
sense to avoid doing that three times.
Also at the press confab was co-writer Philippa Boyens. The press
then had a chance to sit down with "Ring" actors Elijah
Wood, Ian McKellen, Sean Astin, Sean Bean, Orlando Bloom, Billy
Boyd, Christopher Lee, Dominic Monaghan, Viggo Mortensen, John
Rhys-Davies and Liv Tyler.
Richard Taylor, of WETA special effects, said the long work schedule
was often hard -- the first pic alone features 550 CGI shots --
but when workers would feel a slump, he'd just say, "It's
'Lord of the Rings' -- c'mon, pick up your plate!"
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