By Steve Ramos

LOTR's Elijah Wood

Like most blockbuster movies, the odyssey of the first installment of director Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring (opening Dec. 19), has been long and arduous. Animator Ralph Bakshi's attempt to condense J.R.R. Tolkien's trilogy into one feature-length cartoon, Lord of the Rings (1978), received lukewarm response. Budget concerns sidetracked early attempts to make a live-action version of these popular stories.

The box-office failures of other big-screen fantasies -- 1988's Willow (starring a shaggy-haired Val Kilmer), 1985's Legend (starring an even shaggier Tom Cruise) and 1986's Labyrinth (starring David Bowie, sporting a waterfall-like hairdo) -- didn't help Lord of the Ring's live-action chances. Despite these duds, tougher projects have found their way to completion. After a 14-month shoot in his native New Zealand, Jackson (Heavenly Creatures) finished production on the three separate films earlier this year. The plan is to release them over the next three Christmases.

An elaborate Internet site, teaser trailers and behind-the-scenes footage have fueled fans' interest over the past year. Anticipation over the first installment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy has become so huge that its title has been reduced to four simple letters: L-O-T-R. The funny thing is how average moviegoers know what LOTR means.

Similar slang will soon be used to describe the films' ensemble of actors. The fanatic fans of J.R.R. Tolkien's trilogy of books, first published in 1954-1955, already know the names of the dwarves, elves, hobbits and wizards who call the fantasy land of Middle Earth home. The task at hand is to match these characters with their real-life performers.

If the earth continues to revolve around the sun, it's safe to say that Jackson's epic fantasy will become a Hollywood hit of Harry Potter-like proportions. Soon after, LOTR's ready-for-the-big-time players will be as familiar as the kid next door, known simply by their characters' names. Questions about typecasting can be answered by Star Wars' Mark Hamill.

LOTR debuts in three weeks, and it's fairly easy to predict where the series is heading. The catch is tracing the odyssey that brought the major players to the Tolkien trilogy. Consider the below chart to be the first of many cheat sheets.

 

PLAYERS	THE ROLES	THEIR HISTORY	FUTURE SHOCK
Elijah Wood	Young actor (20) is the heroic hobbit, Frodo Baggins	Working opposite child star Macaulay Culkin in The Good Son and opposite superstar Mel Gibson in Forever Young	Toys, cereal boxes and posters plastered with facsimiles of his face will follow
Ian McKellen	The veteran actor plays the good wizard Gandalf	Playing Richard III shows his acting chops; playing X-Men villain Magneto reveals his knack for fantasy	Admiration by a newfound army of fans who’ve never seen a Shakespeare play
Cate Blanchett	The actress is elf queen Galadriel	Playing real-life monarch Elizabeth I in Elizabeth; playing make-believe girlfriend to Billy Bob Thornton and Bruce Willis in Bandits	Stratospheric name recognition will give her the power to choose any project she likes
Liv Tyler	The “It” girl is the elf warrior Arwen	Flashes her panties in Stealing Beauty; flashes her push-up bra in One Night at McCool’s	Her number of Internet fan sites will double; all will post images from One Night at McCool’s
Peter Jackson	Director/co-writer	The man responsible for splatter films like Dead Alive and Meet the Feebles; also introduced Kate Winslet to the world via the art-house hit Heavenly Creatures	Press declares him to be Hollywood’s next great filmmaker, at least for the next five minutes

E-mail Steve Ramos

When Big Press Happens to Little Movies (November 21, 2001)
The Girl Can't Help It (November 21, 2001)
Couch Potato (November 21, 2001)
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