Archive for 2003

With the release of the much anticipated movie, “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”, we recently had the wonderful opportunity to speak with the man behind the hairy footed Hobbit, “Merry”, Dominic Monaghan, in “The Lord of the Rings” Trilogy.

For those of you who do not know, Dominic Monaghan is sweet natured, kind hearted and has a darling smile with a boyish quality that makes you weak in the knees. Dominic may not think so, but he seems to have this strange effect on women, where you stop and say to yourself, “Uh, who am I? Was I really just talking to Dominic Monaghan?” After he leaves, you find yourself suddenly feeling very warm even though it’s 50 degrees outside. Trust me, I am not alone when it comes to these feelings. There are a lot of other girls/fans who feel the same.
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How was the process of doing your scenes?

Billy: The height thing. Lots of different ways. Sometimes really simply, like the scenes on the balcony in Minas Tirith, I was just on my knees. And you saw Gandalf in the background; they had the really tall guy called Paul. And he would dress –

Dom: Tall Paul

Billy: Yeah, tall Paul. He would dress like Gandalf or Aragorn or, they had costumes for all the characters, including Arwen. Sometimes he’d be dressed as Arwen, really scary, but slightly arousing.
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BILLY: Hello, Dominic.

DOM: Hello, Bill.

BILLY: Welcome at Premiere’s…

DOM: I meant to ask you…

BILLY: What?

DOM: …when was your biggest drinking session during filming?

BILLY: I’m a very shy drunk.

DOM: I understand. Can I tell the answer for you, then?

BILLY: Nah, that’ll do, thank you.
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With a running time of 700 minutes (give or take) and a budget of approximately $9 zillion, The Return of the King, the final installment in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, is the biggest movie of the year in every possible sense. And if there’s anything we’ve learned from the epic Tolkien adaptation, it’s that little people are capable of very great things. So as the Rings cycle comes to a close, who’s more deserving of our respect than the littlest people of them all — the hobbits? Standing considerably taller in real life, actors Sean Astin (center, who plays the loyal Samwise), Billy Boyd (right, the musically inclined Pippin), and Dominic Monaghan (left, the battle-bound Merry) reunited for a King-size conversation.

Spin: Hobbits may be noble and brave, but they’re not particularly sexy — especially compared to the movie’s elf and the human characters.
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While they may not have guns or tanks, there are a couple of hobbits who promise the next and final “Lord of the Rings” film could give “Saving Private Ryan” a run for its money.

“It’s a full-on war movie,” Elijah Wood proclaimed recently, when asked about this year’s “The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.”

“As Elijah said, lots of war,” his hobbit partner Dominic Monaghan added for emphasis.

The two pals ? who played Frodo Baggins and Meriadoc “Merry” Brandybuck, respectively, in “The Fellowship of the Ring” and “The Two Towers” ? will soon return to New Zealand for pickup shots and re-shoots under director Peter Jackson for the final installment of the fantasy tale, which hits theaters December 17.
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Several members of the Lord of the Rings cast were at this year’s San Diego Comic Con to promote the impending DVD release (and subsequent extended edition in November) of The Two Towers, and to get fans ridiculously excited by showing an all-too-brief glimpse of Return of the King, hitting screens this winter.

I got a chance to sit with two of the four hobbits (or 22.222% of the Fellowship) in an incredibly boisterous room, and this is what the extremely laid-back Sean Astin and Dominic Monaghan had to say (or at least what I could decipher from the tape).
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Comic-Con hosted a number of The Lord of the Rings notables this year. Andy Serkis, the actor behind Gollum, was generous enough to be on hand for much of the conference, greeting fans and signing autographs. Saturday saw a remarkable flux of Hollywood talent on the exhibition floor when Elijah Wood (Frodo Baggins) and Dominic Monaghan (Merry Brandybuck) graced the EA GAMES booth to play The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King. A crowd instantly converged to catch a glimpse of the actors teaming up in co-op mode.

(A four-shot composite of the crowd gathered to see Elijah Wood and Dominic Monaghan)

Wood chose to play as Sam while Monaghan stepped into Aragorn’s virtual boots. Monaghan jokingly asked, “Can I kill Elijah?” (the answer being no, of course, since the Fellowship is fighting cooperatively to save Middle-earth).
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