Archive for 2004
Talk about heavenly. As of Wednesday, just two weeks into its release, director Mel Gibson’s religious drama, The Passion of the Christ , has amassed $228 million in box office.
That’s close to the 14-day takes of some of the all-time top-grossing contemporary releases, including Spider-Man ($240 million in its first 14 days), Star Wars Episode II The Phantom Menace ($212 million) and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ($241 million).
Passion ‘s two-week take has many in Hollywood shocked and awed, including actor Elijah Wood, who plays Frodo in Lord of the Rings , who caught a screening of Passion in Hollywood on opening day.
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Where hobbits go, “Lord of the Rings” fanatics follow. On a Tuesday night earlier this month in West Hollywood, Dominic Monaghan better known as the mischievous hobbit Merry in the trilogy found it difficult to walk through a room without fans throwing themselves at him, offering their allegiance and luck at the Oscars.
At Woo Lae Oak, a Korean barbecue restaurant where Mr. Monaghan is a regular, a waiter insisted on telling Mr. Monaghan that the three “Lord of the Rings” films were his favorite movies ever before he would take his order.
After the waiter moved away, Mr. Monaghan, 27, screwed his elastic face into a naughty grin and said, “I paid him to say that.”
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Ali, Glasgow: “What’s your favourite Merry scene from the trilogy?” DM: “The scene where Merry explains to Pippin in the Two Towers that now they are on this journey and they can’t turn back and their home is never going to be the same again.”
Jenny Stubbs, Staffordshire: “Were there any scenes that other actors got that you would have liked to film yourself?” DM: “Lots of Viggo’s battle scenes, and I have always been in awe of Sir Ian Holm so to be in Elijah’s shoes would have been great.”
J, Hants: “Which famous person would you most like to discover had a LOTR cut-out of you in their home?” DM: “Kylie Minogue or David Beckham.”
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Manchester’s Student Direct newspaper cops a rant from Dominic Monaghan who plays Merry in The Lord of the Rings, about the ending of The Return of the King having been changed to give his character less action. “It’s a shame – we were pretty cross about that,” he tells the paper.
“The ending shows that Merry and Pippin have changed quite a lot. I mean, they become warriors. Pippin is quite well versed on war, and Merry has actually been on the front line. I’m sure that there are cinematic reasons behind the change that make sense,” he sniffs.
Oscar nominations are all well and good, but Lord Of The Rings actor, Dominic Monaghan, has other things on his mind.
For, while bookies and movie critics debate how many awards Return Of The King is going win at the Hollywood ceremony later this month, the Stockport-born actor is already thinking about his next role.
Over the past three years, Dominic’s face has been plastered across billboards around the country as hobbit Merry Brandybuck. But it seems his real ambition is to play a much different type of legend – Eric Cantona!
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Question: Being together day and night for the past few years, have you become close friends or do you actually hate each other ?
Boyd: It’s kind of both really.
Monaghan: We hate how much we like each other. We’re good friends you know. It’s not too difficult to be friends with someone when you’re having such a great time. There’s kind of an unspoken thing that goes on between us now. We know what we’ve all been through to get to this point. It’s an incredibly strong link.
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How do you follow up one of the most successful films of all time? If you’re a hobbit, you might experiment with memory-erasing technology, take up martial arts, or head straight for the unemployment line.
“The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” the top-grossing film released in 2003, heads into this month’s Academy Awards fresh from a Golden Globes sweep. But you can’t stay in the Shire forever. So while the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy has made its Halfling stars ? Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd ? household names, the actors are looking ahead to new projects. So what lies ahead for everyone’s favorite hobbits?
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Dominic Monaghan has been in England for a few days and he’s fighting a cold, which makes a change from fighting the monstrous orcs, ringwraiths, uruk-hai and other creatures that have been part of his life for three years.
Although Los Angeles is now home for the 27-year-old actor from Stockport, he’s back home to take a break from the whirlwind of premieres and promotional tours that come with the territory of being part of a film phenomenon.
Ever since he made his big-screen debut in 2001 as the hobbit, Merry Brandybuck, in the first film in the movie adaptations of JRR Tolkien’s novels, Monaghan’s face has been everywhere. So for someone who spent his teenage years going to local gigs, clubs and bars, the fame-fallout of his latest work comes as a bit of a shock.
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United’s popularity throughout the world is well documented but few would have expected it to reach as far afield as Middle-earth.
For those of you not familiar with such a place, Middle-earth is the setting for the hugely successful phenomenon that is The Lord of the Rings.
Director Peter Jackson’s critically acclaimed trilogy has altered cinema history, not to mention the lives of the actors who were lucky enough to be cast in the epic three-part screenplay, which picked up a staggering eleven Oscars in Sunday’s 76th annual ceremony.
One of those lucky few is former Stockport resident and United fanatic Dominic Monaghan .
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Question: If you could be another character in the film, which one would you like to be?
Dominic: Arwen! (Everybody laughs)
Elijah: He doesn’t appear much in this first movie, and he is tortured, bad things happen to him, but… Gollum! I’ve liked this character since I was a child.
Liv: Maybe the white horse I rode. Because it doesn’t suffer during the shooting, does it? (Laughs) We (actors) had a tough time. But, of course, it was a wonderful experience as well.
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