John Boorman's Lord of the Rings

[Mister Underhill]

Very interesting! I'd heard Boorman's name in connection with LotR, but never knew it got even as far as a draft script.

Originally Posted by davem

Personally, I'd be interested to read Boorman/Pallenberg's script in full if only for the sake of curiosity...

I'm not sure the B/P changes bother me as much as the ones PJ made. Boorman's movie would have been so different from the book that I could have approached it as something entirely 'other'.

Ditto on both comments. Boorman's wild take, I think, would ultimately have had a higher camp value. I'm certain his film would have been interesting on a purely visceral/visual/mythic-symbolic level, and let's face it -- if you're gonna do LotR in a single film, you have to start making some pretty drastic changes any way you slice it. Gimli being beaten in the hole does earn extra bonus points, though.

I have to say that prior to FotR, I ranked his Excalibur as one of the top two fantasy movies of all time (Conan the Barbarian being the other). Still, even that film wanders into some really strange territory towards the end, and he is after all the man who brought us Zardoz, which featured Sean Connery running around in this getup (WARNING: I assume no responsibility for any eye damage suffered as a result of clicking that link). The Golden Age of 70's cinema wasn't always what it is sometimes cracked up to be. Didn't he use the rainbow shot, if not the line, when Arthur is sailing away at the end of Excalibur? Interesting connection. I'll have to pop in my DVD to check.

Originally Posted by Kuru

This is an easier effect to do than a flying creature?

Oh, by far -- especially considering the FX technology available at the time. The skinless horse gag is basically just whipping up a suit and maybe some makeup for the horse. Flying Nazgûl would involve difficult and expensive miniatures, motion-control, rotoscoping, etc., and probably look pretty fake. I think it's a pretty neat idea for the limitations of the time.

Thanks for the interesting info, davem!