UPDATE: You did it!! The poll is over on Mar 6 -- keep RA in the lead until then(by voting daily) and I'll post a dozen of the 'most interesting' RA pix ever taken ;) *winks* Those that prove he's not only an extremely talented actor but also the hunkiest.
NickyHolender
Just finished training Graham Mctavish, one of the leads in The Hobbit, what an amazing athlete! Check www.nickyholender.com 4 his pic! http://www.nickyholender.com/
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bccmee's RA bits from NZ press conf are back and very much appreciated:
RA is #2 in most recent hottest Brit poll. Get thee to the hunkies site ;) let’s vote our guy into first place. Since when is a vampire hotter than an actor with - quote: “real gravitas, notably deep voice..(will have) no trouble holding audience’s attention”
Sue commented that bad boy JR Ewing(who's making a comeback-pic below)reminds her of Guy
His thought was slightly fuzzy below, he was thinking "hmmm, did I remember to pack a 6 months supply of chocolate??...
Believe it or not, as mentioned in a comment by Sue, there is a community called Gisborne, NZ...
Enjoy the combined talents of CDoart - videographer and pianist..
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Listen as Richard describes the UK's HMS Ark Royal including it's Harrier Jets. We've often seen them at airshows and they are truly majestic looking planes as they hover, hover...ooh, something RA has in common with them. He's often hovered at female lips ;) even more gracefully. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpi9vkCBVno
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RA narration of Venetia has been nominated for an Audie by the Audio Publishers Assoc..
VENETIA
Georgette Heyer
Read by Richard Armitage
Heyer’s elegant story of a country girl who falls for a rakish peer of the realm will enchant listeners. Venetia’s chance meeting with Damerel turns into a romantic dilemma as she tries to convince him their relationship won’t turn her into a social outcast. Richard Armitage’s voice aptly conveys the attraction between Venetia and Damerel, making the most of the novel’s rich dialogue and clever turns of phrase. Armitage manages to express all of Heyer’s opinions about her characters with a subtle sense of the ridiculous. Exchanges between Venetia and Damerel emerge as especially intimate and wonderful. While the abridgment is gracefully handled, it’s a pity listeners won’t have the pleasure of hearing Armitage narrate the entire novel. Portland, Maine [Published: JUNE 2010]
Listen to 5min sample: http://www.amazon.com/Venetia/dp/B003MSCSFM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1298683315&sr=8-2
Interesting news: The couple who discovered RA for the Thorin role, plus Kate Winslet, Orlando Bloom, etc will receive an award. Excerpt follows from the article:
>For the husband-and-wife team, there is nothing quite like the moment when they come across an unknown talent and realize that the actor is going to be a star, such as when they first met Winslet when she was 15 as they were casting Peter Jackson's "Heavenly Creatures."
So what do they look for?
"It's a mix of intelligence and strength, and a sense that there is something special," says John Hubbard.
"Alan Parker says it is a word called 'magic,' " adds Ros Hubbard. "You get excited by it, because you feel this guy or this girl is brilliant and they are going to make it."<
[Ricrar comment: We know exactly the feeling, don't we ladies :) Yes, we definitely did get excited about discovering the magic of someone special on screen. It's been an exhilarating journey, every step of the way for some of you (past 2.5 yrs for me) up to the moment when the Hubbards recognized Richard's unique talents as well - high fives all around *slapping each other on backs*] http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118032408?refcatid=19
Would appear someone, besides RA, sometimes uses the thumbs up signal...(director Jackson:)
If the upcoming start of filming for The Hobbit doesn’t get you excited that a new Tolkien movie is being made by the same people who brought us the LOTR trilogy; here’s something that may. One of the spies for TheOneRing.Net got extremely close to the sets at the Miramar studios and managed to snap some shots. While the sets are still being constructed, the general consensus is that the pillars are part of the Lonely Mountain set.
The LOTR trilogy used Alan Lee and John Howe’s previous paintings as a basis for its look. That’ll naturally continue with The Hobbit, and some people have pointed out how the top of the pillars look a lot like Alan Lee’s paintings...(see photos at the onering.net website)
Read an article describing this year's Oscar Ceremony's schedule to see if there's anything of interest and found that Cate Blanchett will introduce a clip from Lord of the Rings prior to her presentation of the Best Makeup and Costume oscars...other items of some note:
--Long-time superstar Tom Hanks will present early in the program - after that most others are either in 2010 films or upcoming movies for 2011.
--Nicole Kidman & Hugh Jackman will partner for the Best Original Score award
--An undisclosed guest host will introduce an excerpt from the first televised oscar program..it's black & white
--Robt Downey & Jude Law: Best Visual Effects oscar
--Gwyneth Paltrow sings a nominated song 'Coming Home' (couple yrs ago when asked which American actress would be the best co-star for RA, decided to see how they might look together on screen
--Jeff Bridges: last year's winner will present the Best Actor award
--Sandra Bullock: the 2010 Best Actress will do the honors for that oscar
--Steven Spielberg: Best Motion Picture
A few commenters at the oscar article website suggested it would really be interesting if Charlie Sheen was hosting the show this year. Those who've seen recent entertainment headlines get the joke :)
The audience for the past ten years is much smaller than it had been for many previous decades; although, for 2010 it was about 40 million viewers - that's just domestically
Well, I've just discovered a sad situation when it comes to our appreciation of RA fanvids. It seems the videographer who created the lovely one entitled 'Seduces Me' (song of the same title sung by Celine Dion) has chosen to make it private at youtube; thereby removing one of the most popular and enjoyable fan vids from his supporters enjoyment. It definitely presents a void that needs to be filled - perhaps by a good-hearted RA video creator? In the meantime, we can listen to the following and mute the sound while watching one of the above vids.
There has obviously been quite a hunger for more Tolkien after the LOTR trilogy. Here's an interesting project entitled 'The Hunt for Gollum'. In this particular story, it's Aragorn hunting the spooky and spunky creature highlighted in a post below...
Feb 22 tweet from Sir Ian says he today saw Bilbo in 3D..nothing else, short but sweet..
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CASTING THE HOBBIT:(link below to entire article)
While casting good-looking chaps and chapesses might be fine for slushy teenage vampire flicks, it seems the world of dwarfs and dragons is a very different kettle of fish. The line-up for Peter Jackson's forthcoming version of The Hobbit is slowly taking shape, with the welcome news last week that Sir Ian McKellen and Andy Serkis will reprise their roles as Gandalf and Gollum respectively. The roles of each of the 13 dwarfs accompanying Bilbo on his merry little quest have finally been filled. But the news that Thorin Oakenshield, the leader of this vertically challenged company, was to be played by an actor with a not-that-appalling appearance, sparked minor fury in the fan ranks.
"So far, the biggest controversy among fans with the casting of The Hobbit has to be the casting of Richard Armitage as Thorin," says Pat Dawson, a senior staff member of the Tolkien fansite TheOneRing.net. Armitage, best known for a major role in the BBC spy drama Spooks, is considered by many to be a somewhat handsome gentleman, and certainly not "grim-faced" as Tolkien described his dwarfs. And it's this that is causing the upset.
"It would, quite frankly, ruin the movie if the dwarfs are portrayed as anything more or less than what they are: short, strong, muscular, slightly over-weight, bearded and 'grim-faced'," one commenter on the site exclaimed. "Authenticity is very important."
There were similar murmurings of disapproval when The Lord of the Rings was in pre-production, when Elijah Wood was cast as Frodo Baggins, but then it was regarding the actor's age rather than his attractiveness. "Many fans thought from the beginning that he was too young to play Frodo," says Dawson, pointing to the fact that in the books he celebrated his 50th birthday shortly before setting out from Hobbiton with his all-powerful piece of jewellery. "While 50 is relatively young for a hobbit, Frodo being played by a 20-something was too much of a stretch."
Thankfully, the performance by Wood, along with most of the cast, was enough to win over many. Fans were particular delighted with McKellen's Gandalf, Viggo Mortensen's Aragorn and Serkis's Gollum. And in The Hobbit, while the addition of an attractive dwarf in the party might upset some, the lead character is already exciting many.
"Martin Freeman is perfect for the role of Bilbo," says Dawson. "He's been a fan favourite from early on in the rumour cycle because he not only looks so 'Hobbity', but he's an accomplished actor in his own right." While Dawson suggests that most fans prefer relative unknowns, to avoid being "jarred out of the film by recognising a big-name actor 'playing' a beloved character", she says that so perfect is Freeman that almost everyone will be able to overlook his recognisability from The Office, Love Actually, and numerous others.
One thing fans haven't complained about so far is size, and it's not purely because they've been casting diminutive actors.
"With special effects the directors have more freedom in choosing their talent," says the Los Angeles-based casting agent Victoria Burrows, who was heavily involved in the casting for The Lord of the Rings trilogy. "In the case of The Lord of the Rings, we did veer towards shorter actors as it made production work better, but if we loved an actor, they were hired." Alongside helping cast Wood, Mortensen and Sean Austin, Burrows brought into the fellowship John Rhys Davies, who managed to play the three-foot dwarf Gimli despite being over twice that height in reality.
In fact, Rhys Davies's height actually helped the filming process as he was in good proportion to the hobbit actors, who were around 5' 6". Had he been shorter, shots of the entire fellowship would have required three camera passes rather than two.
In 1999, when discussing his coming three-part epic, Jackson said he didn't want to go down the route of casting authentic little people. "We are casting normal-sized actors and using prosthetics, computer tricks and other less-complicated trickery to reduce them in size." Among this "less-complicated trickery", the simple act of kneeling down proved extremely useful. (link below to entire article)
http://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/film/casting-the-hobbit
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Congrats to the 42% of respondents who answered Marian's crooked smile occurred at Locksley Manor...you'll see it at the very beginning of the following clip(about :10 or :12)...RH2, Ep 3..
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THE HOBBIT: Need to lighten up after all that grimness :) so here's an interesting blog by a NZ Lord of the Ring tourist guide. Keep in mind that his intention is to drum up new business with his remarks:) Actually, he's quite straight forward about 'name dropping'...
Didn't realize when typing the above remarks that things in NZ would get quite grim...Following explains why they've experienced many earthquakes..
>New Zealand sits on the Pacific "ring of fire" — an arc of earthquake and volcanic zones stretching from Chile in South America through Alaska and down through the South Pacific. It records more than 14,000 earthquakes a year — but only about 150 are felt by residents, and fewer than 10 a year do any damage.<
Excerpt from today's NZ news report: >Campbell said the heightened US presence at the partnership forum was a nod to New Zealand's leadership role in the Pacific.
"We're sending a very clear signal that we need to step up our game and we're stepping up with New Zealand and supporting New Zealand in that role."
The partnership forum follows a historic visit by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, during which she signed the "Wellington declaration", committing both countries to closer co-operation.
Her visit also marked a return to regular military training and exercises between the two countries. Foreign Minster Murray McCully spoke yesterday about the co-operation that was already taking place between both countries.
He praised close and habitual cooperation between the New Zealand navy and US Coastguard as being responsible for the rescue of a Kiribati family lost at sea, but said more needed to be done.
"I believe the time has come for New Zealand, the US and Australia to dramatically step up our collective surveillance activity in the region, to provide a comprehensive assault on illegal activity within our region."
The call comes as key US figures, including former deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage, call for a return to a military alliance between New Zealand and the US. < (read entire article at above link)
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If the following is true it's an unbelievable coincidence that both the US Richard Armitage and the UK's were/are in NZ at the same time. Not certain if it's fact or someone's sorry idea of a joke...very sorry indeed if that's the case. Series of recent tweets by US ambassador to NZ. Timeline reads from bottom up...
DavidHuebner David Huebner
Thanks to all who responded re Armitage whereabouts. Has been picked up and is en route to muster/shelter site.
10 hours ago Favorite Retweet Reply
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DavidHuebner David Huebner
First bus has arrived at our muster/shelter site at Antarctic center. Sending bus back into city for others.
10 hours ago Favorite Retweet Reply
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DavidHuebner David Huebner
Those calling Emb: muster/shelter site remains Antarc ctr near CC airport. Leave CBD to avoid complicating rescue effrts
11 hours ago Favorite Retweet Reply
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DavidHuebner David Huebner
Econ Off Mike Layne remaining at AMI for stragglers. Auck Consul Dana Deree is leading convoy to Antarctic center.
