Return of the King table read via Zoom

[Fredeghar Wayfarer]

A friend of mine was part of a table reading of the Return of the King movie script tonight. He and the other actors performed their parts in a Zoom call which was streamed live on Facebook. It was pretty fun. A lot of them put together makeshift costumes or had virtual backgrounds of locations from the film. My friend played Elrond (as well as Grimbold for his one line).

Somehow they got professional actor Stephen Tobolowsky involved (of Groundhog Day and Glee, among other things). Someone in the group must have known him. He played Denethor. They also had a low budget but epic take on the lighting of the beacons -- a mountain range of furniture and blankets and candles being lit one by one. It was hilarious!

I found out about this performance last minute or I would have posted a link. However, tonight was only part 1! They're doing part 2 tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. Central if anyone wants to tune in (it's the extended edition script so they'll pick up from where the second disc starts). The Facebook group is called Zooming the Movies. You have to join the group to watch but I think they're going to post the whole thing on YouTube later.

This is the group: www.facebook.com/groups/262573594864309/?hc_ref=ARTtwKKzN34U4RWSSFAa-qadwcbr1a1kmM_Jwk4Up1trgRmT3v70k2UPDiQRvrW743U

Here's a screenshot my friend took:

[fanuidhol]

That looks really cool, Freddie! Love your description of the Beacons. Want to see it when they are done.

[Andorinha]

LOL -- I especially enjoyed the tin-foil helmet! Thanks, Freddy!

[Stormrider]

Watching it now. The Beacon lighting was awesome! I'm at half time with Gandalf laughing. I guess they are setting up their backgrounds and props. The guy who does Denethor is pretty good (he looks familiar, has he done movies before?) and the gal doing Sam, too.

Yes! He has done movies before! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Tobolowsky LOL! Freddie did say that above!

[Fredeghar Wayfarer]

Tobolowsky did pretty good as Denethor but I think I'm so used to him in comedic roles, it was hard for me to take him seriously. My favorite in this cast was the guy who played Theoden. He was an amazing actor and his delivery sounded so much like Bernard Hill in the movie. The guy who played Treebeard and the Witch-king was great too. I think he's a professional voice actor.

As fellow Tolkien fans, I'm sure you share my pain at some of the pronunciations. I know these Sindarin place names are tough so I should cut the actors some slack. But I still cringed a few times. My friend Maui (Elrond) knows how much of a Tolkien fan I am so he was texting me during the performance for my thoughts and to see how his Elvish pronunciation was (I think he said "Edain" wrong but was otherwise fine).

Looking forward to part 2!

[Stormrider]

I thought that actor's voice was very close to Bernard Hill, too. The guy who plays Merry cracks me up.

Tobolowsky had more animation in his voice and movements and that's why I thought he was pretty good. The video presentation died out as Gandalf smacks Denethor so I don't know if it ended there or if the video got gummed up at the end. I would have liked to see him go up in flames (would be interesting to see how they do that!)

I can't wait to see the second half. I want to see Eowyn and Merry face the Witchking! Sam's fight with Shelob, and Frodo and Gollum in the end with the fight on Mt. Doom.

[Fredeghar Wayfarer]

Sept 1, 2020 12:20:12 GMT -6 Stormrider said:

The video presentation died out as Gandalf smacks Denethor so I don't know if it ended there or if the video got gummed up at the end.

Sounds like there were video issues. Part 1 ended with the orcs bringing out the battering ram, Grond, which is where disc 1 of the extended edition DVD ends. I think that's shortly after the Denethor scene so you didn't miss much.

[Stormrider]

Ooooo! How does their Grond look, or didn't they use that prop?

[Fredeghar Wayfarer]

Sept 1, 2020 16:52:30 GMT -6 Stormrider said:

Ooooo! How does their Grond look, or didn't they use that prop?

No, they didn't use a prop for that. They were just chanting as the narrator described it.

Almost time for part 2!

[Fredeghar Wayfarer]

Not sure if any of you were planning on watching it live but they just started. They were having tech issues so they're streaming through YouTube not Facebook:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAIfK43k4W8&fbclid=IwAR0T9SNuGf31EXD8P5b4kEcp-HiV_s-TSWCOx-6KuZimCXinJ6QCvwVYtQM

EDIT: That stream got suspended at intermission for some reason and they finished on another one. The whole thing should be posted to the Facebook page tomorrow (hopefully. They had a lot of technical problems with this tonight).

[Stormrider]

I will watch it. Just depends on our camping plans. I'll fit it in somehow.

[fanuidhol]

I watched the first 15 minutes of the 2nd half.
I love it!