No Saruman in ROTK?!

[impetigo]

From Cinescape today, news that Christopher Lee won't be in ROTK!!!

** WARNING ** : Slight story spoilers for THE RETURN OF THE KING are contained in the following news story

According to a contact made directly to Ain't It Cool News by LORD OF THE RINGS director Peter Jackson, all scenes featuring Christopher Lee's Saurman character will not be included in THE RETURN OF THE KING. Tolkien fans know that the evil wizard Saruman's last appearance was in The Two Towers novel, but Jackson had hoped on including the character in his third and final RINGS movie. It doesn't look like it's to be, as Jackson explained to the website:


"The problem is that the sequence was originally shot for THE TWO TOWERS, as it is in the book. Since THE TWO TOWERS couldn't sustain a 7 min 'wrap' after Helm's Deep, we thought it would be a good idea to save it for the beginning of THE RETURN OF THE KING. The trouble is, when we viewed various ROTK cuts over the last few weeks, it feels like the first scenes are wrapping last year's movie, instead of starting the new one. We felt it got ROTK off to an uncertain beginning, since Saruman plays no role in the events of ROTK (we don't have the Scouring later, as the book does), yet we dwell in Isengard for quite a long time before our new story kicks off."


Jackson reliefs fans by also mentioning that the excised Saruman scenes will be included in the eventual extended DVD edition of THE RETURN OF THE KING to be made available next November.

[chernabog_ca]

I haven't read the books so I guess it'll still make sense to me

[Fed7haS]

I stoped reading at this point ---> "Tolkien fans know that the evil wizard Saruman's last appearance was in The Two Towers novel" Cos thats a stright out LIE... hehe i have read the books at least 10 times and Saruman is indead in Rotk in fact the last 3 chapters is all about him the hobbits and the shire..... so this is BS.... the only way they could remove him from the movie is to leave out Hmmm about 30 to 45 minuts of fim at the end.... and about 10 minuts in the middel....

Fed7haS

[Gaumont]

Originally posted by Dr.FrankNFurter
thats a stright out LIE... hehe i have read the books at least 10 times and Saruman is indead in Rotk in fact the last 3 chapters is all about him the hobbits and the shire..... so this is BS....

Originally posted by impetigo
(we don't have the Scouring later, as the book does)

case closed

[Jake]

Predictions for Lord of the Rings Trilogy DVD (Extreme Edition????):

14 Disc set featuring 12 hours of the movie
featuring over 4 hours of never before seen footage
and a 50 hour reading of the book by Tom Hanks
enough featurettes to make you vomit LoTR for weeks

now of course this is way exagerrated but it is possible, isn't it?

[redbear]

if we don't see him at least i hope they show his death at the hands of wirmtongue ....

at least try to wrap it up becuase people who are not familar with the story will wonder "what the heck happened to sauraman ??"

[Fed7haS]

Well they cant cut him out.... ind i tell you now if they end the trilogy after the ring is destroyed and dont show the hole returning to the shire ill kill PJ

Fed7haS

[corfy]

I personally would be surprised if they show the return to the Shire in the movie. I think that part will be cut out of the movie to give the rest of it more time.

That would be a shame, because I didn't get into the books until they had to deal with returning to "normal life" after their adventure. They could do a whole movie on that part of the book and in my opinion, it would probably be the best of the series.

[enkydu]

For the most part I trust PJ implicitly. He has done an amazing job with these films, and I see no reason to doubt his decision to cut these scenes.

About a year ago I heard a rumor on how they were going to kill off Saurman. Not only was it a significant departure from the book (which I have no particular problem with) but it was particularly cheesey. If indeed the rumor was accurate, perhaps PJ came to his senses and cut the scene to quell LOTR fans' complaints.

Wouldn't that be interesting..."In order to woo fans, PJ pisses off fans by cutting unscreened scenes." Now that's irony! (if it's true)

[Fed7haS]

Originally posted by corfy
I personally would be surprised if they show the return to the Shire in the movie. I think that part will be cut out of the movie to give the rest of it more time.

That would be a shame, because I didn't get into the books until they had to deal with returning to "normal life" after their adventure. They could do a whole movie on that part of the book and in my opinion, it would probably be the best of the series.

You might be right... and true the last few chapters of Rotk was also my favorits of the books.... and to be honest ending the movie with the destrucktion of the ring and the fall of sarun and skip the shire ending sounds like somthing hollywood would do

Fed7haS

[wirm]

I am disturbed that they won't show Saruman. And I wonder if they mean the 2-disc DVD or the 4-disc. Cuz I only buy the 2 disc ones

I've liked the first 2 movies a lot, but I wonder why they couldn't have just shown Saruman's death at the end of the Ent vs Isengard sequence.

Anyway, at least RotK should have some dialogue explaining about Saruman. Don't just cut it out.

[Fed7haS]

Originally posted by wirm
but I wonder why they couldn't have just shown Saruman's death at the end of the Ent vs Isengard sequence.

Well thats not where he dies so that would have been a horabel idear...

But i have trust in PJ he will do the right thing for the movie....

Fed7haS

PS : Just saw the EE version of The To Towers... and IT ROCKS!!! the movie is not just a littel better its alot better.... alot more story and even more blood and gore in the fight scenes... legs comming off and heads split