This is slightly old news, but I wanted to comment on the exclusion of Christopher Lee’s footage of Saruman in The Return of the King.
It seems amazing that they would go to the trouble of having Christopher fly out to film extra footage (his last day of shooting was back in July) only to not use it in the theatrical release—sure, it’ll show up on the extended DVD eventually, but it seems to me these things ought to have been planned out long ago. Such last-minute decisions doesn’t create an awfully good impression. Mr. Lee will not be attending the premiere, and I can’t say I blame him. He deserves more respect.
There is a petition online: Put the Saruman scene back into the Return of the King. It won’t make any difference, of course, but it’s a worthwhile gesture to make in support of a very great actor. Go and sign it. It doesn’t cost anything. It’s the thought that counts. More than 40,000 people have already done so, which is really quite inspiring.
Can’t imagine the conclusion without him, but I’ll only have to imagine it for eleven months. Is it a ploy to get more people to buy the extended DVD?
I think maybe Peter Jackson has genuinely backed himself into a corner a bit with how the films are divided. Anyway, I haven’t seen either of the first two extended DVDs yet; they’re damned expensive over here. So the bottom line is, the theatrical cut is the one the vast majority will see, will be shown on TV, etc., so for most people that stuff is effectively buried. A great pity.
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