Hard cite requested for leaving out SOTS

Cafe Society
1

[perhaps spoilers, dunno]

Okay, awhile back in an otherwise unrelated LOTR thread someone mentioned that the Scouring was going to be left out. I responded with a request for a cite. People responded somewhat vaguely, such as “i THINK Jackson said it in the DVD”, or “he said it in an interview”.

Similarly, if i Google “Jackson Scouring”, I get several hits that all mention he will not have it, but no hard cite.

Can anyone provide me with said hard cite? I would accept the following:

  1. A transcript of an interview with Jackson on a website. Could be any website, but it has to be fairly clear that it is first-person information.

  2. An excerpt of an interview with Jackson on a major news website. This can be shorter than the criteria for #1, and can even be second hand information, but if so, it would have to be in the form of “Jackson said, in an interview with yadayada, on Octember 23, that Saruman would survive the Rings saga and spend the rest of his life as the Gimp in Arwen and Aragorn’s basement.” :wink:

  3. The exact location on a DVD where this could be found, including the version of the DVD.

2

Spoilers, definitely.

This article on Tolkien Online doesn’t say it right out, as you seem to request, but it does leave a strong suggestion, not from Jackson himself, but from scriptwriters Walsh and Boyens, that the Scouring will not be in the films:

That pretty much says it for me.

3

" 3) The exact location on a DVD where this could be found, including the version of the DVD. "

PJ mentions it during the director’s commentary on the extended edition DVD. It’s at the Mirror of Galadriel scene.

4

Thanks, Goofus, the next time i get near an extended edition, i’ll check it out!