No not really…My wife and I did the same thing…may you and Pricegal be together for ever!
Did anyone else see the advertisment for Wizard of Earthsea on the sci fi channel recently? I am holding out hope.
I’ve now seen the RotK extended dvd. Loved it, but I still want more, desperately.
I watched the first episode of EarthSea, and it didn’t do much for me.
How PJ and the gang brought themselves to cut some of what they did for the theatrical version of RotK is beyond me. I wouldn’t have been able to part with some of it, if I were they.
Damn, I had the exact same feelings as the closing credits rolled away after LOTR:ROTK.
After watching the first movie, I decided that as soon as I can afford it, I’m going to build myself a big screen home theater just for this movie. The next two films only made my resolve stronger.
I’ve seen each film at least 3 already, read the books maybe 3 and a half times (the last time I was reading them, I fell seriously ill and ended up in the hospital). One day soon, I’ll pick it up again. Damn, maybe tonight itself!
This is why I’m holding off on watching all the extras on the last DVD set: I still have a little bit of something left to look forward to.
I watched all three extended DVDs with actors’ commentary on Xmas day (it took over 12 hours, with occasional pauses and breaks between discs). When I got to the end credits on ROTK with everybody saying goodbye, and I realized there wouldn’t be any more after this, I felt very sad. 
The first Narnia movie is due out this year. I can’t help but hope it’ll be a good version. If they can manage to pull them off, we’ll be in deep with good fantasy for several more years.
If they don’t pull them off, I will personally fly to New Zealand and rip the director’s ears off.
Are you all fans of the books? If so when did you read them?
I read them in high school. I read everything related to it that I could get my hands on. I was very saddened when I ran out of new Tolkien things to read and I knew there would be no more. I learned the Quenyan alphabet, I tried to learn the language too but I was also taking Spanish classes and when I started mixing Elvish in with the Spanish I decided I’d better stick with the language I was getting graded on. I think I went through the various stages of grief and eventually came to acceptance. No, there will be no more new things from Tolkien and Middle Earth but it will always be there for us to revisit, and I have revisited many times and will continue to do so. I finally ventured off into other fantasy and science fiction worlds and found that even though none are the same as Tolkien’s work, some of them are still pretty damn entertaining in their own rights.
I feel the same way about the movies, I am sad that they have ended but I know they will always be there to revisit. No, there will be nothing new in the PJ LOTR world but what we have is enough and anything new that is not part of the original would not be the same.
I read them starting when I was about 12. Of course the edition I read first was not authorized by Tolkien, I’ve since made up for that lack by wearing out 5 or 6 authorized sets and have an $80.00 illustrated hardcover.
I don’t miss anything. I have something that I never thought I’d ever have… a decent movie adaptation of The Lord of the Rings. I won’t call it an excellent adaptation only because it’s 15 or 20 hours too short. 
Return to the books, people!!
Reread LOTR, and The Hobbit. Pick up the Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales! Get the “Atlas of Middle-Earth” to help better understand and appreciate the aforementioned works. Start on HOMES, either with “book of lost tales 1” if you’re a Sil fan, or with “return of the shadow” if you’re more LOTR oriented. By the time you’ve finished all 12 volumes of HOMES, start over with LOTR! Repeat endlessly! Watch the DVDs in between.
Visit the “The Invented Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien: Drawings and Original Manuscripts from the Marquette University Collection” display with me!
http://www.marquette.edu/library/collections/archives/News/haggerty.html
Oh, and make sure to have a regular life while doing this!
Wow, my best friend is going through the exact same thing. When RotK came out, we saw it together in theatres and she was sobbing by the time the credits came on. I gave her a book about Tolkein and it had a list of all the characters from LotR. I’ll probably go through the same thing when the last Harry Potter movie comes out. Sigh. But, there are always the books!
I read The Hobbit for the first time when I was 9, and tried to read LOTR not longer afterwards, but only got through Bilbo’s birthday party; I didn’t read it all the way through until I was 14, and have read it approximately 20 times in the 25-or-so years since.
Qadgop, the thing is, while I have the Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales at hand for reference and background purposes, I’m more of a hobbit fancier than interested in the history of Elves and Men. There seems to be very little hobbit-lore around. I don’t suppose you have anything to recommend along those lines?
Regular life? What’s that?
If you think you feel bad, think of how bad the people who own movie theatres feel.
I don’t know if it’s so much that fantasy has peaked, but rather that it was done so damned well and with what is arguably the best fantasy work ever that it’s got to be incredibly intimidating to do more fantasy stuff. I know I would not want to be the guy directing some fantasy film that is to be in the same vein as the Peter Jackson-directed LOTR films. Jackson set the bar very, very high with a great work of literature. To follow that is just crazy, IMO, but then again, movie studios aren’t known for making the best decisions.
Still, I think I could watch a 4-hour “film” just showing the Elves going about their daily business in the wood. I can’t get enough o’ the Elves…
I just wanted to mention that I recently saw Peter Pan on DVD and it was gorgeous and wonderful. It might help with some of y’all’s withdrawal symptoms.
Well, Chronicles of Naria: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe is due out in 2005 (according to IMDB).
And I just saw this great WETA featurette on the costumes/makeup/production design for the movie. I can’t imagine how this movie could equal the Lord of the Rings, but using WETA (and filming in New Zealand) can’t hurt.
Actually, speaking as someone who’s viewed all the Extended Edition documentaries (multiple times), it’s strange seeing Richard Taylor talking about designing a movie that isn’t LOTR-related. Also, during the featurette you see other people in the background, and it’s kind of embarrassing (geekiness-wise) how many of them I recognize (or can name). I kept going “OMG! That’s the swordmaker from Wellington who WETA found to make all the swords for LOTR! He started making swords because he was into medieval re-enactments, and made his own because he couldn’t afford to buy a sword!”
:hangs geeky head in shame: :o
Hopefully if The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe is successful, they’ll be able to make more movies from the series. It seems that’s the intent, given the full name of the name (Chronicles of Naria: TLTWATW ). Just imagine, in a year or two we’ll have tons of new confusing movie-name-acronyms to use!
Hitchhiker’s Guide is coming to theatres soon!
Did everyone watch the easter egg on ROTK:EE with the interview with PJ about doing a sequel? Hi-fucking-larious.
My boyfriend’s brother hosted a LOTR party on December 18 that was amazing. It started at 8am with first breakfast, then some LOTR-related stuff (we weren’t actually awake yet and didn’t get to the party until after noon), second breakfast, more extra LOTR stuff, then elevensies, then FOTR started… when we got there it was almost lunch and FOTR was playing. There was a meal between every disc, and ROTK ended just after midnight. It was awesome. 
We watched all the easter eggs, too.
That is a very cool spin on the marathon idea. I need to meet these ppl. I’m assuming you didn’t arrive till after noon due to our lovely traffic?
No, traffic wasn’t bad at all. My boyfriend and I were just up really late…um…cough um… doing…uh…other things and so we slept in.