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On Sunday, Rogier and Carola from WETA were back to work on another person to morph them into a Uruk-Hai. Once again, they did a fantastic job. And I don’t know how Carola can bear standing on her feet for that many hours while being 6 months pregnant. She did great. Their skills are top notch. Bruce Hopkins had a panel later on that day. He said that he started out going to school to become a physical education teacher. He later did some cray fishing with his father before attending dance school at 22. He did dance for 8 years in Oz and NZ. He then found out that he was going to become a father. So he stopped doing dance tours and got into acting. Bruce started with LotR by doing six days of shooting. Phillipa Boyens said that they liked him and put him in more scenes. Gamling will be in RotK. While on the set, he told Peter that the fans said thank you. He felt like the new boy on the set when he first got there. He has a huge admiration for Bernard Hill. The sets and costumes really helped him get into costume. His favorite scene is the armor scene. The conditions at Edoras were extreme at times. Bruce heard about RingCon from Mark, Craig and Cameron and they were like “Holy cow, man”. I’d say that’s a compliment. Then he went into a joke telling the crowd that if they see an elf rubbing their ears, it was elf masturbation. He said he saw Mark and Craig doing it all the time. Lawrence and Sala were next. They are such a bunch of goofs. It’s great! The two of them kept saying the phrase “We don’t drink.” “Much.” “After 5.”. Lawrence said that he was more like Mark because he was taller, while Sala was more like Craig because he was shorter and fatter. Man, nobody was being gentle this weekend, that’s for sure. The men were asked what comic character they could be if they could choose. Sala said that he would be the Green Lantern or the Silver Surfer. Lawrence said he’d be Sala, Stretch, or He-man. In RotK, I think Lawrence said that he will be the captain orc while Sala will be the Lieutenant. Lawrence got to kick around Sala a few time. He also said that it was his idea to lick the knife when he was playing Lurtz. Apparently, Sala and his make-up artists had some time to kill one time when he was dressed as a Uruk-Hai. So they had him dress up as a female Uruk-Hai, including red lipstick, long eyelashes, hobbit wig, a breast mold, and a handbag. I do hope that there is a picture of that somewhere. I’d love to see it. They also did a great dance on stage. I don’t remember its purpose, but it was hysterical. These guys were much funnier than I expected. They were very enjoyable and very cute to watch. John Rhys-Davies was the last panel of the convention. He complimented the crowd by saying that the prettiest girls on the planet were at the convention. And dammit, he was right. I couldn’t believe how many pretty girls attended this year. And the crowd loved him for pointing out that fact. He said that his wife loves LotR and so does one of his sons. His son did not leave his room for five days while reading LotR and he was the one that persuaded him to take the role as Gimli. When John was in college, he didn’t consider LotR as literature. So he didn’t read it until recently. During the first reading, he fell asleep. By the time he was on his third reading, he got slowly seduced into the story. He said that LotR could possibly be the greatest piece of imaginative literature in the past 70 years. John is addicted to SciFi. He subscribes to Analog magazine and is a member of the planetary society. When choosing a role, he’ll have a go at SciFi because it’s so much fun. John will be in L.A. next month filming The Princess Diaries 2 while jumping from city to city for the premiers of RotK.
The closing ceremonies started with a Decipher card game. Every time a player would pull a card, someone in costume would come out. When Ugluk was called, Nathaniel Lees came out on stage bearing a big sword and lots of energy. The chosen ones would fight when the players would draw a card. The last card drawn was the almighty Marc B. Lee Master of Ceremonies card. And Marc defeated everyone swiftly and mightily.
Next, a badge number was drawn to see who was the winner of a free trip to New Zealand, which included hotel, tickets to the premier and I think the after party. This contest was courtesy of Air New Zealand. It was unbelievable. I am so happy for the person who won the prize. The winner is pictured below with Bruce. Have a great time, whoever you are! The Ex Uruk-Hai in Tights Rasta boys came out on stage next. They were really cool and a treat to see again. Eve and the Breeze performed one more lovely song to help the closing ceremonies. All of the guests came out one more time to say their goodbyes. And Mark Ferguson wore his Boss Elf shirt. What a good good man. There was even a nice…um….relaxing closing video. All in all, RingCon was once again a great time! The con would have been perfect if things could have stayed on schedule, but things like that tend to happen. If Mark and Craig return next year (which I really really really do hope), it would be great if they did a double question panel Saturday and one of their comedy bits right before the closing ceremonies, just as last year (yes, that was a hint). Unfortunately, that couldn’t happen this year because of schedule changes. The organizers did such an outstanding job. I can’t wait for next year. Nighttime at the bar was great fun. And the friends I made and met again this time around really made this con for me. Questions? Comments? Complaints? Email me - fozzerworld@hotmail.com |
