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Once and Future Kings ''The Fellowship of the Ring'' and ''The Two Towers'' have become two of the most beloved movies ever -- together grossing $1.8 billion worldwide. Now, ''Return of the King'' looks primed to join the pantheon. Not that anyone who has worked with producer-writer-director Peter Jackson doubted it. ''It's just something that's in his blood,'' says Elijah Wood, who plays Frodo. ''He absolutely was overwhelmed with passion to make these movies. And he set up this incredible team to support him.'' The cast too -- respected but hardly marquee -- was inspired. Consider Wood, who crossed with pure grace from child actor to tortured hobbit, and Ian McKellen, who, as the clever, crotchety wizard Gandalf, is the only actor to earn an Oscar nod thus far. One lucky role call came with Viggo Mortensen, who hopped a plane to New Zealand when Jackson decided to recast his Aragorn. He began his haunting, haunted turn as the king-to-be days later. Mortensen credits a generous fellowship on and off screen for the trilogy's warmth: ''The way the movies were made was in the spirit of Tolkien, which is about community.'' Naturally, the Oscar question resurfaces. ''Fellowship'' and ''Two Towers'' earned a combined 19 nods, but took home just six. ''King'' certainly has what the Academy craves: an epic story and a great, thumping heart. At its center is the bond between Sean Astin's loyal Sam and Wood's frightened, failing Frodo. Who but the Dark Lord Sauron could keep clear-eyed when, lost on Mount Doom, Sam says to his master, ''I can't carry [the Ring], but I can carry you''? Jackson remembers weeping while he watched his actors film the scene. ''It's always satisfying when you can feel it happening when you're shooting, and you haven't got the music and the sound effects and the context even -- but you can just feel the moment playing,'' he says. ''We've had to wait very patiently for four years to finally let everyone else see it.'' --by Gillian Flynn |
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