A Long-Expected Party

"Everyone was doing hard work. Some guys would have to lift things, and some guys would have to shovel things, and I just had to do emotional work. I felt like I was doing the equivalent of the hard work that the rest of the crew was doing. I was just doing it kind of inside."

Asked about his feelings for the omission of Christopher Lee in the third film, Astin, an actor, does not conceal his sentiments. "My heart aches for Christopher," he repeats, more than once. Jackson doesn't have much to say about editing out Lee, instead merely telling us to wait for the DVD cut, which he hasn't completed yet, but may include nearly an hour of additional scenes.

More of the movies, more of the books. Andy Serkis is now an author (of a Gollum book, natch), and Ian McKellen seems interested in acquiring a Rings pinball machine. Jackson boasts that since the movies have arrived, sales of Tolkien's books have leapt through the roof. From crass commercialism to the classroom, the King has indeed returned. This may prove not the end of a phenomenon, but the merest glimpse of a vast horizon of storytelling. Meanwhile, in the Lord of the Rings franchise, it appears that the road goes ever on.