Hey folks, Harry here. TheOneRing.Net has finally broken an image of Gollum. Now, I won't be carrying this image here because... And I am going to be perfectly honest with you. Over the course of covering STAR WARS THE PHANTOM MENACE, I felt that the sites out there in the world covering the film... that as a whole... I felt we went too far. I have had a perfect picture of Gollum, fully rendered since about September of last year. When I saw it, I realized I was looking at something beautifully tragic... I was looking at the first image of Yoda. And as I sat there staring at Gollum, I began to wonder... Should I... Harry Knowles, and Aint It Cool News be the first to display Gollum. And I came to the conclusion that Gollum should be birthed on the big screen.
If the design was wrong, or awful... I would've posted it instantly. Pleaded with New Line and Peter via this page to have them change it. But it wasn't. It was perfect. The key element was the eyes. There was a tortured soul there. Now, I know I am going to be flamed like you wouldn't believe. It was one of those peculiar pangs of conscience I get from time to time. The image THE ONe Ring has has no textures upon it... all it is is the blank plastic looking low res model that they manipulate to animate Gollum. It is plain and without much character. Is that how you want to see Gollum for the first time?
The first time I saw Gollum was moving, alive in a video about 8 months ago. If you go to THE ONE RING, be prepared. The image is lacking that... UMPH! that you will want to see. You will have doubts about how this character can be pulled off. You'll say, "Looks right as far as I can tell." But people... This isn't the way to see him for the first time... not static. Not stripped of his skin and voice and eyes. If you decide you want to SAVE Gollum for yourself. To wait till he's on that big screen, Then it is my duty to tell you to stay away from DARK HORIZONS and COMING ATTRACTIONS and any of your other favorite Internet Movie News spots for the next 2 days. Stay out of the AICN forum and steer clear from any LORD OF THE RINGS posts there with attachments. I'm saying this for you few people that will agree with me. Sure... I know this sounds elitest or self-important here... but the fact is... if I could not know what the Balrog and Gollum looked like... I would erase the memories from my mind. To me... those are the two key moments in the trilogy where you see something... unlike anything you've seen before. You've dreamed of it, and there on screen it's happening... and you hadn't a clue what it looked like till that instant. Till that moment. Right now, the only key image from the Trilogy I don't have an impression or inkling of is Sauron... and God I hope I don't see him till the screen.
As John Saxon's Roper said in ENTER THE DRAGON, "There's a point I won't go beyond!" If you are at all like me... take a glimpse at Gimli and be sated. If however, you can't control yourself... then go take a look. And as for the flamers... Sorry ol chaps, my call.
I have on the site first ever pics of Gimli the Dwarf and the totally CGI Gollum from The Lord of the Rings, the pics I'm sending you are the thumbnails, the larger ones are available on the site:
So here I was, contemplating life, the universe and everything when a slow rumbling began and a small porthole opened up right next to my computer. Thinking once again that my time was up this was the end, I was pleasantly pleased to see a small object in the distace come closer to me, ever closer and closer, from within the portal. It was a computer disk, black, it looked like it had traveled a long distance, and was covered with nicks and cuts. With my hope fading, and thinking this would never work, i poped it into my computer, and a I opened the .txt file within. Xoanon-Man,
This is a gift to you from the prince of darkness himself, Ciggy Fagash. Now, don't laugh at the name, Ciggy is the supreme overloard and head chef in our dimension, and can make sure you never get any of your socks from the laundry, yes we have them all. So take this as an extreem gift to you and your pals on the site that he has permitted you take a look at these highly secret pics, and pray that he'll let you see more. JVC
Xoanon Note: These Gollum pics are DROOLABLE!! this is obviously before they added color or the skin layering or the eyes, but look at him! He's Gollum!! And the molded one from what looks like styrophoam or clay, it's amazing!
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