[Bill Ferny]

Doug,<P>Ah, I see Thank goodness! However, I’m more inclined to agree with Diamond18. The Battle of Helm’s Deep just takes up too much dramatic room, but I do see what you are saying about the choices of Sam thing. It makes perfect sense to end the movie the way the book ended, but to get to that point, there’s a lot of action sequences that would have to be added, and unfortunately they would be overshadowed by the Battle of Helm’s Deep.<P>Well, anyway...<P>The way I see it panning out is that the RotK will center around two, maybe three, principle action sequences: Shelob, the Battle of Pelennor Fields, and maybe the Tower of Cirith Ungol. I see the climax, Frodo at Mount Doom happening simultaneously with the Battle of Pelennor Fields, and, unfortunately, the Field of Cormallen will probably be dropped. This may or may not be a bad thing. First, it might give us a chance to see more of Aragorn on the Paths of the Dead, and possibly him leading an army of undead (I suspect PJ will have them at the Battle of Pelennor Fields rather than the way it happens in the book); this is something that I think PJ can do well on the screen given his background, and, dare I say it, it may be an improvement on Tolkien’s original story. I’m pretty sure that the Scouring will be dropped, or handled in an offhand manner, in the movie wrap-up. That’s not a bad thing, since the Scouring would be kind of anti-climatic on the screen.<P>When I first saw that picture, I occupied a good deal of time looking for a wheel like that in the movie art, but couldn’t find anything like it in any of the scenes depicting Isengard. Personally, I think it’s overly dramatic and stock; I hope its not going to be used, but, oh well, I’m not the one making the movie.