[The Saucepan Man]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR> ... but Jackson is trying to make a movie here. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>Well, he is actually making a trilogy of films. And to quietly dispose of the principal "villain" of the first two films without having the main protagonists confront him, and without any real explanation, seems to me to be cheating the audience.<P>The worst situation will be if the audience is just left to assume that he has died. As Kalimac says, this will leave them wondering whether he is going to make a comeback later in the film in true Hollywood style. But it is little better to show his prone body or have another character simply relate what happened. Audiences will want to see what happens to this principal character, not just be told obliquely that he has died.<P> <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR> ... in the end only serves to distract the non-initiated viewer away from the story in King. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>But I am talking about the "non-initiated" viewers here. They are the ones will be left wondering what happened to him, how it happened, and why such an important character was so easily dismissed. And most of them will not have the satisfaction of having this fully explained in the extended edition.<P>TTT began with that wonderful sequence of Gandalf fighting the Balrog. We only saw the Balrog for a few minutes in FotR, and he has no relevance in TTT save for his role in Gandalf's transformation. This sequence worked well and has been widely praised. In light of that, would it really distract audiences from the story told in RotK too much to spend a few moments at the beginning of the film resolving the story of a character who has played a major part in the first two films (and another charcacter who played a significant part in the second)? As Essex says, Gandalf's confrontation of Saruman at Orthanc marks another stage in his development, which is an important aspect of the trilogy (of films) and sets up his later confrontation with the Witch King nicely.<P>I am still not so sure that this is anything but a nasty rumour. But, if there is anything to it, it surely is a huge mistake - not just as far as us Book fans are concerned, but in terms of the wider audience too.