Snookums and I were most impressed to see the poster for The Two Towers. It looks great. There is, of course, some scholarly debate over whether the towers depicted are the ones Tolkien intended. There’s a great comment on that page from Kevin that sorta explains the confusion. (You have to wade through the usual AICN fanboy slobbering nonsense to get to it, though.)
Dan
June 25, 2002 — 4:15 pm
Maybe I’m stupid or something but that poster doesn’t seem to make sense to me. The towers are too close together, right? The one in the foreground is Orthanc; or at least it matches Tolkien’s description (and is a virtual copy of Alan Lee’s official-type drawing of Orthanc). I don’t see any sign of Isengard, tho. Plus, supposing that’s Orthanc, shouldn’t the other tower be hundreds and hundreds of miles away, as opposed to across a field? Or maybe the poster is of Morannon and they accidentally made the foreground tower look exactly like Orthanc. I always thought “The Two Towers” referred to the ones at Morannon because they are the only towers I can remember from the book that were a legitimate pair. If the two towers were Orthanc and Barad-dur, shouldn’t the book be called, “Two Towers” as opposed to “*The* Two Towers”? Maybe with this poster we are supposed to be suspending disbelief or something…confusing…me…
Kris
June 25, 2002 — 5:40 pm
Snook says “It’s a metaphor. The tower in the foreground is definitely Orthanc. The plain behind it is Mordor. The tower in the background is the tower of Cirith Ungol. Everything behind the Orthanc is one picture; it’s like the Orthanc has been superimposed.” That’s his opinion, anyway. I’m not fanboy (or should that be fangirl?) enough to know one way or the other. 🙂
Moire
June 26, 2002 — 2:47 am
Erm… Wow. I need to read the book again…
But… Woo! I can’t wait! The Two Towers and The Chamber of Secrets, all at once! I don’t know how I’ll contain myself! Even Justin is getting all excited, and he’s not normally a fan of sci-fi/fantasy movies.
psorr
June 26, 2002 — 3:51 am
I’m a fanboy, and concur with the Snook–Orthanc and C. Ungol are the two towers. (Much of the 2nd book switches between Merry/Pippin->Orthanc and Frodo/Sam->trek to Cirith Ungol.) I was surprised that they showed so much of Isengard in the first movie, as it isn’t really discussed until book 2–but it was friggin’ cool! Can’t wait! for December!