Shadows of Twilight: an Elrond fansite

NEWS ARCHIVE

19 March 2006: V For Vendetta Claims #1 with $26.1 Million
from The Hollywood Reporter

Warner Bros. Pictures' V for Vendetta left its mark in the top spot at the boxoffice for the weekend, unmasking an estimated $26.1 million in its debut. The sci-fi action-thriller from Silver Pictures, starring Natalie Portman and Hugo Weaving, had the fourth-biggest opening of the year to date and was in line with prerelease tracking.

19 March 2006: 'Vendetta's' Hugo Weaving Reveals the Man Beneath the Mask
from Los Angeles Times

In the "Matrix" trilogy, sometimes his body was not his but instead many CGI replicas of himself. And then he is sometimes alien: the elf with the thin eyebrows and the creepy ears in the "Lord of the Rings" films.

And now to these odd credits add that of the man who performed - almost - an entire film from behind a mask. "There is a face beneath this mask," says Weaving's character, V, the terrorist hero of "V for Vendetta," currently in theaters, "but it is not me."

Except that V, in addition to his allusions to being more idea than man, isn't even always Weaving. Take that brisk brushing-off of a leather boot in the opening sequence. "You know, I came in to replace someone on the film," Weaving said - that was James Purefoy, who did a few weeks of shooting as V before being replaced by Weaving. "And actually that particular shot is not even me. There are a couple of the scenes at the beginning of the film that are James."

And who would know, anyway? The character's mask, of a grinning Guy Fawkes - who was hanged in 1606 for his part in a plot to blow up Parliament - completely obscures the face. "In a funny way the mask meant certain" - a macchiato was delivered - "It was a kind of liberator, in a way." His V turns out to be both prissy and macho, hyper-verbal, an actor at heart.

"They were very quick and simple decisions that I made," Weaving said of his performance. "And they weren't very thoughtful" - which he meant in the Buddhist/Method acting way. "Too many thoughts are a major barrier to being, to flow," he said, and mocked himself with each hand in a peace sign.

The mask was miked, but in the end, his dialogue was looped, using both an open mike and a mike inside a mask. Post shooting dialogue changes were particularly hard: Every original breath and line had minutely moved the mask, and matching it all up after the fact proved a challenge. After the "Matrix" movies, though, Weaving is used to hard, long hours. In the case of V's looping, he said with cheer, "not every scene was done a number of times."

The role caused Weaving to rely on his theater training. A character is still a character when he is speaking over the phone, Mr. Weaving pointed out. The masked experience "sort of crystallized: What is a character? And if you are robbed of your face, well, what do you have? Or who are you?"

January 3 2006: A New Aussie Film Studio?
from The Sydney Morning Herald

A newly-formed group of actors, directors, producers and bankers is trying to set up a major Australian film studio that churns out big budget, internationally successful movies.

But it's going to require a lot of money, with the group assembled by investment company Mullis Capital Independent hoping to pull together as much as $100 million worth of films in just the next two or three years.

Among the well-known identities behind the project are American producer Barrie Osborne of The Matrix and The Lord of the Rings fame, as well as Australian actor Hugo Weaving, director Fred Schepisi, and Richard Keddie, the Melbourne-based film producer who recently came to prominence through his acclaimed drama Little Fish.

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