Chatty @RCArmitage Some Thoughts

Lots of tweets on a few subjects in a short period.  ( see below) I was going to say Chatty Cathy, but on reflection, I now think that descriptor is just the wrong side of sexist – which wouldn’t at all square with the woman power  he’s underscoring in some of them.

And then there are two tweets referencing his dad’s teasing about some of the son’s roles. Very unusual for him. I guess they’re doing alright. It would be cool if Mr. Armitage, Sr. follows his son on Twitter. I think he’d get a kick out of those tweets.

And finally, thank you Digital Spy, for giving fans at least one interview on Ocean’s 8 devoted to Richard Armitage. I think the closest we got so far, was  from The New York Times reviewer who liked the film, but trashed the Claude Becker plot line. Haven’t  seen the film yet, but I think he was wrong: revenge and pay back are consistent with every Ocean’s film.

Tomorrow is Ocean’s 8 day for Perry. Very unusual for me, I’m taking around a dozen friends to the opening in our town tomorrow afternoon. Stay tuned. Based on the reviews and my own opinion all along, I’m expecting to be entertained and highly amused by watching Richard Armitage in a totally different sort of role – and a blockbuster at that! Here are the tweets:

The Hobbit Movie: Article and Documentary

Here   is the article. Below are the  two parts of the documentary, A Long Expected Autopsy and The Battle of the Five Studios. 

Much of what is covered in in this documentary has been  analyzed, discussed, complained about and defended when the films were released, such as the difficulty in transforming what is essentially a children’s book and turning it into a tonal match to LOTR. Still, as someone who was not a Tolkien fan and had no stake in the filming of The Hobbit, aside from Richard Armitage, I think the documentary maker echoed many of the criticisms I found in the trilogy. There are some good interviews ( especially with Guillermo Del Toro), scenes from the films ( including LOTR), behind the scenes Vlogs and even some of the snark which ( lots of Legolas bashing and Tauriel questions) are fun as well as illuminating.

Near the end of part 2, there’s a neat discussion about the structuring of the relationship between Thorin and Bilbo, how the two ending death scenes were perhaps, in the wrong order, and an homage to Baggenshield.

The documentary maker, Lindsay Ellis, knows LOTR well, is a prolific You Tuber offering criticism of genre movies, and has done her research.

The only real mention of Richard Armitage is subsumed in a statement that The Hobbit had a brilliant cast  ( aside from the returning cast fro LOTR)


#RichardArmitage Plays Another Short Guy

The irony that Peter Jackson cast 6’2- 6’3″ Richard Armitage to play a dwarf under five feet has been the fodder of interviews and fan talk for years.

Now he’s set to play Wolverine in a pod cast audio series.

Funny thing, that. It turns out,  the “real” comic character, Wolverine is only 5’3″ tall. One of the potential pitfalls in casting Hugh Jackman for the role, was that he’s about the same height as Richard Armitage. ( In both cases,  reports of the exact measurement vary).

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Here    is a discussion of how the directors handled the disparity. My research revealed that many comic book fans were outraged that Wolverine was going to be played by an actor of  over 6′ in the X-Men films, because his height was integral to his character. Sort of how angry Hobbit fans were about Richard Armitage being cast as Thorin (impossible!)

The film-makers thought a very short Wolverine, towered over by female actors,  would not be sexy enough for the film, so they didn’t take much care in making Jackman look  shorter after a few films.

I have no dog in this fight, but hey:Thorin94332955688a47f6212f49df3f8d6cf1

 

 

 

In China, Dean O’Gorman Talks Richard Armitage

A fun interview. How Richard Armitage jokes.

The Martian, LOTR, Thorin Oakenshield Job

This joke is probably old news to most everyone, but I just watched Oscar nominated The Martian and giggled like the dickens during the Elrond Scene. The scene is almost directly from the novel – which makes it even funnier.

Without further adieu, I’ll just set it up by saying that, in an effort to solve problems in rescuing stranded Astronaut Mark Watney and getting him home from Mars, the NASA bigs hold a meeting to discuss an audacious plan.

For some reason, I don’t think this is the first time an actor in a later film referred to one of his earlier films.  I’ll have to check that out; but something like it  almost happened, and would have delighted  Richard Armitage fans. I squealed with delight when I read the scene in the book, Urban and the Shed Crew where Chop reads The Hobbit to Urban. Had Candida Brady included the scene in the film  – well –  Richard Armitage reading The Hobbit – a book that changed his life twice – I simply love the idea of Richard Armitage playing a guy who’s using the story of Thorin Oakenshield to motivate a kid who can’t read.

The Martian’s director, Ridley Scott, wanted to toss or modify the  Elrond scene, thinking the reference was silly. He was overruled. I wonder if Candace Brady decided to scrap the scene in Urban and the Shed Crew  because she thought it would be silly ( or Maybe Armitage did?). If so, too bad.

I recommend The Martian if you can use about 90 minutes a pure, joyful entertainment with plenty of fun pop culture/comic book references. The end result is never doubted in this movie.

Sean Bean only sort of dies.

 

 

@Urban Fangirl Marketer: Leveling a Charge or Back-pedaling?

Referring to this, it may be that some of you don’t know that two years ago I was the blogger who deciphered the letter originally posted by the young fan in question. I was not the only person to decipher it, and decipher is a misleading word. Some people just held it up to a mirror. The two-paged letter was written on both sides of studio paper, which seemed to be onionskin. Richard Armitage used either a fountain pen or, more likely, a thin Sharpie. The young fan posted an image of page 1 in her hand, and the text of page 2 was clearly visible through the paper. Anyone and everyone could see it, including the original poster. The only deciphering necessary, was  using the reverse image tool and enlarging. I don’t recall if I also typed out the letter. I can’t check, because of course, once the young fan asked everyone to take down their posts of any portion of the letter, I did.

I saw  @Urban’s marketer’s conversation about the letter on my Twitter timeline and replied.

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I’ve been vocal on this blog about how I’m certain that the @Urban film account  Marketer is,a particular Richard Armitage Facebook Administrator,  who is mishandling the film account Here, here and here ( see the comments, too) and on other blogs. Consistent with this, I am almost certain that the @Urban Marketer, as a fan, knew about the letter incident when it happened, at least that everyone was asked to take it down and why. I never followed that FB page, so I don’t know if she ever posted the young girl’s original Tumblr post.

I didn’t see then and I don’t see now, how my actions were an invasion of anyone’s privacy The  young poster had previously published accounts of her visit to The Hobbit set, and knew that her previous posts were widely read and disseminated. She knew or should have known that the same would happen again, including reblogs of her complete post, which also included photos of gifts from Richard Armitage. She was very young,   and became nervous when she saw that the text was reversed and published. She’s mentioned in a previous post that she had been sworn to secrecy about what she saw and could not reveal details of the filming she observed.There were reasons why she needn’t have worried, among them, the letter was an official studio letter that Peter Jackson surely knew would be shared among fans. Still,  it was her prerogative to change her mind and ask that her letter and any other versions, be taken down. I don’t know of anyone who did not comply with her request. Fans across social media platforms signal-boosted her take-down request  to help her.

As you see in the Tweets above, I not only corrected the misinformation strewn out, but, using the language of the @Urban’s tweets, suggested that only a Richard Armitage fan would have “recalled” the incident, and that newer fans might not know the history. @Urban agreed.  I also mentioned that the letter incident was irrelevant to Urban and the Shed Crew. She agreed.

Tonight, this was brought to my attention by a friend:

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The tweeter obviously asked @Urban how she knew about the letter incident, and her answer might be genuine. As a Facebook Administrator of a Richard Armitage Fan Site, which I think is the case, she generally relies on followers to feed her graphics and information. Why else would a friend tell her about an incident  in the Richard Armitage fandom? This time, the letter was transcribed  not deciphered.  Her memory, or that of one of her Facebook follower’s today,  may be better than mine.

I object to the  hashtag #PrivacyInvasion, since @Urban  knew all the circumstances, as set forth herein. She has all the facts you have. The page was shared. It was there in blue and white for anyone to print and then hold up to a mirror.There was no invasion of privacy by me. There was no  invasion of privacy by the original tweeter. Invasion of Privacy is not the issue: copyright infringement would be the issue. A professional PR /Marketing person should know the difference.  Maybe, after reading Servetus’s post, @Urban Marketer was just trying to offer a belated, lame excuse for why she engaged in the conversation to begin with. She thinks it’s  her job to enforce the rights of Richard Armitage fans who don’t want their posts disseminated, or maybe a misguided belief that it’s her job to protect Richard Armitage’s privacy.

That will help promote Urban and the Shed Crew. 

All Three Hobbit Extended Versions to be Shown as Trilogy in Theaters.

Some lucky ducks are going to see the funeral scene and more of Beorn on the big screen.

the_hobbit_banner_Extended versions on the big screen over three consecutive nights. It’s a great opportunity for fan fun. I also wonder whether box office receipts will be added to the Box Office stats. Probably not.

here   excerpt.

According to the announcement made by FarAwayEntertainment, Fathom Events and Warner Bros. are coming together to release all the three movies in the theaters over three nights. The announcement notes that this will be the first time that the extended editions will be shown in the movie theaters.