Promo stills | RAFrenzy

Asking

[note: I'm going to attempt another blogging scheme. This time around is the April A to Z Blog Challenge. Since there are 30 days in April, there is a break every Sunday. We'll see how far I make it.]

I’ve asked many questions as part of running this blog and have learned some fascinating facts. It’s been no hardship since I have always loved asking questions and wish I had asked even more questions in my lifetime and much sooner. One of my greatest regrets is not asking my father questions so that I could have come to a better understanding of who he was. He’s gone now and that opportunity has been supremely missed and missed because I had the attitude he had said quite enough to me about his thoughts. That’s when I saw him merely as a parent and not as another human being. As I write this, I have tears running down my face at how grieved I am about the loss of the fantastic thoughts he could have shared, and more important, about the fantastic human being I missed out on knowing to a richer level. I am not making that mistake with my mother!

As to making so many queries, it’s borne out of an insatiable need to understand so many things. Unfortunately, I feel compelled to qualify how I’m going about it, to make it clear that I fight the tendency we all can have of looking for particular answers. This is what lawyers do to get the upper hand. That’s not what I’m about. Oh, I admit to having a dominate personality at times, but my real obsession — the one that obliterates all others — is wanting to understand reality, and it has been my obsession as far back as I can remember having a thought. May I never lose the drive to know it no matter the ugly things it may reveal by which I don’t mean sordid details of someone’s private business. I’m sure some of you (no, make that all of you) have something intensely fascinating in your private life, but I do not want to pry.

However, there is a person in RA Universe, whom I want to ask questions and have asked some. I want to ask more! I’m fairly certain the person knows I feel this way. If not, then I haven’t said it enough. And if the person isn’t reading this, one of you knows whom I’m talking about, so will you tell the person I’m more or less asking again to have a chat.

Oh, you thought I was talking about Richard Armitage? No, it’s not him although I would love to ask him some questions. I’ve already asked him for an interview, and he said yes. :D The only problem is I don’t think he realized he was talking to one of his crazy fans when he agreed, and I didn’t have the heart to take him up on his kindness to me. So when it came clutch time, I just couldn’t reveal my insanity. I’m not that insane yet. I would love to be that insane. Oh what fun that would be. But I am not that insane today.

And if I ever do interview Richard Armitage, I might just call it a day on this blog, which I’m not ready to do. However, I do have some great questions for him. Nothing inappropriate or inane despite my appearance here. Let’s just say I won’t be asking the usual (I wouldn’t do that to you. LOL!), and hopefully not the predictable either.

But back to who continually intrigues me. It’s a person who just when I think I’ve got them figured out, they do something that confounds me again. I will admit to being pretty average in my assessments, so maybe it doesn’t take much to confound me, but I don’t think this is just me. And I’m sitting here thinking about what they’ve done, chuckling to myself, and wondering when the next surprise is coming. Whatever happens, I want THE interview if there ever is an interview. Oh, it would be friendly, because you have to know I’m a fan of yours as well. Mostly, I wonder how people like you come to be and flourish. I am damn near dying to know this.

For the rest of you, please no guesses on who this is, because I’m never going to confirm it if you get lucky. :D

And a huge thank you to those of you who have submitted to questions. Some have been published, some have yet to be published or may never be — at your request. Whatever the case, it’s been a pleasure getting to know you.

That’s enough for now. More tomorrow when I of course come with the B word.

Robert Ascroft promo still courtesy of RichardArmitageNet’s gallery.

April 1, 2013
Categories: Fandom . Tags: April A to Z, crazy people, fun, introspection, Promo stills, Richard Armitage . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 10 Comments

The Hobbit on the Threshold of the Billion Dollar Club

The Hobbit’s box office receipts are recorded at $960,001,896 as of today, but this time next week, it’s likely to officially join the small number of other films which have reached a billion dollars in revenue. The film’s release in China this weekend is cause for such confidence. What happy timing considering the broadcast of Oscar presentations and the dearth of nominations for The Hobbit — excepting the wonderful Tami Lane and Weta Digital bunch.

I wasn’t always this optimistic it could reach the benchmark this quickly. After reading about the piracy which can ensue when there’s a considerable lag time between a film’s release in other countries and China, it was hard not to think The Hobbit would go the way of Skyfall. But I forgot something, and it wasn’t the love affair the Chinese seem to have with fantasy. They also love 3D. This was so easy to forget since it’s never been very popular in America. In fact it has been talked about for years as being dead. I will admit 48fps might resurrect it some, but people have to be willing to give it a try first. I’m not confident that enough in the U.S. did that with Jackson’s movie. But in China, 3D is the rage and will go a long way toward pulling the Chinese to the cinema.

At Comic-Con last year someone in the film industry told me Peter Jackson was more or less forced by Warner Brothers to make it in that format. I’m not sure I agree that Jackson had to be forced especially when I consider his business savvy. But now that I understand the piracy issue a little more, it makes sense Warners would be adamant about it. It’s a kind of insurance policy against piracy. And when considering the box office receipts of the top grossing movies, e.g., Avatar, it’s abundantly clear the format will survive well beyond The Hobbit. But even if the receipts hadn’t been so bent toward 3D, the fastest growing area of the film market is in China, so it more than the U.S. is dictating what we will be seeing. And all of it makes me wonder if indie films will suffer, but that’s for another post.

If you didn’t click on the Skyfall link, I hope you will at some point. It leads to the China Film Biz blog written by Rob Cain who has been been doing business in the industry in China since 1987. He is a wealth of knowledge.

And now a poster featuring our guy since we can’t get enough of looking at him. :D

[click to enlarge]

The facial features are very finely done and the entire poster seems to have an Asian quality. Whatever that is. Someone more articulate than I am may explain.

February 23, 2013
Categories: Movies, The Hobbit . Tags: 3D, Bilbo Baggins in China, China, film industry, Geek, Peter Jackson, piracy, Promo stills, Richard Armitage, Thorin Oakenshield, Warner Brothers . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 9 Comments

Do You Need a Grin?

This was going to be a Valentine’s post, but I can’t hold back any longer!

Tom Jones never fails to put me in a good mood even if I’m determined to fight it. I challenge you to listen to these songs and not end up with a silly grin on your face. I could just put up the videos of his live performances and make you go beyond grinning to laughing out loud, but this isn’t about Tom’s gyrations. It’s about the very hopeful sound of these tunes and lyrics.

Some trivia about this song: it’s in the opening credits of Shakespeare Retold: Much Ado About Nothing*, which is part of the DVD set that includes the version of Macbeth with James McAvoy and Richard Armitage.

Okay, this one is super sexist and dated, but hey, I’m still smiling:

Come to think of it, most of these are sexist and dated. LOL!

Some more trivia: I saw What’s New Pussycat? in the movie theater when I was a kid. This was the first time I heard that Tom Jones (ne: Thomas John Woodward) was a distant relative. I cannot remember how. Need to ask Mom sometime. It’s only been 30+ years since we talked about it. Yes, I’m admitting how very old I am. LOL!

Last but certainly not least:

Does Richard Armitage like Tom Jones’ music? I don’t know, but I imagine him grinning when he hears it whether he likes it or not. :D

Yeah, I know you wanna laugh, Rich:

“Oh, I want to, Frenz, but I’m supposed to be serious now.”

Yeah, sure you are.

*My favorite story on that DVD set. If you haven’t watched Shakespeare Retold, run and get it!

Photo still courtesy of RichardArmitageNet.Com

January 29, 2013
Categories: Miscellaneous works, Musicilove . Tags: fun, laughter, Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, music, Peter McDuff, Promo stills, Richard Armitage, Shakespeare Retold, sweet sounds, Tom Jones . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 6 Comments

What’s a Beard To Do?

Most of you know how I feel about Richard’s beard, and I was disappointed when he was without it at The Hobbit premiere, but has anyone noticed his silence? Not Richard; I mean RichardsBeard. He’s been very reticent the last several weeks. It was hard to see his removal since I love the beard and have wanted to see him interacting again. I tracked him down to find out how he’s feeling:

Me: You were with Richard for so long during the filming of The Hobbit. I mean he wanted you with him. Even favored you over a fake beard! Yet when the reward came, he seemed to cut and run. I would accuse him of bald face, but well….and it just has to be hard for you to be hair and gone again.

RichardsBeard: ::sighs:: To beard, or not to beard? That was the question. But it’s true what you’ve heard that hell hath no fury like a beard shorn…especially when it begins to grow back.

Of course it was disappointing not attending, and it was especially hard when I knew RichardsStubble shadowed himself, but I’m always pragmatic. Remember my motto: A shaved beard only comes back stronger. #Beardhappens.

Truthfully, being left out was partially my fault. As a beard, I could be a bit nettlesome. I insisted Richard share my ideas with Sir Peter for alternate movies titles — There and Beard Again (not to be confused with Hair and Back Again), Lord of the Beards, and my personal favorite, Beards Behaving Badly.

And though normally I’m not prone to bouts of dipsomania, since becoming a #displacedbeard I do admit to spending some time in the pub waiting for my agent to call. #beardslikebeer

Me: Is that anything like a wild hair?

RichardsBeard: You could say that, yes! Maybe more like a #Wild Hair of Durin. This is also a sticking point between me and Richard’s Tastebuds since they seem to prefer wine. The taunts of #LagerisforLosers are especially cutting, but I just tell them #AleingkeepsmefromAiling

Me: I see Sir Peter at least paid tribute to you in one of his vlogs.

RichardsBeard: I’m completely chuffed about the beard segment of Sir Peter’s vlog. My fellow beards and I stole the show, and we’re letting our hair down. #Thebeardsarebasking. We make The Hobbit #beardtastic, even though the Hobbits themselves apparently grow their beards on their feet.

Me: Ooh, that must be tuft for the Hobbits.

So what are you doing now?

RichardsBeard: #KeepingCalmandBeardingOn. It isn’t my intention to dissemble, but after all, that is what a beard does best. #beardyblather

Me: Yes, a beard does conceal if nothing else, but I think you’re capable of much more. And you do it so well! You must be itching to be back at work.

RichardsBeard: Literally. ::laughs:: You know, a little bit, a tad, just a hair of #VisageVengeance will be rather sweet. #TheBeardisn’tBitter, but it may turn out that RichardsFace and I have a purely Antipodean relationship.

Me: Well, I’m hoping when you emerge, that you survive much beyond New Zealand. Perhaps #BeardtoEternity.

note: If you want to catch up with RichardsBeard, you can find him at Twitter.

Photo courtesy of RichardArmitageNet.Com

January 3, 2013
Categories: Movies, The Hobbit . Tags: crazy people, fun, hashtag fun, Hobbit Premiere, Promo stills, puns, Richard Armitage, Richard's Beard, Richard's Stubble, Thorin Oakenshield . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 26 Comments

Richard, International

Ali sent me a note and mentioned a swoon worthy new picture of Richard Armitage. “Aren’t they all?” I thought.

I was wrong. I’ve not seen many like this where he looks like such a guy. I mean just a guy. Did I say just a guy? Someone slap me.

We haven’t really seen a pic like this since Strike Back:

This is from an interview in Spanish magazine Accion, which Ali has up at RichardArmitageNet.Com. My only complaint: we need a bigger copy stat!

Also, don’t miss Richard’s FOUR PAGE interview in French magazine L’Ecran Fantastique. April has a copy here.

If you don’t speak French, no worries, Ali will have up a translation soon!

I’m sure we’re all going to learn a few words in other languages before this is over. :D

And I have a new tag for these kinds of pictures, “arrow worthy”. No, I won’t be drawing any arrows. I leave that to others who are more adept. But the tag is perhaps a suggestion?

edit: I put up a larger format picture. Thanks, Ali!

second edit: Servetus now has a translation of the Accion piece.

November 23, 2012
Categories: Movies, The Hobbit . Tags: Accion Magazine, arrow worthy, L'Ecran Fantastique, Ohcheemama, Promo stills, Richard Armitage, Thorin Oakenshield . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 28 Comments

Imagine a Gushy Title

Yep, I absolutely loved reading this interview. I’m with family today and can’t really weigh in on this as I want. Just know that I kept grinning while I read and almost said, “Aw!” out loud. :D

Richard Armitage: the warrior dwarf
TOM CARDY

THORIN OAKENSHIELD: Richard Armitage couldn’t imagine watching another actor play this role.

With 13 dwarfs in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, audiences are expected by the film trilogy’s end to easily distinguish and recognise each one.

But if there’s one dwarf that will be easy to spot from the moment he appears on screen it will be Thorin Oakenshield, played by British actor Richard Armitage.

One reason is that Thorin is the leader and, going on a glimpse I got of the band of dwarfs on set during filming earlier this year, a heroic risk-taker. I couldn’t help but think that Thorin could be to The Hobbit what Aragorn – played by Viggo Mortensen – was in The Lord of the Rings.

Armitage, 41, laughs. It isn’t the first time he’s performed in The Hobbit. He was cast in a school production but the part wasn’t so heroic. “I was playing an elf. I was running around in circles being an elf in a forest and we had a papier mache dragon and a man off stage with a funny microphone for Gollum.

“So it was pretty much like the movie we’ve just made,” he jokes.

Armitage, who is doing the interview while in New York at the height of Hurricane Sandy – “I haven’t got any power or water but I’ve got a phone line” – is best known to Kiwis for his risk-taking heroic roles in television’s Spooks and Strike Back. He’s done a small number of movies, including a part in Captain America: The First Avenger.

But The Hobbit is likely to have Armitage exposed to the biggest audience of his career. As yet, he hasn’t dwelled much on what life will be like after the first film is released.

But he says he’s optimistic that he won’t be recognised often when out in public, due to the prosthetics and makeup used to transform him into Thorin. “Because 60 per cent of Thorin’s face belongs to Weta [Workshop], I might get away with it. People might recognise my chin.

“I haven’t really thought about it. At the moment I just want people to really enjoy the film and enjoy the character. If that means they want to come up and say, ‘Hi’ then that’s good. They might want to throw tomatoes at me in the street – but fair enough.”

Armitage first heard about The Hobbit after Sir Peter Jackson contacted the actor’s agent. Jackson asked if Armitage could read for the part of Thorin. “I thought, first of all, I’m six foot two [1.8 metres] and Thorin’s an old guy. Maybe they want me to read it for a general audition.

“But then when I read what they’d done with the audition speech I realised that they were looking for something quite different. They needed someone who could play a warrior, who could play a young Thorin and old Thorin and also to bring the idea of somebody who could return to his full potential to become a king. That’s when I sat down with Peter and we talked through the journey and the arc of the character – and then they offered it to me. I had to pick myself up off the floor.”

Due to the long shoot, Armitage says he had to then juggle other acting projects so he could spend a long time in New Zealand. He was determined to do it, even when there were several months when The Hobbit was in limbo due to the machinations involving the studios. “I just couldn’t watch somebody else playing this role that had nearly been mine. I had to play him. I had to do it– and at that point the film wasn’t green lit.

Read the rest here.

It’s Thanksgiving in the U.S., and despite all the bad news in the world, we are blessed and many of us want to share with others. My prayer is to find ways to do just that and in a manner that brings glory to the Almighty.

And thanks to TheQueen for the heads up. :D

November 22, 2012
Categories: Interviews, Movies, The Hobbit . Tags: Peter Jackson, Promo stills, Richard Armitage, Thorin Oakenshield . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 18 Comments

A Prelude to ‘The Hobbit’ Deluge or What to Immerse Yourself in First?

note: if all that we’ve been getting on Richard Armitage and The Hobbit this month is any indication, we’re going to drown in November, and what a lovely way to go.

Of course the Empire Magazine article is the first thing to bask in!

But after you’re done with that, where do you go?

Yeah, I have a suggestion. :D

I really enjoyed this interview:

Interview: Richard Armitage Talks “The Hobbit”
By Garth Franklin

With the release of the first “Hobbit” film, Hollywood is finally set to showcase a man that fans of British television have known about for years – Richard Armitage. In fact, the distinguished 41-year-old English thespian has already unwittingly assembled his own rabid fan base of swooning admirers affectionately nicknamed ‘The Armitage Army’.

It’s not hard to see why – with sharp features, a great head of hair, icy blue eyes and other impressive assets, he looks very much a star. He first came to attention with his leading role in the BBC’s 2004 version of “North and South”. He also played Macduff to James McAvoy’s Macbeth in the “ShakespeaRe-Told” limited series, and showed off a warmer side romancing Dawn French in the final episodes of beloved sitcom “The Vicar of Dibley”.

I became aware of Armitage for his leather-clad role of Guy of Gisborne in the BBC’s “Robin Hood,” from which he segued into the role of Lucas North on one of my favorite shows “Spooks” (aka. “MI-5″). Decked out in tattoos (as pictured below) to showcase his character’s seven years imprisoned in a Russian gulag, Armitage was a major cast member from the seventh to the ninth season of the long-running spy thriller. Demonstrating his best James Bond/Jack Bauer style skills before departing in dramatic fashion, he also slipped in a quick cameo on last year’s “Captain America: The First Avenger”.

*snip*

His early apprehension stuck with him during the first month of filming, the actor claiming “I didn’t really unpack my bag for about three weeks, ’cause I thought that I was going to be on the plane going home. But yeah, it’s worked out all right.” He also channeled that nervousness into his performance – “Bag End was the first week of shooting for this character, for me and for the other dwarves as well, and it feels so different. But it was good that it felt awkward. It felt like they were out of place because they are in that environment. Dwarves don’t belong in a cozy, domestic situation. They belong in giant halls and on a battlefield.”

Read the rest here

The comments in this interview are what I absolutely love about Richard Armitage.

When you’re done with that, look at Ali’s list of articles for today (October 25). Wow. Wow. Wow. I am so diggin’ this.

October 25, 2012
Categories: Interviews, Movies, The Hobbit . Tags: Being a ripple, Promo stills, RA Monsoon, Richard Armitage, Thorin Oakenshield . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 14 Comments

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