awesome article with Ian McKellan – had me cracking up!!

two favourite bits were:
No heating, no air-conditioning, no sound-proofing, right next to Wellington Airport. Every take was preceded by a conversation between the assistant director and air traffic control, letting us know we had 3 minutes to get the shot. Every word of the film has been dubbed, though you’d never know. And when I saw the first versions of the effects, I thought, oh my God, not good. And the sound was quite ropey. And I thought, do you know, maybe we’re just making the most expensive home movie in history. do these Kiwis really know what they’re doing?

so we even had the situation where gays were saying to Peter: “You are going to understand that sam and frodo are in love, you know, they’re always hugging and kissing and sleeping together” – and you’ve got to say, yeah, but you can go too far. sex really isn’t on the agenda in middle-earth.” And gay sex? “God no. life as a gay man in middle-earth would have been miserable, sort of unthinkable. although i was suggesting to Peter yesterday he should insert some love interest for Gandalf in a later one. He suggested galadriel… i said, no, i was thinking more of someone like legolas.