Born of Hope

Guest

Trailer and full movie here

She didn't have Peter Jackson's £200million budget, eight years of filming time or the spectacular scenery of New Zealand to work with.

But Kate Madison could match his boundless passion - and with it managed to make her own Lord Of The Rings film.

The amateur actress was so inspired by the blockbuster Rings trilogy created by Jackson she wrote, directed and produced a prequel based on material from the original JRR Tolkien books.

Her hour-long movie Born Of Hope, made on a budget of just £25,000, is already a success, with more than 500,000 people viewing it for free on the internet.

Miss Madison, 31, from Cambridge, said that watching the trilogy had blown her mind.

'The battle scenes and the array of incredible characters really inspired me and I was desperate to have a go at making an epic myself,' she said.

She put her £8,000 life savings into the project, worked as an office temp to gain extra cash and raised a further £17,000 by posting a trailer on YouTube appealing for donations.

She convinced more than 400 cast and crew to give their time for free, and played the part of Elgarain the forest ranger herself.

And over a year, starting in mid-2008, she filmed Born Of Hope in locations around England.

Miss Madison said: 'There were times when it was cold and wet and we were up to our eyes in mud standing in the middle of a forest wondering if we could make this a success.

'But now it's all done it's an amazing feeling.'

Her story was based on two paragraphs Tolkien included in the appendix to his books, which mentioned the adventures of Arathorn and Gilraen, the parents of Aragorn, who was played in the Jackson films by Viggo Mortensen.

It was shot in Epping Forest, Essex, and West Stow, Suffolk, after seeking permission from local authorities.

Christopher Dane, who plays Arathorn in the film alongside Beth Aynsley as his wife Gilraen, said the experience had been 'exhilarating'.

The 45-year-old actor from Muswell Hill, north London, added: 'It was brilliant fun and we have produced an entire film for less than Peter Jackson spent on breakfast for his cast while he was filming the original in New Zealand.'

Jackson's first Lord Of The Rings film, The Fellowship Of The Ring, was released in 2001, followed by The Two Towers in 2002 and The Return Of The King in 2003.

They became among the most successful films of all time, grossing almost $3billion between them.

Jackson is now collaborating with Mexican director Guillermo del Toro on a two-part adaptation of Tolkien's The Hobbit, due for release in 2011 and 2012.

I haven't been able to watch the full movie yet, but the trailer looks fantastic! Good for her too on such a small budget!

Subject: Re: Born of Hope Thu Feb 11, 2010 9:05 pm

I look foward to seeing this !

Subject: Re: Born of Hope Fri Feb 12, 2010 12:26 am

It's based on two paragraphs of one of the appendices? Although it's only an hour long, I would hope she didn't take too many liberties in fleshing out that small swatch of writing.

One of the reasons I liked the LOTR trilogy as much as I did was the fidelity to the books. Even in areas in which fill-in was required, Jackson drew on other parts of the books themselves. Arwen's outfit at the end of Return of the King harkens back to the description of Goldberry in Fellowship: "all clad in silver-green." And Elrond's description of Arwen's projected future after Aragorn's death -- at least its visual depiction -- is a reference to a description of Gilraen's grief-stricken wandering in one of the book's appendices. But can such a reference carry an hour?

I admit I'm a LOTR dork. But not the biggest I know.

Guest

Well, I'm 40 minutes in and I like it... it's no hollywood production, but it's still pretty good.

Subject: Re: Born of Hope Fri Feb 12, 2010 2:24 pm

^^ That's cool. I should set aside time and watch it, too.

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