This is just guesswork, of course. You may have your own theories! The other matter is the inclusion of a fellow named John Tui. Seems too tall to play an Iron Hill dwarf. Demosthenes has been an incredibly nerdy staff member at TheOneRing.
The views in this article are his own, and do not necessarily represent those of other TORn staff. One poem per person may be submitted each month. But I don't think it's real gold — gold-plated.
But, no, I don't wear it. I keep it in a little box. It would be easy to imagine that in the years since Wood finally hurled that infernal ring into Mount Doom, he has still been burdened by it, dragging himself around an indifferent movie industry where nobody can see him as anything other than the hairy-footed little hero of a colossally successful movie trilogy.
He's not at all like Frodo in real life, even if those big blue eyes still look like a special effect. If the fate of Star Wars' Mark Hamill ever awaited him, he seems to have avoided it, largely by doing as many un-Tolkeinesque things as possible. I was only in makeup for four minutes a day!
Wood also cropped up in middle-sized films such as Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, Everything Is Illuminated and Sin City, but recently he has been further off the radar, in short films, web films, music and, increasingly, television. Then there's surreal TV sitcom Wilfred, in which Woods plays a suicidal loser whose life is turned around by a dog. Or rather, everyone else sees Wilfred as a dog; Wood sees him as a lairy Australian in a dog outfit.
Before long, he is smoking bongs with his new canine buddy, and defecating in his neighbour's boots. What would Gandalf have to say about his behaviour? This festive season we'll see a more family-friendly Wood gracing our screens, thank God, in Sky's lavish new rendition of Treasure Island. In the wake of a certain other colossal pirate-related movie franchise, it is amazing nobody thought of dusting off Stevenson's classic before, but this two-parter steers away from Johnny Depp-style camp in the direction of HBO's dark seriousness.
There's a bit of dirt and grime to the affair, and the casting is an interesting multiracial mix, with a shaven-headed Eddie Izzard as the wily Long John Silver. He plays Ben Gunn, the castaway who comes to figure in the second half of the two-part drama, which was filmed in Puerto Rico. As well as working with Izzard, one of his heroes, Wood relished the chance to create the look of his character — dreadlocks, trinkets, tribal face paint, serious suntan.
He's gone down his personal little rabbit hole. And he's mad about cheese. I have some wonderful moments with cheese. Fuckin' incredible isn't it? He was part of that first wave that started with music videos, at that time when MTV had just started. A lot of those guys came into movies that way — David Fincher, Michael Bay …". Wood was part of that wave too, in a way. But in the low-budget Green Street, he is memorably cast as Matt Buckner, a well-to-do American recently kicked out of Harvard who, as if by cinematic magic, becomes a well-respected member of a West Ham "firm", the Green Street Elite.
Matt's newfound enthusiasm for boozy rucking impacts grievously on his sister, her English husband and the latter's terrace tearaway brother Charlie Hunnam, the young one out of Queer as Folk. While the plot is a little fantastical, and the subject matter somewhat worn, Green Street is well acted and emotionally involving. And, unsurprisingly, violent too - one actor suffered a broken nose during filming.
The fight scenes are vivid, shot with jerky, close-quarter camera work that leaps out of the screen. It won't only be legions of female and fantasy fans who will wince as "Frodo", having downed umpteen pints, is viciously smacked to the ground before getting back up and sticking the boot in himself. As a committed music follower, and having formed a close bond with the other hobbit actors on Lord of the Rings - complete with matching tattoos - Wood was drawn to the themes of tribalism and gang fraternity in Green Street.
His accent betrays no hint of the Iowa he left as an eight-year-old when he, his mum, brother and sister swapped the Midwest for Los Angeles and the pursuit of an acting career that began with a Paula Abdul video, a bit part in Back to the Future Part II, and a role in Barry Levinson's Avalon.
His dad stayed behind in Iowa he never mentions him , and Wood rhapsodises about his mum's "instinctive" wisdom on how best to guide him through a Hollywood that eats up child actors. It was her keen eye for what was "right and pure" that allowed him to progress through roles in Flipper and the critically mauled North, via The Good Son alongside child-star flameout Macaulay Culkin, on to a breakthrough part in The Ice Storm and, ultimately, aged 18, the beginning of the four-year Lord of the Rings shoot.
But with Elijah Wood, before you get to hobbits and hooligans, you have to talk music. It relaxes him, excites him and, frankly, is a lot more interesting and illuminating than Orlando Bloom, Josh Hartnett or somesuch young buck wittering on about their "craft". Wood has been making films for a decade and a half but his love of bands seems to be hardwired into his genes. I'd brought him some CDs of fairly obscure British stuff I thought he might like; the little bugger already had most of them.
He talks enthusiastically of meeting Radiohead's producer, Nigel Godrich, in Los Angeles the other week but was alarmed by news from him that he shouldn't expect a new album from the band until next autumn.
It was her birthday, "and she's a huge, huge fan. They were incredible," he enthuses. They never play the same show twice. Jack White doesn't know what he's going to play when he goes on stage, there's no set list.
It's pretty extraordinary. This is Elijah Wood: a fan. He knows his stuff. And the stuff he likes, he really likes. Every other Tuesday he and a friend take their iPods f down to LA hang-out The Bar, owned by another friend, and DJ for five hours - it's "a totally random mix of music".
He's trying to set up a radio channel for like-minded music nuts on Sirius, a subscription-only satellite service. Same with talk radio. But as a music fan, one of the most important things is discussion. You bitch about bands, you talk about new records and shows you've seen. And there isn't really a forum for that. He's in the advanced stages of establishing his own record label, and is currently trying to work out funding for it. He's signed one band, is interested in another two and thinks he'll be involved in "all the creative decisions" with the CDs he puts out.
The label is to be called Simian. It was a name that my mom gave me, because I'd climb up on to things.
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