No we didn’t see a different version of the video, the image on the TV is fake.

Yesterday, Novemeber 8, 2001, New Line and Houghton Mifflin got together to start their promotion of the Lord of the Rings film books. To do this they sent out video’s to selected book stores around the United States. Those of us who were lucky enough to be in New York or Los Angeles had the treat of meeting Sean Astin or Ian McKellen in person.

David, his son, and I showed up for the event. It was good to see how many people showed up. There is not much I can say that will not be covered in the audio file I recorded of the event. After what you hear in the file is over, we all stood in line and got Sean to sign whatever we had purchased or brought. I personally purchased a copy of the film book and had Sean sign my Decipher card of Sam.

Sean Signed my Sam Card

The MP3 of the event (18MB – 45 minutes playing time)

Update 2:30

David with son Benjamin and Sean Astin. Photo: Calisuri of theonering.net

David chiming in with this addition. For those of you who can’t wait to download the MP3, I’d like to share a couple of minor soilers revealed at the event.

During the “making of” video, we heard Sam Gamgee (Sean Astin) recite some lines from his “euology” poem about Gandalf, which obviously made it into the movie:

The finest rockets ever seen:
they burst in stars of blue and green.

Also, when asked which scenes he thought he “nailed,” Sean discussed a scene in which he was cooking a meal outdoors for Frodo. Suddenly, they hear Elves walking by, and the two hobbits quickly climb a tree to watch them walking in the distance, all shimmering. Sam sadly says that the Elves are leaving Middle-earth, but he doesn’t know why. Apparently, this is the extend of the encounter with Gildor Inglorion and company in the films.

Finally, after telling the film crews to turn off their cameras, Sean displayed the tattoo he and the other Fellowship cast members received. I’ll leave it to you to guess which part of his body it is on!