Some of those new scenes make me wonder--"Eowyn's Dream?" "Merry's Simple Courage?" The first is probably that still we've seen of her lying on the couch/bed at Edoras with Aragorn sitting next to her. The second--who knows? I do hope that last shot is of Sam looking up at the only star he can see in Mordor; I've always loved that line in the book.

There's an article with excerpts from Sean Astin's new book here--the first mention I've seen of what exactly was paid to the actors.

Astin only got $250,000 for all three films? Damn--Jackson does know how to keep the budget low, doesn't he? To compare, I remember reading in his Rolling Stone interview that Astin got $300,000 for his role in 50 First Dates.

And yet -- $250K for what, two years' work? That might be low by actor's standards, but it sounds pretty good to me. Plus the fact that if the movie was a success, it would do wonders for their careers. Which pretty much is what happened.

Hey, has anyone else here tried to order the gift set of the RotKEE on Amazon? I couldn't find it listed at all.

I found it!

I could only find it by looking at the place on the page where it said people who buy what you bought also bought. . .

I'm thinking about trying DeepDiscountDVD this time, since Beverly's used them in the past and she said they almost always deliver early. I am going to be a geek this time and order the gift set, since it has both the extra disc on the symphony and that cool-looking Minas Tirith (I'm not ordering Minas Morgul).

I still want Aragorn's knife.

Be vewwy vewwy quiet, I'm stalking Argonath on ebay. I didn't get the gift set of EE FotR, just the 4-disc set, and now I want the Argonath. I totally DON'T want the Gollum figurine so I don't mind not having the 5-disc set. But I'm torn between buying the gift set EE RotK with the Minas Tirith box, or just the EE, and trusting my luck at finding Minas Tirith later.

Caveat re: DeepDiscountDVD. They totally did get my FotR TE dvds here two days before "worldwide" release date, but they were a week late for TE TTT. I actually went to WalMart and told the clerk Circuit City had them for $14.95 (they really did, but CC is crosstown from me, WalMart is close), and got them midnight oh two of the release date. When the set came from DeepDiscount, I put it in the birthday present to others pile. I got both EE sets (FotR, TTT) locally, midnight before the release date. I think. DeepDiscountDVD does have good prices and free shipping, but it can take up to ten days after release date to get to you. I haven't been able to wait, and I can actually find lower prices locally.

Beverly, I'd be interested to know if you *do* find Argonath on EBay. I still don't know why I didn't get the Super Specially 'Spensive EE for FotR, and I'd love to have those Argonath. Have been considering using that as a requirement for future boyfriends so I could marry into ownership.

Una, I've actually found several sets, just not at prices I was willing to pay. They also offer, from time to time, complete "unopened" 5-disc Gift Sets of both FotR and TTT. Of course you always run the risk of getting a cheap knockoff, but I'd think the Weta stuff would be hard to clone. I dunno.

It's ridiculously easy--just type "Argonath" into the search box. You don't even have to choose an area to search. I did the same when I was toying with the idea of buying Weta's version of Barahir. Winnowing wheat from chaff is the fun part, I guess.

Nifty--thanks! Now to get over my irrational fear of Ebay.