I was in The Times today!
Fan pours life savings into Lord of the Rings prequel
11 February 2010
A Lord of the Rings fan has spent all her savings filming a prequel to the blockbuster trilogy.
Kate Madison, 31, filmed, produced and starred in her hour-long film, Born of Hope, which took six years to make with a volunteer cast and crew of more than 400. She spent £8,000 on the project and raised £17,000 by posting a trailer on YouTube. More than half a million people have watched the final cut since it was launched online in December and Ms Madison is now hoping to pitch it to Hollywood distributors.
To keep costs down the film was shot in Epping Forest, Essex, and West Stow, Suffolk, and the cast and crew camped in tents on set. The amateur actress, from Cambridge, who plays the forest ranger Elgarain, described the project as a labour of love. She said that she was inspired by two paragraphs written by J.R.R. Tolkien in the appendices of the original The Lord of the Rings book.
She said: “I invested my own money after the Lord of the Rings films blew my mind. I was desperate to have a go at making an epic myself. As we went along, the project snowballed and there were moments when I wondered what the hell I was doing. But now it’s all done it’s an amazing feeling. We have created a film on a tiny budget which comes complete with battle scenes, orcs and even a giant hill troll.”