Tolkienistas!
My eyes are brimming with tears of joy. For months I've read wanks that involved slashers and fangirls, BNFs and tinhats, and I've always had this feeling that MY core fandom was being left out. I just knew that we old, staid Tolkien fans could be wanky! I mean, who calls Peter Jackson the Butcher of Middle Earth? Who calls movie!Aragorn weak and indecisive? Who bitches that Frodo dropped his sword at Weathertop? We do! I just can't show you because it's all lost and buried on boards so poorly designed that they'll make your brain bleed.

All that potential, and I've never been able to bring home the wank until now.

Peter Jackson cuts Saruman's big dramatic scenes out of ROTK. He talks about it in an email to one of the aicn guys here. Chris Lee was in a bad mood on one of those Morning shows as reported by the lovely blujbird here. His fans are also in a very bad mood here, and here.

A typical guestbook entry:

Dear Mr. Lee,

My wife and I were shocked, saddened and perplexed upon hearing the news that your Saruman scenes are not to be shown in the cinematic version of the Return of the King. I understand that there was no "Scouring of the Shire" either. It is Saruman's fall and his reappearance as Sharkey which provides such a shocking twist in the tale. To leave out all the Saruman scenes in Return of the King is a disservice to both the memory of J.R.R. Tolkein and to yourself as one of our nation's finest actors.

Another fan writes: Any ounce of respect that I have had for Jackson and his team is gone.

There's more from the forums. One fan joined up to add this:

I only want to say that I think the decision to cut Saruman from the Return of the King is beyond understanding. I believe it totally negates Peter Jackson's claims that he is attempting to be true to Tolkien. Originally I was of the opinion that the Tolkien estate was wrong not to endorse Peter Jackson's movies of the Lord of the Rings, but I now see that they were farsighted and protecting Tolkien's books from bastardisation. Finally I just want to add that I thought Christopher Lee's comments showed a great deal of dignity, good luck to him!

Ouch, that's going to hurt the guy whose fans typically call themselves the Bastards. (After the name of his official fan site "The Bastards Have Landed")

Apparently Alison didn't read the aicn article before weighing in:

OK, I've slept since the last email I sent on this subject, have even tried to understand exactly where the "studio" is coming from, but nope, just can't seem to get on their wavelength.

Anyway - I am sure 7 minutes could be found from other parts of the movie, that would not be so vital to the overall story and in its place the 7 minutes of Saruman could be take it's rightful place.

But, it seems that Peter Jackson et al know better than Tolkien...... we shall see in the final reviews.

[[insert dramatic music here]]

Now from what I understood, the scene in question is a final confrontation with Saruman and Wormtongue. Even if Pete put it back in it still wouldn't be the same as the books. This means that the overall level of whining and moaning among the purists will be about the same with or without the Saruman scenes.

Thank you Pete, I <3 you.