The Two Towers.... petition?!!

[Scrunch]

I haven't found this silly petition yet but found this report on MSNBC....

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Some movie fans are blasting the next “Lord of the Rings” flick, charging that it exploits the World Trade Center tragedy. The next installment in the sequel is called “The Two Towers,” and a group calling itself Those Affected by September 11 is petitioning director Peter Jackson and studio New Line Cinema to change the name “to something less offensive.”

“THE TITLE IS clearly meant to refer to the attacks on The World Trade Center,” notes the petition posted at petitiononline.com and signed by more than 1,200 people. “It is unforgivable that this should be allowed to happen.”

The title is actually the name of the second book in the J.R.R. Tolkien trilogy on which the films are based, but even when this was pointed out to the petitioners, they maintained that the title of the film should still be changed.

Some people, however, left comments on the petition suggesting that they believe the petitioners are overreacting. “I think they should rename New York too, because every time I hear “New York” it makes me think of that day and it makes me cry,” noted one. “That and the words ‘world,’ ‘trade,’ and ‘center’ should be removed from our language as well.” ”

New Line didn’t respond to requests for comment, but Jackson has said that after the Sept. 11 attacks, he considered changing the name of the second film, but decided against it, saying, “Tolkien fans would kill us.”</font>

If I can find the link to this I'll post it. The funny thing is that not once have I ever thought of the World Trade Center when thinking of the title of this book until now. And to rename the movie for this reason would be totally stupid.

[This message has been edited by Scrunch (edited 05-09-2002).]

[Scrunch]

Found it. There are also apparantly multiple petitions to keep the name and some to ban the original petition to dump the name. I will not post links to all of them because I've found over 15 of those already (Am I the only one who really thinks that the whole petitiononline thing is kind of a joke to begin with?)

Anyway finally found the specific one and it's located here: http://www.petitiononline.com/twotower/petition.html (note that petitiononline even put a disclaimer at the top

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Please Note: The Two Towers is the title of the JRR Tolkien book originally published in 1954, the second book of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The title was thus established some 47 years prior to the attacks on the World Trade Center towers, and there is no evidence to suggest that Peter Jackson meant anything by continuing the same title other than faithfulness to the beloved Tolkien classics. Furthermore, the two distant, opposing towers in the Tolkien classic have very little if anything in common with the two matching towers of the World Trade Center. — PetitionOnline.com



To: Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema
Those of us who have seen The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring know what an amazing director Peter Jackson is. When I learned that there apparently was to be a sequel, I was overjoyed. However, Peter Jackson has decided to tastelessly name the sequel "The Two Towers". The title is clearly meant to refer to the attacks on the World Trade Center. In this post-September 11 world, it is unforgiveable that this should be allowed to happen. The idea is both offensive and morally repugnant. Hopefully, when Peter Jackson and, more importantly, New Line Cinema see the number of signatures on this petition, the title will be changed to something a little more sensitive.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned </font>

And if you want to look at any of the other ones the main list which takes a while to load is here: http://www.petitiononline.com/active_petitions.html

[idealdiscountdude]

Some people are just so ridiculous!!!!!

I hope these people realize how insane they sound!!!!!

Life goes on....things happen for reasons beyond our control. We can't change the past and what happened. It was a sad event, Sept 11th, that's for sure, but the World Trade Center Buildings were REAL for christ's sake, why should they be forgotten?????



[This message has been edited by idealdiscountdude (edited 05-09-2002).]

[Scrunch]

The way it's written suggests that Peter Jackson made the name up on his own too. It's really silly.

[Scarface98.9]

over 7/8's of the sigs are "false entry voided." but I like that comment "Why don't we ban Return of the King because we all know "The King" (Elvis) never left"

[GodMagnus]

Or ban movies like Pearl Harbor, or any other war based movie. Afterall, they are about real life wars. They should be banned an burned to.

And books, any war books or books containing the words "center" "world" "trade" "the" all should go.

Ugg. The only thing that pisses me off is that someone IS working on a 9/11 movie. Go after that, leave the Two Towers alone. Lord of the Rings were around long before the attacks. How they hell can they even base their claims as "inapropriate" for his next movie?
Man I can see the logic in this...(sarcasm just in case you don't know)

Some people have no lives.

[Muha]

this is one of most idiotic, stupid, deplorable, retarded things ive ever seen in my life.

[BitchTits]

I hope these people and their offspring die slow, and painful deaths, or have miserable lives. We don't need these people and their children in our world.

[Moviefreek]

I know, I read this and i was like you've got to be kidding me, why change the name of something that was set before the twin towers and its called the two towers....its not the same thing at all..

[bskutle]

If this isn't a joke, the fact that anyone didn't realize there would be a "sequel" to "Fellowship" is just unbelievably absurd. Where have they been the past 50 years?

[dellamorte dellamore]

Wordless,i'm without words.It's truly getting way out of control with this hypersensitivity thing.


It's not the same thing,but i know people that have died in car accidents,but i'm not petitioning Fast and the Furious 2,or any other films that feature car accidents.


I know,it's a little different,alot different,but you get my point.And to suggest that Jackson is using this title to exploit the trajedy is nonsensical.The title is an integral part of the sequel,and like many of you said,it was chosen way before what happened.


Maybe they should call it the Tower.


Obviously this guy does not know what the heeck he speaks of with regards to the LOTR trilogy,and he should respectfuly zip his lip.


And i mean this in the kindest way,shut up already.Please,mourn in silence,or at least stop trying to spoil our entertainment needs and wants with your misguided outrage.


The first film actually help me deal with certain things in a positive way,it's compassionate,and does what few films do,it celebrates the Human Spirit.

[This message has been edited by dellamorte dellamore (edited 05-09-2002).]

[snootch]

I saw this the other day and it looks like its now circulating far and wide. When I first read about it, I thought how stupid. I still feel that way. These people have nothing better to do with their time that look for stupid ways to link everything to what happened on 9-11.

Whew...now that I got that off my chest...I don't know how I'm going to make it til December...I want to see Two Towers now! At least I'll get a little teaser with the footage that is going to be on the FOTR DVD http://www.joblo.com/ubb/biggrin.gif Now, if that would just go on and get here!

[MoNsTeR]

that's really funny!

you know how greedy those people are... i bet they'll sue New Line Cinema for royalties for the distress they'll get if Jackson kept the name The Two Towers. that's so redic.

don't they know how dangerous the TOLKIEN fans can be??

cheers!
-&gt;jeFF&lt;-

[LordKaruku]

FOR GOD'S SAKES, PEOPLE, THIS IS A JOKE!!!

Albeit a joke that's been picked up by major media outlets and earned ire from countless fans everywhere, but please! Stop taking this thing seriously and giving it attention!

Look at the sentence: "When I learned that there apparently was to be a sequel, I was overjoyed."

"Apparently" going to be a sequel? Regardless of any knowledge/marketing hype/press coverage about it being a trilogy, anyone who has seen Fellowship knows there's going to be a sequel by the simple fact that it ends in the middle of the story.

This petition was obviously a joke to begin with, and most of the 1200 signatures are joke responses. While there may be people out there who feel the name "The Two Towers" is offensive for their own reasons, I wish this whole thing would die out, because it's certainly a massively smaller percentage of the population than all these recent press articles would have you believe.

[This message has been edited by LordKaruku (edited 05-10-2002).]

[ColinM]

I hope to God it's a joke, because I'd perfer to believe that people this stupid don't actually exist...

[inglourious basterd]

There are some genuinely stupid people out there. Im sure that you fanboys have nothing to worry about. 95% of those are invalid petitions. The other 5% are simply ignorant people.

UPDATE: That particular petition has been suspended b/c the person who started it didnt do a good job at maintaining it.

[ColinM]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by psudoazn:
95% of those are invalid petitions. The other 5% are simply ignorant people.</font>

You're right, and I found this to be really funny. 5% of the people signing the petition are idiots, and the other 95% are people calling those 5% idiots. http://www.joblo.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

[Tyler_Durden_208]

Can we say Disturbed's Prayer video off MTV. F*$K all this stupid censoring shit it's, well..., stupid! Not to mention how bad cool stuff like Collateral Damage (the movie wasn't that bad) gets pushed and Machine Head's super-cool "Crashing Around You" video getting pulled. WHY!!?!! :confused: :mad: :eek: :o :mad:

[Jason Voorhees]

A ridiculous and stupid joke.. Completely useless.

[NuclearMisfit]

You just cant tell anybody anything anymore, its just plain ignorant, I understand that 9-11 was a very sad and traumatizing day and it shall always be etched into everyones memories but if they do change the title of this movie, they will be taking away peoples rights and trash a great movie. The movies called Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, not The World Trade Center. I wish people wouldnt take things so wrong.

[dh1989]

Let those people whine. New Line is not going to change the name, so we have nothing to fret over. Calm down guys and girls. It will be called TTT and everything will be right in Middle Earth.

P.S. When FOTR premiered on DirectTV it had a preview of The Twin Towers attached to FOTR if you ordered, but they recently changed it. I am glad it did not start a mess.

[Zed]

Maybe I should start now a campaing to made a "Fellowship of the Ring Novelization" based on the first movie :D :D :D

[xirtam]

No, I think we should start a petition to put this "JRR Tolkien" guy out of business...who does he think he is, writing a book that copies WORD FOR WORD the best movie in history? I hear he somehow got hold of the script for The Two Towers and already published the book of it!