Provo Andy Serkis in SLC 1/14/04

I just read in the paper that Andy "Gollum" Serkis is gonna be at the Crossroads Borders tonight at 7 PM. Is anyone going to this? It's free (but I suppose you have to buy the $10 book to get an autograph).

Dana

 

Greetings Everybody,

Yes, Andy Serkis is here in town. His book tour is promoting his new book Gollum: A Behind the Scenes Guide of the Making of Gollum. From what I understand, for each book purchase, Mr. Serkis will sign the book and one other item. He is not allowed to sign copies of "The Lord of the Rings" or any of the trilogy installments.

I wish I could be there tonight. I have a lot of respect for Mr. Serkis' skill and talents. I hear there will be large crowds so go early.

Later,

 

where else will he be doing that?

 

Greetings Imperial_Birrer,

The Andy Serkis Gollum Book Tour is put on by the publisher, Houghton Mifflin, and is actually quite small. Here are the stops on the tour...

January 12 - New York, NY
January 13 - Chicago, IL
January 14 - Salt Lake City, UT
January 15 - Seattle, WA
January 16 - Pasadena, CA

Unfortunately, there are no stops in Colorado.

Later,

 

Greetings Everyone,

Here's a summary of the event from a friend of mine who went last night...

Well, Heres the lowdown on how it all went.

I got there early, around 2:30 that afternoon and was about the 10th person in line. (A very good spot considering how long the line got later.) All day, I sat and read the book, had some nice folk watch my stuff for potty breaks and some lunch, and then back to reading. I saw tons of friends that day walking in and out of the store, and so that helped pass the time.

Andy was right on time...He spoke in the cafe, which was hard to see from our place in line because there was quite a crowd around the cafe. He talked for a bit, read a snippet out of his book, and then did the coolest thing ever!! HE ACTED OUT THE ENTIRE SCHITZO SCENE FROM THE MOVIE!!!! Once agian, it was hard to see but they did have large speakers so most folk near the front of the line could hear just fine. There were lots of folk with video cameras so there may be footage of that floating around somewhere. By this time, the line had gotten soooo long that it lined on wall all the way down to the other end of the mall and double backed again. (I bet there were easily over 1000 people there) The organizers came down the line to let everyone know that Andy would only have time to sign one item only rather than one book and one peice of memorabilia as the flyer had stated. And they were rushing people thru as fast as they could go...not too much time to say anything to Andy, but I did mangae to ask him one question and shake his hand. He was a good sport about the entire event, and stayed untill everyone in line had gotten an autograph. (A security guard stood at the end of the line to prevent folk from getting back in line and to make sure then end stayed the "end". ) The store closed, and he kept signing and signing. I actually left before he was finished signing, and I didnt leave untill around 11:00PM. I bet with the line that was still there he signed for at least another hour or more.

In line someone had told me that at his last signing they passed out tickets and if you didnt get one, you didnt get your book signed at all. And that they limited the tickets to about 700. So, I was glad for the tons of people in line who were going to get there stuff signed...plus the store sold out of the book. I do however feel that the organizers should have skipped the Q&A to accomidate the crowds.

In the end, I am glad I went early and was glad to meet Andy Serkis although it was a rushed meeting. Its not often that celebs come to Salt Lake and so its always a big deal when they do. Thanks Andy for making Utah on of your stops!!

 

This was a great event. I got to the store between 12 or 12:30. There were tons of great people to talk to all day in line. I was about the 5th person in line. It was very cool. I got to ask Mr. Serkis a question during the Q&A session, which was really cool. I had him sign my gollum poster and got to shake his hand and say a few things to him while he was signing my poster. A little while later he stopped signing autographs for a minute so I could get a good picture of him. He is a very nice person and loves his fans. There were over a thousand people there and I heard that he was going to stay until he finished the line. What a great event this was.

I was able to get a few pictures during this event and I also got a good amount of video clips (they aren't the best because I used my digital camera, but they are better than nothing).

 

Sounds like it was pretty cool!

The whole Gollum/Serkis story is a great example of how much of a difference you can make when you pick up your ball and run with it! I think he's the coolest just for really getting into his role when he could have just done the voice...