Frodo lives

Karen S. Kim

BURBANK VILLAGE -- “It’s our first glimpse of the ‘Lord of the

Rings,”’ said Jonathan Watson, 25, of Arcadia. “A lot of people are

excited to see how one man’s imagination is put on the screen.”

Watson was one of more than 20 J.R.R. Tolkien fans who gathered at the

Burbank AMC 14 Theater Friday morning to see the trailer of the first

movie in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. The 106-second trailer was

scheduled to be shown once before and once after the New Line Cinema

release, “Thirteen Days.”

“It’s the only theater on the West Coast playing the trailer twice and

having people line up to see it,” Watson said.

The group began camping out at 9 p.m. Thursday and spent all night

discussing Tolkien, football and video games. Armed with warm jackets,

gloves, a portable toilet, pizza, coffee and Krispy Kreme doughnuts for

breakfast, Tolkien fans gathered underneath a makeshift tent to protect

themselves from the rain.

“Lining up is a lot of fun,” Watson said. “Everyone’s got the same

passion, and there’s that unspoken bond.”

Watson said “Lord of the Rings” is the book that sparked his passion

for reading and led him to a degree in English, writing his senior thesis

on Tolkien’s trilogy. Watson also has a Tolkien Web site, where he posted

information about the campout.

After seeing the posting on the Internet, Jon Britton, 24, traveled

from Los Angeles to Burbank at 5 a.m. Friday to join the group of Tolkien

fans.

“I’ve met a lot of new people and a lot of people I knew on the Web,

but now I can put a face to the name,” he said. “Lining up gets you all

psyched up. It’s hours and hours building up and then you go and get to

see it.”

Watson and a group of his friends also had a hand in organizing the

campout, which was broadcast on KROQ radio’s morning show Friday. When

New Line Cinema was contacted by Watson regarding a possible campout, the

movie company contacted Burbank AMC 14 and set up the event.

“We’ve had special events here for ‘Star Wars.’ It doesn’t happen very

often, but we’re very accommodating when it does,” said Craig Adams,

managing director for the three Burbank AMC theaters. “It was a very

well-behaved crowd, and I think they had fun.”

Advertising for the event was done mainly through Watson’s Tolkien Web

site. Watson and his friends even came up with the slogan, “Frodo Lives,”

for the free T-shirts New Line Cinema provided to the campers.

Frodo is just one of the characters in Tolkien’s trilogy: “Fellowship

of the Ring,” “The Two Towers” and “Return of the King.” The first part

of the movie trilogy is scheduled to hit theaters on Dec. 19, 2001. Adams

said Burbank AMC 14 plans to show the trailer before “Thirteen Days” for

at least another week.

Though Jon Cline, 23, of Pasadena described himself as a “new Tolkien

fan” who camped out all night for the trailer, he says fans of Tolkien

are a great source of friendship and conversation.

“Tolkien is very in-depth, so the type of people who like Tolkien are

typically well-educated, and those are the kinds of guys I like to hang

out with,” he said. “Last night I got to meet a lot of people and hear

how Tolkien has affected their lives.”