The Sunday Mail (Brisbane, Australia), May 19, 2002 p007

Good Lord, if it's not Diver Dan! (News)

Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2002 News Ltd.

PICTURE EXCLUSIVE

THERE'S a little bit of Australia in Middle Earth, the first images from the new Lord of the Rings film have revealed.

Australian actor David Wenham is shown in photographs from The Two Towers in his role as Faramir, a reluctant yet brave warrior from Gondor.

SeaChange's Diver Dan has grown his hair and replaced his wetsuit with a green cape and longbow.

He is joined in the second instalment of director Peter Jackson's trilogy by Miranda Otto as Eowyn, a king's niece with knockout fighting skills.

Faramir and Eowyn fall for each other in J.R.R. Tolkien's novel, but it's anyone's guess whether the romance will make it to the screen.

Neither Wenham nor Otto is allowed to speak about their role ahead of scheduled publicity for the film's December 26 release.

We'll have to wait until then to see whether Otto delivers some of Eowyn's immortal lines, such as: ``Begone, foul dwimmerlaik, lord of carrion! Leave the dead in peace.''

Tongue twisters or not, the movie is guaranteed to be a blockbuster. The first episode, The Fellowship of the Ring -- which starred Aussies Cate Blanchett and Hugo Weaving -- has already made $1.5 billion at the box office and is No. 8 on the list of all-time biggest money-making films.

The final instalment in the trilogy will be released at Christmas 2003.

The Two Towers title was criticised after the terrorist attacks on the twin towers of the World Trade Centre last year. But its critics failed to realise it was the actual name of the second book in the trilogy.