Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.

Okay. It occurs to me after reading the way someone else reacted to a recent article here that I might need to clarify what I originally said here.

Over on TheOneRing.net, they took me at my literal word, thinking I meant the film was done. And that is what I said. But I was imprecise.

The film that was shown to the MPAA to get a rating and that has been locked at a 2 hour 45 minute running time is not finished in terms of all the layers of polish that will be laid on between now and release. There's a shitload of music work and FX work and color timing and other things still to be done. When they locked the print on Tuesday night and Mark Ordesky celebrated (understandably), they were just locking the actual content of the film. I won't celebrate in a similar manner until the day the film opens, because that's about when they'll finally wrap up all work on it. That Christmas release date isn't just arbitrary torture. They will need that time to do everything possible to make this the dense, amazing, immersive experience that they want it to be.

I'm still planning that black ops mission, though. I've had volunteers galore, and if we have to do wet work, we will. I want that three-hour videotape, unfinished or not...