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Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists on Friday elected “The Lord of the Rings” actor Sean Astin to be its national president as one of Hollywood’s most powerful labor unions faces new challenges in a changing film and TV industry.

Astin, known for portraying Frodo’s loyal hobbit friend, Samwise Gamgee, in the Peter Jackson-directed fantasy trilogy, now finds himself headed to a different kind of stage.

The 54-year-old actor will become leader of the 160,000-person performers union as it prepares to enter negotiations next year for a new contract with the major studios at a time when the entertainment industry faces consolidation, productions moving overseas and artificial intelligence.

“I feel proud and I feel determined,” Astin said in an interview. “People keep saying to me, ‘I hope you have time to celebrate’ and celebrating feels like a foreign thought. This doesn’t feel like a moment for celebration. It feels like a moment to say thank you and get to work.”

Astin garnered 79% of the votes cast in the election, according to the actors guild’s data. Voting closed on Friday. Astin beat his opponent Chuck Slavin, a background actor and performer in independent movies.

Slavin on Friday said in a statement that “while the outcome is disappointing, my commitment to advocating for transparency and member rights remains unshaken.”

Astin succeeds outgoing president Fran Drescher, who led the union through a 118-day strike during the last contract negotiations in summer 2023. Under that contract, the union secured AI protections and streaming bonuses based on viewership numbers. Some actors felt the contract didn’t go far enough and hope for more gains during next year’s talks.

Astin told The Times in an interview earlier this month that he is hopeful about securing a fair deal with the studios.

“I have a very good feeling about going into this next negotiation, because it’s clear to me that it’s in both parties’ interest to achieve a good deal,” Astin said.

In general, “the truth is that no union and no management should ever want a strike — that is the tool of last resort,” Astin said.

Astin’s strategy for negotiations was more moderate than that of Slavin. Slavin said that, if elected, he would call a strike authorization vote before meeting with the studios as a way to help boost the union’s leverage during negotiations.

Astin’s running mate, Michelle Hurd, was elected as secretary-treasurer of the union, receiving around 65% of the vote. Hurd has acted in shows such as “Star Trek: Picard” and movies including the romantic comedy “Anyone But You.”

Astin said he would push for more AI protections in the next contract and work with government leaders to keep productions in the U.S.

Astin ran under a group called “The Coalition,” which featured candidates from Membership First and Unite For Strength, two political groups within SAG-AFTRA. Slavin ran as an independent.

Voter turnout for this year’s national election was lower than in 2023, when Drescher was re-elected president. In 2023, roughly 23% of the ballots were returned, compared to this year’s 17%, according to SAG-AFTRA data. In 2021, when Drescher was first elected national president, 26% of the ballots were returned, according to the union.

Astin received a key endorsement from outgoing president Drescher, who he says has been a “constant source of support and guidance” and said he was “eager to help protect her legacy.” Astin’s mother, Academy Award-winning supporting actor Patty Duke, was a past president of the actors’ union.

Astin said that he will begin his term poring over information, meeting with SAG-AFTRA staff and doing outreach to members, including visiting the various locals.

“Now is the time for the optimism,” Astin said on Friday. “When you elect a new president, it’s a new chapter and a new page is turned. There is no reason not to charge forward as a union with our members.”

It’d been over a decade since reporter Alice Sjoberg had seen the Lord of the Rings films, so she decided to take the opportunity to watch the extended versions at the cinema for the first time

Alice Sjöberg is an Social News Reporter working across all Reach Plc titles. Alice previously worked as an Entertainment Evergreen Specialist at Dexerto. She has a special interest in internet culture, relationship and lifestyle topics. She has written for both regional and national newspapers across the country.

Cineworld is celebrating their Unlimited feature, a membership programme which allows members to watch as many films as they want for a monthly fee, turning 25. So to celebrate, they brought back some of the top films from the last 25 years for fans to enjoy for a discounted rate for everyone.

So when I saw on social media that the Cineworld near me was showing all three of the Lord of the Rings movies three days in a row, I immediately knew I wanted to go. If there’s anything that’ll make those films better, it’s seeing them in the cinema. But when I later realised they were showing the extended versions, I got even more excited as I’d only ever watched the theatrical cuts of each movie.

So, I quickly booked tickets for me and my boyfriend, who is a big Lord of the Rings fan, and together we went to experience the iconic films on the big screen. But will 12 hours in total prove to make this trilogy ‘too much’? Only time would tell…

The Fellowship of the Ring

First up was of course the Fellowship of the Ring, which was showing on the Monday evening at 6.30pm. We made sure to get there early enough to use the bathroom and get ourselves some popcorn and drinks ahead of the three-and-a-half hour long film.

The first extra scene came right at the beginning, which saw the introduction of the one ring and how it came to be so powerful and feared among people in Middle Earth. As a novice in the world of Lord of the Rings, I really appreciated this, as it added extra depth into the story – not that it needs it.

Next up came the scenes in the Shire, which already were some of my favourite as I’d happily live there myself if I could. While I felt like it dragged a bit at some points, you just can’t beat the feel-good moments such as during Gandalf’s fireworks extravaganza. This truly made me excited for watching the rest of the movies, as the cinematic experiences made it even better.

It also added extra backstory to all of the Hobbit characters. While this is nice in the moment, it really adds a nice build up and backstory for the later films.

One of the extra scenes that truly blew me away in this film was when Frodo and Sam spotted the Wood Elves heading to the Undying Lands. While it didn’t add much in terms of the plot, the scenery, music, and overall emotion of the moment made it a breathtakingly beautiful scene that ended with me covered in goosebumps.

As I’d not watched the films from beginning to end in so long, there were also moments and scenes in this film that I’d completely forgotten about, which made it feel like I was watching them again for the first time.

The extra scenes also made me sympathise with Aragorn right from the start. Don’t get me wrong, he is and remains one of my favourite characters, but seeing him visit his mum’s monument in Rivendell and sing and Elvish song that refers back to his feelings for Arwen really makes him more relatable.

The Two Towers

The following evening, it was time for my boyfriend’s favourite film, The Two Towers. It follows the journeys of the members of the Fellowship, after it got divided into three groups and went on their separate adventures to do what they could to prepare for the upcoming fight against antagonist Saruman.

While I was excited for this, our cinema experience started with a disappointment as we soon realised all the ads and trailers were the exact same as the previous night, and they were even in the same order! While this isn’t the movies fault, I had hoped for a bit more variety.

However, one of my favourite parts about this film was how much screen time Merry and Pippin got. Once again, I’d completely forgotten about their adventures with the Ents, especially Treebeard.

A particular favourite moment of mine was when they drank the nourishment of the Ents and quickly starts competing to see who can grow taller than the other. Since the films are quite heavy and dark overall, these lighthearted moments become more enjoyable.

Another example of this is when Legolas and Gimli start to compete with each other over how many orcs they’ve killed at the end battle, which not only helps show the competitive friendship between the two, but also makes the long fight scene a bit more fun and light-hearted.

Speaking of the fight scenes, of which there are many – these scenes have always been incredible to watch. But watching them in the cinema really made it worth having to stay up until almost midnight every night to watch them, even for someone like me who normally has a strict 10pm bedtime.

The Return of the King

All of the sudden, it was Wednesday and it was time to return to Cineworld for the longest movie in the trilogy. It also had an added 51 minutes of footage added to it, making the film over four hours long.

This film included several scenes I think I would miss if I rewatched the theatrical release now, as they truly made an already great film even better. The most notable scene in this extended version is Saruman’s death.

This takes place when Gandalf and the others come across a defeated Saruman who is still defiant, but is quickly stabbed by Wormtongue and falls off his tower to his death. Meanwhile, in the theatrical cut, Saruman’s story just ends and he is simply not heard from again.

The extended version also included answers to a previous plot hole on how Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli take over the Black Ships, which I’m sure fans were overjoyed to learn when they first saw it.

Overall, I spent over 12 hours watching the extended versions of this trilogy in the cinema, but would I recommend it to others? Absolutely.

These films became even more amazing when watching them on the big screen, and the extended versions never felt like they were as long as they actually were as there were constantly interesting things happening.

I am so happy that Cineworld decided to bring these films back to the cinema, and I hope more cinemas will do the same in the future as I’m desperate to watch them again.

WASHINGTON — Filmmaker Peter Jackson owns one of the largest private collections of bones of an extinct New Zealand bird called the moa. His fascination with the flightless ostrich-like bird has led to an unusual partnership with a biotech company known for its grand and controversial plans to bring back lost species.

Last week, Colossal Biosciences announced an effort to genetically engineer living birds to resemble the extinct South Island giant moa — which stood 12 feet tall — with $15 million in funding from Jackson and his partner, Fran Walsh. The collaboration also includes the New Zealand-based Ngai Tahu Research Center.

“The movies are my day job, and the moa are my fun thing I do,” Jackson said. “Every New Zealand schoolchild has a fascination with the moa.”

Outside scientists say the idea of bringing back extinct species onto the modern landscape is likely impossible, although it may be feasible to tweak the genes of living animals to have similar physical traits. Scientists have mixed feelings on whether that will be helpful, and some worry that focusing on lost creatures could distract from protecting species that still exist.

The moa had roamed New Zealand for 4,000 years until they became extinct around 600 years ago, mainly because of overhunting. A large skeleton brought to England in the 19th century, now on display at the Yorkshire Museum, prompted international interest in the long-necked bird.

An artist’s depiction of the largest species of moa, the South Island giant moa, which could stand 12 feet tall.

(Colossal Biosciences via AP)

Unlike Colossal’s work with dire wolves, the moa project is in very early stages. It started with a phone call about two years ago after Jackson heard about the company’s efforts to “de-extinct” — or create genetically similar animals to — species such as the woolly mammoth and the dire wolf.

Then Jackson put Colossal in touch with experts he’d met through his own moa bone collecting. At that point, he’d amassed 300 to 400 bones, he said.

In New Zealand, it’s legal to buy and sell moa bones found on private lands, but not on public conservation areas — nor to export them.

The first stage of the moa project will be to identify well-preserved bones from which it may be possible to extract DNA, Colossal’s chief scientist, Beth Shapiro, said.

Those DNA sequences will be compared with genomes of living bird species, including the ground-dwelling tinamou and emu, “to figure out what it is that made the moa unique compared to other birds,” she said.

Colossal used a similar process of comparing ancient DNA of extinct dire wolves to determine the genetic differences with gray wolves. Then scientists took blood cells from a living gray wolf and used the CRISPR gene-editing tool to modify them at 20 sites. Pups with long white hair and muscular jaws were born late last year.

Working with birds presents different challenges, Shapiro said.

Unlike mammals, bird embryos develop inside eggs, so the process of transferring an embryo to a surrogate will not look like mammalian IVF.

“There’s lots of different scientific hurdles that need to be overcome with any species that we pick as a candidate for de-extinction,” Shapiro said. “We are in the very early stages.”

If the Colossal team succeeds in creating a tall bird with huge feet and thick pointed claws resembling the moa, there’s also the pressing question of where to put it, said Duke University ecologist Stuart Pimm, who is not involved in the project.

“Can you put a species back into the wild once you’ve exterminated it there?” he said. “I think it’s exceedingly unlikely that they could do this in any meaningful way.”

“This will be an extremely dangerous animal,” Pimm added.

The direction of the project will be shaped by Maori scholars at the University of Canterbury’s Ngai Tahu Research Center. Ngai Tahu archaeologist Kyle Davis, an expert in moa bones, said the work has “really reinvigorated the interest in examining our own traditions and mythology.”

At one of the archaeological sites that Jackson and Davis visited to study moa remains, called Pyramid Valley, there are also antique rock art done by Maori people — some depicting moa before their extinction.

The South Island giant moa at 12 feet tall would dwarf even the tallest humans.

(Colossal Biosciences via AP)

Paul Scofield, a project advisor and senior curator of natural history at the Canterbury Museum in Christchurch, New Zealand, said he first met the “Lord of the Rings” director when he went to his house to help him identity which of the nine known species of moa the various bones represented.

“He doesn’t just collect some moa bones; he has a comprehensive collection,” Scofield said.

Larson writes for the Associated Press. The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

THE widow of tragic The Wanted star Tom Parker has a “kiss me quick” moment at the seaside with her dad-to-be boyfriend.

Kelsey Parker, 34, who is eight months pregnant, also checked out rings with 27-year-old tree surgeon Will Lindsay.

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The loved-up couple went on a windswept walk in Brighton with Kelsey’s two young children by Tom.

The singer died in 2022 aged just 33 from brain cancer.

Before going public with her new relationship in September last year, Kelsey said she knew her late husband would “send the right man for her.”

Tom captured the hearts of fans as one-fifth of chart-topping boyband The Wanted, known for hits like Glad You Came and All Time Low.

Even while undergoing treatment, he continued to perform, famously taking to the stage with the band in emotional final performances during their reunion tour.

Since his death, Kelsey has worked tirelessly to honour his legacy.

She has organised an annual charity football match in his name to raise funds and awareness for brain cancer research – a cause that now means everything to her.

The Sun revealed last year that Kelsey had found love with tree surgeon Will Lindsay, two years after Tom’s death.

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