The Lord of the Rings hero Elijah Wood returns in a more accessible film eagerly awaited by his legion of fans worldwide. Titled Try Seventeen, it is a coming-of-age movie where Wood plays a teenager who lies about his age to get into college, moves into an apartment building, and learns some things that are not taught in school. �It�s definitely cool,� he says.
Born in Cedar Rapids, IA, Wood has grown up to be one of the most well-respected and steadily-employed actors of his generation. He modeled and did commercials before moving with his family to Los Angeles in 1988. It was there that he got his first break, a small role in Paula Abdul video. Film work almost instantly followed, with a bit part in Back to the Future II (1989). It was Wood�s role as Aidan Quinn�s son in Barry Levinson�s Avalon (1990) that first gained him widespread attention, as the film enjoyed critical acclaim and was nominated for four Academy Awards.
After a small part in the Richard Gere drama Internal Affairs (1990), Wood secured his first starring role in Paradise (1991), in which he played a young boy who brings estranged couple Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson back together. He received good reviews for his performance -- some said it was one of the best things about the film -- and from there went on to costar with Mel Gibsons and Jamie Lee Curtis in Forever Young and in Radio Flyer (both 1992).
In 1993 Wood costarred with Macaulay Culkin in The Good Son, which helped further establish the kind of characters he has become known for: thoughtful, well-meaning, and perhaps a bit confused. His next film The Adventures of Huck Finn (1993) provided a departure from this type, but The War (1994) with Kevin Costner marked something of a return. He starred in North (1994) and Flipper (1996) but it was The Ice Storm (1997) by Ang Lee that provided a positive development in the young actor�s career. In 2001 he evolved as a box-office star in the hugely successful The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowsip of the Ring. He has repeated that triumph with the sequel that is currently in theaters worldwide.
Costarring multiplatinum pop star Mandy Moore and the rising German actress Franka Potente, Try Seventeen is a romantic comedy packed with laughs, heartaches, sex, honesty and all the things that make life and love so inherently amazing and beautiful. It is being released in the Philippines by Solar Films. It opens in Metro Manila theaters on January 22.
January 15, 2003
Lord of the Rings stars Elijah Wood and Dominic Monaghan had more than a love of music in common on the set of the movie epic -they also loved playing practical jokes on their co-stars.It all kicked off when Orlando Bloom and Sean Bean taped up the whole of Monaghan's trailer, leaving him stranded outside.
As German-born Monaghan explains, "It was the hobbits versus the humans, seeing who could trash each other's trailer the most."
And it didn't take long for the hobbits to get their revenge.He says, "Me and Elijah made some fake dog poo and covered the stairs to Orlando's trailer with it.We also sprayed all over the inside of his trailer with shaving foam and then squirted hairspray all over the taps so that everything was sticky."