NEWS

See what Kate's been up to lately.

In this section you can find links to various articles, interviews and videos about Kate and her projects.   If you would like to contact kate for an interview or article please visit the contact page for details.

Media Frenzy!

For the last couple of days I’ve been in a media feeding frenzy because all of a sudden, Born of Hope is a huge story and everyone wants a piece of it. FANTASTIC!

I’m the crazy lady who spent her life savings and years of her life making a Lord of the Rings fan film.

I’ve been doing telephone interviews with Radio stations and pieces for the paper. I’ve dashed back and forth across Norwich between BBC and ITV for local News shows and generally it’s been quite crazy. Anyway, I’ve been making the most of it. I’m no fool and know that it might be news today but they will have forgotten all about it tomorrow.

I’ll upload some of the articles here for you to enjoy.

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Lord of The Rings prequel made by a fanatic using her £25,000 life savings scores 500,000 views on the internet by Andrew Levy, Daily Mail

Lord of The Rings prequel made by a fanatic using her £25,000 life savings scores 500,000 views on the internet by Andrew Levy, Daily Mail

12 February 2010

She didn’t have Peter Jackson’s £200million budget, eight years of filming time or the spectacular scenery of New Zealand to work with.
But Kate Madison could match his boundless passion – and with it managed to make her own Lord Of The Rings film.

The amateur actress was so inspired by the blockbuster Rings trilogy created by Jackson she wrote, directed and produced a prequel based on material from the original JRR Tolkien books.

Actress Spends life Savings on Lord of The Rings fans’ film – Cambridge News

Actress Spends life Savings on Lord of The Rings fans’ film – Cambridge News

12 Feb 2010

A CAMBRIDGE actress has spent her life savings creating a prequel to the Lord of the Rings film trilogy.

Kate Madison is delighted about the release of her film, Born of Hope, which took six years and £25,000 to make.

Kate wrote, produced, funded and stars in the film – she even picked up the camera herself when the film crew was short-handed.

“I spotted something online in 2003 about a Lord of the Rings convention which was going to do a fan film competition,” explains the 31-year-old.

“I’d just watched Lord of the Rings as the Return of the King had come out at that point and it sparked an idea.”

Web movie ‘Born of Hope’ to get fest bow – The Hollywood Reporter

Web movie ‘Born of Hope’ to get fest bow by Stuart Kemp, The Hollywood Reporter

Kate Madison’s low budget ‘Lord of The Rings’ prequel

LONDON — Upstart movie jamboree the London Independent Film Festival is to give low budget movie, “Born Of Hope,” made by Tolkien fanatic Kate Madison, its U.K. theatrical bow.

Madison spent her entire savings and more than six years to produce, direct and star in the one hour movie, billed as a prequel to the “Lord of The Rings” trilogy of films.

It has already played out on the Inernet with more than 500,000 viewers to date.

Festival director Erich Schultz said the scope and look of Madison’s project “demonstrates everything that’s possible in U.K. indie filmmaking.”

The festival runs April 15 through 27 across the British capital.

‘Lord of the Rings’ fan uses life savings to make prequel movie; ‘Born of Hope’ becomes Web Hit – NY Daily News

NY Daily News

‘Lord of the Rings’ fan uses life savings to make prequel movie; ‘Born of Hope’ becomes Web Hit

by Nicole Lyn Pesce

The works of JRR Tolkein have long been adored by fantasy fans all over the world, but when Peter Jackson released his trilogy of films based on The Lord Of The Rings, he opened them up to a whole new audience. In that audience was fledgling director Kate Madison, who would go on to develop her own contribution to the cinematic legacy – , a prequel telling the story of the Dunadan, filmed on a shoestring budget but set to make a big impression.

Though she had never heard of The Lord Of The Rings before she saw Jackson’s films, Kate had always been a fan of fantasy. She was a zoology student but couldn’t see herself making a career in that area. “I’m not academic enough for PhDs and things,” she says. “But I’m always been involved with amateur dramatics and loved that sort of thing. I was interested in filmmaking but it had always been on the back burner, and there came a point when I realised I had to take that leap. I decided to try and pursue a career in acting and make some films.”

Fan pours life savings into Lord of the Rings prequel – The Times

I was in The Times today!

Fan pours life savings into Lord of the Rings prequel
11 February 2010

A Lord of the Rings fan has spent all her savings filming a prequel to the blockbuster trilogy.

Kate Madison, 31, filmed, produced and starred in her hour-long film, Born of Hope, which took six years to make with a volunteer cast and crew of more than 400. She spent £8,000 on the project and raised £17,000 by posting a trailer on YouTube. More than half a million people have watched the final cut since it was launched online in December and Ms Madison is now hoping to pitch it to Hollywood distributors.

To keep costs down the film was shot in Epping Forest, Essex, and West Stow, Suffolk, and the cast and crew camped in tents on set. The amateur actress, from Cambridge, who plays the forest ranger Elgarain, described the project as a labour of love. She said that she was inspired by two paragraphs written by J.R.R. Tolkien in the appendices of the original The Lord of the Rings book.

She said: “I invested my own money after the Lord of the Rings films blew my mind. I was desperate to have a go at making an epic myself. As we went along, the project snowballed and there were moments when I wondered what the hell I was doing. But now it’s all done it’s an amazing feeling. We have created a film on a tiny budget which comes complete with battle scenes, orcs and even a giant hill troll.”