Project Fiver: Mission Accomplished!

Doug’s story below reminded me of a story I wrote Back in May we talked about Project Fiver. A Dying Hobbit Fan’s Wish about a woman known to her friends as Fiver.

Melissa, age 34 and known to her friends as Fiver, is an avid Lord of the Rings fans and she was more excited than most to find out about the Hobbit Prequels. But then she was more than disappointed that she is unlikely to live to see them completed. She has Lou Gerig’s disease and the average person lives 3-5 years after diagnosis. She has had the disease for a year now.

Her husband has put together a petition online to hopefully reach out to NewLine and Peter Jackson (and now DelToro if that helps) to get her a gig as an extra in the film.

So after reading Doug’s story that DelToro hinted that fans could get roles in the movie through some contest, I decided to check up on Melissa’s progress. Its only been a couple months, so maybe by now she has some news.

Well imagine my embarassment to find out that she did it. A mere week after I asked for the International Friends to sign her petition! Fandom came through in strides to give her signatures, but it seems their story is all it took.

Project Fiverreports:

We did it, folks. We really did it. There is no variation on “Thank You” that would begin to express the gratitude that I owe all of you. No words can do it justice. This is something incredible that you all have helped me accomplish, that I could never hope to accomplish on my own. Melissa is just over the moon about the whole thing, it still seems like a dream.

It is moments like this that I am stunned at the heart behind the cold money factory that is Hollywood.

Sure this has “good press” written all over it. But honestly, does a movie like “The Hobbit” need to dig into human interest side stories to generate interest?

Cheers Fiver! I look forward to seeing you in the movie!