Hobbit Movie News and Rumors | TheOneRing.net™ | The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings Movie News and Rumors

Guillermo Del Toro Booked Through 2017

deej — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 22:53:16 +0000

While some of us worry about making plans for the weekend, Guillermo Del Toro has enough projects lined up for the next decade! A new article in Variety lists some potential post-”Hobbit” films he’d like to direct including Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, Slaughterhouse-Five, and Hellboy 3. Variety article

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J.R.R. Tolkien and the Spiritual Journey at Emory University

deej — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 21:29:04 +0000

Emory University in Atlanta will be offering a 5-week course this fall titled “J.R.R. Tolkien and the Spiritual Journey”:

This course will explore J.R.R. Tolkien’s insights for the spiritual journey. The class will briefly explore the sources of Tolkien’s vision of the quest that were influenced by his experiences of World War I, his Catholic faith, and his deep reading of ancient mythologies. Employing short readings from Lord of the Rings and clips from the movies of the same name, the class will then discuss key themes in the journey including the affirmation of creation, sacrifice and bliss, friendship, the temptations of power and pride, and the role of the key virtues of faith, hope, and charity. Come discover what Middle Earth can tell us about the possibilities for modern earth. This class is co-sponsored by the Aquinas Center of Theology at Emory University.

Class space is limited to 15 people; for more information click on the link below:

Emory University

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Special FaerieCon Discount for TheOneRing.net Community!

Calisuri — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 13:35:43 +0000

To celebrate the appearance of Alan Lee as the Guest of Honor at FaerieCon International on October 10 – 12 in Philadelphia, PA, FaerieCon is offering a special 50% Discount off any FaerieCon ticket for The One Ring Community. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to meet Alan Lee and get your favorite Tolkien book signed. To order your ticket and get your discount, please visit our special discount section of the FaerieCon website via the following link. [FaerieCon.com]

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Alan Lee Makes First US Convention Appearence at FaerieCon International

Calisuri — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 13:16:37 +0000

“I have been under the spell of the faeries for most of my life. The pictures and stories that move me most are those that expose the thinness of the veil that separates us from the Otherworld, and if my own drawings do not feel animated by some unquiet presence I soon lose interest in them. For me, faeries are the creative spark in nature, the tricksters who beguile and confuse us and then point out the path that leads to further adventure, and who provoke the desire to explore and connect with processes we don’t understand.” - Alan Lee

International best-selling illustrator and Oscar winning Conceptual Designer Alan Lee is the Guest of Honor at FaerieCon International, October 10-12 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia.

An awarding winning illustrator with a career spanning nearly forty years, Alan’s masterful watercolors and drawings have attracted world wide acclaim and defined the visual identity of numerous fantasy books, most notably J. R. R. Tolkien’s classic series, THE LORD OF THE RINGS. These illustrations attracted the interest of Australian director Peter Jackson and lead to Alan’s engagement as concept designer and art director for five years on the feature films for which he won an Academy Award in 2004 for Art Direction–Set Decoration (shared with Grant Major and Dan Hennah). Alan has also contributed concept designs to LEGEND, THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE and KING KONG.

Faeriecon International is Alan Lee’s first US convention appearance. He
will be presenting a slideshow talk featuring his work for THE LORD OF THE RINGS films and books on Saturday on the Main Stage as well as meeting fans and signing autographs at his booth each day. Alan will also be joined by his daughter, illustrator and sculptor Virginia Lee who worked on the film and sculpted some of the LORD OF THE RINGS plaques for Sideshow Collectibles.

Alan will join FaerieCon Guest and host, Brian Froud, international best-selling faerie artist and concept designer of THE DARK CRYSTAL and LABYRINTH on the 30th anniversary of the publication of their classic book, FAERIES, in their first public appearance together in the US. A publishing phenomenon that is still in print after 30 years with millions of copies sold in numerous languages, FAERIES presented a dramatic new vision of faeries and inspired generations of writers, artists and lovers of faerie around the world. Alan and Brian drew their inspiration from traditional faerie folklore, celtic myth and the mist shrouded moors, rivers and woodlands of the Devon countryside where they make their homes. Their images are clearly born of this rugged and beautiful land and create a compelling alternative vision to the “pretty girls with wings” faerie imagery that rose to popularity in the Victorian period and continues to this day.

FaerieCon International is the largest gathering of faerie artists and authors in the world, and features the largest assembly of faerie arts, crafts and apparel vendors in the US. Other artists attending FaerieCon include, Wendy Froud, Holly Black of THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES, Jessica Galbreth, Charles Vess of STARDUST, Michael Buckley of THE SISTERS GRIMM, Wendy Pini of ELFQUEST, Kinuko Craft, Michael Hague, Linda Ravenscroft, John and Caitlin Matthews, Jasmine Becket Griffith, Helena Nelson Reed, Jen Deleth and J. Corsentino.

For information on FaerieCon, please visit: FaerieCon.com

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Eurogamer Talks to Turbine’s Jeffrey Steefel

xoanon — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 01:17:36 +0000

Oli Welsh writes: With Lord of the Rings Online, Turbine may not have delivered the World of Warcraft rival some were expecting - but it did deliver a superior MMORPG, and then serve it with so much new content that we thought it was worth 9/10 not once but twice. Now it’s winding up to the release of LOTRO’s first expansion, and after getting the lowdown on Mines of Moria, we spoke to executive producer Jeffrey Steefel about where he sees the game’s present, and future. Eurogamer Talks to Turbine’s Jeffrey Steefel

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Talk about ‘The Hobbit’ in Des Moines

xoanon — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 01:09:20 +0000

From The Altoona Herald: J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” proves that not every fantasy hero has to look like a fearless warrior. A discussion will take place from 3:45 to 4:45 p.m. Monday [September 8th] at the South Side Library, 1111 Porter Ave., on Bilbo Baggins’ transformation from a quiet-living hobbit of the Shire into a rather reluctant hero plodding across Middle Earth. Books will be available at the South Side Library’s information desk. And since hobbits generally eat six meals a day, snacks will be provided to get voracious readers in the mood. For more information on library programs, call 283-4152.

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35 years ago today, a light went out in Arda…

Diedye — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 16:20:02 +0000

… and Beren joined his beloved Lúthien in a fate unknown to anyone but Eru.

On Sep. 2, 1973, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien left this world and the Great Story behind. I thought I would commemorate this day with a FLASHBACK to the last days of his life, which, I hope, I can show were not altogether unpleasant (his last hours notwithstanding).

1973
c. July 10-17
Tolkien travels with his daughter Priscilla to Edinburgh, where they stay for a week with his former student Angus McIntosh, now Professor of English, and his wife Barbara.

July 12
An honorary degree of Doctor of Letters is bestowed upon Tolkien by Edinburgh University.

July 20
Tolkien attends an Ad Eundem dinner at St John’s College, Cambridge, hosted by Professor Glyn Daniel.

July 26
Lord John Anthony Hardinge Giffard, the third Earl of Halsbury visits Tolkien and they have a pleasant discussion regarding ‘The Silmarillion’, and Galadriel.

?August
Tolkien has lunch with Father Robert Patrick Ruthven Murray, who later recalls:

Quote

Ronald was maintaining with great vigour over the luncheon table that one of the greatest disasters of European history was the fact that the Goths turned Arian: but for that, their languages, just ready to become classical, would have been enriched not only with a great bible version but also, on Byzantine principles, with a vernacular liturgy, which would have served as a model for all the Germanic peoples and would have given them a native Catholicism which would never break apart. And with that he rose and in splendidly sonorous tones declaimed the Our Father in Gothic.

(‘A Tribute to Tolkien’ The Tablet, 15 September 1973)

August
Tolkien adds a note to the typescript of the Annals of Aman about Galadriel fighting in defence of Aqualondë and also writes a rough version of the story of Galadriel and Celeborn, and their motives and actions. This is probably his last writing for the legendarium.

• Marjorie Incledon (Tolkien’s cousin) visits and stays with Tolkien.

August 4
Tolkien writes to Lord Halsbury (#353), thanking him for the whisky he is sending:

Quote

You pile Weathertop on Erebor, as Bilbo might have said, with your generosities. The whisky will be welcomed whenever it comes: it will be quite safe if sent to college, whether I am here or briefly away. When you retire I shall certainly beg your help. Without it, I begin to feel that I shall never produce any part of The Silmarillion. When you were here July 26, I became again vividly aware of your invigorating effect on me: like a warm fire brought into an old man’s room, where he sits cold and unable to muster courage to go out on a journey that his heart desires to make. For over and above all the afflictions and obstacles I have endured since The Lord of the Rings came out, I have lost confidence. May I hope that perhaps, even amid your own trials and the heavy work which must precede your retirement, you could come again before so very long and warm me up again? I particularly desire to hear you read verse again, and especially your own: which you make come alive for me.

August 9
Tolkien visits the Botanic Garden, Oxford, with his grandson Michael George, who photographs him standing next to one of his favorite trees, a Pinus Negra. This is probably the last photograph of Tolkien.

August 17
Tolkien replies to a letter about The Lord of the Rings: ‘It is enough for me that people enjoy Lord of the Rings as a story without forming detailed comparisons between Middle-earth and the world today’ (Tolkien-George Allen & Unwin archive, HarperCollins).

August 25
Tolkien writes to Glyn Daniel, thanking him for the dinner in Cambridge:

Quote

Dear Daniel,

It is a long time since July 20th; but better (I hope) late than never to do what I should have done before being immersed in other matters : to thank you for your delightful dinner in St John’s, and especially for your forbearance and great kindness to me personally. It proved a turning point! I suffered no ill effects whatsoever, and have since been able to dispense with most of the diet taboos I had to observe for some six months.

I look forward to the next A.E. dinner, and hope that you will be present,

Yours ever,
Ronald Tolkien.

?Late August
Joy Hill visits Tolkien for what will be the last time. When she arrives, instead of settling down to work, he offers her a drink and then announces that they will go for a long walk to see all his favourite trees. They visit the Botanic Garden, then walk to look at the willows by the river, then return to the Botanic Garden once again. He asks her to bring a camera on her next visit in September so that she can take some photographs for him.

• Tolkien meets Priscilla, who is just back from a holiday in Salsburg. She gives him a bottle of Austrian liqueur and a box of Mozartkugeln.
She will later find, after his death, that he has eaten all of the chocolates, but liqueur remains untouched.

August 28
Tolkien’s adventures on this day are told in a letter written to his daughter the following day.

Quote

Wed. Aug. 29th 1973 at 22 Little Forest Road, Bournemouth.
Dearest Prisca,

I arrived in B’th about 3.15 yesterday, after a successful drive with most traffic going north not seawards, & a curry-lunch shared by Causier, Mrs C. and David. It was v.v. hot here & crowded. The Cs. Then went off to find ‘accommodation’ for 2 nights, and departed necessarily with all my luggage on what looked like a hopeless quest. They dropped me off on the East Overcliff by the Miramar, which nostalgically attracted me; but I went into the town & did some shopping, including having a hair trim. I then walked back to the Miramar at 4.45 – and things then began to go wrong. I was told Causier had called to find me about 4 p.m. which made me afraid that he was in difficulties. I also found that I had lost my Bank Card & some money. ‘Reception’ were surprised but welcoming, comforted me with a good tea. Also assuming that I had been looking for something more than a tea, they told me they could have done nothing at all for me, but for a cancellation which would allow them to take me in on Tuesday Sep. 4 – but I said I would see. I took a taxi to 22 L.F.R. (which promptly lost its way) and arrived late to find the house crowded & lively – only the Dr. was away till evening. (Happy go-lucky folk.) Then I waited anxiously for Causier. It was nearly 7 before he (and Mrs C. & D) turned up – I suspect he too had lost his way – and said it had only taken him 15 mins to find v. g. rooms for 2 nights! In the meanwhile Martin Tolhurst (formerly of N[ew] College), now grown to an immensely tall, charming, and efficient man, had by telephone located my Bank Card etc. at The Red Lion Salisbury. So all was well, for the present. But I have accepted the Miramar offer, and shall not return to Oxford till Sep. 11. For various reasons: the chief being I wish to give Carr plenty of time to clean my rooms, which, and I too, were much neglected latterly; I wish v. much to visit various people here, also Chris Wiseman at Milford, and I am old enough to much prefer familiar surroundings.

My dearest love to you.
Daddy

It is stuffy, sticky, and rainy here at present – but forecasts are more favourable.

August 30
Although Tolkien joins in celebrating Mrs. Tolhurst’s birthday, he does not feel well and does not eat much, although he does partake in a little champagne. During the night he is in pain.

August 31
Still in pain, Tolkien is taken to a private hospital, where he is diagnosed as suffering from an acute bleeding gastric ulcer. John and Priscilla are able to make it to his bedside, but Michael is on holiday in Switzerland and Christopher is in France. At any rate, the first reports of his condition are optimistic.

September 1
Tolkien takes a turn for the worse, developing a chest infection.

September 2
On this early Sunday morning, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien dies at the age of 81.

OBITUARIES (complete and snippets)

‘Lord of the Rings’ author Tolkien dies in Britain
Author J. R. Tolkien, 81, the former Oxford University professor whose stories about a middle earth peopled by imaginary beings became an international student cult in the 1960s, died today.

(click on logo)

J.R.R. Tolkien, Author, Dies
J.R.R. Tolkien, 81, the British scholar and author whose trilogy “The Lord of the Rings,” chronicled epic adventure in a fantasy world and achieved vast popularity with college students in the 1960s, died yesterday in England.

Tolkien, Who Created the Hobbits, Dies at 81
J. R. R. Tolkien, a retiring scholar who became the unwilling object of a literary cult because of his novel “Lord of the Rings,” died Sunday at the age of 81, his publisher announced.

Thank you, Professor, for giving us such a gift that we can never repay.

God Bless. God Keep.

All info has been collected from Hammond & Scull’s “J.R.R. Tolkien Companion & Guide”; “The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien”, “JRR Tolkien: A Biography”, TORn and various sites on the web.

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Peter Lyon is on his way to the Royal Armouries

Altaira — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 16:57:16 +0000

Nickey writes in: Dear TORn Friends, My friend and extraordinary artist, Peter Lyon, will be making his way to the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds as of a flight this evening. He is very excited about the trip. If you are in Leeds, please stop by and see the exhibit while he is there. Cheers!

A reminder: the “Arms and Armour from the Movies: The Wonderful World of Weta” exhibit runs until November 16 at the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds. Read more in our previous article about the exhibition, or at the Exhibition Site.

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Tolkien Flashback August 23rd-30th

Diedye — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 12:41:14 +0000

It is that time again - time for Ringer Diedye’s Flashback feature on TheOneRing.net! This week’s flashback details the events that took place in the Tolkien universe between August 23rd and August 30th. This is a weekly feature that Diedye posts in the forum, so if there is ever a time we don’t post it on the homepage of TORn, make sure to check the Main board in our forums. Click on the link below to transported in time!
August 23 to August 30

1952
August 29 - In response to a letter from Rayner Unwin expressing his interest in The Silmarillion and Tolkien’s other ongoing works, the professor updates him on the status of his writing and reveals his latest dictating project, which he is quite proud of…

Letter #134:

Quote

I am at last turning to my own affairs. The situation is this: I am anxious to publish The Lord of the Rings as soon as possible. I believe it to be a great (though not flawless) work. Let other things follow as they may. But as the expense of typing proved prohibitive, I had to do it all myself, and there is only one (more or less) fair copy in existence. I dare not consign that to the post, and in any case I am now going to devote some days to correcting it finally. [...]

I have recently made some tape-recordings of pans of the Hobbit and The Lord (notably the Gollum-passages and some pieces of ‘Elvish’) and was much surprised to discover their effectiveness as recitations, and (if I may say so) my own effectiveness as a narrator, I do a very pretty Gollum and Treebeard. Could not the BBC be interested? The tape-reel is in the possession of George Sayer (English Master at Malvern) and I am sure he would forward it for your or anyone else’s trial. It was unrehearsed and impromptu and could be improved.

1954
August 26 - Rayner Unwin sends a congratulatory letter to Tolkien on the publication of FOTR, which is already garnering requests for repeat orders and inquiries about the other two installments. “The reviews (with the honourable exception of C.S. Lewis’s magnificent essay in Time and Tide) have been equivocal but on the whole seem to have served their purpose by exciting curiosity about the book…” and with luck, Allen & Unwin will publish TTT in November. (HarperCollins archive)

1957
August 29 - Tolkien is informed by Rayer Unwin that he has won the International Fantasy Award and that an invitation is being sent for him to attend a luncheon on September 10th, at which time he will be presented with the award, which, he is informed, is in the shape of a rocket incorporating a Ronson lighter.

1958

c. August 30 - While staying with C.S. (”Jack”) Lewis and his wife Joy and brother Warren in Oxford, George Sayer spends this evening with Jack, Tolkien and R.E. Havard at Studley Priory, Lewis’s favourite country hotel. While Jack is paying the dinner bill, Sayer engages Tolkien in conversation…

Quote

… we talked a little about his health. Tolkien was gloomy about the terrible strains and anxieties Jack was suffering: Warren’s drunkenness, two rather difficult boys, and ‘a strange marriage’ to ‘a sick and domineering woman’. It turned out that what worried him most was that she was a divorcee. He did not accept my argument that she could not have been divorced, since as a Christian she had never been married. However, the reappearance of Jack forestalled a discussion of this question.

(Jack: A Life of C.S. Lewis, 2nd edition, by George Sayer)

1965
August 24 - Tolkien sends the revised and corrected Hobbit text to Rayner Unwin with a letter…

Quote

I have (I hope) resisted the inclination to ‘improve’ The Hobbit - except for removing the ‘author-to-reader’ asides, in some places: very irritating to intelligent children (as some have said). There are some corrections due to the actual errors and discrepancies in the tale itself; some that try to make things clearer. But since in order to spot these things - including printer’s errors that still survive! - one has to read the whole with line-to-line care, it seemed to me a pity not to get rid of a few happy-go-lucky passages that are quite out of joint. The Hobbit is taken as a prologue to The [Lord of the Rings] and though no one expects consistency between the two to be exact, it is a pity that some passages in The [Hobbit] should be completely impossible in The [Lord of the Rings]. I hope you will agree, for instance, that the alterations in Ch. II provide that the journey as far as the first troll-adventure though suitably rapid and understated now could be a quick glance at the same country that is described in the long work.

(HarperCollins archive)

1966
August 29 - Replying to a letter from Donald Swann, Tolkien reveals that neither he nor his wife are very well, health-wise. Both are arthritic, and he is “supposed to be wearing a kind of rubber dog collar”, but rarely does so. They hope to take a cruise on September 15th that will take them from Southampton to as far as the Aegean Sea.

1968
August 28 - William “Billy” Boyd, who played Pippin in Peter Jackson’s LOTR trilogy, is born on this day in Glasgow, Scotland.

1971
August 26 - Kenneth Sisam, Assistant Secretary and Secretary to the Delegates of Oxford University Press who worked on the Oxford English Dictionary and was Tolkien’s tutor, dies.

1999

August 28 - Rumor has it that WETA is using Steve Buscemi as a model for the CGI-animated Gollum.

August 30 - AICN’s Harry Knowles reports that Sean Bean is in negotiations to take on the role of Boromir, which, considering the actor’s personal preferred role was that of Aragorn, is not a bad second choice.

–> Michael Deluca shoots down the rumor that Steve Buscemi is Gollum: “Nope, he’s some unknown Brit”, as well as Ben Affleck’s involvement with LOTR and Peter Woodthorpe being considered for Ghan-buri Ghan.

2000
August 24 - The September issue of Cine Live magazine reveals Viggo Mortensen in all his Aragorn glory…

August 30 - A TORn spy sends along pics of the Isengard set… and there’s that spiky wheel again!

2001
August 25 - Sir Ian McKellen discusses his trip to Cannes to promote LOTR in the latest installment of his Grey Book, with some insight on what goes on the film festival, such as film deals, press junkets, reporters’ foot-in-mouth-diseased questions, and how one’s sanity is tested after hours and even days of the “same ol’, same ol” questions. He also expresses what it was like to see the first completed footage from the LOTRtrilogy and provides a couple of pics of himself and the cast at Cannes:

August 25 - The official poster makes its first appearance on the film trilogy’s official site…

2002
August 28 - The popular cartoon Hi and Lois gets Hobbitized…

2004
August 23-29 - Variety bestows its “Showman of the Year” award to Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne of New Line Cinema…

August 26-27-28 - LOTR gets no respect from Get Fuzzy’s Bucky the cat…

August 28 - In his latest E-post, Sir Ian McKellen shows off his Elvish “Nine” and explains why Gandalf the White’s beard is shorter than the Grey’s.

All info has been collected from Hammond & Scull’s “J.R.R. Tolkien Companion & Guide”; “The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien”, TORn and various sites on the web.

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John Howe’s Newsletter: A WORLD (OR TWO) AWAY

xoanon — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 02:25:14 +0000

Or a Few Days Abroad

I’ve always been leery of conventions in North America - once you’ve given the convention itself the once-over, there’s not a lot to do outside the convention itself, unlike European events where there’s generally much more that’s worthwhile visiting in the city itself.

Not a problem in San Diego; you can’t actually manage to see the whole convention, it’s just too huge; the exhibition hall is about half a mile long and just packed with stalls and booths and huge displays. I diligently put in the footwork - a LOT of miles, I’m sure - but still must have overlooked whole sections. San Diego Comic-Con is pretty much an assemblage of superlatives. John Howe’s Newsletter: A WORLD (OR TWO) AWAY

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