Tehanu here from the Grey Havens,

Sorry, this one is a bit 'in-house' for New Zealanders…or people who have been here!
I consulted with Rutherford the calculating cat, (the one who is learning to type,) and he drew a Venn diagram to show the intersection of the sets of people who surf the Net, are interested in Lord of the Rings, are interested in photography, live in or have been to NZ, and have been hiking in Fiordland or the Southern Alps. Rutherford reckons it is a pretty tiny subset, but it does exist.

So if you're out there and you have photos of parts of New Zealand that look like you've always imagined Middle Earth to look, why not send them to us and have your work posted up for a bit of web fame? We'd love to be able to put up some big pictures of the area round Queenstown, Wanaka, all that lovely Central Otago stuff. Y'know, the borders of Rohan? Also for those of you that have been down to Milford and Te Anau, how about some pics of that dark mysterious forest they have down there? And Rivendell, can anyone imagine where that might be?
If anyone has a photo of Moria Gate, north of Karamea (it really exists! I've seen it on maps!) we'd love to see that too, just out of curiosity. Those mapmakers were Tolkien fiends too, it seems.

We'll put your name on your pics to give you the credit for them it you want, of course.

Just in case you didn't know he supplied us with Chapters 2 and 3 just a few short days ago! Way to go Xoanon!

Calisuri here,

First off, you should now notice a slight difference in the visited link color. I had many requests from individuals to change the dark green. I hope this helps you guys out.

Secondly, Hawkeye, a good bud of mine, was wandering around in the local mall and found this coupon in the B. Dalton's Bookstore. It is very very cool!

I'm not real sure where you can get one for yourselves, but make sure you enter!! The contest is also only for US residents who are 18 and over. A trip to NZ for those of us stuck in the US would be amazing!

As always, please send in your suggestions and comments. We read them all! Trust me! And keep sending in those poll questions!

Have a great week!

Picked this up from Calisuri (since when was he a news man?) thanks bud.

From Corona comes an interesting scoop regarding talks of more casting by director Peter Jackson: Yes, at least one conversation has transpired between Ian McKellen and Jackson regarding the role of Gandalf. Not certain this has been he has PASSED on yet, but remember that any actor who takes on this job will in effect be committing to his next THREE films and the next TWO AND A HALF YEARS of his life. Not certain that McKellen wants to make either of those commitments. For now, let's still consider this job IN PLAY."

The Evening Post had this to say on the new Sean Connery rumour:

Connery admits he's in line for Jackson film. by Megan Lane and Reuters Scottish film star Sean Connery say he's waiting for a script for Miramar director Peter Jackson's The Lord Of The Rings. At a press conference to promote his latest film, Entrapment, at the Cannes Film Festival, Connery confirmed that he was in line for a role in Jackson's NZ$266 million project. He said he was waiting on a script of the adaptation of author J R R Tolkien's fantasy trilogy, to be filmed in New Zealand from september 19. Rumours that Connery could play Gandalf date back at least a year, before Jackson announced the project last August. A number of Seatoun residents claim to have seen Connery at the Chocolate Fish Cafe in Scorching Bay - an Urban myth so popular that cafe staff have brought in a cardboard cutout of Connery. Jackson's team has consistently denied Connery's involvement, but could not be contacted today. [ The Chocolate Fish Cafe is frequented by Peter Jackson ] Connery isn't the only big name connected with the project - Hollywood heart-throb Keanu Reeves ( The Matrix ) told an Australian magazine that he had been petitioning Jackson's people to play Aragorn.

This is literally the hottest rumour there is folks. One has to wonder if New Line will demand that Connery makes it into the film because of all of this interest in him! I hope that the focus remains on the movies rather than actors because this is a once in a lifetime chance for Tolkien Fans to see Tolkien's vision brought to the silver screen. Thanks to 'Bruce' for the article!

Hey folks! What a great week to be a Lord of the Rings fan! The launch of TheOneRing.net went off with a bang and we now have the most complete resource for The Lord of the Rings Movie news and rumors.

I recently added a few features which I'm sure a lot of you have seen. First off, we have a new message board area where you can feel free to sound off on anything Lord of the Rings related. I would like to reset the board every week or so, just to keep the issues up to date. Send me some feedback on whether you think this is a good idea or not.

I also just added a poll yesterday and it looks like you guys are having fun with it. To make the questions more in tune with the fans, I want to have a weekly contest to pick the question. Just send me your suggestions, and we'll pick from the submissions for the weekly poll.

Keep having fun, and we'll make this the best damn Lord of the Rings Movie site there is! Thabks for the support!

Calisuri here,

Looks like our weekly poll hit the hotspot for the week. Cinescape.com has a report from Reuters which says Sean Connery is at the very least interested in "an adaptation of J. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings." The tid-bit goes on to say that Mr. Connery is awaiting a script for his review! All of you who voted for Connery as Gandalf might just be getting your wish!

Here are the poll results from last week:

Tehanus contacts seem to be everywhere these days, just heard PJ raised the bounty another 10 000$

Talked to a friend of a friend (here we go) who gave yet another friend a lift to work through the security courdon. Saw Bilbo's hole being built out of polystyrene.

msboyd chimed in a couple of days ago with some interesting news, it seems some friends of hers are being looked over for some major characters.

News has come from spies in the theatrical world in London. PJ has been looking around and auditioning some of the bright young talents there, some of them still not yet out of drama school. It looks like we're going to see fresh faces playing roles like Pippin and Merry.

Maybe it's too early in the morning to think about it, but what is a capping stunt? I've emailed Tehanu to ask her, but unfortunately she's busy teaching the charm of Making to some Ancient ones up in the hills, anyone out there know? anyone?...Here is her report, don't be afraid if she talks about herself in the 3rd person...just don't ask.

Tehanu's description of capping stunts: Over here, students celebrate graduating in a number of ways besides dressing up in a silly cap and gown for the awarding-of-the-degrees ceremony. Apart from drinking lots and putting soap-suds in the civic fountains, there's also a kind of competition to see who can come up with the funniest and most public hoax or stunt.

Tehanu was a little suspicious about one 'spy report' that we received via "ain't-it-cool-news" a week ago. Supposedly Peter Jackson was going to be filming in the Manawatu, around Palmerston North, and a casting call was being held in The Concourse. Hmmm, sounds like something centring on Massey University, she thought. The photo supplied of the beautiful scenic cow-paddock supposedly resembling 'The Shire' looked, shall we say, a little unconvincing.

Calls to the Palmerston Evening Star elicited the response, from various reporters: "Huh?", "What?" and "It's probably a capping stunt." Tehanu's suspicion was intensified by the fact she had noticed in the previous week's papers that the Massey University Revue for graduation was going to be based on, or a spoof of, Lord of the Rings. Nice try, guys. You got yourselves on the Web.

Why don't you send us your best jokes/scripts, and tell us all how it went?