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May 14, 2005 - May 21, 2005

News for May 21, 2005

Howard Shore Concert Press Release

5/21/05, 10:21 am EST - Xoanon

Howard Shore’s The Lord of the Rings Symphony will receive five performances in the U.S. in May 2005. On Saturday, May 14, the work will be performed in Richmond, Virginia by the Richmond Symphony and in Des Moines, Iowa by the Des Moines Symphony (with a repeat performance in Des Moines on May 15). A short time later the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra will give three performances at George Mason University (May 27, 28, and 29). [More]

Tolkien fan writes how she, others were played for scam

5/21/05, 10:06 am EST - Xoanon

It revolves around J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" saga, but it isn't set in Middle Earth. Rather, much of the story takes place in cyberspace - in Internet chat rooms where "Lord of the Rings" fans meet under fanciful screen names and commiserate about hobbits and the movie stars who play them. Renne said she was part of a group of fans taken in by a phony charity set up by Amy Player, a young woman from York County who seems to have been motivated less by money than by the goal of online status and the opportunity to mingle with the stars of the "Lord of the Rings" movies. [More]

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When a Fan Hits the Sh**

News for May 19, 2005

Lee & Spence 'Sith' Out Today

5/19/05, 12:51 pm EST - Xoanon

Unless you have been living in a cave (in a Galaxy far, far away) you know that 'Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith' is out today around the world. The film features Christopher Lee and Bruce Spence, who is in some amazing looking makeup. [Showtimes USA] [Showtimes CAN] [Showtimes UK]

Hall Of Fire This Weekend - LoTR Unfilmable?

5/19/05, 10:24 am EST - Demosthenes

It's been branded 'unfilmable' -- even by the author himself. Indeed, Tolkien described Lord of the Rings as "a book very unsuitable for dramatic or semi-dramatic representation" (Letter #194). Even, his biographer, Humphrey Carpenter felt that, although Tolkien sold the film rights to LoTR, he had no real expectation that it could be successfully filmed.

Yet it exists in film form, filmed to completion. [More]

News for May 18, 2005

ROTK DVD Wins Saturn Award

5/18/05, 6:47 pm EST - Xoanon

From Cinescape: Recently The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films held THE 31ST ANNUAL SATURN AWARDS at the Universal Hilton in Universal, California. The Return of the King DVD won 'Best DVD Special Edition Release' and Dominic Monghan's "Lost" won 'Best Network Television Series'. [More]

Get 'LOST' Tonight!

5/18/05, 6:42 pm EST - Xoanon

Dominic Monaghan's new hit show 'Lost' continues to get better with each episode. Catch 'Lost' tonight at 8PM EST on ABC. This is the one of the last episodes before the season finale! TORN's chatroom now has a special 'Lost' screening room, login to #lost at 8PM and watch with fans from around the country! [ABC.com] [TORN Chat]

Doctorate an honour for Fran Walsh

5/18/05, 6:38 pm EST - Xoanon

Media Watch:  Sunday Star Times Talks Fran Walsh She has won three Oscars, a Grammy and countless other honours. Now Wellington scriptwriter Fran Walsh has her second honorary doctorate. Walsh received the doctorate in literature yesterday at the first of Victoria University's five graduation ceremonies this week. Both she and her partner, director Peter Jackson, received honorary doctorates in literature from Massey University in 2001. Jackson was on hand yesterday to capture Walsh receiving the latest honour, snapping photographs of her from his seat in the audience at the Michael Fowler Centre. [More]

Philippine Tolkien Society at New Worlds Con

5/18/05, 1:43 pm EST - Xoanon

Laurice writes: The Philippine Tolkien Society will be joining this year's New Worlds convention. New Worlds 3 will be held in Glorietta Activity Center on May 23-24 2005. They will feature a showcase of exhibits, seminars, contests, performances, booths and film screenings by different fan groups in the country. For more information, visit the official site. [More]

News for May 17, 2005

Dork of the Rings cast at Tolcon

5/17/05, 7:47 pm EST - Xoanon

Dork of the Rings cast at Tolcon 2005 Tim Richardson, Director of "The Dork of the Rings" writes: After weeks of mind-numbing preparation, my follow dorks and I descended on Seattle for their annual Tolkien convention May 13-15, 2005. We appeared as Special Guests and ran two panel discussions on the making of THE DORK OF THE RINGS. [More]

New Project-Monaghan Auction

5/17/05, 7:35 pm EST - Xoanon

The folks from Project-Monaghan write: We proud and excited to annouce an awesome auction of a complete signed ROTK transcript signed by Dominic Monaghan, Sean Astin, and Bruce Hopkins. All of the proceeds will be to the charity that Project-Monaghan and Dominic supports, treepeople.com, based in Los Angeles. TreePeople's mission is to inspire the people of Los Angeles to take personal responsibility for the urban forest - educating, training and supporting them as they plant and care for trees and improve the neighborhoods in which they live, learn, work and play. Many thanks to Wednesday Addams for donating the transcript , Elisa for taking the photos, and Dominic, Sean and Bruce for their great autographs! [More]

Go, Go, Go, Frodo! 'LOTR' Musical Takes Million in First Day

5/17/05, 7:33 pm EST - Xoanon

Tickets to the new lavish stage musical, The Lord of the Rings, went on sale May 15 (see our banners above -Xo) - nine months before its premiere - and rang up $1 million within 24 hours, according to The Star in Toronto. The figure is in Canadian dollars, but is still impressive, especially when added to the reported $3 million in group sales so far. A spokesperson for the show confirmed to Playbill.com that these initial figures are accurate. Interest from U.S. theatregoers was reported by the Star as intense. [More]

Viggo's 'History of Violence' Trailer

5/17/05, 7:29 pm EST - Xoanon

Viggo Mortensen (AKA 'The Stash') is currently at the Cannes film festival promoting his latest film 'A History of Violence'. The Cannes website has released a sharp little trailer for the film, take a look! [More]

There is also this article from Stephen Schaefer of the Boston Herald: He's not reprising Aragorn, the heroic warrior from ``Lord of the Rings,'' but Viggo Mortensen's lethal combat in ``History of Violence,'' which debuted yesterday at the Cannes Film Festival, drew cheers and gasps. [More]

Guidebook author is lord of the cash-register rings

5/17/05, 7:22 pm EST - Xoanon

Guiding The Lord of the Rings fans to their favourite spots in New Zealand where the three movies were made is producing a satisfying feeling for Wanaka author Ian Brodie. His Lord of the Rings Location Guidebook is on track to become one of the country's bestselling books. The latest edition took the published total to 275,000 copies, with many sold to overseas tourists who want to visit at least some of the 100 locations where Peter Jackson made the three block-busting movies. [More]

Buy the Book!

Amazon.com
LOTR Location Guidebook: Travel Diary
LOTR: A Location Guidebook

Amazon.co.uk
LOTR Location Guidebook
LOTR Location Guidebook (paperback)

Lord of animation

5/17/05, 7:15 pm EST - Xoanon

For a man who sold computer hardware before working with Oscar award winning producer Barrie Osborne on “The Lord of the Rings” and finally floating a $40 million company with him, Madhu Sudhanan sure has come a long way. Sudhanan stumbled upon his visual effects and computer graphics career quite by accident after he did a course in 2D and 3D and animation. [More]

Cate's son burnt

5/17/05, 1:27 pm EST - Xoanon

Cate Blanchett's one-year-old son has been burned in an accident in a hotel in Morocco. Blanchett and Roman were flown back to London in a private jet for hospital treatment, London's Daily Mirror newspaper reported. "Roman had an accident and he's being treated for a minor burn," publicist Lisa Kasteler told the newspaper. "He's not on a drip. He's still being treated and Cate is with him." [More]

Everyone at TORN wishes little Roman a speedy recovery!

'Science of Middle-earth' UK Book Tour: Stockton on Tees

5/17/05, 1:24 pm EST - Xoanon

Olog-Hai writes: For all TORners in the UK, here's an update on my ongoing tour promoting my book 'The Science of Middle-earth', which started life (of course) on Green Books (where it still continues). Today (May 17th) I will be at Cafe Scientifique, Stockton on Tees. Follow this link for more dates and times! [More]

Hobbit motel opens at Waitomo

5/17/05, 1:20 pm EST - Xoanon

A world-first motel has been created in a hillside at Waitomo. Inspired by the Lord of the Rings trilogy, two hobbit motel rooms are the latest to be built at Woodlyn Park. The park's motel also has a Bristol Freighter plane and train carriages for people to stay in. The hobbit units come complete with round leadlight windows and a round door. They are dug out of a hillside and sheep graze on their grass roofs. [More]

News for May 16, 2005

Tolkien Festival Report & Pics

5/16/05, 7:00 pm EST - Xoanon

Amatire writes: I just thought you might be interested in a little info on what the 6th Annual Tolkien festival at The Shire Country Park Birmingham was like. I think probably the most important thing to tell you about (in case you have not heard yet) was the display talking about the plans for Moseley village centre. To commemorate the life of JRRT and the establishment of the new Shire Country Park, Tim Tolkien (I'm not sure how he's related, great, great nephew or something?) has designed a huge metal statue of Treebeard which will stand in the central island of the village green. This is really exciting, because until recently there was little to indicate to the public that Tolkien had had anything to do with Birmingham. [More]

Putting it all together

5/16/05, 6:42 pm EST - Xoanon

Finding the music for The Lord of the Rings was daunting, but orchestrator Christopher Nightingale found the sound by blending Finnish folk group Värttinä with A.R. Rahman's eastern tones. We've had ``The Music of the Night." Now get ready for the Music of the Rings. Christopher Nightingale is the orchestrator and musical supervisor of the $27-million stage adaptation of The Lord of the Rings currently holding auditions in Toronto, and there's one thing he wants to make perfectly clear. "I definitely wouldn't describe it as a musical." [More]

Mortensen Attends Cannes 2005

5/16/05, 12:47 pm EST - Xoanon

Cannes 2005 Images of 'The Stash' (heretofore called Viggo Mortensen) at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival in France. 'The Stash' is there to promote Canadian director David Cronenberg's latest film 'A History of Violence' starring 'The Stash', Maria Bello and William Hurt. Take a look! [More]

(Editor's note: 'The Stash' of course reffers to Viggo enormous moustache he's sporting for his latest film, 'Alatriste' -Xo)

LOTR On Stage tickets on sale

5/16/05, 12:29 pm EST - maegwen

Tickets to the stage adaptation of JRRT's Lord of the Rings are now available online and by phone or in-person. [More]

Tolcon 2005 Images

5/16/05, 12:02 pm EST - Xoanon

Tolcon 2005 Images Ringer Spy elfmolester sends along these images from this past weekends Tolcon in Seattle. The event featured Kiran Shah, Ted Nasmith and more. [More]

Houston Symphony LOTR Tickets Now On Sale

5/16/05, 11:46 am EST - Xoanon

Jan from the Houston Symphony writes: Tickets are now on sale for the Houston Symphony's performances of Howard Shore's The Lord of the Rings Symphony. Friday, July 8, 2005, 7:30 PM and Saturday, July 9, 2005 7:30 PM. [More]

TV Watch: Sean Astin in 'Hercules'

5/16/05, 11:36 am EST - Xoanon

Sean Astin will be appearing tonight in the Made-for-TV movie 'Hercules' on NBC. The production was filmed in New Zealand, with many of the same crewmembers that worked on LOTR. Take a look! [More]

The Science of Middle-earth Book Tour News

5/16/05, 11:32 am EST - Xoanon

Olog-Hai writes: For all TORners in the UK, here's an update on my ongoing tour promoting my book 'The Science of Middle-earth', which started life (of course) on Green Books (where it still continues). Today (May 16th) I will be at Borders, Market St., Cambridge, 7.45pm. The event is hosted by Naked Science (Cafe Scientifique). I will be there with Michael Hanlon, author of 'The Science of the Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy'.

Choirs add to 'Rings' fantasy

5/16/05, 11:27 am EST - Xoanon

The "Lord of the Rings" trilogy is now complete. First, J.R.R. Tolkien brought the story to our minds with words, maps and languages; then Peter Jackson shared his spectacular vision on the big screen; and now composer Howard Shore offers an aural experience of the timeless tales. [More]

LOTR MMORPG Review and Images!

5/16/05, 11:24 am EST - Xoanon

From gamespy.com: The world is rife with properties ideal for the MMO treatment, but few are as suited to this style of game as Middle-earth. With enough built in lore to often rival humanity's own storied history, any MMO developer working on a Tolkien-inspired game should consider itself lucky. Popular wisdom would dictate that, anyway. [More]

News for May 15, 2005

Hobbit Band Interview

5/15/05, 6:51 pm EST - Xoanon

Michael writes: Doubtless a number of folks in the UK may be unfamiliar with the rock group HOBBIT, but these four fellows have been expressing their admiration, through music, of Professor Tolkien's Middle-earth since the late 1970's. Now, two years in the making, their album 'All for the One' sees its realisation. 'All for the One' is actually HOBBIT's fourth album being preceded by 'Join the Celebration', 'Two Feet Tall' and 'Rockin' the Shire'. After a somewhat extended absence from the music scene HOBBIT have reformed and the release of 'All for the One' is a collection of hitherto unreleased material. [More]

A Familiar Ring? It Sure Is, Worldwide

5/15/05, 6:34 pm EST - Xoanon

Fans of J. R. R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" have nothing on the devotees of Wagner's four-opera "Ring der Nibelungen." Wagner Ringophiles may be an even more fanatical crew than the lovers of those hairy-footed Hobbits. Take Dr. Sherwin Sloan, a retired ophthalmologist, founder of the approximately 300-member Wagner Society of Southern California and founding editor of The Opera Quarterly. He has seen the "Ring" cycle performed more than 70 times. [More]

New Zealand is heaven for 'Rings' fans

5/15/05, 6:32 pm EST - Xoanon

Julie Perry Nelson writes: Most Americans are unfamiliar with New Zealand until you tell them it is where The Lord of the Rings trilogy was filmed. Even those wonderfully choreographed scenes cannot capture the beauty of the country. I met my first Kiwi (New Zealander) eight years ago when I hosted her visit. She showed me pictures of her country and I was hooked. I decided that is where I wanted to go for my honeymoon. Now, I just needed a husband. Eight years later, and two years after we were married, my husband, Darren, and I finally could afford our dream trip. [More]

Weta's cash to the rescue

5/15/05, 9:31 am EST - Xoanon

Weta Workshop is helping its less glamorous namesake, one of New Zealand's biggest and ugliest insects. The Wellington special effects company responsible for the props and make-up in Peter Jackson's award-winning Lord of the Rings films is sponsoring research into Mahoenui giant weta in the central Waikato. The research, comprising hours of night surveys in the Warrenheip reserve, aims to determine whether efforts to save the threatened species are working. [More]

Peter Lyon And Kirin Shah Chat With TORn!

5/15/05, 3:58 am EST - Demosthenes

TORn staffer Balin is at TolCon in Seattle at the moment. He was able to invite WETA swordmaster Peter Lyon (maker of Anduril, Hadhafang and thousands of other swords used in LoTR) and stuntman and size-double Kirin Shah to wander onto the TORn IRC server for a quick chat with TORn regulars to talk about their experience with LoTR and what they're up to these days. [More]

News for May 14, 2005

LOTR Exhibit at Indiana State Museum

5/14/05, 10:29 am EST - Xoanon

Tickets for The Lord of the Rings Motion Picture Trilogy - The Exhibition will go on sale to members on July 1 and to the general public on August 1. Tickets are timed, which means that exhibit visitors will be assigned a specific date and time at which they may enter “The Lord of the Rings” exhibit. Once available, tickets will be sold at the museum box office, by calling 317.232.1637 or on the museum’s Web site. [More]

Making the music of Middle Earth

5/14/05, 10:24 am EST - Xoanon

Dozens of Des Moines-area singers spent this week transforming into elves, hobbits, dwarves, orcs and goblins. The "Lord of the Rings Symphony," a 21/2-hour concert of the music from director Peter Jackson's epic films, will be performed tonight and Sunday at the Civic Center of Greater Des Moines. [More]

Get TheOneRing.net Newsletter Today!

5/14/05, 10:21 am EST - Xoanon

The latest newsletter is ready to go! Do you want to receive our free weekly newsletter? Packed with tons of info to keep you up to date on the latest? Plus filled with exclusives from time to time! Join the crowd of over 22 220 mailing list members! Sign up now! [More]

Happy Birthday Cate Blanchett!

5/14/05, 10:18 am EST - Xoanon


Today is Cate Blanchett's Birthday! Cate was born on May 14th, 1969 in Melbourne, Australia. That makes her 36 years old today! Happy Birthday Cate!


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