French Movie Magazine Mad Movies has beaten all other movie mags with their coverage of LOTR! They placed it on the cover (and has gained the respect of yours truly). This is the article with all around nice guy John Howe (click here to read the article). Great stuff guys!

As part of the big licensing push for New Line Cinema's upcoming Lord of the Rings, an attractive piece of ad art has been seen in a number of trade publications. To spare you having to search for it, you can see it here. Click on the picture above to see a larger version.

You can catch John Rhys-Davies (Gimli) in 'Canvas' on TMN. [More]

European Ringers can catch Sean Bean (Boromir) in 'Sharpe's Enemy' on UK Gold Channel.

Xoanon-Man,

I've got 2 pics for you to ponder over, the first is the group of Nazgul chasing someone on a white horse. The other is a single Dark Rider reaching for you! It's darn scary if you ask me! [More]

The latest issue of Sci-Fi Magazine has a small article about the LOTR Trailer. It talks about what you can see in the trailer and the fansites involved.

Click on the image to enlarge

The magazine also has an interesting interview with Christopher Lee (Saruman). While there is only a small mention of LOTR (Lee saying that he met Tolkien once many years ago) the article mainly talks about his past roles in the numerous 'Hammer' films.

Otago Daily Times, 14/6/2000

THIS office often receives inquiries from around the world asking for contacts for people or organisations. One request several months ago, from Josephina Johnson, of Idaho Falls, sought a contact for the makers of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings film trilogy being shot in New Zealand. Our secretary was able to help and Josephina made contact with Peter Jackson and some of the actors.

IT has been the impetus for Josephina (miruvin@srv.net) to help organise a "world gathering" of Tolkien fans. The Tolkien Fan Fellowship Gathering will be held in Dallas, Texas, at Christmas 2001, the scheduled American release date of the first film, The Fellowship of the Ring . The meeting has so far attracted the interest of about 10 hard-core Tolkien fans from around the world.

Called 'The Distant Location,' the pitch for it goes: "When Hollywood comes to NZ for all the wrong reasons, the locals and Mother Nature exact a hilarious revenge."

Well, well, well. We'd love to know how it's release will be timed against the first 'Rings' film. Meanwhile, for anyone wanting to read a good comedy on a similar subject, I'd recommend Terry Bisson's "Voyage to the Red Planet," which could be subtitled 'When Hollywood goes to Mars for all the wrong reasons....."etc. I kept being reminded of the LOTR film project.

Sean Bean (Boromir) can be seen in 'Airborne' on Cinemax [More]

You can see Bernard Hill (Theoden) in 'The Bounty' on Cinemax [More]

You can see Elijah Wood (Frodo) in 'The Faculty' on TMN [More]

The Hall of Fire is ready for another chat event, this time a continuation of one from many moons ago. Do you have unanswered questions pertaining to Tolkien and Middle-earth?

They might be about characters, plot complexities, Middle-earth history, or about the Professor himself.

What's an ent? Who was Tom Bombadil? What happened to
the rings of the Seven Dwarf Kings? Why did Tolkien have a thing for spiders? Who were his peers?

Questions like these will be answered to the best of our ability, so join your Hall of Fire moderators and regulars on Saturday, June 17, at 5:30 EDT, to put your mind at ease. ; )

Place: #thehalloffire on our server, theonering.net....accessible through your own chat client or our site's java page

"This is in reply to the comment you got from on UK viewer on the Gormenghast production. I think that the BBC went for a very brave interpretation of the text as a black comedy, rather than a gloomy gothfest. As such, once devout readers got over the initial shock, it opened up new delights I had not previously seen in the text and, no doubt, worked better as television and brought new readers to its dense, complicated pages."

A further comment from A. G. was also interesting:

"The British press, as on most fantasy and sci-fi, split right down the middle - either loving it or loathing it. One called it Gormenghastly, but MANY gave it 5-star reviews and it was pick of the day in many national papers.

It's well worth a look, with some fine performances, and great looking sets. The narrative is FAR too fragmented, so the thing has no cohesion, but as with Terry Gilliam's films, a cohesive plot is not what the Gilliamites go for.

It's out on DVD in the UK, a DVD that recently won an award for it's presentation..."

Ringer Spy Mr. Tadpole sends along some information regarding a possible new set on the North Island. Looks like Lothlorien to me! [More]

Hmm, rivers round the Wairarapa? When I scouted down there last year, the Tauherenikau seemed a good contender for Middle-earth...

I was reading on your site that you were wanting to know what it was that they were shooting in the Wairarapa (somewhere around Martinborough). Well, I don't know much, but I've heard they're shooting the scenes with Cate Blanchett (Galadriel).

Apparently, also on set are Craig Parker (Haldir) and John Leigh (Hama), as well as lots of Elves. They finish up there this Friday.

(Oh yeah. It's got Christopher Lee (Our Saruman) in it, no doubt doing something deliciously EVIL....Nope, I've been informed I'm wrong. Lee gets to play a good guy. How often does that happen?)

"I have recently returned home to the little old Wairarapa, and was excited to find that the Claireville showgrounds was to be a filming site. I was rather confused to see the pictures that you showed of the showgrounds. It seems that the pictures you have of the Clareville Showgrounds are actually pictures of the larger and more impressive Palmerston North Showgrounds.

Oh well. Whoops. You get the general idea. Where might they be filming if the weather doesn't drive them into the showgrounds?
Well, there's this kind of stuff in the area...