It is with great joy that we at TORN and the folks from Peter Jackson's official fan club TBHL announce that voting has begun for Movies.com 'Movie Site Awards'!

Both TORN and TBHL have been nominated in different categories for an award. The voting has only begun today, so get out there and vote! Thanks to movies.com and everyone who told movies.com about us!

The folks from jenshansen.com write: On July 1st BBC World News ran a small news item on our workshop in Nelson including an interview with Thorkild. The clip went for 3 minutes 39 seconds, which is a pretty good run on BBC World news! It shows Thorkild & I, the business and workshop and also the background story as to how our father, Jens, came to be selected to create "The One Ring". [More]

Rommy of Rohan sends along the good news! The Sydney Powerhouse Museum will be hosting The Lord of the Rings Motion Picture Trilogy - The Exhibition from December 2004 until March 2005. Specific dates are still to be confirmed.

Arwen writes: I just got the message and thought you might want to post it on TORn. The Bourne Supremacy Premier will take place TOMORROW (July 15th) in Hollywood, California and it is believed Karl Urban will be there. It is not absolutely confirmed Karl will be there but there is a strong likelihood he will. Martin Csokas is also in the movie but it is less likely he will be at the premier.

WHERE: The Cinerama Dome and ArcLight Cinemas, 6360 Sunset Boulevard
WHEN: Thursday, July 15, 2004
5:30 PM Press Call Time
6:30 PM Celebrity Arrivals
7:30 PM Screening Begins

It seems the Figwit phenomenon will never die. And why should it? Now that he's got his own Decipher card! Take a look at Figwit AKA Aegnor, Elven Escort. [More]

Darci writes: The Trilogy will be playing in Schenectady, NY on Saturday, July 31 at Proctor's Theatre. [More]

The Lord of the Rings trilogy of films may have appeared to have made the impossible real, but now its backers want more. While there is no doubt they are the masters of Middle Earth, and all the plastic merchandise that can be forged in the Mountains of Cashin, Warners Brothers, New Line Productions and The Saul Zaentz Company are now determined to extend their dominion. [More]

From gamespyarcade.com: On Friday, July 16th, 2004 at 4:00 p.m. PST / 7:00 PM EST, GameSpy Arcade is pleased to Welcome back VP and Executive Producer for The Lord of the Rings: The Battle For Middle-earth Mark Skaggs into the GameSpy.com lobby for an exclusive Chat about the game and it's "A.I" features. See you there! [More] [Gaming Havens]

wweek.com has a very interesting story behind the corruption and greed that occured with some folks at the website BitofEarth. The article gives us a timeline that led up to the aborted Tentmoot convention and other events that appeared to be a money grab. Read all about the unfortunate good souls that were caught up in the big mess. [More]

inkworks.com is reporting that some of the cast and crew from the new ABC show 'Lost' will be at Comic-Con 2004. They list Dominic Monaghan as one of the cast attending. Also of interesting note are creative wundermen Paul Dini (Batman: Beyond) and David Fury of Buffy & Angel fame. [More]

Ringer Spies Cassie, James, Ann, RoddyP, Ryan & HHB have all sent in their reports from the LOTR Concert last night in Philadelphia. The concert was in fact, NOT conducted by music-god Howard Shore. [More]

Roheryn writes: This tidbit appears in the current issue of Entertainment Weekly. It's about a voice talent that does the foreign language dubs of some of our most "precious" film characters. [More]

True-Hearted Easterling writes: Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has posted updated information about the literary conference they are holding October 22-23, 2004, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the publication of the The Lord of the Rings. [More]

Stargirl writes: Not sure if anyone else has seen this or not. Yahoo!'s Tech Tuesday feature is on digital video cameras and includes some LOTR geekiness. [More]

Rachie writes: It's Official. Billy Boyd's site has confirmed that he will be in attendance on Friday, July 23rd. [More]

Screen legend Christopher Lee is ready to bare his fangs ... when he comes to Liverpool at the end of July. The insider can exclusively reveal that the 82-year-old star will be here for a "meet, greet and Q & A chat session" at the Adelphi hotel (not counting the fact that TORN mentioned this about 3 weeks ago...-Xo). He will be talking about the imminent DVD release of Jinnah and will also be getting his teeth into something closer to his heart - his "contribution" to the last Lord of the Rings film. [More]

One of Weta's senior model makers on the LOTR Trilogy, Mary Maclachlan will be attending Comic Con in San Diego, and will be at the Sideshow Weta Collectibles booth in the Lord of the Rings Pavillion. Mary also makes some of the LOTR collectibles and will be able to answer questions about the miniatures on LOTR and modelmaking in general. [comic-con.org]

Tokomaru will be helping King Kong conquer New York in Peter Jackson's latest movie. Steam engines from the privately-owned Tokomaru Steam Museum, 21km southwest of Palmerston North, have been hired by the movie-makers to create an engine in a ship. [More]

Exciting news over at the Narnia-front. Sources within the production have confirmed that Jim Broadbent (the man that won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 2002 instead of Ian McKellen) will play Professor Kirke. The four Pevensie-children have also been cast. As expected they are all unknowns. The New Zealand Herald had the scoop during a visit to the set, described here. Or you can just check out the pictures and the names over at NarniaWeb.com or our favorite Dutch website: NarniaFilms.nl!

None other than John Cook writes: Just an email to say I've posted a new Lord of the Rings cartoon. This one has Saruman explaining to one of his Orcs where the Orcs originally came from. Check it out here!

Pippin's Sunshine & John Noble

Pippin's Sunshine writes: Attached are my pictures of John Noble at the Dallas Sci-fi expo this weekend. John was an incredible person to meet. He took the time to shake your hand and talk to you for a moment before signing your picture or whatever. In the afternoon, he gave a small Q&A, which was fascinating. [More]

Thain Brandybuck sends in another short report from the NZ Film Festival. He also sends along scans from the booklet cover and the pages with the description of the Lord of the Rings-documentary. [More]

Laurelin writes: If any of you attended Viggo's poetry reading at the Housing Works book store in July of 2002, you had the chance to hear the wonderful NYC band, 'One Ring Zero' (named for an aviation term, not the other 'one ring' that you may be familiar with). One Ring Zero will be featured today (Monday July 12) on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross. [More]

Irascian writes: Brian Sibley has just updated his site. Of particular interest to Ringers is a new article �The Ring Goes Ever On� covering Brian�s involvement with �The Lord of the Rings� over the last 25 years and containing anecdotes about the radio series first broadcast in 1981 that continues to sell well on cassette and CD today. [More]

Lori in Los Angeles writes: I saw both Aragorn and Legolas 20" action figures for sale in Glendale Galleria (California) Suncoast Video store last thursday. I see on Amazon that they are supposed to be available July 15 and Aug 1. [More] [TORN SHOP]

LadyHobbit40 writes: Sean Astin has an article in the August edition of Readers Digest titled "After the Storm". The tag line reads, "My mother taught me how to turn pain into strength." It's about his mom's (Patty Duke) struggle with bipolar disorder. [More]

Raven sends in two interesting scoops today, the first is about Topps releasing another ROTK card set in October. And some interesting news about New Line Cinema hopefully be featuring props, costumes and more on their auction site again? [More]

Dominic Monaghan will supposedly be on the premiere episode of the VH1 show 'I Love the 90s'. The show will air tomorrow at 8PM. [More]

Our own MrCere writes: Comic-Con posts its schedule with several LOTR events on the docket: The official San Diego Comic-Con has posted its programming schedule today and there are several events that Lord of the Rings fans will not want to miss. Beyond the tent-pole events the Con is LOADED with Fantasy and LOTR related topics so follow the links and search carefully for the content you crave. Read on for news of the major features. [More]

Laurelin writes: I'm very excited to report that my Topps ROTK Collectors' Update cards arrived in the mail today. The hobby edition has 36 packs per box, with 7 cards in each pack. The set includes 3 autograph cards and 9 costume memorabilia cards. [More]

Sydney, Australia, Jul. 8 (UPI) -- The "Lord of the Rings" so inspired the mayor of a Sydney suburb he suggested naming the streets in a housing project after its characters. [More]

Ian Holm will be talking about his autobiography 'Acting My Life at the National Theatre in London on Tuesday 5 October. [More]

Davem writes: Ian McKellen is playing Baden-Powell, the founder of the Boy Scout movement on BBC Radio 4 in the UK on Monday 12th July at 2.15 pm. [More]

R0CKINBIRD writes: Here is a clip if Dominic Monaghan's new show "Lost". It mostly shows Matthew Fox, but if you look close, you will get a couple of quick glimpses of Dom. He is the one in the dark hooded sweatshirt. [More]

Australian TORn readers propbably already know that John Rhys-Davies (Gimli) is coming to Australia in early September for the FSF convention in Sydney. However, they might not realise that he's going to be joined by John Noble (Denethor), Noel Appleby (Everard Proudfoot), and Morgan Evans (Legolas stunt double) as well as a WETA Workshop representative. And for those who hurry (sorry, you have to be Australian according to competition rules), there's a chance to win a pair of free tickets to the event! [More]

In Middle-earth, there are wizards and sorcerers, shape-changers and giant spiders, rings that make you disappear and seeing-stones. For many fantasy writers, these types of characters and objects are magical and mandatory in a fantasy work where there is often good magic and bad magic. [More]

WhiteAslan writes: TORn Discussion board members took it upon themselves to personally thank PJ & company for giving us the Lord of the Rings film trilogy. After much debate, it was decided that the best way to honor them (and Professor Tolkien) would be to have trees planted in New Zealand. We were able to raise the $1650NZD (approximately $1500USD) for the trees and much more! [More]

Folks from The Edge write: We're very excited to let you know about our current plans for the upcoming "LORD OF THE RINGS" MOVIE MARATHON CELEBRATION @ Cleveland State University, November 19-20, 2004, in Cleveland, Ohio. This event is a cooperative effort between The EDGE: Lutheran Campus Ministry & Art Gallery and the Cleveland State University Film Department. All events are FREE and open to the public. [More]

Our very own MrCere writes: TORnados, your chance to own our current styles of TORn shirts is going fast. We will no longer be replenishing our stock of our current styles of our "LOUSY" t-shirt and the "RETURN OF THE ONE PARTY" shirts so as soon as they are gone, they are GONE, never to return (probably). We get a lot of email requesting old styles of shirts and we don't want to disappoint our fellow fans but it is unlikely that old styles will return. NOW is the chance to get these shirts while supplies last. Refunds will be issued for all orders than cannot be filled. New styles will, hopefully, be announced soon. Thanks to all TORnados who have supported TheOneRing.net with shirt purchases. Every shirt you have purchases helps keep us on line. [TORN T-Shirt Shop]

Sean Astin will be on a repeat of the Ellen Degeneres show. Check your local listings. [Local Listings USA] [Local Listings CAN]

Bad news for Brad Dourif fans who planned on meeting him at 'Horrorfind' in Maryland on August 13th to the 15th. Katherine informs us he has had to cancel due to a filming commitment.

Ithilrande writes: There is a lovely 6 page article on Dom Monaghan in the latest issue of British Heritage entitled 'Frodo's Friend'. Also, the editor's letter discusses the Britons' ideals of kingship with reference to King Alfred and "King Aragorn". [More]

Ryan writes: There are still plenty of seats left for Philly's LOTR Symphony Concert. Maybe a reminder to your readers would help out? [Tickets]

Going to Comic-Con 2004 in San Diego? Do you collect Sideshow/Weta Collectibles? Well, you only have a week to place your order for the exclusive Smeagol Bust that can ONLY be picked up at the Sideshow/Weta Booth (#2029). [More]

Ringer Shauna sends in this tidbit for Oahu Ringers: �Sunset in the Park� will be at Pearl Harbor for the weekend of July 24-25, and on the 24th, they will be showing ROTK on their huge 30ft outdoor screen! As an added treat for Billy Boyd fans, they will be showing �Master and Commander� the following night. This event is free and open to the public, and will be located at Richardson Field, across from Aloha Stadium.

Take a look at about two dozen more images from the Karlovy Vary Film Festival featuring Bernard Hill and Elijah Wood. Keep an eye out for Harvey Keitel and Colm Meaney too! [More]

Update from IMDB: Pregnant Hollywood beauty Liv Tyler is doing "fine" after she fainted in a restaurant on Saturday. The Jersey Girl star was dining with husband Royston Langdon, actor Mark Wahlberg and his partner Rhea Durham at The Pearl eaterie on Massachusetts' Nantucket Island, when she passed out at the table. After refusing first aid in the restaurant, five-months pregnant Tyler and Langdon visited Nantucket Cottage Hospital for a check-up. Her representative David Nesmith says, "Everything's fine. She just over- extended herself on a most beautiful day. They took her vitals and determined that she had too much sun and too much of a good time shopping with the girls earlier in the day while Roy golfed. She and the baby are fine."