Box office star Sir Ian McKellen took to the stage at the Drill Hall theatre in London at the weekend as a guest speaker at the launch of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans History Month. Now in its third year, the month has quickly become a major event in both the LGBT and education worlds. Sir Ian praised the conference for its strong panel and dynamic audience – a diverse range of teachers, artists, academics and activists all committed to the cause of LGBT equality in education. [More]

New York - Gameloft®, a leading publisher and developer of video games for mobile phones, is announcing today the launch of LOST™, the official mobile game of ABC/Touchstone Television’s award-winning television series. Developed in close collaboration with the show’s producers, the game is sure to pick up instant success by connecting with its massive amount of loyal fans. [More]

A N Wilson writes: It is strange to be reminded, by a recent geological history of Rome, that the volcanic catastrophes which created the seven eternal hills occurred between two million and 500,000 years ago. It reminds us of how recent were the arrival of Aeneas or the foundation of the city in 753 BC.

That there was an old world that has now passed away, a heroic world, snatches of which we hear only in half-comprehended song, is an ever-present awareness in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. He is the only modern writer of what might be termed fantasy-literature who conveys this sense – which we find in Virgil and is also present in the Beowulf poet — of a heroic past that is slipping out of memory. [More]

Howard Webster - editor of Factory magazine writes: We will shortly be posting a free downloadable version of the Ian McKellen shoot we did for one of our recent editions on line at factory-publishing.com.

Howard's photography site, howardwebsterphotography.com, features some preview images of McKellen. You will also see images of William Moseley - who plays Peter King of Narnia shot last year and Ken Kamins - Peter Jackson's manager.

The prize for Best Special Effects at this year's Imagina Awards, held in Monte Carlo on February 1, 2007, was jointly awarded to Framestore CFC and Weta Digital for the VFX work on X-Men: The Last Stand. The award - one of Imagina's famous glass teapots - was accepted on behalf of the company by joint CEO William Sargent. X-Men: The Last Stand opened in May 2006 around the world, breaking many box-office records. Directed by Brett Ratner and starring Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry and Patrick Stewart, the film is a 20th Century Fox production. The film's VFX Supervisor was John Bruno. [More]

Lorien "Ramen" Carney, Community Relations Specialist for The Lord of the Rings Online writes: Welcome to the first of many Developer Diary installments discussing monster play. We’ve kept the wraps on this aspect of the production for long enough, so here’s your first look behind the curtain at the geography of your monster playground! [More]

Now on eBay we have toys & authentic production items from RINGERS: LORD OF THE FANS including a MINT Gollum action figure lovingly autographed by Andy Serkis! Not to mention the puzzles, film strips, and boxers shorts. Come join the bidding and own a piece of indie film history. [More]

Kerewyn writes: Melbourne LOTR fans! The Rooftop Cinema in Swanston Street will be screening ‘Fellowship of the Ring’ on Sunday February 18. There are only 200 deckchairs, so to book now at rooftopcinema.com to reserve your place on the astro-turf lawn under the stars, amongst the city’s rooftops. The rooftop bar and gourmet snack menu will make this big screen viewing of your favourite film even more enjoyable.

Dominic Monaghan will be on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' tonight on ABC. He is there to promote the second half of the current season of LOST. Catch 'Jimmy Kimmel Live' on ABC at 12:35AM, catch LOST Wednesdays on ABC.

Greg Wright is the author of Tolkien in Perspective: Sifting the Gold from the Glitter, and is Writer in Residence at Puget Sound Christian College in Everett, Washington. Formerly Contributing Editor at Hollywood Jesus, Greg’s collected essays on Tolkien and Jackson have just been republished in a new archive at the site. Greg is now Managing Editor of Gospelcom’s movie review site Past the Popcorn.

We asked Greg to comment on the whole situation with The Hobbit, this is what he had to say! “Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated,” Mark Twain wrote after the New York Journal erroneously covered news of his demise. “Mistaken publications of obituaries aren’t as rare as you might expect,” observes The Phrase Finder. We might say the same for the frequency with which greenlit film projects never see the light of a projector lamp, or the number of times “dead” film projects are resurrected. [More]

Call to all artists! Yes, that includes all fans!

The 3rd annual Lord of the Rings and Fantasy art show is being held in conjunction with the One Ring Celebration. We encourage all interested artists to participate, whether they be professional or amateur. You can help make this show as wonderful as the previous shows by participating! You can find the rules and entry form at this link (scroll to the art show announcement).

If you're interested in participating, please download the entry form. All artwork inspired by Tolkien is welcome from paintings to jewlery to pottery. Mail in artwork is accepted. If you can't attend ORC, you can still be part of the celebration!

Paul Davids writes: My film, THE SCI-FI BOYS, premieres Wednesday on Sci Fi Channel at 8 pm in Los Angeles if you have a direct feed cable system such as DISH NETWORK (otherwise it will screen at 11 pm, the time it screens in NY - please check your schedules). Same situation with mountain time and central time - could show up in your schedule at 9 pm mountain time and 10 pm central time, or it could show same time as it does in NY (11 pm).

Synposis: Legendary all-stars of cinema bring to life the evolution of science-fiction and special effects films from the wild and funny days of B-movies to blockbusters that have captured the world's imagination. This is the story of the Sci-Fi Boys, who started out as kids making amateur movies inspired by Forrest J Ackerman's FAMOUS MONSTERS magazine and grew up to take Hollywood by storm, inventing the art and technology for filming anything the mind can dream.

A ton of interesting new films are out on DVD this week. Take an early look on our 'DVD Tuesday' feature...every Monday! Some very cool aimation out like 'Amazing Screw-On Head', 'Hellboy: Sword of Storms', 'Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo' & 'Last Unicorn'. The big releases of the week are 'Hollywoodland' & 'Flags of Our Fathers'. Be sure to check out the new Bond re releases 'For Your Eyes Only', 'Goldeneye', 'Goldfinger', 'Licence to Kill', 'Spy Who Loved Me' & 'Thunderball'. Personally I'm interested in 'Amazing Screw-On Head' & 'Hellboy'! Check out the whole list here! [More]

Ashlee & Rachel Scott from M.A.R.S. Productions write: We put together a new Middle Earth Idols promo, which includes our celebrity guest judges and music by Emerald Rose. The actual film trailer will be online by mid-February. [More]

e.sinchew-i.com has posted a few images from the LOTR exhibit that recently moved to Filmpark Babelsberg in Potsdam, eastern Germany. [More]

The year began with unconfirmed rumors that The Lord of the Rings: The White Council had been canceled. The open-world role-playing game, which had been unveiled last summer, was slated for a holiday 2007 release on the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3. It was to be the latest game from Electronic Arts based on Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings film trilogy, which was inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien's best-selling fantasy novels. Today, during a postearnings call, EA CFO Warren Jenson confirmed that The White Council is not canceled--but that work on it has been indefinitely suspended. "The Lord of the Rings product is back in development in terms of being on hold," he cryptically told an analyst who asked whether or not the game had been canceled outright. [More]

We've waited a week, and the revelation is here at last! The first piece in Sideshow Collectibles new Lord of the Rings diorama line is 'Frodo and Gollum - The Crack of Doom.' They've posted an impressive teaser using the voice over from FOTR. Check it out! [View the Video] [License Details]

mithril writes: John Howe is narrating a French documentary (on the illustrator Leo Schnug) called Le Seigneur du Château. He had mentioned in an earlier newsletter that the castle seen in this documentary was the inspiration for much of the furniture in Bag End. The link includes a trailer and listings for the time the film will be shown on French TV. There are some nice LOTR illustrations at the beginning of the trailer. [More]

Dave Taylor from gamerzines.com writes: I thought you guys at The One Ring might be interested in the hands on preview we've got in the new issue of PCGZine. We're a free PC games magazine written by professional games journalists in the UK. The magazine is made available in PDF format for free download. All you need is Adobe Reader (we recommend updating to version 8 to avoid issues if you have Internet Explorer 7 installed). The magazine includes video and multimedia on top of the editorial.

We were fortunate enough to be shown around Middle Earth by one of the developers so our preview is well informed and there's lots of screens and even some amusing dancing videos in the magazine. And for those who know it all, there is even a mini interactive quiz where people can test their Tolkien knowledge. [More]

The Embassy Theatre in Wellington has sent out their latest newsletter. The big news is that they will be screening all three LOTR films this February as part of their summer series (North America's winter). From the newsletter: Peter Jackson's Academy Award winning films should only be seen in the luxury of our leather armchairs and on our giant screen.

LORD OF THE RINGS: The Fellowship of the Ring - Febuary 4th and 25th
LORD OF THE RINGS: The Two Towers - Febuary 11th
LORD OF THE RINGS: The Return of the King - Febuary 18th

TheOneRing.net, TORn Message Board Members, myself and many others actually have our names on a chair in the theatre. I had the pleasure of seeing 'March of the Penguins' there last April. Take a look at some of our photos from the trip.