Primula Baggins writes: Wow, I had SUCH a wonderful time and wish to add my thanks to Marcie for hosting the event in her lovely home. The Valar must have smiled on us, because the heavy rain predicted for the Los Angeles area on Saturday October 14th never materialized! Greeting arrivals in the living room was Kristi's life-sized Gollum statue, sporting an elegant new "Wizard" ensemble in sable and blue that matched his eyes perfectly. The kitchen table was filled with great snacks and desserts, and in the backyard Rohtireth had set up a large tent decorated with wall-sized cloth banners of Rohan design and sparkly lights. Charming! [More]

From Variety: MGM's recent announcement that it intended to release "The Hobbit" and, hopefully, get Peter Jackson to direct it, caused major buzz in Hollywood. It also caused a frenzy among Jackson fans, who have been lobbying via petition on the fansite TheOneRing.net for Jackson to tackle the "Lord of the Rings" prequel ASAP. The petition tallied nearly 50,000 signatures and was submitted to MGM and New Line, which share film rights to "The Hobbit." (MGM owns distribution rights; New Line owns the rights to actually make the movie.) [More]

ROME (AP) - October 17, 2006 - For Viggo Mortensen, it's loyalty to friends - not to flag or country - that keeps soldiers on the battlefield, as depicted by his character in the film "Alatriste" about a soldier in 17th century Spain. "Alatriste is not really fighting for his king, but for his friends," the 47-year-old actor said Monday before presenting the movie at the Rome Film Festival. "There's a sense of honor and pride, some of them, of course, fight for their countries, but for some, first comes friendship, the people you're there with," Mortensen said, going as far as to compare his character, an aloof and loyal hero to "the American, Italian or even Spanish soldiers who fight in Iraq." [More]

Miranda Otto, who filmed the final "Lord of the Rings" film in New Zealand, will head back home to Australia for her next project. The Aussie actress and Joe Mantegna will join Debra Messing in "The Starter Wife," a USA Network limited series set in the world of Hollywood, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "Starter Wife" is adapted from the novel of the same name by Gigi Levangie Grazer and revolves around how Gracie (Messing) copes after her husband, the powerful head of a studio, cheats on her and then divorces her. Used to being a "Wife Of," Grace is homeless, until a friend allows her to temporarily crash in a home in Malibu. [More]

A ton of interesting new films are out on DVD this week. Take an early look on our 'DVD Tuesday' feature...every Monday! Check out some TV goodies like 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents - S2', 'Big Love - S1' & 'C.S.I. New York - S2'. Some great animation out today as well, 'Nick Picks Boxed Set', 'Over the Hedge' & 'The Very Best Of Sabrina - The Animated Series'. Some Blu-Ray & HD DVD offerings include; 'Reds', 'Gone in 60 Seconds', 'Dark Water' & 'The Brothers Grimm'. Personally I'm interested in 'Over the Hedge' & 'Predator: The Boxset'! Check out the whole list here! [More]

From BBC.co.uk: Birmingham's historic Moseley Bog, said to have inspired JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, is to get a major revamp. The area's Wildlife Trust will use up to Ł500,000 of lottery grants to transform the wetlands, adding new car parking, footpaths and public art. The news has been welcomed by fans of Tolkien. The author used the bog as a childhood playground. His great nephew, Tim Tolkien, says he hopes the spirit of the site will be preserved throughout the work. Moseley Bog dates back to the Bronze Age and is thought to have inspired the "Old Forest" in the author's books. The city council has entered into an agreement with the Wildlife Trust to jointly manage Moseley Bog. The council will retain the freehold lease while the Wildlife Trust will manage the site for the next 25 years.

Colleen writes: Craig Parker is the model for this character in Marvel comic's The Book of Lost Souls. Art featuring him is being auctioned off on ebay to benefit his favorite charity. [More]

Naomi Novik has written three fantasy novels chronicling the Napoleon-era adventures of a swashbuckling ship captain and a heroic dragon named Temeraire who fight to rescue Britain from a French invasion. Ms. Novik has just sold the film rights to all three of her books to Peter Jackson, the director of such blockbusters as “King Kong” and “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy. The deal has completed her ascent from a computer programmer to a virtually unknown writer to a newly minted member of a select group of authors — J. R. R. Tolkien among them — whose novels could receive the extravagant high-tech, big-budget Jackson treatment. [More]

KUNGLOOSH writes: Our Tolkien fan group got together on Saturday, October 14, 2006 for a day of eating, fun, eating, hiking, and eating. (Hey, wouldn't be a Hobbit Feast without the food!) The festivities were at Starved Rock State Park in Utica, IL. There was even a tree that looked like a "party tree" from the movie. Those who attended were: me, Bill, Nancy, Rob & friend, James, Susan, Rogan, Alesia, and Sandy. A toast was given in the memory of our greatly missed friend Balin. Our group gets together twice a year at Starved Rock and our next get together will be in June. [More]

Rocky writes: For Toronto residents and visitors, you may be interested in attending the 2nd Annual Fantasy Worldwide Film Festival: The Fantasy Worldwide Film Festival has announced its line up of films for the second annual event, which is taking place October 27-29, 2006 in Toronto. More than 45 films will be presented including features, shorts, animation and documentaries; many are Canadian or World Premieres. [More]

Comic fans whose fandom crosses over with Lord of the Rings will have something to look out for later this month, when Topps’ The Lord of the Rings Masterpieces trading card set...The sketch cards are that – cards upon which the named artists drew images of LotR characters, scenes and events. There’s no reproduction - the cards in the packs are the cards the artists drew on. Each sketch card is a one of a kind piece of art. With the number of artists, the total sketch card count comes to roughly 25,000 cards – the number of cards done by any one artist carried due to their schedules, ranging from 50 at the low end all the way up to one artist who produced 2,500. The cards are inserted randomly in boxes of the Hobby Market version of the cards (not mass market retail). [More]

GREENSBORO — The hobbits can teach us a thing or two about terrorism, so says a religious scholar and author who will speak about the subject at UNCG. The school announced today that Ralph Wood will hold a lecture at UNCG on Oct. 26 entitled "J.R.R. Tolkien: Writer for Our Time of Terror." Wood, a professor of theology and literature at Baylor University, will speak at 7 p.m. in the Alexander Room, Elliot University Center. His lecture is sponsored by the UNCG English department's speakers series. It's free and open to the public. Tolkien wrote classics including "The Hobbit" and the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. His works have enjoyed a resurgence in popularity following the release of the recent "Lord of the Rings" films. [More]

Weta Digital is an extraordinary company. It was formed 13 years ago in, of all places, New Zealand, by film director Peter Jackson and others to provide visual effects to movies. After having its physical effects part split off, one of its first projects was to provide the special effects (SFX) for the film Heavenly Creatures. This needed one computer, a film scanner and a film recorder. Since then the Lord of the Rings trilogy has happened, followed by King Kong, and Weta D now has up to 600 people working on projects using a so-called Renderwall suppercomputer with 4,400 processors backed by a BlueArc Titan super-NAS system. [More]

Explore Tolkien’s Middle-earth in a 10-week on-line course hosted by the Centre for Lifelong Learning at Cardiff University. The course will examine Tolkien’s awareness of northern European mythologies and languages as well as other aspects of his scholarly background, by concentrating on The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and The Silmarillion. [More]

Robert from iesb.net writes: We spoke to Andy Serkis today during the press day for Flushed Away and of course we spoke about The Hobbit. [More]

Dan Goldwasser Editor-in-Chief of soundtrack.net writes: We've put up the tracklist (with track times) for the upcoming release of the TWO TOWERS complete soundtrack. Hope you find this useful! [More]

Pre-Order 'The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - The Complete Recordings' on Amazon
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Dominic Monaghan's hit sci-fi/fantasy show 'Lost' is on tonight! Be sure to catch it on ABC! TORN's chatroom now has a special 'Lost' screening room, login to #lost at 9PM and watch with fans from around the country! [TORN CHAT]

Dominic will also be a guest on 'Late Night with Conan Obrien' later tonight on NBC. Watch this space for a clip!

We have several GREAT items from the award-winning indie film RINGERS: LORD OF THE FANS, and a very special large-size LOST poster autographed by stars Dom Monaghan, Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly, and more -- now on eBay! A veritable cornucopia of items, some actually appearing in RINGERS during the Sing-Along spoof of LOTR merchandising, are available now. [More]

The folks from Wallflower Press write: The first book to analyse the commercial and cultural impact of The Lord of the Rings phenomena from a truly international perspective. Comprehensive and meticulously researched, it follows the trajectory of how global cinema can be presented, appreciated, and appropriated in the 21st century.

The Lord of the Rings: Popular Culture in Global Context takes the release of the film trilogy as a point of departure for an overview of the international impact of The Lord of the Rings in a range of cultural environments (the US, the UK, New Zealand, and Europe). This anthology examines the merchandising, box office figures, distribution, critical reception, fan following and cult status of the films. It focuses on how its many different facets; trailers, DVD editions, websites, computer games, music, location tours, and even its unlikely erotic spin-offs contributed to making The Lord of the Rings the most publicly recognised brand image of the 21st century so far. [More]

Order 'LOTR: Popular Culture in Global Context' on Amazon
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Geri writes: I just thought I'd let you know that Rings stars Craig Parker, Mark Ferguson, Bruce Spence & Miranda Otto are on the guest list for this years Collectormania in Manchester. [More]

Nominations for the 34th International Emmy® Awards were announced today by The International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences at a press conference at MIPCOM. There are 36 nominees in 9 categories. Bernard Hill has been nominated for an International Emmy for his work on 'A Very Social Secretary'. Winners will be announced at a Black-Tie Ceremony on November 20, 2006 at the Hilton New York Hotel.