Rebecca Taiaroa from Leukodystrophy Support Network NZ writes: Local New Zealand celebrity Charlotte Dawson has donated the dress she wore to the Lord of the Rings Twin(SIC) Towers Premiere to our organisation, Leukodystrophy Support Network New Zealand. This dress is currently being auctioned on www.trademe.co.nz and the auction will finish on Tuesday 23rd November NEW ZEALAND TIME. [More]

An exhibition of items from the movie trilogy Lord of the Rings will be held at Sydney's Powerhouse Museum from December 18 to March 31. "The Lord of the Rings Motion Picture Trilogy - The Exhibition" will include props, costumes, artefacts and film footage from the blockbuster film trilogy. [More]

Sir Ian McKellen is to take on his most surprising role yet - Widow Twankey. The 65-year-old will appear at the Old Vic theatre in London in next month’s classic pantomime, Aladdin. Long considered one of the finest classical actors of his generation, Sir Ian is looking forward to the part. [More]

Liv Tyler was a vision of a radiant-mom-to-be as she was out and about in New York on Wednesday. Although the Lord Of The Rings star was bundled-up in a loose-fitting coat as she took a stroll with friends, there was no missing her burgeoning bump. [More]

If you haven't been following the geeky goodness going on over at KongisKing.net recently, pay attention to this! Peter Jackson regularly posts video 'Production Diaries' about the making of his latest film, King Kong. These diaries range from special effects to the making of props and other items. In his most recent entry he asks fans to send along questions about film-making and cinema, he wants to know what YOU are interested in seeing! Take a look! [More]

Olog-Hai's "Science of Middle-earth" columns have been a popular feature among Green Books Special Guest columns since the first one appeared in July 2003. Now these columns have been updated, with many new ones, and published as a book The Science of Middle-earth. Turgon has taken this opportunity to discuss Tolkien with Olog-Hai's real world persona, Henry Gee. [More]

The folks from Now Playing Magazine send along part 2 of thier interview with Kevin Miller, ROTK DVD producer. [More]

Sean Bean fans can rejoice, his latest film 'National Treasure' is out today in theatres across North America. The film, about a war chest hidden by the Founding Fathers after the Revolutionary War, stars Nicholas Cage and is produced by Big Bang stalwart Jerry Bruckheimer.
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Whose life would you most want to live in Tolkien's Middle Earth? Now, we don't mean who is your favorite character, but whose life, both the good and bad, do you long to experience for yourself? [More]

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - British screen star Jude Law, one of Hollywood's hottest properties, won the ultimate accolade when he was named People magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive." Brad Pitt, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Johnny Depp remained in the ranks of the world's sexiest men and were joined British "Lord of the Rings" star Orlando Bloom, hip-hop singer Usher, Irish bad boy star Colin Farrell and Bruce Willis. [More]

Scott Collura writes: Even though the last film in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy came out a year ago, the series really won’t come to an end until next month when the director’s Special Extended DVD Edition is released. As with the Extended Editions of the first two films, this is a completely new cut of ROTK, including the addition of a whopping 50 minutes of footage to the theatrical version. In anticipation of the December 14th release, Now Playing Magazine recently spoke about the Extended Edition with Kevin Miller, one of the DVD producers from Pellerin Multimedia Inc. [More]

David and many others write: The ROTK EE teaser trailer on the front page of the official site is now advertising an extended trailer, due to be put on the site on Nov 29. The ad is right at the end of the teaser trailer. [More]

HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA --TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2004 -- The “Ring” has now come full circle for fans of J.R.R. Tolkien. The director, co-writer, producer, and the stellar leading cast of The Lord of the Rings film trilogy will appear in RINGERS: LORD OF THE FANS, executive produced by Tom DeSanto (Apt Pupil, X-Men, Transformers), and directed by first-time writer/director Carlene Cordova. RINGERS is a feature-length documentary that explores how "The Lord of the Rings" has influenced Western popular culture for the past 50 years. The film reveals many layers of history and artistic inspiration behind Tolkien’s books, while reveling in the pop frenzy carried forward by the Hippie movement, the rockers, the fantasists, the activists, and legions of screaming fans. [More]

Mary writes: The Lord of the Rings Trilogy will be showing in Charleston SC on Saturday, December 11, 2004. The Fellowship of the Ring EE- 10:00 am, The Two Towers EE - 2:00 pm, and The Return of the King - 7:00 pm. Tickets go on sale at the box office starting November 16,2004. [More]

This event has been cancelled

When Lord of the Rings (LOTR) began filming, large Hollywood-style production was introduced to the small filmmaking community of Wellington, New Zealand. Until this big budget film, sound teams had been small and understaffed. Extensive changing and updating of soundtracks had not been a widespread or common activity due to cost and time constraints upon the filmmakers. Projects were generally locked off and completed by the time sound postproduction began. That all changed when, in the first year of production, Fellowship of the Ring went through 50 versions before completion. Scrambling to keep up with the rapidly changing edit became the main focus. Creative sound track making became secondary to just keeping the movie in sync. [More]

LOS ANGELES - Humphrey Bogart, Arnold Schwarzenegger (news - web sites) and Jack Nicholson are competing in a war of words. The American Film Institute (news - web sites) is surveying Hollywood types for the top 100 quotes from U.S. movies, with contenders including Bogart's "Here's looking at you, kid" from "Casablanca," Schwarzenegger's "I'll be back" from "The Terminator" and Nicholson's "You can't handle the truth!" from "A Few Good Men." The quotes range from the first full sound feature film with Al Jolson (news)'s "Wait a minute, wait a minute. You ain't heard nothin' yet" from 1927's "The Jazz Singer" to creepy creature Gollum (Andy Serkis) hissing "My precious" in 2002's "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers." [More]

Getting stranded on an inhospitable island with a bunch of nefarious characters and a blood-thirsty beast that lurks in the bushes has turned out to be a good thing for Dominic Monaghan. The British actor acquired cult fame status by playing the hairy-footed Hobbit Merry Brandybuck in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. And now his smoldering portrayal as tortured rocker Charlie on ABC's "Lost" (tonight at 8) has positioned him as one of the hit show's breakout stars. [More]

Suzanne writes: The One Man Lord of the Rings, written and performed by Charles Ross, directed by TJ Dawe. 40 characters. 3 masterworks. 3600 seconds. One Man to do it all. Master-Impressionist, Charles "One Man LOTR" Ross, rockets you across Middle-Earth in this one-hour tour-de-force. Performed at the Roxy movie Theatre, your ticket price includes a screening of the multi-Oscar winning film Return of the King. Please note 7:00 showtime for performance. Advance tickets available at CURIOUS COMICS by phone at (250)383-2663.

Ringer Spy web nomix writes: "Fans of Bruce Hopkins may be interested to know that the film 1Nite will finally be screened in both Auckland (Nov 28th, 29 at the Rialto) and Wellington on 30th November (at the Paramount). I caught the screening at the Auckland film festival and can honestly say that this movie stays with you. Ok, its obviously shot on a very small budget, at times the colour and sound suffer... BUT... the acting performances are universally good!" Also, Bruce Hopkins and Cameron Rhodes can be seen in the musical 'A Christmas Carol' as of last week. Head for more information over to Bruce-Hopkins.com!

Ellen writes: Here is a link to the Big Book Auction. They are auctioning books owned by celebrities for the LEPRA charity, and there are two LOTR actors participating, Ian McKellen (Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver) and Bernard Hill (A fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry). [More]

Eileen writes: Just thought I'd let you know that the Sean Astin Book Signing that was supposed to take place this Friday, November 19th at 'A Clean Well Lighted Place For Books' has been rescheduled to Friday, December 10th at 7pm. [More]

Folks from The Minnesota Tolkien Society Write: We want you to know about “The Return of the Trilogy”, a viewing of each of the Extended Editions on the Big Screen at Church of the Open Door. Cost is $15 including all three showings [capacity 1100 seats]. Elevenses [box lunch] is available for $10 [200 seats], and the King’s Feast [A royal affair to be sure!] Pig Roast is available for $25 [200 seats]. Tickets available immediately and exclusively on-line. [More]

Michael Scasserra, Web and Publications Editor for the New Jersey Performing Arts Center writes: We have some exciting LORD OF THE RINGS news to share with you and your readers. On Dec. 3 and 4, the NY-Metropolitan area premiere of Howard Shore's THE LORD OF THE RINGS SYMPHONY (a symphonic adaptation of his score for all three RINGS films) is taking place at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. [More]

The NW Tolkien Society folks write: We are pleased to announce a member's only reception December 9th, at 5:30 pm at the Suzzallo Library, University of Washington, with Mr. Alan Lee, Tolkien illustrator and Conceptual Artist for the LOTR films. There is limited space. How can you attend this exclusive event? Email bekahwa@yahoo.com to request reservations (2 person limit). Memberships can be purchased at the door, but only 70 can attend. After the reception, we’ll head over to the University Bookstore for Mr. Lee’s book signing.

Without a new Lord of the Rings movie to look forward to, Christmas 2004 just won't be the same. At least console owners can settle for this Tolkien spin-off, which features lots of clips from Peter Jackson's trilogy, as well as a suitably sombre voice-over from Ian McKellan (Gandalf). Millions of dollars were piled into the Third Age, and it shows. [More]

Young Adam has swept the board at the Scottish Baftas, winning four awards including best film. Stars Ewan McGregor and Tilda Swinton were named best actor and best actress at the ceremony in Glasgow, with David MacKenzie the best director. Celebrities from film, television and the music industry turned out on Sunday night for the first of Scotland's new bigger, annual Bafta events. They included Lord of the Rings star Billy Boyd, who said Scottish film was doing "really well" at the moment. "The more nights we can have like this, the better, to show we can do it up here, we don't have to go up to London to do it," he said. [More]

Eomer's Woman writes" A small group of us is attending the upcoming LOTR Symphony in Baltimore, to be performed by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) on Dec. 7th and 8th. I wrote to the BSO to see if they were interested in organizing a "meet and greet" similar to those that Howard Shore and Sissel participated in previously. They wrote back and told me that they would love to do it, and wanted to know roughly how many people were interested (after each performance). For all those planning on attending the event, we have created a yahoo group. On that group page there is an area where you can indicate if you are interested in attending. [More]

The folks from action-figure.com send along part 2 of thier coverage from the NY Toy Fair (Part 1 can be found here.) Take a look at all the goodies coming your way! Only 39 shopping days until Christmas, by the way. [More]

Lee sends along word that the 4th book in the 'Art of' series 'The Art of The Lord of the Rings' has had a cover change. Take a look at the new cover, and pre-order the book at Amazon.com [More]

The red carpet is being rolled out at a Glasgow hotel for the Bafta Scotland Awards 2004. Film stars Robert Carlyle and Billy Boyd, of Lord of the Rings fame, are expected to attend the glittering ceremony at the Radisson SAS Hotel. [More]

SGD writes: Starz is premiering ROTK Thanksgiving weekend on the 27th. They will be showing back to back viewings of TTT and ROTK non-extended edition. In other news Electronic Arts has posted inside the battle volume 8 for LOTR: Battle for Middle-earth video game. [More]

Cheshire Cat writes: It seems that the LOTR Isle of Man stamp presentation pack is now available autographed by Billy Boyd. They have a limited edition of the stamps signed by the actor and presented in a gold mount according to the official website. It is selling for a reasonable £22.50 (apx $40). A nice way for Billy fans to get hold of a genuine autograph I would say. [More]

Wing-ap-o writes: I write on behalf of a group of fans of Lord of the Rings from Spain which met at first through the internet in a movie forum called Cinelandia. We're known as the ringers there ('anilleros' in Spanish) and our nicks are Miss Blanchett, Rondador, BudWhite, Dandreemex, SombraGris and J.R.R.T. [More]

Wellington, New Zealand -- "Peter wants this," scribbled the young woman next to me at a Courtenay Place cafe. I figured she had to be in pictures. Wearing a tailored black suit and the requisite sexy-librarian glasses, she was jotting comments in the margins of some latte-stained production notes. Peter, I had to assume, was Peter Jackson, the white-hot and famously disheveled Wellington director who practically wore out the carpet on Oscar night last February as he repeatedly made his way to the stage to accept a double armful of statuettes for "Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King." [More]