Today's 'Dominion' newspaper has a nice picture of Peter Jackson chatting to the Prime Minister. The occasion is a party being thrown to celebrate the opening of Jackson's new film unit at Avalon, near Wellington. The film production crew also attended, as did the producers and crew of the TV series "The Tribe" which is also made there; also invited were film and broadcasting industry figures.
The National Film Unit used to belong to Television New Zealand, and is the only full post-production film processing laboratory in the country, and is said to be "the only one-stop post-production lab offering a 16-millimetre and 35-millimetre laboratory and sound production" in NZ and Australia.
The PM said the industry had untapped potential."I'm sure that in the future, as in the past, some form of government support and facilitation is going to be needed. That's why we've said we want to work with the Film Commission and other relevant players to investigate the establishment of a film development fund to attract more investment into the country."
I also heard a soundbyte from Radio New Zealand covering the same event. Peter Jackson arrived by helicopter, and was interviewed. He said that in such a huge undertaking, three films at once, small problems had a way of snowballing. Or at least, that's what I think he was trying to say; he's one of those people that sound like their mind is racing way ahead of their tongue. He also said that filming was going very well and the actors were turning in great performances.
The PM talked more about finding govt. support for NZ film-makers onto their second or third project. Jackson and other local producers/directors have pointed out that there is a need for that. Jackson is one of the only directors to stay in NZ after 'making it' as a successful film-maker; usually there isn't the funding available to produce larger films here, so people tend to go overseas as soon as they've had any success.

Matt chimes in with a report about AOL's daily crossword:

"AOL Daily Crossword, 39 across, Frodo (looks wrong to my untrained eye - shouldn't it be Bilbo?)

Enjoy!"

We have an Exclusive pic of that burned Hobbiton building! Check out which one and what it looked like before it burned! [More]

!!!SPOILERS!!!

A number of sightings in Spy Reports confirm that all was not as it seemed originally.

Those of you planning on going to the Wellington International Arts Festival should keep an eye on events in the accompanying Fringe festival too. Apparently there's a thing called "Fangorn:The Opera" on the 11th and 12th of March. Featuring assorted characters from Middle-earth, it's described as 'comic, with a serious message,' and a blend of 'country, folk, blues and opera.'
Sounds intriguing.

This weeks Ebay Items are up and ready for you to gander at in our Shop section. Take a looksee [More]

The Judges have met,.. and the results of the Tolkien 2000 contest are in!

Congratulations to David Laughlin, Jerry Belcher, Mike Hess, and John Miller!

Drop by the contest area to see the winning entries. [ more ]

The Brad Dourif (Wormtongue) film 'Color of Night' will be on Cinemax at 11:30 EST.

It seems that the Helms Deep set is undergoing a few changes, perhaps they are getting ready to close it down and move on. [More]

!!!SPOILERS!!!

A new Hall of Fire topic is selected and ready for next weekend! This time we'll explore the possibilities of a frightening scenario: What would have happened if Frodo had succumbed to his wound inflicted by the Lord of the Nazgul? [More]

If you head on down to the Glasgow Film Theatre in Scotland tomorrow, you can catch a rare showing of Bashki's LOTR cartoon. Seeing it on a full size screen may hopefully make it...larger :)

Thanks to All you Scot Ringers who sent that in!

The Peter Jackson film 'Heavenly Creatures' will be on Ireland's 'Network 2' tonight, be sure to catch that critically acclaimed film.

Tehanu's latest note 'Rarefied Air' is another great read. [More]

Any my latest Rant 'The Mirror of Galadriel' is ready for your paroosel :) Check it out! [More]

The perennially beloved tales of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien occupy a distinctive and rather peculiar niche in British literature history. [More]

The latest Ethan Hawke (Faramir) film 'Hamlet' has been reviwed over at Aint It Cool News. Hawke is getting a good review himself. [More]

Thought I missed this one did ya? Well thanks to the not-so-evil Palpatine I've gotten the news that Aint It Cool News has reviewed Ian Holm's (Bilbo) latest film 'Joe Gould's Secret', and is giving it two tumbs up.

On Holm: By contrast, Ian Holm's Joe Gould hits highs and lows sometimes in alternate breaths. Holm is utterly transfomed. This performance is almost beyond belief, Holm broke my heart so many times in this film I almost could not bear it.

Looks good for our Bilbo![ More]

Super Ringer Spy Leo has been busy snapping a few pics in and around the Hobbiton set and now he's at Tongariro National Park. Take a good look...this will be Mordor some day [More]

The ever resourceful Paul L has shed some light of what could possibly be happening with Steelpechase and or the official site, or lack thereof.

I think I can shed some light on the steeplechase media mystery.

www.steeplechasemedia.com appears to be hosted (ie the webserver) on a machine belonging to Canned Interactive Media (www.cannery.com) this discovered via nslookup and traceroute.

If you go to www.cannery.com you will find that they do a lot of websites for movies (eg the spy who shagged me & boogie nights - both of which are New Line movies).

I would say there is a fair chance they have been or will be working on sites for both LOTR *and* steeplechasemedia.com

I suspect that the fact that you can see the LOTR site on the latter will just purely be a temporary misconfiguration of their web server or DNS.

So there you go :)

The latest newsletter is away! Do you want to receive our weekly newsletter? Packed with tons of info to keep you up to date on the latest? Plus filled with exclusives from time to time? Join the list of more than 1200 mailing list Ringers! Sign up now! [More]

You can catch Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn) in 'A Perfect Murder' on Cinemax.

Elijah Wood (Frodo) is in 'The Faculty' today on TMN.

Berendir has updated the Gaming Havens section with a new review on 'Hero's Journey' up, as well as a new page in the upcoming games on 'Hero's Journey', with some new Game art. [More]

The latest Elijah Wood (Frodo) film 'Chain of Fools' is getting less than favorable reviews by the folks over at 'Ain't It Cool News'. [More]

Ringer Spy Leo snapped a pic of the area, and I've done some digging to find out more about this place destined to be an area of Middle-earth. [More]

!!!SPOILERS!!!

The locals around Tongariro National Park have been getting excited. PJ et all have been buzzing around scouting possible filming locations. Here are 2 separate yet oddly almost identical articles concerning PJ's visit to the park.

The Ruapehu Bulletin and The Ruapheu Press

Better than a trip to Mordor, in fact. It's known as the Tongariro Northern Circuit, and it's a three+ day hike through the definitive Mordor landscape. Except prettier. We did it last year, we're doing it again this year, from the 14th to the 17th of February, and any Tolkien fan that can come along is welcome.
Sorry about the short notice. My schedule kept changing. NEXT year we'll announce it MUCH further in advance for those of you making holiday plans in NZ.

UPDATE

It's one of New Zealand's Great Walks, a three-four day hike around Mt. Tongariro, starting at the Chateau at Whakapapa village and going anti-clockwise so you miss the crowds going over Red Crater. It's all alpine country with the added bonus of some traverses of lava, volcanoes, scoria, craters and the ash-cone of Ngaruhoe as a side-trip. It is the definitive Mordor landscape.

The route is provided with Dept. of Conservation huts, which all have gas cooking facilities, water, toilets, bunks and mattresses. They cost about $20/night. From last year's experience I can say that it's a great time to go, plenty of room in the huts and great weather, as far as anything in the mountains can be relied on.

NEXT year, I promise we'll be organised further ahead and can announce things a lot sooner. This year my schedule kept changing so it was impossible to tell what days were going to be free. Anyone interested in coming (and I'm going whether anyone is or not) can email me at tehanu@theonering.net and I can provide you with any further information you might need. It's also worth checking the Doc. 'Great Walks' page at www.doc.govt.nz

Ladders and fire and swords, oh my! [More]

!!!SPOILERS!!!

The Game Art section of the Gaming Havens has been launched today! [More]

Greetings, Quickbeam here...

The doldrums of winter are upon us, but I and my fellow Green Bookers Turgon & Anwyn are still hard at work, shedding light within the dark places. Today we unearth fifteen new Questions & Answers, prompted by our ever-so-curious readership. These and many more are just a click away:

Where did the evil spider Ungoliant come from?
Did Gandalf have a chance pitted against the Witch-king?
How does Frodo & Bilbo's birthday match up on our Gregorian Calendar?
Why did Tolkien mention "stars" so much, with such reverence?

And dear readers beware! Yours truly recently had his 31st birthday, just a few hours shy of Elijah Wood himself. I promised to mark the occasion by getting an extraordinary Tolkien tattoo (the design of which will remain secret but I provide a hint: think of fiery letters). I have NOT chickened out on that promise, but unfortunately it has been delayed a few weeks. Have faith, I will go under the tattoo artist's needle and post the shocking photos soon enough.

And keep your eyes peeled for more Green Books articles, interviews, Fan Fiction, Stump the Staff, et cetera!

Much too hasty,
Quickbeam

Have we got some cool stuff for you... [More]

Reports are reaching me that the Black and White picture that has been reported as being from the LOTR shoot is in fact for a TV series called 'The Tribe'

From: Leo

The picture you are looking at is that of a crew filming the tv series 'The Tribe', I saw the shooting as well when I visited the Fort Dorset land were the Bree set was built ( they took it down unfortunally ). People withheld me from visiting the beach but I had a pretty good view of the area from a distance. It is in no way related to LOTR....

View the picture here.

View the first article about this here.

Nona, from 'The Complete Bean' sends word on when Sean Bean (Boromir) will be heading back to NZ:

Sean (Boromir) will be in the UK until mid-May. He's scheduled to return to NZ to film again roundabout May 10th, give or take a week (and subject to change).

The E! Online website has an interview with Elijah Wood (Frodo) Read on:

Frodo is relieved. Elijah Wood, the 19-year-old star who plays Frodo Baggins--the primary character in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings saga--has been dying for a chance to talk about this hush-hush project. Now he can. Relaxing between takes on the Hobbiton set, in his first interview since filming began, Wood opens up about Frodo, his costars, the technical demands of this massive trilogy--and big furry feet and little pointy ears. [More]