I don't know about you, but I have yet to come across a more comprehensive piece on LotR composer Howard Shore. And to top it off, our own old tyme Barliman's regular wasp is the author! Read it here.

Ringer fan Brego sends us a link to a Playthings.com article which talks about product licensing for Fellowship of the Ring and other expected blockbuster movies in 2001. [More]

Greetings -- Quickbeam here.

There's a film coming your way that features the mighty Isildur and the fiery Eomer, but it's not set in Middle-earth! I recently sat down with the director and cast of The Price of Milk: Harry Sinclair, Karl Urban, and the lovely Danielle Cormack. Come with me as we discuss cows, visual style, and mystical romance. [More]

"Welcome To Middle Earth, Wellington - Home Of Lord Of The Rings". That's the sign that could grace Wellington's major entrances - or not, if some city councillors have their way... [More]

In an interview he recently held with the English newspaper The Guardian Christopher Lee (Saruman) briefly mentions Lord of the Rings... [More]

Ringer fan Dengar sends in this scan of Games Workshop White Dwarf magazine (issue 255). It is a press release announcing the exclusive licensing agreement between New Line Cinema and Games Workshop. Why is this so interesting? Check out the the image of Saruman and a Nazgul! SPOILER [More]

Chris at TheRingsofPwer.net has scored an exclusive interview with Mike DeLuca! Thanks for sharing with us Chris! [More]

Thanks to Turore who sent in this link to an article in the Kansas City Star. [More]

Anyone else noticed how the tone of most news articles about the LOTR films has changed since a year ago? That 'Aren't these people who go on about Elves silly?' snigger that used to underly most of the mainstream news reports has mostly disappeared. : ) And we all know what that means.

Ringer spy Tocata sends us this small report from their experience on the set at Helm's Deep. SPOILERS [More]

Swedish band Za Frumi have finished their new CD which is Tolkien-inspired and rather different - the music tells the experiences of a band of orcs (More)

TheOneRing.net™ is proud to announce another new member of its Fan Community.

You've read Lord of the Rings. Dagorhir Battle Games lives it! Tolkien's Middle-earth meets Dark Age Europe in this safe, live-action, action-packed, nationwide war gaming society. Why dream the life when you can live the dream? Join yesterday's fun today!

Noel Piper speaks from the point of view of J.R.R. Tolkien in this Explore! Magazine Article. Thanks to Ed for sending us the scans. [More]

Explore! Magazine is aimed at 9 to 14 year olds. If you would like to subscribe, check out their official site. [More]

The new edition of UK's SFX magazine includes a 24 page LotR supplement section! Included in the supplement are:
1. A section devoted to Tolkien himself!
2. A guide to Middle Earth!
3. A movie guide with lots of blown up trailer images!
4. Reviews of LotR, and the Silmarillion, (All 5 stars, of course)
So, run out to your newsstand ASAP and get your copy before they are all gone!
Thanks to Ringer spy Timothy for the tip!

The Hall of Fire will be discussing chapter two of The Fellowship of the Ring, entitled The Shadow of the Past. First timers welcome! More details here.

Thanks to Nona from the Compleat Sean Bean for this update:

"On 19 January 2001, Sean attended the unveiling of a bronze statue of the late Jimmy Hagan, who is widely recognized as the greatest Sheffield United player of all time." [More]

JJ mailed to tell us: "They've got some pics at the official site of Frodo and Sam together, and Merry and Pippin, plus some cool pics of Hobbiton - all in the "Explore the Epic" area."
Yep, they're feeding the hungry fans over at LordOfTheRings.net : )

They aren't actually new...but hey, we'll take a line from NBC, it could be "new to you!"

The list of clips from the Searching for the Hobbit documentary is getting longer and longer. The most recent additions are a brief interview with a guy who's really proud of his Tolkien tattoo (but what IS it?) as well as our own eloquent Greenbooks man Quickbeam who gives a nice summary of the Tolkien community and my own laughable attempt to summarise 15,000 words in 45 seconds. [More]

Good news for Dutch LOTR-fans! It took them a while, but finally the Dutch distributor for Lord of the Rings decided to release the teaser trailer over there too. It will be attached to a Dutch production called Costa, which is set to release thursday. The full story is over at our Dutch community site LordoftheRings.nl. Watch out, jaw-breaker alert! [More]

Ringer fan Eryndur spotted this very interesting article in today's Chicago Sun-Times. The article compares the Philip Morris Company and its advertising tactics to the One Ring and its hold over the noble peoples of Middle-Earth. [More]

Well, its friday, and we all want the day to go faster. So why not read some interviews! While not new, the official site has a few interviews up with various members of its production:

Fiona McDonald - Props Maker
Richie Cordobes - Special FX Onset Coordinator
Nick Williams - Rock and Foam Department Supervisor

There also seems to be a new image added to WETA Workshop section.

Thanks to Chris for the heads up.

A cardboard stand-up of Saruman (Christopher Lee) at Ebay? UPDATE [More]

Thanks to Morrigan we can report on a new interview at Lord of the Rings :

"There is a new interview with the Wardrobe Supervisor, Carolyn Fenton. The interview contains an image from the Council of Elrond..."[More]

UGO.com has scored some two images of the ToyBiz LotR Action figures. Looks to be Lurtz the Uruk-Hai and a Nazgul. [More]

Cinescape Magazine has a small LotR summary in the latest March-April 2001 print edition. The rumors portion has a great quote from Cate Blanchett (Galadriel). [More]

Entertainmentsite EmpireOnline has updated with some short interviews they held with John Rhys-Davies (Gimli) and Billy Boyd (Pippin) during the Empire Awards. [more]

We've been getting emails about video clips of the wrap party available from an Aussie website. They sounded a lot like.....work done by friends of mine. Had their work been stolen? Well......depends how you define 'stealing', I guess. This might be regarded more as 'copying someone else's homework.' And then being silly enough to announce the fact to the world.

(More)

UPDATE

The website Urban Cinefile kindly added in a paragraph giving a bit of background to their video clips once they'd heard from Assassinfilms and realised their involvement in the scenes shown.

This cute snippet came in from MS here in NZ:

"PJ was on Talkback 1ZB this morning at 7:50am being interviewed by Paul Holmes. Most of the interview discussed Peter's hobby of WWI planes but LOTR was covered. He mentioned in production making noises, in particular one noise he was looking at for an orc (AND liked) was [made by]scraping a MacDonalds coke cup over concrete....can you believe it : )"

Ringer fans Nazgurl and Huan picked up something rather interesting from the Toy Biz Toy list posted at About.com. SPOILERS[More]

Charles Prepolec, from the Official Christopher Lee Web, has sent us news of a live video Q&A with Christopher Lee (Saruman) on Saturday, February 24. [More]

About.com reviews the LotR Toy offering from Toy Fair 2001. [More]

The Tolkien inspired musical group Glass Hammer sends us their latest report. [More]

Ringer fan Nancy B sends us word that Liv Tyler (Arwen) will be on the cover of Jane Magazine next month. The magazine will include an interview, so be on the lookout for some LOTR Mentions. [Jane Magazine]

Ringer fan Nancy B sends us this interesting link for the Lady Eowyn rose. [More]