Violamom writes: Not sure if you were aware of this but just in case, the famous porcelain artists at Lladro have created three gorgeous figurines inspired by The Lord of the Rings...Gandalf, Galadriel and Frodo with Gollum. [More]

mafgrl writes: I attended the Museum of Television and Radio panel on LOST last night at the DGA and took a couple of photos of Dominic Monaghan and thought you might like to see them! [More]

Richard writes: The CTBF and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra have arranged a charity fundraising concert at The Royal Albert Hall were The Lord of the Rings film scores will be performed as well as other film scores, Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, E.T. etc. Read more about it here!

From the Sydney Morning Herald: Peter Jackson came close to being replaced on The Lord of the Rings after an acrimonious meeting with the Hollywood powerbroker Harvey Weinstein in 1997, he has told a Sydney audience. [More]

Lynette, Sven & Kiwisue send along additional reports from 'An Evening with Peter Jackson', a panel event held in Sydney earlier this week. [More]

The latest newsletter is ready to go! Do you want to receive our free 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 crowd of over 22 180 mailing list members! Sign up now! [More]

Aussie and Maria Layne were two of the very lucky folks to spend an 'evening with Peter Jackson' last night in Sydney. Peter was very candid about his work on LOTR..and more importantly...he showed a BLOOPER REEL!!! Take a look! [More]

Oscar winning director Peter Jackson says it will be at least three years before he shoots The Lord of the Rings prequel, The Hobbit. Jackson this weekend took a break from his busy schedule filming King Kong in Auckland, stopping by Sydney's Powerhouse Museum to check out the Lord of the Rings (LOTR) exhibition. Tonight, the very private director will give a talk to fans about his films at the State Theatre. A slimmed-down Jackson, who arrived in Sydney yesterday, was asked today how long it would be before he started production on The Hobbit. "Three or four years would be accurate, I would say," Jackson said. [More]

Mark Fonstad writes: I thought the readers of theonering.net should be aware of the passing of my mother, Karen Wynn Fonstad. Karen was a big reader of the website and was greatly pleased by fans' reactions to her work on the Atlas and other things. Thanks. [More]

TheOneRing.net, her staff and fans offer our condolences to Mark and his entire family.

Weathertop Environment from Sideshow Toy at Comic-Con 2001

Weathertop Environment Photo from Comic-Con

For those of us who have followed the history of Sideshow/Weta Collectibles, we have been waiting years for the release of the long-overdue Weathertop Environment. This week, Sideshow/Weta has previewed this environment with an expected pre-order date in the next few weeks. Click on the exclusive images above to see the full piece, and then follow the link to their teaser image. [Click Here]

Actor-director Steve Buscemi will be on hand for the screening of his film ''Lonesome Jim," which opens the third annual Independent Film Festival of Boston late next month. The film, which stars Casey Affleck and Liv Tyler, will be shown April 21 at the Somerville Theatre in Davis Square. [More]

'Then Feanor began a long and secret labour, and he summoned all his lore, and his power, and his subtle skill; and at the end of it all he made the Silmarils.' (The Silmarillion) This weekend, we resume our Silmarillion chapter chats in Hall of Fire with the tale of the making of the Silmarils - Feanor's most wondrous creation. But out of them arose unrest as well as beauty. [More]

Adele writes: You might be interested to know that Orlando Bloom is on the cover of the April 2005 issue of Empire Magazine (UK) and featured in an exclusive behind-the-scenes article on his latest movie, Ridley Scott's Kingdom Of Heaven. I was also not aware until I read the article, that WETA did the arms and amour for this movie too - Orlando must have felt right at home in his costume! [More]

The computers that brought Gollum, the Balrog and Middle Earth to life are now available to work for hire. The computers used to create special effects for the Lord of the Rings films are becoming an on-demand processing centre. The cluster of 1,008 computers in New Zealand can now be hired on a per hour, per processor basis. [More]

From McKellen.com: For my next job I shall realise a long-held ambition – to appear in “Coronation Street”. On 29 March I go to the Granada Studios in Manchester and team up with the regulars for 10 episodes as Mel Hutchwright, a dodgy novelist invited to meet the local reading group. More I shouldn’t reveal, except that the script is hilarious and well up to the Street’s current high standards as UK’s most popular television programme. [More]

Tehanu has another set report from New Zealand! 'It's unusual to find a crowd of people at the studio who aren't doing anything, but today I find such a crowd. They are standing and admiring. The reason for this is that Richard Taylor and his team from Weta are visiting, and there is a kind of show-and-tell in progress in one of the studio sheds. The Weta people - already famous for their work on The Lord of the Rings, and currently busy on King Kong - are also making some of the weapons for The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. Today we see some actors try Weta's weapons, as well as the rigs and costumes for some of the C. S. Lewis's most magical characters...' [More]

Adele writes: Billy Boyd and his girlfriend will be on Grampian and Scottish TV on March 17th with a new short film called "Instant Credit." It's part of a series called "New Found Land" featuring short films. Here is the synopsis from scottishtv.co.uk: Downtrodden Frankie (Billy Boyd) is given an opportunity that is too good to refuse when a chance encounter gives him 24 hours to get his life back on track and revive his romance. Brilliant comedy from the director of cult television comedy Still Game. [More]

Turgon writes: I've just been notified that there is a new review by Tom Shippey of THE SCIENCE OF MIDDLE-EARTH by Henry Gee, aka Olog-Hai, some of whose columns appear regularly in Green Books. Shippey's review appears in the March 2005 issue of THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF SCIENCE FICTION. It's a long review, covering Henry Gee's book favorably and another book, THE REAL MIDDLE-EARTH by Brian Bates, less favorably, and unfortunately it isn't online, but one small quote shows the tenor of the review: "THE SCIENCE OF MIDDLE-EARTH is the most unexpectedly Tolkienian book about Tolkien that I have ever come across."

Order your copy here

Rory L. Aronsky from filmthreat.com has given Ringers: Lord of the Fans 3 1/2 stars! Take a look the review: Taking a little off the top from Terry Gilliam in its visual style during the opening minutes, gamely re-enacting the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s in various clips and packing a lot of fandom in 96 minutes, “Ringers: Lord of the Fans” is an epic in its own right, wherein it not only merely observes the fans of the Lord of the Rings books and movies, but also takes to getting involved with them, hearing their thoughts first-hand. This isn’t only about the people who’ve experienced these books and films, such as author Terry Pratchett and David “Bill” Carradine, but also the dedicated scores of people around the world, bigger than Mordor, who have made “Lord of the Rings” a close part of their life. [More] [Ringers Official Site]

A movie will be made about Norway High School's baseball team and its championship season. Production on "The Final Season" will begin in May. Filming will take place in Cedar Rapids, Norway and Marshalltown. The movie will star Sean Astin of "Rudy" and "The Lord of the Rings" movies, Sam Elliott and Katherine Ross. Astin will play Kent Stock, the head coach for the 1991 season. Stock took over as baseball coach during the championship season. [More]

Dominic Monaghan's latest film 'Shooting Livien' will make its world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas later this month. The film is described as; 'A dark psychological drama, Shooting Livien explores the inner psyche of John Livien, a disillusioned New York musician who deals with a childhood trauma by claiming an alter ego. His band on the brink of success, fantasy becomes dangerously blurred with reality as Livien struggles with his identity crisis.' The premiere will take place on Monday March 14th, at 500 East Cesar Chavez Street. Additional screenings will take place at the Alamo Downtown on the 16th and again on the 19th. [sxsw.com]

The Illinois Central College English Department will host "The Lord of the Rings at 50," a discussion of J.R.R. Tolkien and his masterpiece on Tuesday, March 29, at 7:00pm at the ICC Performing Arts Center, East Peoria. The discussion will be moderated by ICC professor and Tolkien Society representative Mike Foster and will feature two award-winning Tolkien scholars, Tom Shippey and Douglas A. Anderson. [More]

Turgon writes: For World Book Day (March 3rd), the Independent (UK) invited 100 "leading lights of British letters" to name the characters who give them the most reading pleasure. One writer picked Tolkien's Gandalf:

Gandalf chosen by Mary Hoffman (Stravaganza City of Flowers)
JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings boasts the best white wizard in fiction - not morally ambiguous or neutral like Merlin, but not infallible either. Always wise when present and strangely comforting even when predicting doom and destruction.

For the full listing, look here!

Many ORC attendees have responded, but we hope to get a lot more feedback to improve for our next One Ring Celebration event! Please fill out our ORC Satisfaction Survey for the One Ring Celebration that took place Jan 14th-16th 2005. If you attended this event, please give us your feedback. It should only allow about 10 minutes to fill out. [Click Here]

MrCere writes: TheOneRing.net will take orders for TORn polo shirts through THIS Friday and then stop production. These shirts have always been made as ordered by you and we JUST received a shipment so if you are waiting for your shirt, mail is on the way. After Friday's deadline we will submit our final polo order and the door will close on this item. [More]

Sue Bamford, Duty Manager for bfi London IMAX® Cinema writes: The BFI London IMAX cinema are doing another overnight screening of all three films on the 18th and 19th of March. Screenings start at 8pm on the Friday and 8.30pm on Saturday going on until the wee small hours of the morning. Free teas and coffees to keep everyone going through the night. [More]

Anwyn writes: Green Books keeps it coming with a brand-new Q&A and extensive Moon Letters section of fan work. Thanks to all you loyal and patient Green Bookers out there, and look for our next update in April! [Green Books]

Dr. Amy H. Sturgiswill discuss the imaginative and expressive potential for fan fiction through an examination of fan-authored stories about the long-ignored Lord of the Rings character Rosie Cotton. Dr. Sturgis will demonstrate how fan writers use Rosie as a voice for their own identities and interests (making her in turn a domestic paragon, a sexual iconoclast, and a supernatural changeling), and how they strive to make Rosie an equal to the male characters in Tolkien’s works. This academic lecture is based on Dr. Sturgis's forthcoming article in the scholarly journal Mythlore. [More]

Jeremy writes: As part of the UK's BBC Comic Releif you can vote for a guest celebrity to appear in BBC Radio 4's "The Archers" on Friday. One of the candidates is Ian McKellen. [More]