We first reported on this last May, but a story in today's Sunday Telegraph has updated details on the upcoming LOTR musical said to be opening some time next year. [More]

For anyone speaking in any of the more than 1,000 artificial tongues — languages carved out of someone's word-wise imagination — these are very good times. [More]

The first Fellowship Festival is to take place at Alexandra Palace in August and more than 10,000 followers of the film are expected to arrive in Wood Green. [More]

Ringer Spy Erin sends along the April 2004 issue of Cowboys & Indians. It features this article about Viggo Mortensen. [More]

HOLLYWOOD -- Hollywood is filled with stories of on-the-set love affairs that continued well after the movie wrapped. For Viggo Mortensen, saying goodbye to some of his co-stars wasn't an option. So he took them home to live with him. [More]

Lewis writes: There is going to be a Trilogy screening Normal, Illinois in the HUGE Braden Auditorium. It seats about 2000 and the screen is MUCH larger then a normal screen and the sound system is designed for live concert performances. Should be impressive. Or at least really loud. All this goes down on April 4th, free for Illinois State University students and only 3 bucks for all others! Go to the following link and scroll down to find more info. [More]

Shauna writes: Microsoft’s Encarta has very recently updated to include the LOTR movie trilogy as a listing. It references the 11 wins for ROTK, and includes individual links to the first two movies. I can only assume a link to the third is unavailable as it is likely still under construction. The pages for the first and second movies include brief synopses, a cast and awards won listing, as well as a few trivia notes.

Steve writes: It's the Boca Raton line party here again with another report on an event we attended. This time we went to MegaCon 2004 to see Grima Wormtounge! [More]

Sean Astin is slated to be a guest at the Los Angeles Comic Book and Sci Fi con today. The event is taking place at the Shrine Auditorium Expo Center (700 W. 32nd street, LA). [comicbookscifi.com]

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 20 700 mailing list members! Sign up now! [More]

The grand opening for the LOTR Motion Picture Exhibit was last night and megamendong was there to give us the scoop. [More]

Our good friend Sala Baker will be at the Westfield Shoppingtown MainPlace in Santa Ana California today. He will be signing autographs and taking photos with fans, stop by and say hi! [Directions]

Yilin Press is reprinting 10,000 sets of J.R.R. Tolkien's epic trilogy "The Lord of the Rings" in hopes of cashing in as the third film episode premieres in China on Monday. [More]

Glad to be alive the Company follow Gandalfs lead towards 'The last homely house', the residence of Elrond; a descendant from elves and 'heroes of the North'. To the sound of singing elves they arrive in the fair valley of Rivendell, and the travellers are happy to get to a place of rest, though there is a history of conflict between the Dwarves and the Elves that must be disregarded.[More]

More images from the large boat heavily rumored to be in Peter Jackson's 'King Kong' film. The film is set to start rolling in late summer early fall (late winter early spring in NZ). This boat is going to be blown sky-high, or so the rumors go. [More]

LOS ANGELES — Move over, Schwarzenegger, Stallone and Van Damme, because the list of movie stars who have busted their butts to learn how to kick ass in a movie has just gotten a new name. "I've been in fight training," Elijah Wood revealed at this week's premiere for "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," [More]

PippinRulesOK1 writes: There will be a all day trilogy showing on London on March 13 and 14th. Tickets are £50, £100 and £150 including food and drink, which seems very expensive. The prices are not displayed on their website so please ring to check. Showings of the standard length versions of the Trilogy Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 March at the Electric Cinema, Notting Hill, London W11, England. [electriccinema.co.uk]

BEIJING, March 5 (Xinhuanet) -- The final episode of the Lord of the Rings is set to be a spellbinding success at the Chinese box office when it finally opens on March 12, thanks to its clean sweep of 11 Oscars at Sunday's Academy Awards. "We imported the film before it won 11 Oscars at the 76th Academy Awards, so our expectations of the box office revenue have soared," deputy general manager of China Film Group Corporation (CFGC) Weng Li said. [More]

He was at the Oscars last week, the Golden Globes the week before and Billy Boyd was at the SECC in Glasgow, where he was involved in the launch of a new branding for the city of Glasgow. He said: "I think it's about time Glasgow promoted itself, you know. I think it's a great city and this was a great night actually." [More]

Peter Jackson and ROTK are both nominated for a 'Spacey Award', an award show presented by the folks from Space: The Imagination Station (our version of the Sci-Fi Channel in Canada). Take a look and vote online! [More]

In 2001 Michael Pellerin embarked on a mission. As the producer of The Lord of the Rings DVD trilogy, Pellerin (C87) has spent the last three years shuttling between his home in Los Angeles and his office in New Zealand to film and compile interviews, previously unreleased footage and documentation from the LOTR series. [More]

The official New Line Shop (LOTRShop.com) has started taking pre-orders for the theatrical edition of The Return of the King! [More]

Ringer Spy Gott pointed out something interesting: "Thought you might be interested in knowing that Glorfindel (as named so on a WETA-designed Decipher-card) is the Elf that appears right before Arwen's banner at the coronation! Attached is a comparison pic." [More]

Dave reminds us: Viggo Mortensen will be the guest on "Sen kväll med Luuk" ("Late evening with Luuk") on TV4 here in Sweden tonight, Friday March 12th at 22.20. Host/comedian Kristian Luuk is apparently going to test Viggo on how much he knows about Scandinavia, to find out how "Americanized" he has become (it's all in fun!). [More]

Bruce Hopkins (Gamling) has updated his official site with a few words about the Oscars, and his Return Of The One Party experiences. Thanks to Ringer Spy Nai for the heads up. [More]

Rachel writes: Elijah willl be on NY Graham Norton this Friday 3/12. Graham Norton will be shown in the UK at 22:40 GMT on channel 4. Don't know whether it will be broadcast in the US, it is possible that it will be on BBC America but I can't seem to find that bit out. [More]

Emma writes: Hopefully you'll get this in time -- for viewers in Britain you can catch Elijah Wood on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno tonight (Thursday 11th March) at 22:00 on ftn (Telewest digital channel 123). [More]

Planning to be in Wellington next week? Linuxelf also sent a link to this article: "Filmmaker Peter Jackson's monumental success at the Oscars will be marked by a low-key 'informal' public celebration in Wellington next Thursday." [More]

Linuxelf sent in this article from Stuff.co.nz: "[Pupils at Miramar North School] have spent the past week feverishly designing and painting flags to celebrate the runaway success of The Lord of the Rings – The Return of the King at this year's Oscars." [More]

TORn's Peter Jackson fan site, 'The Bastards have Landed,' announces a new competition for LOTR fans: "How closely were you paying attention to the three movies? Think you know them well? Why not test your skill with our prize quiz? The two bastards with the most correct answers drawn from our wizard hat will win a SIGNED Lord of the Rings book." [Click for more details]

Click to view all pictures

Ringer Spy Steve writes: Hello fellow Ringers! Thought you all might be interested in hearing about the wonderful Oscar party the Boca Raton, FL Trilogy Tuesday line group threw last past Sunday. Sure, Peter Jackson and the gang didn't show up, but if you weren't in L.A, this was the party to be at! And yes, it was a long expected one. [More]

Elijah judged "good dancer" on Leno

TORn Staffer Asfaloth writes: Elijah Wood is simply the nicest movie star in Hollywood. He plugs our party, he plugs TORn. And he speaks very highly of Ringers in general. He truly was one of the last people to leave our party, and said that had a really good time! This isn't his full interview with Jay Leno. It was very long, so I had to shorten it to just the TORn/Ringers discussion...

It's 03:45 long (That's three minutes and 45 seconds). Download the version that's best for your bandwidth.

LAN: 24.9M
ISDN: 2.5M
Broadband: 8.5M

This morning we delighted you all with WETA/Decipher's Radagast the Brown-card. Now we have high-res scans of the first four cards WETA has designed for Decipher's cardgame, courtesey of Cirdan from Herr-der-Ringe-film.de. Feast your eyes on, apart from Radagast the Brown, Glorfindel, Goldberry and Tom Bombadil! [More]

This years Oscar-nominee Sting and Oscar-winner Anie Lenox will be touring together this summer, as CutLass pointed out: I found some interesting news concerning Annie Lennox in the morning paper today! Seems like she's set to tour with Sting this summer. It didn't specify if the two would perform together, but a defintie joint summer tour is in the works! [More]

Apparently the Dutch concert in the tour is already sold out, pity...

Ringer Spy Liz writes: Just letting you know there is an extensive interview with Viggo Mortensen in this week's Onion's "AV Club." Here's a link to the online version of it. [More]

Oh well, it was probably too good to be true. The rumor we reported earlier this week about Nicole Kidman being tapped to play a part in 'The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe' has officially been debunked (for now) by productioncompany Walden Media. Read more about it here. Interesting sidenote: it seems that the production will also be shooting in the Czech Republic for several scenes...

From KansasCity.com comes a mostly amusing story about the Jackson "look." It happily concludes, however, that most people feel that Peter has better things to worry about and that "style" comes from within. Cheers to that. [More] (requires free registration)

Te Papa's hugely successful The Lord of the Rings Motion Picture Trilogy - The Exhibition opens at the Singapore Science Centre on Friday 12 March. The day before, (Singapore time) a press preview will be attended by hundred's of media from all over Asia. [More]

Revolutionary new film technology software created during The Lord of the Rings trilogy will be used for new movies Thunderbirds Are Go and Bridget Jones' Diary II. [More]

Movie goers in Beijing are out in force tonight as this year's Oscars star "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" is premiering in the city. [More]

If you thought it was impossible for Finno-Ugric folk music to transcend cultural barriers, you're obviously not aware of Mari Kaasinen and her band, Varttina. These are good times for Finland's most popular folk band, which is involved in a new musical composition for a stage production of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. [More]

Jeff Stringer liked the look of the Moria orcs so much he decided to make his own orc costume. The result, after working on and off on the project for three months, led to an award of his own - Best of Show at the 2004 Chattacon science fiction convention in January. [More]

Earlier this week we reported that WETA will be designing some new charactercards for Decipher. The first of those has now appeared online, courtesey of Cinescape.com. Follow the link or take a look in our scrapbook! [More] Thanks to Ringer Spy Christopher for the heads up!

Avid Userfriendly-readers might remember a storyline they did about The Lord of the Rings a few years ago. Over the past few months the daily comic has had its Rings-influences and today is one of those days Check out today's LOTR-related comic right here!

Margerie writes: "I was watching Last Call with Carson Daly with Viggo Mortensen as a guest, and I wanted to let you know that he mentioned TheOneRing in a rather unusual way. Carson Daly was asking LOTR trivia questions to Jill Hennessy, and he offered Viggo the chance to ask one. Viggo asked if she knew how much time transpired during the Journey to destroy the One Ring (at least that is what I understood). Jill did not know the answer so they put it to the audience and a young woman gave the answer. Unfortunately I didn't hear what the answer was, but she must have said that it came from TORN because Viggo laughed and said "TheOneRing.Net, that's right". So another great plug for a wonderful fan site." [Read more about it on our message boards!]

The TORn Staff feels very loved right now...

East coast Ringers gave us the early head's up -- thanks, everyone! On tonight's (3/10) Jay Leno, Jay asked Elijah whether he'd gone to every single Oscar party on Oscar night.

Elijah said [paraphrased]: I only went to the fan party thrown by Theonering.net. I went so that I could introduce my friend's band, who was playing the party, but then I stayed for the rest of the night!

Jay Leno then mentioned Ringers, and asked if Ringers are anything like Trekkies. Elijah said [paraphrased]: Nope, they're nothing like Trekkies. Much more groovy, hippie, less sci-fi. And they're mostly women -- 70%.

Thanks for the shout-out, Elijah!

Brandon Gray writes: 'Return of the King' enjoyed a modest post-Oscar bump, increasing 40% over the weekend to $3.0 million after adding 791 theaters. Generally speaking, movies that everyone already saw and that were expected to win Best Picture don't get much of a boost after the Oscars ('Titanic,' for instance, went down). [More]

Charlie writes: The London Film And Comic Con was a FANTASTIC weekend! The main highlight being Andy Serkis doing the auction as Gollum/Smegol, to see him sing 'Your the one that I want' as Gollum is something I am never gonna forget. [More]

Accoring to Elanor1013: Movie Magic magazine has a section called "Saying So Long to the Lord of the Rings" featuring quotes and some pictures, including Elijah, Billy, Dom, and others. Later in the mag, they also have a book recommendation and quote from Elijah where he recommends "The Giver" by Lois Lowry in a section called "If you like Harry [Potter] You'll Also Like" or something to that effect. Scans anyone? Send them along!

Lord Of The Rings star Billy Boyd put off hunting for a flat in Glasgow last night to help promote the city's new slogan. Along with STV newsreader Sarah Heaney, who has been helping him find a new home, Billy was one of the celebrities who launched the Glasgow: Scotland With Style campaign at a party in the Clyde Auditorium. [More]

Kudos to everyone who sent in this link!

Ringer Spy Ataahua writes: The sight of Peter Jackson accepting his Academy Awards while looking scruffy was a particularly warming one for Helen Brown, a New Zealand columnist in Australia. (Translation help: ‘jandals’ are the same casual footwear that some inhabitants of some country somewhere on the globe seem to call ‘flip flops’, and it aint the Australians, as a lot op people have pointed out today - leo) [More]

Elijah Wood Has Hard Time Saying Good-bye to 'Rings' Cast, Yet Again. "We became so close making the three movies, we're like a family. I just don't know how I'll handle saying good-bye," an extremely weepy Elijah Wood told a gaggle of reporters at a recent Oscar party. [More]

(Please do not take this article serious!)

This has got to be a record, Dominic Monaghan will be on 'The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn' on CBS at 12:35AM.

Viggo Mortensen will be on 'Last Call with Carson Daily' late tonight/early tomorrow on NBC.

Elijah Wood will be on 'The Tonight Show with Jay Leno' tonight on NBC at 11:35PM.

Justin writes: Lord of the Rings is up for Best Book at this years 2004 Kids Choice Awards. The Awards show will be on Nickelodeon April 3rd. [More]

Hidalgo and "The Lord of the Rings" star Viggo Mortensen is in talks to topline the Spanish period adventure film Alatriste (Thanks to Maria for that link!), in the eponymous role of Captain Alatriste, a Spanish soldier-cum-mercenary embroiled in the country's 17th century imperial wars. [More]

Thanks to Shana for the heads up!

Ringer Spy Vardia sent in this link to an interesting article about Cate Blanchett in The Daily Telegraph (the Australian version) about her upcoming projects. [More]

Artwork courtesy of New Line Cinema and information from DVDAnswers.com. This Lord of the Rings Trilogy boxset will be arriving in shops on May 25th alongside the Return of the King. Apparently, it will retail at around $89.98. This isn't the all-singing, all-dancing on-again, off-again boxset that has been rumoured to arrive sometime in the future (but equally may never eventuate). Instead, it's a simple repackaging of the existing two-disc theatrical editions. No new extra material will be included. [More]

Frodo-esque writes: At the Mythic Journeys 2004 conference in Atlanta, GA (June 5-6th, 2004) Alan Lee is scheduled to be a conference guest and will on hand exhibiting his art! You know what makes this even cooler? It's the same weekend of the Howard Shore concert in Atlanta -- two birds, one stone! [More]

Sasskya writes: Viggo Mortensen was on a tv show called Lo + plus here in Spain. I have two pics from the show; one at the beginning of the programm. Viggo wore a t-shirt of Real Madrid (a football team) with the name of a football palyer of the 80's called Juanito with the number 7 (this t-shirt was a present from the director of Gimlet and la pistola de mi hermano). The second one is with "gollum". [More]

After co-starring opposite Johnny Depp as the dreamy romantic lead in last summer’s surprise hit, and as the go-to elf in the rousing finale to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Orlando Bloom already has four projects lined up through the end of 2005. [More]

Viggo Mortensen has a hand in so many art forms that there's almost no room on his résumé for acting. A poet, painter, musician, and photographer, Mortensen has founded his own publishing company, released experimental-music CDs, and exhibited his artwork around the world. Mortensen recently spoke to The Onion A.V. Club about Hidalgo, his version of "method" acting, and how painting, writing, and fishing can take the place of resting between takes. [More]

The organizers of 'Best of Both Worlds' Convention, to be held in Canberra, Australia next weekend, regret to announce that Dominic Monaghan will NOT appear as scheduled, due to the filming schedule for Dominic's newly landed television pilot, "Lost." [Complete details]

Somewhat off-topic from ITV: "Hollywood actress Nicole Kidman is all set to star in a movie remake of The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe..." [More] However, IMDB says that she only "might" play the White Queen. [More]

The lovely folks from West-of-the-Moon.net were present at our Oscarparty last week and wrote the following report about their adventures! The report features some nice audiofiles of interviews with John Rhys-Davies and Dominic Monaghan, so be sure to read it here!

From many Ringer Spies, including LB, Allisyn, Carolyn and Carolina.

Elijah Wood will be on The Tonight Show on Wed. March 10 [More]; on Conan O'Brien Thu. March 11 [More]; on Good Morning America Fri. March 12th; and MTV's Total Request Live on Fri. March 12 [More]

Dominic Mongahan will be on Craig Kilborn on Wed. March 10 (a repeat). [More]

Viggo Mortensen will be on Last Call with Carson Daly on Wed. March 10 [More]; And on Sweden's Late night with Luuk on Fri. March 12. [More]

...I *might* be able to outfit my house in some of the amazing home decor from Middle Earth Furniture. Wowza. The "Ancient Ent Round Table" paired with the "9 Darkness & Light Dining Chairs" will alone set you back about $63,000.00 plus change. *Gulp* If that's beyond your pocketbook, the pictures are pretty nice, too. [More] (Thanks to Amatire for sparking a search for the link.)

Tonight, Liv Tyler is scheduled to be on NBC's Late Night with Conan O'Brien. [More]

This has absolutely nothing to do with Tolkien, except maybe for being some of the best serial 'Fantasy' written since the dear professor put down his pen. The New York Review of Books has posted a quite lengthy review of Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" series that is well-worth a read (and a postcard for reading the books themselves). Check it out! [More]

Over the objections of neighbors, city Plan Commission members voted 5-0 Monday to recommend approval of a subdivision next to a landfill. The commission recommended that the Common Council rezone the land to allow the project, which will feature streets named after characters and places in J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings." [More]

From The Scotsman: Imagine a world in which The Lord of the Rings and the Chronicles of Narnia didn’t exist; where children had never encountered the Snow Queen of Narnia or read the adventures of Gandalf, Frodo and Sam; where Peter Jackson was just another jobbing director looking for his big break and the film industry was significantly poorer. [More]

From HowardShore.com: Howard Shore has signed a copy of his Academy Award-winning score to Return of the King to be auctioned on Ebay with all profits being donated to the Tree People charity. Tree People helps fund the planting of trees as part of a restoration project for lands damaged by wildfires in the state of California. You only have a few days left to own a piece of film music history! [More]

Ringer Spy arthur writes: I was looking for maya, a digital software tool for 3d animation, and on their website www.alias.com they have a link to play behind the scenes footage of the making of ROTK. Here's the link to the part of the site with the clip in it. [More]

The official site has updated with a list of what we can expect on the Return of the King DVD arriving near you from May 25th. Unfortunately no Extended Edition-preview this time around. Preorders for the DVD will commence on March 12th. [More]

Things are coming together for Peter Jackson's King Kong. Soopi sends along this image of a large ship currently docked in Wellington. The ship is rumored to be used in a 'spectacular explosion' during the film. Anyone with closer access and a nice digital camera, send me some more images!. [More]

The New Hollywood?

Thain Brandybuck sends in this report from the Oscar celebrations in Wellington: The Oscar festivities saw people celebrating all over the world. And the real party begun even earlier with a gathering of good friends in Wellington, New Zealand. Unaware that movie history would be made on Monday, our group Cormacolindor met for the weekend. [More]

Decipher announced today that Weta Workshop, the Academy Award-winning special effects studio responsible for creating many props and special effects used in New Line Cinema's The Lord of the Rings films, will create unique photographic images that will be featured on cards in The Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game. Under the terms of their agreement, Weta Workshop will cast, costume and create character images that did not appear in the films for Decipher’s use in The Lord of the Rings TCG. [More]

Jonee sends in the 60 chapters to be used in the ROTK Theatrical DVD. [More]

JHLKY writes: I scanned the April 2004 issue of Screen, a Japanese movie magazine with articles about when some of the cast went to Japan and questions and answers about the movie. [More]

The folks from tolkiensociety.org write: 25th March is "Tolkien Reading Day", this event launched last year is aimed at encouraging the use of Tolkien’s works in education, by getting schoolteachers and library staff to participate in reading Tolkien to their classes and in their libraries. [More]

Minnie writes: I received this email this morning referring to scheduling conflicts with Dominic Monaghan's appearance in Australia's Best of Both Worlds convention: It is with huge regret that I must inform you that Dominic Monaghan has booked a pilot for Disney, titled “LOST” which conflicts with his appearance at BOBW. [More]

Ataahua writes: The New Zealand news magazine TV show, Sunday, had an interview with Weta's Richard Taylor just two days after the academy awards. Among the revelations were why Richard mentioned onstage at the Oscars the present he gave to his wife of the two live rats, who his favourite LOTR creature is, and why it is such a good thing to be a left-handed person in New Zealand. [More]

It was bound to happen eventually...Baggins' Pockets writes: Saturday Night Live spoofs PJ twice on weekend update. First showing a phot of him holding his oscar and saying "a homeless man repeatedly stormed the stage at the Oscars..." and second having Horatio Sans and Rachel Dratsch show up as PJ and Elijah Wood to pick up an award.

Teen Hollywood is reporting that Nicole Kidman has signed to star in the new movie version of CS Lewis' The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Even some of Uncle Rupert's publications have picked up the story. Is it true? I guess we'll have to wait for confirmation ... or denial. [More]

For the last couple of hours frantic LOTR fans have been reading the false rumor that Viggo Mortensen had recently perished in a car accident. TheOneRing.net can now confirm that the article in question is in fact a copy and paste job from an original article about a Wisconsin woman located here. Some people have the sickest sense of humor.

From SciFi.com: Lord of the Rings star Elijah Wood (Frodo) told SCI FI Wire that he talked with Rings writers Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens after last week's Oscar ceremony about returning to New Zealand to snag a small part in director Peter Jackson's upcoming King Kong remake. [More]

Thanks to Frodo-esque for the link!

This little goody surfaced by way of a nameless TORn staffer who found it most amusing: A full-length LOTR parody album by The Moist Biscuits called "Fear of a Black Rider." There are strong language warnings here, but if you are brave, you can listen to the song "My Ring" featured on their site. [More] Strong Language

Here are One Party photos from Heather Stanfield, one of the official photographers from the event. [More]

Well, here we go. Just as one huge New Zealand-based production seems to be winding down another one is just gearing up. Various newssources indicate today that none other then Nicole Kidman may be on her way to a part in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, the first of C. S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia to be turned into a full feature film by Kiwi-director Andrew Adamson. Read all about it here! In other related news; production company Walden Media and distributor Walt Disney Pictures recently ran this ad right here to announce start of production on the project.