On slow news days, I like to take this time to highlight some very distracting parts of TheOneRing.net. While your boss might not enjoy my efforts, I'm sure you will!

Who is the film's 2nd Unit 2nd Director? Check out the complete crew listing.

Find out the facts in our Movie FAQ. In the film adaptation of LOTR, what are they going to change? To what extent will the dialogue from the books be used?

What was it like going to an audition for the LOTR films? Check out one of our NZ Exclusives.

"iitlognv" (Scrambled Tolkien person, place or thing). Send your answer to Gamgee in the Tolkien Fun Section of Barliman's.

Read about the fate of orcs in a log from our Tolkien weekly chat, Hall of Fire.

Like mp3's? Listen to Patrice Deceuninck's interpretation of the music of Middle-earth in our Fan Music section.

Do orcs have night vision? Did Boromir lie about having the dream of Rivendell? Our super staff in Green Books answers the most obscure Tolkien questions.

Looking for a good Tolkien MUD or MUSH?

How about reading the news in Russian?

Or maybe you always wanted to have a cool TheOneRing.net banner, but didn't know where to find them?

Why not read Peter Jackson's complete screen-play from the masterpiece "Heavenly Creatures."

That should hold you for a while..:)

A number of months ago I made our headlines available as an RSS channel; this is a follow-up to that. If you are interested in having TheOneRing.net's headlines on your site or portal, you can find the RSS source for our headlines at http://www.theonering.net/cgi-bin/lotr2rdf.cgi.

Now the last time I posted this, a number of people said, "Ok now what do I do with that?" At the time, I pointed them to a number of different packages which dealt with RSS channels and left it at that. Since that time I have written and modified a couple of short scripts which makes use of our RSS information. If you are interested in being able to put our headlines on your site, or want our headlines in your WindowMaker menus, drop me an email at corvar@theonering.net and I will give you a hand.

Check out Fan.TheOneRing.net for a very cool update to Moon Letters. We now have an Arts and Crafts section that makes its premiere with Lobelia's Hobbit Sock Doll. [Fan.TheOneRing.net]

From: NZ Herald Online

Wellingtonians want to be part of Lord of the Rings

Hundreds of Wellingtonians have jumped at the chance to be part of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

The film-makers held auditions for extras at the National Dance and Drama School over the weekend and the queues stretched down the street.

Rings publicist Claire Raskind says they've finished shooting up at Mt Ruapehu and back in the Capital for the next six weeks.

She says they needed to replenish their "background players" cast.

Thanks to Shayne for the tip!

Sean Bean (Boromir) is heading back to Middle-earth soon...

Nona from The Compleat Sean Bean page sends us this report:

1. Sean will be returning to NZ from the UK roundabout May 12th to continue filming.

2. Sean's Acuview tv commercials continue to run on US tv networks (Sean does lots of ads in the UK but this is a first for us in North America!) - you can see the ads storyboarded and there are Real Player versions of these ads here:
http://persweb.direct.ca/wkent/acu-bow.html
http://persweb.direct.ca/wkent/acu-paint.html

Cheers,
Nona

We have finally added Fan Music to Fan.TheOneRing.net! We now have an area for all your original music inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien. [Fan Music]

New topic up and ready: supporting characters of LotR. Who's your favorite? Why do you choose this specific character? For the purposes of our chat, we'll define 'main characters' as the Nine Walkers: Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin, Aragorn, Gandalf, Boromir, Gimli, and Legolas. Any and all other characters are fair game as 'supporting characters,' although opinions may differ on this definition of terms.

Look up a juicy quote or two, or be ready to share with us your impressions and thoughts about your pick. Is there a particular deed or scene that comes to mind? So who's it gonna be? Hama? Ioreth? Prince Imrahil? Ghan-buri-Ghan?

Saturday, May 6th, 5:30 EST [-5 hours GMT]. [More]

Ringer Spy Resevoir Dog dropped by to remind me that you can catch the Peter Jackson film 'The Frighteners' on Australian TV Channel 10 on Sunday.

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

Check out The Bastards Have Landed (The Official Peter Jackson Fan Club) for the latest on Peter Jackson carrying the Olympic Torch! [TBHL]

It's been an exciting time for observers on Mt. Ruapehu, and we got a wonderful report from a fan who got to watch a lot of the big scenes filmed up there. Check it out in our latest Spy Reports [ more ]

According to the New Zealand Herald, casting director Liz Mullane has called for more extras to play mainly Elves and Uruk Hai.
"Mullane, fresh from accompanying the films' huge cast at a shoot on Mt. Ruapehu, has been back on the streets of Wellington looking out for talent."
The film requires more Elves - "tall and slim, very beautiful and stylish, 5ft 10 and over;" and "Soldier types" (for the Uruks, we presume) who should be "good, fit sorts of build, 5ft 9 and over." Both men and women were wanted, though men were preferred for the soldiers. No hobbits were required at this stage.
Hopefuls are invited to present themselves at the NZ Dance and Drama centre in Wellington between llam and 3pm this Saturday and Sunday. Ms. Mullane warned that this might be the last opportunity for extras.

Today, May 5th is John Rhys-Davies' (Gimli) birthday. Rhys-Davies was born on 5 May 1944, in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England. That makes him 56 today! Happy Birthday John!

LOTR was mentioned twice in the new June issue of Computer Gaming World. The first mention is on page 40 "There are only two times we get excited by elves: when mentioned in the same breath as madman Peter Jackson's upcoming film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, and when they're not presented as the usual pointy eared pansies that AD&D has molded them to be." [More]

You can catch Brad Dourif (Grima Wormtongue) in 'Bride of Chucky' on TMN. [More]

Cate Blanchett (Galadriel) was recently spotted at a photo shoot for 'Vanity Fair' in Hollywood, TheOneRing.net Spy Cuthalion managed to square off a few tender moments with our lovely Elven Queen to talk LOTR, this is what Cuthalion reports:

(Cate) is PERFECT! When you are in the room with her, its like she's glowing. Her voice is perfect, her face is ageless. We are in luck.

Also, Cate hasn't even had time to read the books in her busy schedule. She is listening to them on tape.

A direct quote, on her role as Galadriel, "I hope I do it justice!" She says Peter Jackson is an amazing director. She had some preliminary pics from Alan Lee with her but was unable to retrieve them. She will start filming in a month. She is perfect and queenly! She is a stunning woman. We as Tolkien fans should be honored.

She says elves will have general english accents, but with a welsh-ish sound, like tapping R's as such. Cate hasn't seen the internet preview, so I gave her lordoftherings.net. She hopes to download the internet trailer. That's all! We are blessed!

Thanks to Cuthalion for the impromptu interview!

From Sprint comes the latest on what has recently been shot in the Rangipo region and around Tongariro lately, no details as of WHAT was shot, only the scenes...

What has been shot in the recent days has been the following.

The Black Gates of Mordor scenes, Chetwood Forest, Emyn Muil West, The foot of Mount Doom and the Gorgorath Plains.

A little report on how PJ is using his body doubles, and how it's not all CGI 'Shrinking' that's going on down in NZ, plus the names of a few of these 'Body Doubles' you'll never see anywhere else! [More]

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 1600 mailing list Ringers! Sign up now! [More]

You can catch Sean Astin (Sam) in 'Boy Meets Girl' on TMN. [More]

You can see Ian Holm (Bilbo) in 'The Advocate' on Cinemax. [More]

Welcome to Mordor

After some scouring I've managed to find this amazing picture of Rangipo, this IS Mordor my friends!

Ringer Spy Mixed-Doubles sends in news on what, where and with who the production was filming yesterday! [More]

Elemental Films director Sam R. Balcomb sends us the news on his Lord of the Rings Project 'Elessar'. Looks like legal troubles are on the way... [More]

"We were supposed to be on Mount Doom, it is hot with lava flowing, so the snow wasn't really appropriate." - "Lord of the Rings" producer Barrie M. Osborne after an unexpected snowfall on Mt Ruapehu in the central North Island disrupted filming.'

Thanks to Kimi for the sound byte!

From: Colleen

I was just reading about the new IMAX production opening in many theatres across the country (Canada, and maybe the US too, for all I know) this Friday (May 5th, 2000), replacing Fantasia 2000. It is called 'Journey of Man' with 'Cirque du Soleil' and guess who is narrating it - LOTR's own Sir Ian McKellen! (Gandalf) When DOES that man sleep? Sounds like it should be fantastic...