If you're a Star Wars fan, pop along to #moviechat on the TORn IRC server and join in our 'Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back' viewing party! We've just started and will be around watching the film together for the next couple of hours! [Join the chat!] (Once in the main channel, type /join #moviechat )

In the first week of sales toward the February 2006 Toronto world premiere of the musical The Lord of the Rings, theatregoers snapped up $7 million (Canadian) in tickets, a spokesperson for the Toronto producers confirmed. Tickets to the lavish stage musical went on sale May 15 - nine months before its premiere. Interest from U.S. theatregoers was reported as intense. [More]

Weta Workshop/Digital (the production company that created the visual effects for the Lord of the Rings trilogy) is seeking Digital Artists to work on upcoming feature films, including King Kong which is current in post production. Weta Digital seeks Keyframe Animators, Motion Editors, Modelers, Shader Writers, Matte Painters, Character TDs, 3D Texture Painters, Compositors, 2D Paint Artists and VFX Production Coordinators. [More]

Farmer Barley Jones writes: Return Of the King flautist Sir James Galway won the Outstanding Contribution to Music Award recently at the 2005 Classical BRIT Awards. [More]

Hooligans, written and directed by Lexi Alexander with a cast featuring Elijah Wood, Claire Forlani, Marc Warren, Charlie Hunnam and Leo Gregory will screen at the LA Femme Film Festival tonight (May 28th), at 8:00 PM. [More]

Green Books Staffer Turgon writes: We've got a fascinating new column in the Special Guest section of Green Books in our long-running series The Science of Middle-earth by Olog-Hai. This one discusses the cataclysm of the Great Wave which destroyed Numenor near the end of the Second Age of Middle-earth, and the recent tsunami in the Indian Ocean six months ago. [More]

And watch for more Green Book updates before the month is out!

If you're a Star Wars fan, pop along to #moviechat on the TORn IRC server and join in our Star Wars: A New Hope viewing party! We've just started and will be around watching the film together for the next couple of hours! [More]

JW writes: I wanted to let you know that I hosted a special discussion for my website. The panel included seven members - each of whom became a fan of the Lord of the Rings movies in a different way. One of them was a prominent figure that worked on the project. Read the transript here. [More]

Starting today and continuing until the 29th, the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra will be performing Howard Shore's LOTR score at the George Mason University. Take a look at this link for more dates and locations! [More]

Today is Christopher Lee's Birthday! Lee was born on May 27th, 1922 in London, England. That makes him 83 today! Happy Birthday Christopher!

It's been branded 'unfilmable' -- even by the author himself. Indeed, Tolkien described Lord of the Rings as "a book very unsuitable for dramatic or semi-dramatic representation" (Letter #194). Even, his biographer, Humphrey Carpenter felt that, although Tolkien sold the film rights to LoTR, he had no real expectation that it could be successfully filmed.

Yet it exists in film form, filmed to completion. Was JRR Tolkien then, wrong, in his estimation? [More]

Some of the TORn IRC regulars - in conjunction with TORn Barlistaff - will be hosting a Star Wars original trilogy viewing party across this weekend - on Friday, Saturday and Sunday night (US time).

How does it work? Well, if you have a DVD copy of any of the Star Wars original trilogy films, wander along, copy in hand onto the server. Everyone will start the film at the same time, and we'll all chat away. Simple! [More]

Amazing voiceover artist, Thurl Ravenscroft, passed away on May the 22nd. He lent his voice talents to hundreds of movies, cartoons and commercials. Most notably, he was the voice of Tony the Tiger of Frosted Flakes fame. Also, he sings all of the songs in the beloved Christmas Classid "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". The reason this news article is posted here on TORn is, he is also the singer of a song we all know and love, "Fifteen birds, in five fir trees. Their feathers were fanned, in a fiery breeze". Recognize that? You should! Yes, he sings it in the Rankin/Bass version of "The Hobbit", and also lends his voice to one of the Goblins. [More]

Roheryn writes: On NPR's "Fresh Air" radio program yesterday, host Terry Gross heard a rundown of the Cannes Film Festival from film critic John Powers. Powers had nice things to say about David Cronenberg's new film, "A History of Violence," starring Viggo Mortensen. Viggo's film is reviewed starting at 15:50 into the 25:00 segment. [More]

Henry Gee writes: I have more news about my ongoing UK tour promoting 'The Science of Middle-earth'. On Saturday 18 June and Sunday 19 June, at I'll be appearing at the Natural History Museum in London as part of their Darwin Centre Live events programme, at 12 noon and 2.30 pm on each day. These events will be webcast, for those unable to make it visit this link. Full details of the book tour can be found at henrygee.org.uk

Buy the Book

Amazon.com
The Science of Middle-Earth

Amazon.co.uk
The Science of Middle-Earth

Peter writes: Bravo will be showing a documentary on the work of John Howe. Entitled "Lord of the Brush", it will debut June 19th. [More]

Ringer Lisalas writes: A friend of mine emailed me to tell me that Orlando Bloom was on Good Morning America this morning (May 25) along with Keira Knightley. They discussed Pirates of the Caribbean 2 & 3, which they are currently filming. Orlando said, "Will's character comes of age a little bit more, and our relationship grows." (I assume he refers to Will's relationship with Elizabeth.) Orlando's most excited about a scene where he has a fight with a giant kraken - which is a giant squid. Sounds familiar!

Dominic Monaghan's new hit show 'Lost' continues to get better with each episode. Catch 'Lost' tonight at 8PM EST on ABC. This is the season finale! TORN's chatroom now has a special 'Lost' screening room, login to #lost at 8PM and watch with fans from around the country! [ABC.com] [CHAT NOW!]

Today is Sir Ian McKellen's Birthday! Ian was born on May 25th, 1939 in Burnley, Lancashire, England. That makes him 66 years old today! Happy Birthday Ian!

Ringer Spy m4sure sends along these images from the Sci-Fi/Fantasy con Collectormania 7, held the last weekend of April. The con featured John Rhys-Davies, Sean Astin, Lawrence Makoare & Kiran Shah. Take a look! [More]

Celebriel writes that the next Gathering of the Fellowship will take place July 1-4, 2006 in Toronto. The Sheraton Centre will once again be the venue. The first Gathering, in December 2003, featured extensive programming and the premiere of The Return of the King. [More]

Ring*Con is one of the biggest Tolkien related events in the world. That’s why a handful of fans have started to create an own Lexi*Con for this event, which will be upgraded step by step and is official by now. It is being translated into nine languages, though English and Netherlands are the only ones online yet. We would be very pleased if you could add a link to our Lexi*Con on your homepage and help spreading news of it, this would be a great help to everybody participating at Ring*Con. [More]

Sideshow/Weta Collectibles has posted a limited number of Eowyn Statues available for pre-sale on their website. This piece sold out a few months ago, and the addition of this piece to the website is part of their 'second chance' offerings for the week. Check it out! [Click Here]

Two interesting films are available on DVD today, the first is the Oscar award winning film 'The Aviator' with Cate Blanchett, the other is a 'Collector's Edition' of the Ian Holm Film 'The Day After Tomorrow'. Take a look! [More]

Dominic Monaghan will be on 'The Tonight Show with Jay Leno' tonight on NBC at 11:35PM. He is there to no doubt promote the 2 hours season finale of 'Lost' tomorrow night on ABC. You can also see last weeks episode tonight at 8PM.

Turgon writes: Henry Gee has posted some news at his website on the UK book tour for his book, THE SCIENCE OF MIDDLE-EARTH. Today (May 24th) he will be in South-West Essex & Ilford. Click here for the full schedule. [More]

Courtney writes: Thought you might want to know that Charles Ross, the One Man LOTR guy, will be on "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" tonight (May 23rd) on CBS, at 12:35am. It is up in the air whether he will be doing Star Wars or LOTR, although he may do both. He will also be in Esquire and Spin magazines, most likely the May issues.

Linuxelf writes: The movie critics for Time magazine, Richard Schickel and Richard Corliss, have compiled an unranked list of the 100 greatest films. Time Compiled List of 100 Greatest Films; LOTR featured on this link. [More]

Christopher Lee was on the red carpet for the premiere of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith in Berlin earlier this week. Take a look at these photos! [More]

HOUSTON— The Houston Museum of Natural Science welcomes visitors to the world of Frodo, Sam and the rest of the Fellowship to Houston at 12:01 a.m. on June 4, 2005 with The Lord of the Rings Motion Picture Trilogy—The Exhibition. This exhibit takes visitors behind-the-scenes of the Academy Award-winning films and opens up the world of Middle-earth for exploration. [More]

Buena Vista International Television has licensed the hit U.S. drama series "Lost" in more than 180 international markets, making it BVITV's fastest-selling TV series in the company's history, the company said Sunday. [More]

Turgon writes: Volume two of Tolkien Studies is now out from West Virginia University Press. It's available from the publisher and from Amazon. The ISBN is 0937058998 and the price is $60.00. [More]

Buy the Book

Amazon.com

Tolkien Studies: An Annual Scholarly Review v.2

Amazon.ca

Tolkien Studies: An Annual Scholarly Review v.2

Amazon.co.uk

Tolkien Studies: An Annual Scholarly Review v.2

Garfeimao writes: One of just 5 Oscar posters from the 74th Academy Awards (the year Fellowship of the Ring was nominated) that were signed at TORN's "One Night to Rule them All" Oscar Parties is up for auction. One was given away as a prize, one was auctioned at the "Two Towers, One Party" event the following year, mine is framed and sitting in my room, and the two remaining belong to my boyfriend. He's going to be moving right after Comic Con, so he's begun to start clearing out his storage. We thought it more fair to offer this item for auction, and announce it here, rather than just bring it to comic con where most of you would not have a chance to see it. [ebay link]

BlueJeans07 writes: After seeing reports on TORn, I HAD to try to track down the new Lord of the Rings MMOG (Massively Multiplayer Online Game) at E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) and give it a whirl to see if it's something I'll eventually invest in. However, since I didn't know what company was creating the game, I had an interesting time finding, only to discover it on pure chance when I was walking to join the three hour line for the new Legend of Zelda game. After three hours had passed and I had the Zelda experience, I hurried back to the Turbine booth to try out a demo of the MMOG. [More]