There's two great documentaries making the rounds of New Zealand during the film festival season - the Figwit documentary, about the elf extra catapaulted to unexpected fame via the internet, and the first part of Costa Botes's very complete Making Of LOTR, which promises to be "a fuller and more playful appreciation of activity behind the scenes than you might have seen on the more formal guided tours provided by the DVD extras." [More]

Narnia News from Narniaweb: James Cosmo [Braveheart] has been cast as Father Christmas. [More]

From IMDB: Pregnant actress Liv Tyler reportedly passed out on Saturday while dining in a Massachusetts restaurant. The Lord Of The Rings beauty, her husband Royston Langdon, actor Mark Wahlberg and his partner Rhea Durham were socializing in The Pearl eaterie on the Massachusetts island of Nantucket, when Tyler fainted. Newspaper the Boston Herald reports the five-months-pregnant actress refused first aid and said she would go the island's Nantucket Cottage Hospital herself. Tyler and her husband of one year are expecting their baby in the new year.

TORN wishes Liv a speedy recovery and good health!

Elijah Wood attended the Karlovy Vary Film Festival in Prague last weekend. www.iffkv.cz has some images of the event, take a look! [More]

HARTFORD, Conn. - Tickets to the Sunday, September 19, 3 pm performance of the triumphant "Lord of the Rings Symphony" featuring Oscar(r)-winning composer and conductor Howard Shore and the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, are on sale now. [More]

Ian McKellen has updated the 'E-Posts' section of his website, McKellen.com. Take a look! [More]

Ringer Baggins of the Shire sends in this tidbit: I work for Odeon cinema chain in the UK, we recieved a letter on Tuesday 6th July explaining that during October the 3 extended editions of the Lord Of The Rings films will be shown on Sunday's. This means ROTK EE will be shown before it is available to buy on DVD!

A glance at our front page today shows how LOTR fans all over the world are mobilsing to get together and party with their fellows. The Fellowship Festival in London is no exception. Their latest news is exciting: As well as meeting a great line-up of star guests, all theatre ticket holders will be entered in a draw to win a trip to New Zealand and do a Red Carpet tour of LOTR locations. [More]

Megan writes: Austin Meet-Ups, Rings on the Range & Pedazo Chunk International Headquarters invite all local Ringers to an evening of LotR movie trivia on Thursday, July 8th, 7-9pm This is one Austin meet-up you won't want to miss! We are very lucky that Pedazo Chunk International Headquarters has reserved their dvd projection room for our meeting, so we can all have tons of fun sharing our favorite scenes, easter eggs, and various trivia from the movie trilogy on DVD. [More]

xtj writes: Just thought I’d drop a line and share this article at action-figure.com about the release of the 'Gates of Mordor' gift pack, which includes an exclusive Mouth of Sauron figure on his horse!! Just a glimspe of what the scene might be like in the ROTK:EE [More]

Gandalf of Denmark writes: I work in a cinema in Denmark, and on the latest list of releases, it was mentioned that in mid-October Lotr 1,2 & 3 Extended version would be shown in a select number of cinemas. It would seem likely that they are showing the extended versions, a few months ahead of them coming out on dvd, so the December release, seems like a good bet for the dvd's so far.

Kevin writes: Wikipedia, a free open-source encyclopedia, has a 'featured article' is that of none other than Sir Ian McKellen! [More]

Ian Berriman , Editorial Assistant for SFX Magazine writes: We've just put up some behind-the-scenes snaps from a recent photoshoot with Billy Boyd on our site, and I wondered if it's something you'd like to mention on your site? [More]

The utopian visions of other worlds that make up the backdrops in Hollywood’s multimillion dollar feature film industry may seem futuristic or magical to moviegoers, but any time traveler worth his salt could tell you that these landscapes have more in common with Earth’s recent past than the far future. [More]

What do you get when you mix a gaggle of Hobbits – a bevy of beautiful Elven Ladies – a horde of stalwart Dwarves – and a menagerie of mortal Men? Add in a couple of Orcish louts just for fun, sprinkle in some funny Kiwi accents, then give them free reign in a fabulous San Diego club so they can all relax, drink, and talk? Now just imagine what all this mischief will add up to? [More]

Over at Aint-it-Cool.com, Quint has reported that ROTK:EE will NOT be showing at Comic-Con, but instead a possible New Line lead panel about the ROTK:EE. We have yet to hear back from Ringer Spy HMS Surprise to see if they could provide us with an update. For my money, the AICN story sounds pretty logical. Afterall, ROTK EE (aka Christmas for Tolkien geeks) in July was just a little too good to be true! [More]

If any of you are space buffs, then you know about the ground-breaking sciene and space discoveries taking place right now with the Cassini mission to Saturn. If not, read this article from TIME, appropriately named 'Lord of the Rings.' [More]

Robyn writes: 'Hetty Wainthropp Investigates', the British television series that Dominic Monaghan starred in prior to LOTR, is finally being released on DVD. The complete first season will be released September 7 for Region 1 (U.S. and Canada), and can be ordered through amazon.com for $ 41.99. The release date for Region 2 (Europe) is October 11. [Pre-Order Region 1]

Thanks to Hobbitangel for the info! To my deep regret, I missed Charlie Ross' The One Man Star Wars Trilogy at a previous Toronto Fringe Festival. I wasn't about to make the same mistake now that Ross has decided to tackle J.R.R. Tolkien in The One Man Lord of the Rings. [More]

For Ausralian Ringers, it's not too late to attend the LOTR Cabaret in Canberra on July 10. Look at the line-up of guests....if you're in the area, this is an event NOT to be missed. [More]

Narnia News: Unlike the wolfpack we heard about a few days ago, the White Witch's reindeer were not so lucky. Narnia film makers Lamp Post Productions hoped to bring a herd of reindeer to New Zealand where they would draw the Queen's sleigh. However they were refused entry by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. Peter Jackson's Weta Workshop will have to create them digitally. [More]

Megan & Okassan send along their reviews from the Houston LOTR Concert, take a look! [More]

If ever I've eagerly waited for the fat lady to sing, it was at the Houston Symphony's presentation of The Lord of the Rings Symphony. Composer Howard Shore has compressed his mountains of music for the film trilogy into a six-movement piece lasting roughly 90 minutes. [More]

Robert sends along these pictures of the Boston Science Museum's huge banner they installed in preperation for thier LOTR Exhibit opening this summer. [More]

The July 4th edition of 'Heart of the City' comic features this scene from 'The Hobbit'. [More]

Ringer HMS Surprise sends us this amazing tidbit: 'I hope you are sitting down, because I nearly fell over when I heard. I have a friend who works for Comic Con and they just told me that ROTK:EE will premiere on Friday, July 23rd in the San Diego Convention Center's brand new 6,000 person Rm H. I can't wait!.'

While we can't confirm this yet, it would be pretty sweet if it happens! (Well, for those of us going I guess!)

From Variety (thanks to Akabarlee): PRAGUE -- With the scramble to bring in names heating up in the countdown to its July 2 opening night, Karlovy Vary is lining up a slate of stars...Stars already confirmed include Elijah Wood and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman for the screening of "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"...Director John Irvin and actors Colm Meaney and Bernard Hill will accompany the opening-night showing of their "The Boys From County Clare." [More]

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Irascian writes: Subscribers to “Music from the Movies” received an astonishing “LOTR” –dedicated issue today. Featuring EIGHTY-ONE pages of densely-packed interviews and information about the music from the trilogy this is one issue EVERY fan of Howard Shore's score is going to want to own. More of a book than a magazine this issue includes many rare photo’s of scenes from the movie and the sheet music. I've sent you scans of the cover and a sample page. Subscription details can be found here.

Thanks to Bilbo, Thorin and company have escaped from the dungeons of the Elf-king of Mirkwood. But to what end? Do the dwarves finally consider Bilbo a worthy member of their company? The journey down the river is an unpleasant one for the dwarves, but the end makes up for it -- or does it? [More]

Wellington's Dominion newspaper carries a casting call for hundreds of extras to take part in Peter Jackson's King Kong. Many extras who worked in LOTR are reportedly very keen to take part in Jackson's next adventure.[More]

Kathleen & Baylor send in these VERY detailed reports and a few pics from the Origins Con featuring Sean Astin, take a look! [More]

HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA -- Friday, July 2, 2004 -- The production team behind the independent feature documentary, RINGERS: LORD OF THE FANS and revered fantasy author Peter S. Beagle (“The Last Unicorn”) have combined forces to appear at the San Diego Comic-Con International 2004 on Thursday, July 22, 2004. A special one-hour Panel Discussion featuring ‘Ringers’ principal filmmakers and the legendary author will be held that Thursday evening at the San Diego Convention Center, where tens of thousands of enthusiastic genre fans convene for the largest event of its kind in the world. [More] ['Ringers' Official Website]

TheHutt writes: On 17 and 18 November there will be two concerts of the "LOTR Symphony" in Moscow in the State Kremlin Palace. The Russian National Philarmonic Orchestra will be participating in the concerts. The orchestra will be conducted by Howard Shore himself, and the show will include a choir of 100 voices, video effects with designs by Alan Lee and light effects on the stage. [Tickets]

Andy Serkis is most famous for providing the voice and movement for Gollum in Lord of the Rings. He will soon start work on King Kong, but did he act like a monkey when he was 12? [More]

John writes: John Noble will be a guest speaker at the Sourgapes film festival on Monday 5th July. It is a fun, grassroots affair which has become really popular in the last couple of years. Kind of off-off-Broadway. [More]

AP - The box office success of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy has made him very rich. Sales of merchandise linked to movies are set to make the New Zealand-based director even richer. Jackson saw his wealth balloon from $NZ70 million ($A63.76 million) last year to $NZ184 million ($A167.6 million) this year, according to a list of rich New Zealanders published in a National Business Review magazine survey published. [More]

Mel writes: The first part of the new Swedish translation of Lord of the Rings is done. Erik Andersson, the translator, has worked for two years on this first part and many of the old names are gone and have been substituted with new names, more fittingly translated. The new Swedish title of Lord of the Rings -The Fellowship of the Ring will be "Ringarnas herre - ringens brödraskap" and will be out this autumn.

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Time Warner Inc. is in preliminary talks to buy legendary film studio MGM, a move that could spark a bidding war with Sony Corp., a person familiar with the situation told CNNfn Thursday. But Sony, which has been negotiating to acquire MGM since late April for roughly $5 billion, is still very much in the running, people close to the negotiations told Reuters. [More]

Ian McKellen will be one of the leaders in the march from Hyde Park today. He will address the Rally in Trafalgar Square on arrival.

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Colin Hanks and "Early Edition" star Kyle Chandler have been tapped to join the gorilla gang in Peter Jackson's "King Kong" remake. They join Naomi Watts, Jack Black and Adrien Brody in the Universal Pictures reimagination of the classic story. Hanks is on board to play a production assistant to filmmaker Carl Denham (Black) with Chandler in negotiations to play a 1930s B-movie actor opposite Watts' character, Ann Darrow. [More]

Filming family flick that made actress Liv Tyler want to have a child of her own. It was the moment that was to change Liv Tyler's life. On the set of her latest film, she held her enchanting little co-star in her arms - and suddenly realised how much she wanted a child of her own. Filming the family comedy Jersey Girl with pretty 10-year-old Raquel Castro made Liv all broody, and last week she let slip the news that she is pregnant. [More]

Today is Liv Tyler's birthday! Liv was born on July 1st, 1977 in Portland, Maine. That makes her 27 today! Happy Birthday Liv!

Adrian writes: I've written a short review of the ITV documentary about Ian McKellen that was shown on the 29th June. If you think it is good enough, you're welcome to publish it on your site. [More]

Susanne sends along this story from the UK Sunday Times: There's a story in Hollywood that, a few years ago, John Travolta was willing to work for peanuts for the role that would put his career back on track. Then Pulp Fiction restored his box-office appeal and he was back on the A-list. Now Jude Law has joined the Tinseltown elite. Not only is he said to be commanding $20m for his next role, but he can choose the director, his co-stars and have script control. It's that power, and the pay check, that defines membership of the elite. But who are the Brits that have it? [More]

More news for the Narnia fans out there: According to my local paper The Waitakere City News, the local Council will have no problem allowing a pack of 10 North American wolves onto its turf to be filmed as "Witch's Minions" for The Lion, the Witch, and The Wardrobe. [More]