Christopher Frank Carandini Lee CBE; it was a mouthful even before the announcement of his knighthood in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List last month, shortly before his 87th birthday, for services to the dramatic arts. Unofficially, Christopher Lee remains the king of the franchises, the only common denominator between the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Star Wars series, the Bond films and the Hammer horrors.
By the estimation of most movie buffs Lee is the most prolific actor alive, possibly in cinematic history, with more than 350 big-screen credits to his name. Nor is there any sign of him slowing down. He plays a Spanish psychiatrist in the forthcoming Triage, one of four 2009 releases graced by his distinctive basso-profundo tones, if not always his aristocratic features (one of them is the animation Monster Mania, which he gleefully describes as “extremely funny”). More..
Good new for Wellington Hobbit fans and GDT fans, from the Noldor Blog again: Del Toro will be signing copies of his new book The Strain at Unity Books. The man seems to be everywhere these days! Read More
One of the gentle souls in the movie business is Guillermo del Toro, and I always look forward to my interviews with him. This is a longer version of my latest story on Del Toro, which is scheduled to run Thursday on the cover of the Los Angeles Times Calender section. The Hobbit Fantasy and horror fans, prepare yourself for the Decade of Del Toro. On the far side of the globe, in New Zealand, filmmaker Guillermo del Toro is now in his seventh month of labor on “The Hobbit,” a $300-million epic that will be told over two films in 2011 and 2012. But you can also find the Guadalajara native on the shelf of your local bookstore with his just-released debut novel, “The Strain,” the opening installment of a vampire trilogy he already has mapped out. More..
Mauro writes: I was listening to a Basta de Todo interview with the great Spanish actor/comedian/writer Santiago Segura, who performed in many movies and is a personal friend of both Guillermo del Toro and Alex de la Iglesia, featured in a lot of movies of both filmmakers. He performed starring roles in Spanish released titles of both of them and he did several cameo roles on the Hollywood movies of Alex and Guillermo (Hellboy, Perdita Durango, Blade II, etc). He’s sort of a fetish actor for both, he mentioned he’s traveling next week to New Zealand to “visit” his friend Guillermo, (he jokingly said “I’m going down there to beg him for a role on The Hobbit”). The interviewers and Santiago even hinted that the chance of a role is pretty much secure. Santiago Segura imdb
Liv Rundgren Tyler (born July 1, 1977) is an American actress and model. She is the daughter of Aerosmith’s lead singer, Steven Tyler and Bebe Buell, model and singer. Tyler began a career in modeling at the age of 14, but after less than a year she decided to focus on acting. She made her film debut in the 1994 film Silent Fall. She then appeared in supporting roles in Empire Records (1995), Heavy (1996), and That Thing You Do! (1996). Tyler later achieved critical recognition in the leading role Stealing Beauty (1996). She followed this by starring in supporting roles including Inventing the Abbotts (1997) and Cookie’s Fortune (1999).
Tyler achieved international recognition as a result of her portrayal of elf princess Arwen Undómiel in the The Lord of the Rings films. She has appeared in an eclectic range of films, including the 2004 comedy Jersey Girl, the indie film Lonesome Jim (2005), the drama Reign Over Me (2007) and big-budget studio films such as Armageddon (1998), The Strangers (2008) and The Incredible Hulk (2008). More..
stormcrow20 writes: Sir Christopher Lee is once again collaborating with Tim Burton in the director’s adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland”. Mr. Lee will be portraying the Jabberwock. Check out the link for more casting information, as well as a small assortment of photos of the main players. More..
Alf Seegert writes: This week my board game BRIDGE TROLL is being released by Z-Man Games (it was released in Germany last week). I’m a huge Tolkien fan, as is the artist Ryan Laukat, and my hope is that the troll-theme of the game might appeal to other Tolkien-fans as well. (In the game players get to play bridge trolls who eat and extorts travelers who try to cross their bridges). It would be a huge honor if you found this fit to post on theonering.net! More..
Lord of the Rings Online, the only MMO based on the literary works of J.R.R. Tolkien, is a subscription-driven online title, but it’ll soon be heading into a market filled with free-to-play games. CDC Games, which has more than 160 million users and 13 million active users in China, holds the exclusive distribution rights and expects to launch the game in China during the second half of this year. The Chinese version of Lord of the Rings Online will come with “significant changes” from the version launched in North America and Europe. CDC Games will utilize its extensive knowledge of the Chinese market and research into local customer preferences to alter the game in various ways, including an enhanced player versus player function. CDC is already encouraged by preliminary test data on the game so far, which has shown an activation rate of more than 80 percent during its closed beta test held earlier this year. Lord of the Rings Online to Rule China
Message board members Earl and Theodred alerted us to a recent video interview with Mike Mignola at collider.com. In addition to saying how much he’s looking forward to Comic-Con, Mike made some brief, but very interesting comments about the week and a half he recently spent in New Zeeland working on The Hobbit, and what we can expect:
“It’s hard to say at this point, because so much work had been done before I even got there that I looked at it and I said wow, it looks like a 16 hour, insane movie, there’s so much in it. It’s too early for me to tell how much stuff is going to get pared down. I don’t really feel comfortable saying too much, except that it looks amazing. And it’s very much a del Toro stamp on that world.”
Do you recall the thrill of watching the LOTR trailers for the first time? Did you choose the movies you went to see in the theater based on the probability that the LOTR trailers would be playing with them? Or, did you download them and play them over and over because they were so good? Well, the folks at ifc.com agree that they were pretty special, ranking them at #35 of The 50 Greatest Trailers of all Time. Follow the link to check it out, and thanks to elf_wannabee on the message boards for bringing it to our attention.
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Message board members Earl and Theodred alerted us to a recent video interview with Mike Mignola at collider.com. In addition to saying how much he’s looking forward to 
Do you recall the thrill of watching the LOTR trailers for the first time? Did you choose the movies you went to see in the theater based on the probability that the LOTR trailers would be playing with them? Or, did you download them and play them over and over because they were so good? Well, the folks at ifc.com agree that they were pretty special, ranking them at #35 of