Merry of The Palantir contacted us to say he’d posted a great interview with somebody who knew Tolkien at Oxford in the Fifties. You get a sense of the man and his environment from reading it. Find it on Merry’s site here
Day: December 1, 2000
Are you from the Pacific Rim, or just an early riser? Are you hooked on our great discussions of all things Tolkien? We have a special treat for you this Sunday! By popular demand, we bring you an extra Hall of Fire this weekend. Click here to find out more about the topic, “Peregrin Took: Piece of Luggage or Hard, Bold Halfling?” and the time.
Hullo Tolkien Fans! This Sunday there is a special edition of The Hall of Fire, to test the waters of fandom down in the Pacific. The chat will be held in the evening for those down under; see below for exact times. If enough interest is generated, this chat time will join the other two. The topic for this Special Edition chat is:
Peregrin Took, more commonly known as Pippin: An unquenchable hobbit with a desire for adventure, and the youngest member of the Fellowship. During the course of his journeys, he gets caught in a tree, captured by orcs, and gets up to all sorts of other mischief. But did this son of Paladin achieve anything worthwhile on the quest, or would he have done better to be sent home, as Elrond wished? What do you think? Come on down to share your views on Pippin this weekend.
Time: Sunday, December 3rd, 8:00 p.m. Sydney time, 10:00 p.m. in NZ, 9:00a.m. GMT, 4:00 a.m. EST.
Place: #thehalloffire on theonering.net server; come to our chatroom Barliman’s and then type /join #thehalloffire
See you there!
From: Leonides
I work part-time as a bookseller at Waldenbooks, a division of Borders International. Anyway, today I was intrigued to find a large white envelope lying upon my manager’s desk with a bright orange sticker with white lettering on the front proclaiming ‘Lord of the Rings material inside.’ [More]
I work part-time as a bookseller at Waldenbooks, a division of Borders International. Anyway, today I was intrigued to find a large white envelope lying upon my manager’s desk with a bright orange sticker with white lettering on the front proclaiming’Lord of the Rings material inside.” The return address read as follows:
Marketing Dept.
Houghton Mifflin
222 Berkeley St.
Boston, MA 02116
Needless to say (me being a Tolkien fanatic like the rest of you) my curiosity was piqued. The package was already opened so I had no moral qualms about reaching inside and taking a gander at whatever treasure it might hold. I drew forth some curious items:
1. A ‘Teacher’s Aid’ for helping to teach Lord of the Rings to students.
2. Something called a ‘shelf talker’ with a whole bunch of movie art and photos that’s meant to be put up in the fantasy section.
I also found this EXTREMELY interesting letter which I photocopied and am now reproducing exactly…
Houghton Mifflin HOT TITLE ALERT
THE LORD OF THE RINGS by J.R.R. Tolkien
Now a movie from New Line Cinema!
Dear Bookseller:
J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic adventure THE LORD OF THE RINGS is coming to a theater near you! The movie, directed by Peter Jackson, releases next year, but the trailer…
…is in the theaters December 8th
Tolkien sales spiked last spring after 10 million people downloaded the film teaser released on-line.
Please place the enclosed shelf talker in your fantasy section immediately!
We’ve included the ISBNs of our best-selling Tolkien backlist to help you order up today; and please let us know if you’d like more Teacher’s Guides.
Are you ready for the movie of the year?!
Shelf Talker
Full-color, featuring movie art, ‘1/2‘ (ISBN: 0-618-13857-9 /NC)
Teacher’s Guide for THE LORD OF THE RINGS
16 pages with comprehension questions, vocabulary, discussion and essay topics (ISBN: 0-618-12011-4 / NC) packs of 5
For a complete, annotated listing of our best-selling Tolkien-titles, please visit our web-site: www.lordoftheringstrilogy.com
For the latest movie news, please visit:
www.lordoftherings.net
To order, please contact your Houghton Mifflin sales rep or call / fax customer service at (800) 225-3362, Fax (800)634-7568
————
That was the whole letter, and boy was I surprised when I read that whole December 8th part! The only New Line film I know of being released that day is the Dungeons and Dragons films.
What happened to ’13 Days?’
Well, I quickly grabbed that letter, photocopied it, and retyped it. Now I pass it on to you all for judgment…
-Leonides
Ringer Spy Sparrowhawk sends in word on an article that appeared in the Altavista Entertainment website. The article goes into detail regarding New Line Cinema’s ups and downs this year regarding box office success.
They spoke with Michael Lynne, one of the head honchos at New Line, concering LOTR, Lynne said:
On “Lord of the Rings,” Lynne says “we have close to $180 million in international guarantees,” plus merchandising advances and tax-incentive deals in New Zealand and elsewhere that limits New Line’s financial exposure on production “to not more than $20 million a picture.”
Read the entire article here. [More]