Well, this is the beauty of web news! Matt, who initially sent TheForce.net the Laga’aia casting news, just emailed us with news Jay Laga’aia will be playing Ugluk in the upcoming films. For the last 1/2 a year, we thought Nathaniel Lees was cast in this role. Confused? We are too! We are gathering info right now and will report back ASAP.

update
After some more research, we are without any new information. E!Online, IMDB.com and other sources list Nathaniel Lees as Ugluk. I have also contacted a few folks in the industry and have come up with the standard ‘non answer.’

Some theories have popped up on how this situation could arrise. One suggests that both Lees and Laga’aia are playing Ugluk at different stages of the movie. After all, they are heavily covered with make-up. Another theory suggests Lees was let go from the production and Laga’aia took his place. This second theory does not hold water, considering the news worthy nature of anyone leaving the cast.

We’ll continue to search for answers!

For the weekend of February 24th and 25th The Hall of Fire will focus on the work of Tolkien fans far and wide. Our guest moderator will be Smeagol7, long time Barliman’s regular, who has been working on his very own animated Lord of the Rings movie, complete with a trailer! We’ll check out Smeagol7’s work and explore what you other Middle-earth minds have created.

To get warmed up for the chat, you can check out our very own Fan Section. It’s loaded not only with pictures and writing, but also multimedia pieces, wallpaper, screen savers, and more. Bring your fannish thoughts down to the Hall of Fire as we discuss and share our favorite JRR Tolkien fan creations!

Saturday Chat: 7:00 pm ET (19:00) [also midnight Saturday (24:00) GMT and 10:00 am Sunday (10:00) AET]

Sunday Chat: 8:00 pm (19:00) AET [also 10:00 am (10:00) GMT and 5:00 am (05:00) ET] New time! One hour later!

Sunday Chat: 6:00 pm (18:00) GMT [also 1:00 pm (13:00) ET and 4:00 am (04:00) Monday morning AET]

Place: #thehalloffire on theonering.net server; come to our chatroom Barliman’s and then type /join #thehalloffire