Billy Boydalduya writes: On April 25 an organization called Invisible Children held an event in 100 cities in 10 countries called The Rescue. The goal is to get the child soldiers kidnapped by the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda rescued. As such the event involved people “abducting” themselves and waiting to be “rescued” by a mogul (a politician or celebrity) endorsing the cause. Billy Boyd was the rescuer in Edinburgh. There’s a video of his speech here and more information can be found at http://www.invisiblechildren.com and http://nightof.therescue.invisiblechildren.com.

NEW YORK – The latest J.R.R. Tolkien project lasted six years, more than half as long as the author needed to complete his “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. Getting permission to release a book in electronic form can be as hard – or harder – than writing it. “The Tolkien estate wanted to be absolutely confident that e-books were not something ephemeral,” says David Roth-Ey, director of business development at HarperCollins UK, which announced last week that the late British author’s work – among the world’s most popular – would be available for downloads. “We were finally able to convince the Tolkien estate that the e-book is a legitimate, widespread format.” Tolkien’s in, but e-library still lacking

Fans of the Lord of the Rings who have not yet had their fill of cinematic Middle-earth should make a date for Sunday 3 May at 4pm (UK time), when the internet and the Sci-Fi-London festival will simultaneously host the premiere of The Hunt for Gollum – a “film for fans by fans” knocked together for just 3,000 quid. According to the BBC, the film is set between The Hobbit and the Fellowship of the Ring, and “tells the story of Aragorn as he sets out to discover the truth about the Ring”. Writer and director Chris Bouchard explained that, with the blessing of Tolkien Enterprises (as long as the project was non-profit, natch), he set about recruiting a vast cast of volunteers – including 160 credited crew and 60 who worked on visual effects alone. LoTR fan film set for net premiere

DiveTwin points out on our message boards that a campaign has been launched to re-open a pub that was once a haunt of none other than J.R.R. Tolkien’s. The story reads:
Pub lovers are backing a campaign to return a pub once popular with Lord of the Rings writer JRR Tolkien to its former glory. The Community Alert on Pubs group is hoping to re-open the Grade-II Listed Three Cups Hotel in Lyme Regis, West Dorset, which was where Tolkien is believed to have penned much of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Read on

District 9 PosterThe word is out that the trailer for Neill Blomkamp’s ‘District 9′ will debut on Apple’s trailer site on April 30th. Fans can then see the PJ produced alien thriller on the big screen the next day during screenings of ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’.