desolation of smaug posterThe British Board of Film Classification has given The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug a 12A rating and revealed a running time of 2 hours and 41 minutes. This is in line with Philippa Boyens’ assertion, after the release of An Unexpected Journey, that the next film would run shorter than the first installment.

Continue reading “BBFC announces 12A rating and 161 minute runtime for The Desolation of Smaug”

Lake-Town_TORn

Its always nice to hear from Weta Workshop, but its especially nice when they drop something beautiful in our mailbox. This time it is concept art work from “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Chronicles: Art & Design,” book. Written by Daniel Falconer, this is likely to be an amazing book. TORn got its first look at a similar book by Falconer for the previous movie and it turned out to be as stunning as we imagined it might be. Those who have had occasion to meet the author, who does extensive design work for Weta, know that he is gracious and smart and passionate about the works of J.R.R. Tolkien.

Click for much larger version
Click for larger version
While the masses in the U.S. are out shopping, you can order one of these now and during the pre-order phase, your book gets signed by the concept artists and comes with a “Dragon’s Gold” for Weta discounts and prizes. As you can see above, the image we received is of Lake-Town, from the desks of Alan Lee (who writes the book’s introduction) and John Howe. And please click for the larger version, it is definitely worth

They also included some previously released Elf concept art which you can see below. You can order the book RIGHT HERE. Expect this art to pop up in other places soon and more will be released as Weta and HarperCollins see fit, but for Hobbit fans, this may be among the very best of seasonal gifts.

Elven_TORn

Dennys DofS menuHere’s something we don’t find ourselves posting every day! As part of their ‘Hobbit menu’ fun this year, Denny’s are holding an eating contest at their restaurant in New Haven, Connecticut!  And they’d like some fans to come along and show that they can eat like hobbits; or dwarves; or even a bear…

The contest is the suggestion of one ‘Jamie the Bear’, a competitive eater who made headlines nationally last year for attempting to eat Denny’s entire Hobbit menu. This year he wants to take on some fans, to see if they can beat him! If you’re in the area and you’d like to go along, here’s what you need to know:

Continue reading “Denny’s invites fans in Connecticut to eat like hungry dwarves!”

Fiveish DoctorsThis video will most definitely appeal to those of you who are big
Doctor Who fans, but I’d wager the rest of you will find this immensely entertaining as well.

The short film – titled The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot – was shot to coincide with the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special – The Day of the Doctor. It involves former “Doctors” Peter Davison, Colin Baker,
and Sylvester McCoy doing anything and everything Continue reading “Sylvester McCoy appears in ‘Doctor Who’ Short Film, with Peter Jackson and Ian McKellen cameos”

photo credit to Ron Hall Photography
photo credit to Ron Hall Photography

A few weeks back we reported about how The Grove in LA had been turned into Erebor, even selecting that location for our Pre-Premiere Moot on Sunday night. And then it was suddenly gone, just before The Hobbit and the Greatest of All Calamaties was set to descend upon Los Angeles. Today, the mystery of the vanishing Erebor was solved, it has been moved to the TCL Chinese Courtyard where all those famous footprints can usually be seen. So for those of you coming to LA for the premiere, you will still get to see the Erebor decor, huzzah. And if you have not yet RSVP’d for the Pre-Premiere Moot, here is the  original Moot post

The weather forecast for this weekend looks to be pretty nice with mostly clear skies and sunshine. We will have plenty of reporting from the Premiere before, during and after, so stay tuned to TheOneRing.net for all your Hobbit: DOS news.