After their sell out performance this year of The Fellowship of the Ring, the West Australian Symphony Orchestra (WASO) is following it up with two live performances of The Two Towers in Perth on June 20th and June 21st 2014.

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

MUSIC BY HOWARD SHORE

PERFORMANCE OVERVIEW
The West Australian Symphony Orchestra presents the second installment of The Lord of the Rings trilogy – by popular demand!
Over 4000 people experienced the beginning of the journey in 2013. The West described it as, “a trilling, emotionally satisfying treat…one WASO’s sold-out audiences will long remember.” Don’t miss the epic event, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers in 2014, featuring the whole film on the big screen with Howard Shore’s award-winning score performed live by over 200 musicians.

WASO Chorus
St George’s Cathedral Choristers

Tickets are available from TicketTek on 1300 795 012 or online

Fri 20/6/14 7:30PM: Riverside Theatre, PCEC, Perth
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers  Tickets through Ticketek
Sat 21/6/14 7:30PM: Riverside Theatre, PCEC, Perth
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers  Tickets through Ticketek

Here are the release dates as listed by region on the official website for The Hobbit:

North America:
USA — Dec 13

Europe:
Austria — Dec 13
Belguim — Dec 11
Croatia — Dec 12
Cyprus — Dec 13
Czech Republic — Dec 12
Estonia — Dec 13
Germany — Dec 12
Greece — Dec 12
Italy — Dec 12
Latvia — Dec 13
Lithuania — Dec 13
Holland/The Netherlands — Dec 11
Russia — Dec 19
Serbia & Montenegro — Dec 12
Slovakia — Dec 12
Slovenia — Dec 12
Spain — Dec 13
Switz-French — Dec 11
Switz-German — Dec 12
Turkey — Dec 13
Ukraine — Dec 19
United Kingdom — Dec 13

Asia-Pacific
Australia — Dec 26
Hong Kong — Dec 12
India — Dec 13
Indonesia — Dec 13
Japan — Feb 28
South Korea — Dec 12
Malaysia — Dec 12
New Zealand — Dec 12
Phillipines — Dec 12
Singapore — Dec 12
Taiwan — Dec 13
Thailand — Dec 12

Latin America & Carribiean
Argentina — Dec 12
Bolivia — Dec 12
Brazil — Dec 13
Chile — Dec 19
Colombia — Dec 25
Mexico — Dec 13
Panama — Dec 13
Peru — Dec 12
Uruguay — Dec 13
Venezuela — Dec 13

The Middle East & Africa
Egypt — Dec 13
Lebanon — Dec 12
South Africa — Dec 13
United Arab Emirates — Dec 12

And as something to share around to celebrate that there’s only 99 Days To Go, click the link below and check out the detail on this large close-up of the official Desolation of Smaug one-sheet. I really am starting to wonder whether Bilbo is actually on the ruins of Ravenhill after all.

If you like what we do, and would like to see your Tolkien community keep growing and growing, consider making a contribution to our Pledge Drive. Every bit helps defray our costs!

The day-to-day operation of the website, and the events we host, require a lot more resources than when we first started nearly 15 years ago. We sometimes find it hard to ask our readers for the help we need to keep running, so we began discussing what it is that makes TheOneRing.net worth helping out. It started out as a search for the Top Ten Moments of TORn, but the list got so long because each staff member had their own idea of important moments in TORn history. Here, instead, is something more encompassing: Ten Ways TORn helps serve Tolkien and Lord of the Rings fandom (listed in no specific order).

And, if you enjoy what we do, consider a donation (no amount too small, because every bit does help!) to keep us running!

If you can’t, that’s fine as well — keep reading, commenting and contributing. Because TORn is as much you as it is us!

If you’ve ever sent in an article, submitted a photo or report, posted on our messageboards, visited our chat, or commented on our twitter, facebook or g+, you’re the reason TheOneRing.net is among the largest and most-respected pillars of the Tolkien community on the web.

• Spy Reports

• Spy reports were a big part of our content when the website first started. From casting announcements to secret location pictures to leaked images of important plot points, spy reports were our bread and butter stories. Some of the reports were from random, anonymous sources, while others were official leaks from cast and crew. In fact, there were many production members who said they used TheOneRing.net to keep track of what some of the other filming units were doing. Other spy reports were just someone stumbling upon a film location and sending in a story or images and then we’d all try and guess what location it actually was. Some of our biggest spy reports were of Arwen at Helm’s Deep (which subsequently didn’t happen), Saruman’s prone body on a spiky wheel (which did happen), and TheOneRing.net was given the honor of introducing Thorin to the world. And very soon, we will be seeing stories from MrCere’s visit to the set from his Production Embed last year.

• Hall of Fire Chats and the Message Boards

• Literary discussions on the message boards and Hall of Fire chats – From the very beginning of TheOneRing.net, discussions of the books, chapter by chapter, has been a hallmark. After all, while we waited for news on who would be cast, where filming would take place, and rumors of what might be cut out, we had the books to talk about. Discussions worked by talking about one chapter at a time, and luckily, there are enough books with enough chapters, to keep those discussions going on for a long while. Since the beginning, we’ve looped through the books several times, but luckily, there are always new readers joining the discussion, and new interpretations to be had. And for something a little more dynamic, there are the Hall of Fire chats in Barlimans. Sometimes the talk is about a specific chapter, or a certain character, and sometimes it is about current events, such as new character images or reviews of a recently released trailer. No matter which forum you use, there is always someone to talk to about some aspect of Tolkien, the books or our fandom.

• TORns Live Videos

• We began with TORn Live, which consisted of Red Carpet interviews at premieres, awards ceremonies and special events like Cannes 2001 and SDCC. These would be recorded, edited and released online a few days or weeks later. But technology now allows for live streaming interviews and vlogs and the like. Quickbeam hosts a weekly TORn Tuesday event with interviews and discussions, while he interacts with a live chatroom. The Happy Hobbit ladies record and post their vlogs and post them within a day or two of their recordings, for a much quicker turnaround on video content. And right now we have the Road to DragonCon in full swing with live streaming from across the country.

• Conventions

• Convention appearances – Calisuri and Quickbeam hosted a panel at San Diego Comic Con in 2001, before the release of FOTR, and since then barely a year has gone by that TORn hasn’t had a presence at at least one convention. At many of the conventions we appear at we also have a presence on the exhibit hall floor where we have sold some of our classic TORn shirts. We love it when we get up on stage for a panel and half the people in the audience are wearing some of our older shirts.

•  

  

  Baggins Birthday Party sign

  Line Parties and Fan Events

• Line Parties and other fan hosted events – TheOneRing.net has always been a grass roots type of fan-site and that is no more apparent then looking at the Line Parties of years past. Whether it is just a few friends, or some hundreds of people signing up on the website to attend, fans like you all over the world hosted Line Parties. A few even took place over several days, and included costume contests and trivia games for prizes. Other fan hosted events over the years have been the Hobbit Day/Baggins Birthday Bash events on Sept. 22, the Tolkien Toast on Jan. 3 and the Tolkien Reading Day on March 25. TORn staff in Los Angeles have been hosting a Baggins Birthday Bash party for 11 years now, but there are fan groups around the world that have hosted similar events. Smaller moots happen around the world all the time, there is a very active group in Wellington and one in Croatia. If you are hosting a fan event in the next year or two, please feel free to tell us about it.

• The Oscar Parties

• Originally conceived as a fan event to help raise funds to buy TORn a new server, who could have imagined the Cast and Crew actually showing up to the FOTR oscar party? Even more surprising, who could have imagined the ROTK sweep and all those Oscars on stage at a fan hosted party?

• O.R.C and E.L.F.

• TheOneRing.net hosted conventions – The One Ring Celebration on the West Coast (O.R.C.) and the Eastern Lord of the Rings Festival on the East Coast (E.L.F.) were co-productions with a professional convention company, but they definitely had a TORn stamp on them. The conventions allowed us to combine our love of the films by interacting with cast and crew with our love of the books through academic discussions, the art shows and costume displays. We really did break the mold on how a commercial scifi convention is run and hope everyone who attended had a blast.

• Academic essays and editorials

• TORn has long standing relationships with many in the academic community who have posted guest essays and editorials. Over the year several staffers have posted in depth analysis to fan questions on the site as well. In fact, we have a whole section on the ‘old TORn’ (pre-crash) called Green Books for academic posts. This section had so much good stuff in it, we published a book called “The People’s Guide to J.R.R. Tolkien” and a sequel book as well.

• Driving fan initiatives

• After Return of the King was done and Peter Jackson moved on to do King Kong, the fans waited to see what would happen with The Hobbit afterwards. Months turned to years and still no word while studios went bankrupt, copyrights issues got tangled up and various lawsuits were filed for missing payments. Finally, a few fans decided they had had enough and started a petition to ‘Make the Hobbit Happen’. They brought it to TORn and we got thousands of you to sign so that a big pile of names was delivered to TPTB. A similar thing happened when there was talk that the production would be moved out of New Zealand. The fans could see no where else as Middle-earth, so the ‘Keep the Hobbit in NZ’ campaign was born, but this time on Social Media. And most recently, there was an explosion of Tolkien fan love over the #Votebilbo twitter event prompted by an MTV Audience Award.

• TORn Community

• This list compiles many of the things that TheOneRing.net does to keep you informed, entertained and engaged, but there is really just one thing that makes TheOneRing.net so important to keep around. And that is the community of fans that convene on our message boards, in Barliman’s chat, on Facebook and Twitter.

This site was built by fans getting together to discuss what they hoped for from Peter Jackson long before FOTR ever saw the light of day. The fact that a long existing fan-base gathered here meant engaged and informed discussion began from day one, including analyzing all the spy reports about casting and location details. We didn’t have to wait for the release of the films, or for several episodes of a new show to take off before we could discuss the minutia of every detail because our fan base was already well established.

And what is ‘fandom’ if not a community of like minded people passionate about the same thing. Sure, everyone has their own opinions, so every time a new image was released, or a new trailer appeared, the message boards and chatroom erupted into heated discussions. But as the years wore on friendships were made, some turning into marriage, and we all began meeting up at various moots, conventions, concerts, premiere events, trips to New Zealand or just coffee and a movie. How many of you newer fans were galvanized by the #Votebilbo campaign and now have a wider array of Twitter friends because of it? The fact that TORn was able to continue to exist during all those lean years between film productions is due mostly to you, the readers, sticking around to discuss anything and everything to do with Tolkien, and sometimes other bits of pop culture. We know that after the release of The Hobbit: There and Back Again we will see another decline of readership, but we also know that the community is strong, the friendships have been forged and all of you take that fandom with you where ever you go next.

So again, if you are so inclined to help support us and keep the website going, please do make a pledge or bid on one of the many cool auction items we’ve been posting about the past few days. On behalf of the All Volunteer Staff at TheOneRing.net, you have our deepest gratitude for all the support over the years.

On the eve of a special event tomorrow at the Newport Beach Film Festival (see more here), Peter is going to screen the animated film based on his most famous book at USC tonight! We are going to sit and catch up with him a bit.

We launch TORn TUESDAY every week at 5:00PM Pacific: brought to you by host Clifford “Quickbeam” Broadway and producer Justin “That There is a Bear” Sewell — Our innovative live show includes worldwide fans who join us on the Live Event page with a built-in IRC chat (affectionately known as Barliman’s Chat room). Be part of the fun and mischief every week as we broadcast *live* from Meltdown Comics in the heart of Hollywood, U.S.A.!

And yes our YouTube channel will have this archived later.  You can find us on www.youtube.com/the1nering

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Follow us on Twitter:  @theoneringnet

Follow Cliff Broadway:  @quickbeam2000

Follow Peter S. Beagle: @petersbeagle  /  @conlanpress

Like us on Facebook:  www.facebook.com/theoneringnet

Long time friend of TheOneRing.net, Peter S. Beagle is best known amongst Tolkien fans for his screenplay work on the Ralph Bakshi directed “The Lord of the Rings” animated film released in 1978. But before that he wrote The Last Unicorn, one of the most beloved Fantasy Novels ever, and which later became an Animated Film. Peter is currently doing a tour around the US screening a brand new digital print of this classic Animated Film. Featuring the voices of Mia Farrow, Jeff Bridges, Alan Arkin, Angela Landsbury, Rene Auberjenois and the incomparable Christopher Lee, and superbly animated in vibrant colors and fluid motion, this is a ‘not to be missed’ chance to see a classic story once more on the big screen and to talk to the story’s creator in person.

Peter will be in Southern California next week, with stops in LA, Orange County and San Diego along the way. He will also be a special guest on a future episode of TORn Tuesday for those of you unable to make it to one of these screenings, Cliff will post details just as soon as the date and time are confirmed. For information on the screening tour, please visit The Last Unicorn Tour page to see when and where to find this fabulous film. For all shows not yet selling online, send a reservation request to contact@conlanpress.com – include your name, # of tickets, a phone number, and an email address. They’ll hold seats and notify you as soon as things are a go for the screening you request. There are plans to take this tour overseas soon as well, so do stay tuned to the Last Unicorn Tour page for more details. To read a delightful article about The Last Unicorn and the screening tour, please see Amy Gentry’s story in the Austin Chronicle.

Here’s how you can win a pair of tickets to see The Last Unicorn on Wednesday, August 21.

There are 4 pairs of tickets available, 2 through Facebook and 2 through Twitter, so you could end up with two entries if you use both social networks.

Facebook contest

1. Like the Newport Beach Film Festival Facebook page
2. Click through to the Event page for The Last Unicorn
3. RSVP for the screening event
4. Leave a note about The Last Unicorn (ex. When did you first read the book? How many times have you seen the film? Or just say you want to see the movie.)

Twitter contest

1. Follow the NBFF Twitter page
2. Tweet that you want to see The Last Unicorn to @NBFF and use #NBFFTLU

The contest will run through Tuesday evening at 7pm, and winners will be contacted through either Facebook or Twitter. Please respond as soon as you are able with your name and that of your companion so that the Newport Beach Film Festival can put you on the ‘Will Call’ list.

All film images are courtesy of ITV plc.

The details

When: Thursday, August 15, 2013
Time: 7.30pm
Where: Pavilion
What: The Two Towers
With: The Chicago Symphony Orchestra
With: The Lakeside Singers
With: Chicago Children’s Choir and Chicago Chorale
With: Ludwig Wicki, Conductor
Conducted by: Kaitlyn Lusk, Vocalist

Thanks to Ringer Langwell for the heads-up!

[Read More]

Here’s their blurb:

This multimedia spectacular features director Peter Jackson’s epic Oscar-winning movie in high-definition on huge screens in-house and on the lawn, combined with a live performance of Howard Shore’s award-winning score with orchestra, choruses, and soloists.

Shore’s Grammy and Oscar-winning score is a fully-developed musical epic that features intricately moving themes for each of Middle Earth’s cultures.

When: September 6 and 7
What: The Fellowship of the Ring
With: The City Choir of Washington,
With: The Wolf Trap Orchestra
With: The World Children’s Choir
Conducted by: Erik Ochsner, Conductor
Film in High-definition with live orchestra and chorus

Thanks to Ringer Heather H for the heads-up!

[Read More]

What’s the most unusual location you’ve been to, on a journey to Middle-earth? Let us know in the comments!

Last Friday, on June 28th 2013, the small town of Balve in Germany became a target for a special unexpected journey. Originally I was not intending to go there, but just a day before a good friend Stefan Servos, webmaster of Herr-der-ringe-film.de, suddenly offered two extra tickets and a ride. So after work we got on a soaked wet freeway on our way to Balve.

In fact, Balve is basically famous for one thing: a great karst cave. In prehistoric times it was a settlement for Neanderthal tribes, but now it is used for cultural events: theatre plays, concerts and local festivities. So when a Cologne radio station decided to include it in their “Sektorkino” film festival (where films are screened in unusual places, e.g. a power plant or a prison), what would be more fitting for a screening of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey if not a mountain cave?

The movie did not start until 9pm, but the cave was already open since 7pm: there was a free seat selection, first come first serve. The screen was not too large but was placed relatively high, so the best seats would be rather in the middle of the seating area: it was separated into two floors by a small stairs. The seats were standard plastic chairs; the first row had sun loungers because the people sitting there would have to look up all the time. Also, there was a kind of a VIP lounge on a higher ground behind a stone wall.

Apart from the main hall, the cave has two chambers in the back which are beautifully illuminated by spotlights. One of them was empty and frequented by bored members of the audience , the other contained a mobile projection booth.

For two hours we drank beer, took photos and discussed the work on The Hobbit’s dubbing. But as 9pm grew nigh, the cave got filled, even the most uncomfortable seats were taken and the screening began.

The movie was played in a German dubbed version in 3D (no HFR though). It was actually nice to see the German title Eine unerwartete Reise and Elvish/Orkish subtitles in German, after the BluRay which contains English-language texts only. However, the sound was not really that good. There were only two speakers; and as the voices sounded way louder than the music, I can only assume that the projectionists used only two channels from a 5.1 multichannel setup. The sound quality was a bit compensated by a great acoustic in the cave, but as the film progressed, nobody seemed to mind the sound quality…

The audience’s reaction to the movie was quite a positive one. The loudest laughs were in the moment where Bilbo asks Gandalf: “Is he [Radagast] a great wizard, or is he… more like you?” At the final credits, someone even tried to applaud, but most of the audience just rushed out of the cave immediately. We however remained seated until the end, reading the credits: Stefan found an acquaintance of him working for WETA, and I showed him how many translations were used for the Russian Hobbit dub (four).

Anyway, the evening was quite enjoyable. Despite of rainy weather, a long way home and going to bed at 3am, it was quite amazing to see the movie in such an unusual cave atmosphere. Thanks to Stefan for this unexpected journey!

Cremorne Orpheum Theatre, Sydney Australia – Wednesday 1st May, 2013
Introduced by: Chris Murray (Creative Director Popcorn Taxi)
Hosted by: Oscar Hillerstrom from Popcorn Taxi
by: Deleece Cook on behalf of theOneRing.net

The cheering began as soon as Popcorn Taxi’s Chris Murray walked out on stage to open the event. There wasn’t a spare seat to be had at The Orpheum Theatre at Cremorne for the exclusive screening of The Hobbit and the live on Stage Q&A appearance with Richard Armitage.

700 smiling excited Thorin Fans were in the audience – and they had come from all over Australia for the event – this is what they had been waiting for hours to see. And it didn’t disappoint. It was a wonderful night of entertainment and surprises – Richard was a talkative guest; relaxed, smiling and laughing through the interview and he tried as best as he could to answer every question put to him from the fans, and from the host Oscar Hillerstrom.

Here’s how the night went – plenty of laughter and cheering and just a great vibe all round!…

Chris Murray: “Good Evening! Do I need to ask how you’re doing? Um, I’ve never been to an underwear sale at David Jones but I suppose this is the closest thing. Ladies and Gentlemen my name is Chris Murray and I am the Creative Director of Popcorn Taxi. It gives me no greater pleasure and enormous privilege to have you here tonight to see on the big screen The Hobbit. But not only that I know why you’re here… Richard Armitage on that seat ladies and Gentlemen”

Mad applause.

Chris Murray:  “Yes, you get the chance to ask him questions – I get the chance to curl into a small ball and rock backwards and forwards in the corner.”

More laughter… Then Chris laid down some house rules regarding soft toys and portraits not coming anywhere near the stage, but he mentioned nicely that questions were welcomed from the audience.
Then the first surprise of the night was announced…

Chris Murray: We are celebrating a fantastic film, and that film is out on Blu-ray and DVD today (mad applause)… “Yes! You should buy it! Warner Bros will love me! But, what’s not on that Blu-ray and what’s not on that DVD is what I’m about to play for you now. We have 12 minutes of a little behind the scenes that you will not see anywhere else. (lots of gasps) After that, you’ll get to meet Mr Richard Armitage.

Mad cheering!

Chris Murray: So enjoy the 12 minutes and relax – get the wetness out of the seats – whatever works for you – and I’ll be back! Please enjoy this event.

The sound of the cheering audience was amazing! Then silence. The lights lowered and the huge screen lit up… and then there was Peter…

Peter Jackson: “You want the Hobbit to be a visual experience that goes several steps beyond Lord of The Rings”

And that familiar drone of singing Dwarves speaking of “Pines and Mountains cold” echoed through the theatre – every eye was glued to the screen… it was more than 12 minutes of magic!

The film covered races and character that we see in the An Unexpected Journey – with snippets of comments from the actors and crew members. It shortly gave a brief explanation of the storyline and highlighted some of the production values and costuming as well.

In no particular order – Here are just some of the presenters on the clip, and what they had to say…
____
Peter Jackson: “When we made Lord of the Rings I was absolutely sure that was going to be a once in a lifetime experience. I never realized that ten years later I’d be doing it all over again – and we actually shot the 266 days on The Hobbit which was exactly the same number of days we shot on Lord of The Rings, so I’ve sort of done the once in a lifetime experience twice now (laughs) not a third time – there won’t be a third time”

Peter Jackson: “10 years ago it was Ian playing the character of Gandalf and no one had seen any of the movies, and now that’s an iconic figure. That’s Gandalf.”

Peter Jackson: “The same creative talent. 20 or 30 of the most senior people were Lord of The Rings veterans”

Peter Jackson: “The thing that’s so incredible about Martin is that he’s always exploring, he’s experimenting, he’s always trying to figure out where Bilbo’s truth is”

Peter Jackson: “One of the scary things about adapting The Hobbit is the fact that there’s 13 dwarves – and differentiating those characters was important.”

Philippa Boyens: “I remember the day when I knew we were back in Middle-Earth. I walked over to the costume room and there was Gandalf. And I suddenly thought… We’re Back.”

Philippa Boyens: (about Dwarves): “In the end Pete fell in love with each and every one of those characters. And as much as there is a little bit of Dwarf in Peter I think there’s a little bit of Peter in all those Dwarves.”

John Howe: “I imagine that Peter will do for Dwarves what he did for Elves because he is going to give them much more density, much more history.”

Martin Freeman: (talking about his character Bilbo) “… We join Bilbo as the book of The Hobbit does, as a home faring solitary Hobbit. …certain things struck me about him suggested a certain timidity and a lot of life…”

Elijah Wood: “You’ll get taken on an amazing ride”

Elijah Wood: “To have a chance to return, pop a wig on and feet it kind of feels like I’ve stepped into a time machine. And I get to meet all of these other actors who are coming along for the real long journey and sort of seeing in them a little bit of what we felt like when we started”

Elijah Wood: “A seed is being planted for what eventually comes the time period that we meet in Lord of The Rings”.

Christopher Lee: “Middle Earth seems to be just beginning to rumble and tumble”

Christopher Lee: “The White Council – they represent enormous power. There’s suspicion amongst all of them that there’s this building power of evil – getting stronger and stronger!”

Cate Blanchett: (on Gandalf in the film): “What makes Gandalf the most wonderful hero is the courage against popular opinion. He gets to move on into the darkness that no one else is prepared to go into.”

Hugo Weaving: “Gandalf, Elrond, Galadriel, Saruman, they play a role in eliminating those [forces?] from the political landscape.”

Ian McKellen: (on his character Gandalf regarding the appendices) “ Gandalf in The Hobbit; he is off and away doing other business and quite what that is, is not revealed in the novel. In the films we get to see what Gandalf was up to.”

Ian McKellen: “It’s magic. It’s pure magic. And you’ll believe it.”

The sound of the Dwarves was heard and the film ended with the audience cheering and clapping once more.

Then it was time for Richard Armitage to grace the Stage…

There are a limited number of access passes from both websites, with The Warehouse ending this offer at 12pm on 22/03/13. There are  a limited number of 500, so pre-order soon.

The webcast will be held on Monday, March 25th at 8am! NZTime.

TVNZ reports that it is believed the sneak peek of the second film will last somewhere between 10 to 20 minutes — but details are yet to be confirmed.

TVNZ says that there is no final word on whether an extended version of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will be released — but Jackson hinted one was in the works at the Wellington premiere of the film last year.

[Read More]

Bootnote: Somewhat bizarrely, New Zealand Hobbit fans apparently have to wait until May 1 to purchase their copy, while it’s available in the UK from 8 April 2013.

There are several different versions available, all offering different goodies and extras. We recommend this excellent guide by TORn staffer MrCere and Ringer TheHutt if you want to compare the various versions and sets side-by-side.