Ian McKellen | Lord of the Rings Rings of Power on Amazon Prime News, JRR Tolkien, The Hobbit and more

Welcome all, to the annual showdown in the realms of Eriador and beyond! Yes, it’s that time of year when hobbit must fight wizard, dwarf must battle elf, and man must face … erm … well, maybe himself.

Because this year we’ve thrown something new into the mix for March Madness. We thought it would be interesting to see if Sherlock could outwit the most cunning of dragons; or if Rudy has more heart than Samwise. What would fastidious Oscar Wilde make of the slovenly Master of Lake-town? Can Dwalin out-wrestle Dougal Mackenzie?

That’s right – our brackets contain actors in both their Tolkien roles, and a role they play in another film or TV show. So Luke Evans appears both as Bard and Gaston; and Billy Boyd is there both as Pippin and Barret Bonden (from ‘Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World’). This means that some battles will be between two characters from Middle-earth, some between two ‘outside’ characters, and some will be a mix; and yes, actors could find themselves facing an alter ego.

Are we crazy? Is there absolutely no way that the ape Caesar would stand a chance against Gollum? Is Magneto clearly no match for Gandalf? That’s for YOU to decide! Voting starts today – and the madness will run until April 5th. Here is the schedule for rounds:

Round 1 – March 19th – March 22nd 10:00pm ET
Round 2 – March 23rd – March 25th 10:00pm ET
Round 3 – March 26th – March 28th 10:00pm ET
Round 4 – March 31st 10:00pm ET
Final Four – April 1 – April 3rd 10:00pm ET
The Final – April 4 – April 5th 10:00pm ET

The brackets are divided as follows:

Division I – The Lord of the Rings Fellowship, and counterpart roles
Division II – The Lord of the Rings outside the Fellowship, and counterpart roles
Division III – The Hobbit Company (wizards, dwarves, and hobbit), and counterpart roles
Division IV – The Hobbit Lake-town and villains, and counterpart roles

Voting is simple – just click on your choice in each dual, below. You can only vote once – but feel free to share, and rally people to your cause! Speculate on the message boards, and head on over to Facebook to take part in some ‘exit polls’, and see who is predicted to win.

It’s all in fun – how you choose your choice of winners is entirely up to you. But if you’re keen to see someone in particular go all the way to final victory, start campaigning now!

Let the games begin!

Voting in Round 1 will remain open until March 22nd at 10pm ET. At that point, we’ll calculate the winners and post the next round on March 23rd. Follow after the break for a complete bracket image (download it), and to vote on all of our Round 1 match-ups! [Round 1 Bracket]

Continue reading “Middle-earth March Madness 2018 is here!”

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This week our friends at Weta Workshop released a fantastic looking new statue from their awesome mini-statue line. This time fans can add Gandalf the Grey on Gwaihir as he escapes being trapped by former friend Saruman the White. This beautiful statue does a very good job of capturing the tiniest of details between Gandalf and Gwaihir. Fans can add this piece right now to their collection for only $125, and with it being in-stock there will be little to no wait time.

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McKellen in an earlier RSC production of Lear

Ian McKellen has called it his ‘last big Shakespeare part’ – and now you have another chance to see it! Last year’s high acclaimed Chichester Festival Theatre production of King Lear will play at London’s Duke of York’s theatre, (which happens to be the theatre where McKellen made his West End debut, 54 years ago), from 11th July this summer.

You can read more about Jonathan Munby’s production here. Sir Ian tweeted this morning about the 100 show run. Tickets will go on sale on Monday 12th February.

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Yesterday it was announced that Sir Ian McKellen will take to the stage this July, in a fundraiser for Park Theatre in London. His new one man show is called ‘Ian McKellen with Shakespeare, Tolkien, Others & You’, and will run July 3rd to 9th 2017. This extraordinary event gives fans the opportunity to see Sir Ian reprise the roles for which he is best known, including, of course, Gandalf; and with some of the extra ‘perks’ on offer, there are even chances to enjoy a glass of wine with Sir Ian, or to act with him. Park Theatre tell us:

‘Come on a journey with multi-award winning, twice Oscar nominated star of stage and screen Sir Ian McKellen, as he takes you through some of the most exciting pages and stages of his fifty years’ acting. Reprising some of his renowned performances, from Gandalf to Macbeth, he will take requests, answer your questions and invite you to act with him. An intimate and unforgettable one man show with one of the world’s finest actors.’

Full details of this exciting show can be found here. It is, not surprisingly, already sold out; but don’t despair! Park Theatre say they ‘may shortly release more tickets’; and there will be £10 tickets available in strictly limited quantities, on the day of each performance. So you may yet be able to spend an evening in such extraordinary company – good luck!

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On December 18, 2001, TheOneRing.net introduced a new feature on our site: Ringer Reviews – “A database of reviews from Tolkien fans all over the world, whether you loved, liked or hated the film this is where you can express your feelings in words and celebrate with your fellow fans the release of the first installment in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.” Twenty-four hours later, fans had posted 3,000 reviews. By Christmas the count was up to 6,700 and on January 19, 2002, a month after FOTR opened, over 10,000 reviews had been submitted.

Today the count stands at 15,084 reviews. Unfortunately, the individual reviews reside on our old site and have been archived. But, we thought it might be fun to revisit some of the overall results, more of which can be found at the Ringer Reviews link above.

Continue reading “Fellowship of the Ring: 15,084 reviews and counting”

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A number of other sites around the internet are also celebrating the 15th anniversary of the opening of The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring this week, and/or The Lord of the Rings movie franchise in general. For the convenience of our readers, we put together this one-stop shop for a stroll down memory lane. We’ll bring more to you during the week as we find them. Enjoy!

Continue reading “FOTR 15th anniversary – a compilation of articles”

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