Warner Bros. officially released The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey TV spot #8 today. For those who have seen all of the other TV spots and/or the movie trailers, the 32 second spot doesn’t present anything new, but who’s going to pass up watching 32 more seconds of Hobbit-goodness? Speaking of new footage, however, discussion board members who watched the Charlie Brown Christmas special on ABC in the states last night are reporting that they got a glimpse of (Highlight for spoiler) Smaug’s tail hurling what looked to be a fireball towards what looked to be Dale in a TV spot run during that show. So, keep your eyes peeled, and in the mean time, enjoy the latest TV spot!
Well, this was indeed the “big secret” we kept quiet for such a long time. TheOneRing.net staffers Larry Curtis (MrCere) and your host Cliff Broadway (Quickbeam) have comedic appearances in the delightful Air New Zealand Safety Video that has taken the internet by storm in the past few days! With a whopping 7.5 million views since Oct. 31st, this video is filled to the brim with charming Hobbity goodness…. a sexy Dean O’Gorman (who plays Fili)…. Tolkien’s great-grandson…. and a Wizard in high tops! Join us on our live webcast today at 5:00pm PST to learn delightful details as the marketing efforts for THE HOBBIT continue apace. WE ALSO HAVE OUR LINE PARTIES GOING FULL TILT! Learn more by joining our Live Event page right here and be part of the chat: www.theonering.net/live or via Stickam at www.stickam.com/theoneringnet
Join us in about 30 minutes for our *live* weekly webcast TORn TUESDAY! Your congenial host Clifford “Quickbeam” Broadway will bring in fellow TORn Staffer and esteemed Middle-earth journalist Larry “MrCere” Curtis to talk about new Line Parties co-crafted by YOU the *fans* using TheOneRing.net’s exclusive Line Party interface — and also the Wellington premiere party for THE HOBBIT; and we’ll even check out the new T.V. spot! Perhaps we may even begin the OFFICIAL TORn HOBBIT LIVE READING straight from the original book, time permitting. Join us at 5pm Pacific Daylight Time and be part of the chat at our *LIVE Event Page* right here, which includes Barliman’s Chat! www.theonering.net/live or even turn on your webcam and join us at our Stickam page here — www.stickam.com/theoneringnet
A couple of interesting articles came to our attention today – so we’re sharing them with you! Darkhorizons.com has this great interview with Richard Armitage; it contains minor spoilers about Thorin’s character in the Hobbit movies, so don’t read on if you want to stay spoiler-free!
So we’ve told you all about Denny’s new Hobbit menu, and what you can expect in restaurants from November 6th. And all very delicious it is, too. But here’s the stuff that’s really exciting for fans….
On Hobbit placemats in Denny’s there will be four QR codes which can be scanned for exclusive content. These include some ‘behind-the-scenes/making of’ footage from the fun Denny’s ‘fandom’ commercial (which you can see here); various social-mobile games; and a link to Denny’s ‘Hobbit Hub’, where you can play games, send virtual postcards from Middle-earth, take quizzes, ‘Hobbitise’ yourself and other fun activities. Much of this content has been developed with or by Warner Bros., and is shared through Denny’s partnership with them. (Also it’s worth noting – in the ‘Inspiration’ commercial (linked above) – the music used is not Howard Shore’s, but it WAS provided for the commercial by WB. The first part is rather ‘Potter-esque’ in its tinkly, sparkling sounds, while the second part sounds like the music used in the second Hobbit trailer.)
Most excitingly of all, one of the QR scans takes you to EXCLUSIVE behind-the-scenes footage from the set of The Hobbit movies. This has been put together by WB specially for Denny’s, and we were lucky enough to see it (twice!) at Denny’s HQ last Tuesday. MINOR SPOILERS coming up – read no further if you want to stay spoiler free!
Join us in a scant 20 minutes for our *live* weekly webcast TORn TUESDAY! With special guest commentator Bobby Rice (who played Boromir in “The Todd of the Rings” parody) joining regular host Clifford “Quickbeam” Broadway, we will explore the NEW AD CAMPAIGN appearing on T.V. sets and bus shelters nationwide (including the wacky Denny’s tie-in) and what about the rumors of Stephen Colbert appearing in THE HOBBIT? Join us at 5pm Pacific Daylight Time and be part of the chat at our *LIVE Event Page* right here, which includes Barliman’s Chat! www.theonering.net/live or even at our Stickam page here — www.stickam.com/theoneringnet Magic and mischief awaits!
SPOILER WARNING!Our French partner site Tolkiendrim.com has scored some amazing high resolution imagery of Bolg – the imposing and horrific monstrosity from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey! The high resolution imagery show great details including dried blood (as Tolkiendrim.com suggests, possibly signs of cannibalism??) and some artifacts from his dwarven foes. View this full article to see the three images. [Tolkiendrim.com]
Ringer-spy Rosie-with-the-ribbons sent us the following report from this years RingCon.
Last weekend there was another RingCon in Bonn, Germany, the 11th RingCon to be precise.
In the last few years more and more fandoms have been invited to attend. And this year we were very happy to greet a big number of Game of Thrones-stars and their beautifully costumed fans to the event. But I am going to focus on all the LOTR-stuff that happened.
LEGO® Fans worldwide are being treated to a series of early images of the upcoming ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey‘ LEGO® Playsets. (We are deliberately not including imagery on this post because we are pretty sure they will be asked to remove in hours!) There are a variety of sources for images, but the best come from LEGO Toy Story News’s Flickr Stream. Be warned, one set in particular reveals a previously unannounced ‘change’ to the story. We will describe the sets and a brief attempt to decipher each, but we’d love to hear your own conclusions and theories in our comments. There is also a video available of a very excited LEGO fan quickly going over all of the sets. A small heads up for the video – if you are looking for a clear description and accounting of each set – this isn’t for you. He does seem very excited about mushrooms though! [Flickr Stream] [Video]- MAJOR SPOILERS! (Thanks to Mr. Spielbrick for the heads up!)
The sharp eyes of our readers and discussion board members caught “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” on the trailer ratings published today on the website: Alberta Culture. According to that site, Hobbit trailer #3 will be rated PG and will be two minutes and twenty-five seconds in length. To refresh everyone’s memory, the first trailer was 2:32 and rated PG, while the second trailer was a shorter 1:56 and rated G (smoking, etc. cut for running in front of children’s films). While we don’t have anything concrete, the rumor is still that trailer #3 will be attached to movies that open the weekend of September 21-23 which, of course, includes the 75th anniversary of the publishing of The Hobbit (September 21, 1937) and World Hobbit Day (Bilbo and Frodo’s birthday) on September 22. No word on which movies it might be attached to yet, but we’ll let you know the very second we know.
Welcome to our collection of TORn’s hottest topics for the past week. If you’ve fallen behind on what’s happening on the Message Boards, here’s a great way to catch the highlights. Or if you’re new to TORn and want to enjoy some great conversations, just follow the links to some of our most popular discussions. Watch this space as every weekend we will spotlight the most popular buzz on TORn’s Message Boards. Everyone is welcome, so come on in and join in the fun!
The Reading Room is having an interesting discussion about when elves stop aging. Do they age slower than mortals or do they reach a certain point in time and just stop getting any older? So why don’t you pull up a chair and join the discussion here.
We’ll share more topics next week and hope you can join in on the conversation! Don’t forget, TheOneRing.net’s message boards have around 8,150 registered Tolkien fans, just like yourself. Let your voice be heard!
Ringer-spy Rosie-with-the-ribbons sent us the following report from this years RingCon.
Welcome to our collection of TORn’s hottest topics for the past week. If you’ve fallen behind on what’s happening on the Message Boards, here’s a great way to catch the highlights. Or if you’re new to TORn and want to enjoy some great conversations, just follow the links to some of our most popular discussions. Watch this space as every weekend we will spotlight the most popular buzz on TORn’s Message Boards. Everyone is welcome, so come on in and join in the fun!