Thorin and company set off. Destination: The Lonely Mountain.
Literally shoved out the door by the wizard Gandalf, Bilbo joins them somewhat reluctantly, unaware how doing so will radically change his future — and that of Middle-earth. (more…)
Posted in Barliman News, Barlimans, Characters, Hall of Fire, Hobbit Book, The Hobbit
Gandalf & Saruman at SLCC 2013
SALT LAKE CITY — It isn’t traditional convention season but Salt Lake City, that hotbed of nerddom, has invited TheOneRing.net to present a HOBBIT panel Friday at the Fan Xperience. The official title is: Behind the Scenes of The Hobbit: A Look at Hobbiton :: Room 250A but who knows what might happen? Friends may call, secrets may be revealed, photos might be shown and generally Tolkien mayhem is bound to happen.
We will take a deep look at the book and movie versions of Tolkien’s pastoral Hobbiton. They placed us in a pretty decent sized room so support is much appreciated.
Posted in Conventions, Events, Fans, FanX, The Hobbit
Any Texas residents who live near the A&M University may want mark February 27th on their calendar – particularly those of you who are fans of author George R.R. Martin (the creator of the Game of Thrones universe).
The University has announced that he will stopping by on that date for a ceremony beginning at 11 A.M., which will see him presenting a first edition copy of Professor Tolkien’s The Hobbit as a gift to the university. It will be the University Libraries’ 5 millionth acquisition. (more…)
Posted in Events, Headlines, Hobbit Book, J.R.R. Tolkien, Miscellaneous, The Hobbit
Well, looks like nobody will go broke making Middle-earth movies. The third of Peter Jackson’s films based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” squeaked past $800 million earned world-wide last weekend. Jackson can get on with his “Tin Tin” movie and maybe my wish that he will write and direct a World War I zombie film with 100 percent practical effects in conjunction with Weta Workshop can happen. Maybe not.
But it is time to take a little peek at the box office and see how things are going. If you didn’t hear, another Warner Bros. movie, “American Sniper” assassinated the January box office records in the U.S. while the final Hobbit film slid to eighth place after 30-some days of release. Rentrack tells us it made $4 million on the weekend for a grand total of $244,537,115 domestic. It isn’t quite done, so lets call it $250 million but it will be closer to $260.
Meanwhile, overseas, from 63 territories, it has taken $558,600,000. (Speaking of “Taken” the third one of those movies just made an avalanche of money – see gold pile above – so go ahead and bet on number four. With every new sequel, a legion of devils get their wings; but Hollywood doesn’t care.)
One big market, a dragon of a market if you will, China, hasn’t opened the film yet and so that non-U.S. total is expected to reach past $700 million. This puts Jackson’s final Middle-earth movie very close, but not over $1 billion. Now, it is nothing but an arbitrary mark and a game, but something satisfies our lizard brains to know the film made 1/28th of what Bill Gates has donated to charity.
Can China and the rest of the world world push their share to $750 million or beyond? This film was tracking ahead of the previous one, that finished just more than $700 million, so it is going to be very close, but I can’t find the complete data and my bed calls. More updates in a week – or two.
Posted in Hobbit Movie, The Hobbit, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, The Hobbit: The Desolation of SmaugOne thing that isn’t great about being a fansite: Other outlets and readers treat anything we write as if it were written from a fan perspective. Sometimes that is true, sometimes it is false. As a result of this, we didn’t complain about Oscar Nominations; It just sounds like whining anyway.
For the record, while we are here, there are a few categories that are head scratchers though. The technical category omissions, in my opinion, are a mark against the awards. Films that win these categories generate buzz and these Hobbit films didn’t do that in the right way to win awards. All the folks who work on the film would say they didn’t get into the business to win awards and they are only a bit of extra icing anyway.
But WIRED, not a fansite, has a video series about special visual effects and the series is highly watchable, educational and interesting. (Special effects are things that happen on set.) Staffer Justin pointed out this video from the series where the host expresses real surprise that BOTFA didn’t get a nom. He has some wonderful details about the attack on Lake-town in particular (a favorite set piece of mine, burning or not) and the advancement of the computer program MASSIVE created for the battles in the LOTR films. The folks in New Zealand were pushing boundaries as they do every single time.
It is well worth a watch and it lights a fire under me, at least, to get annoyed that Weta Digital didn’t get an Oscar nom for Best Visual Effcts — except they did get one for “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.” That does mean Gentleman Joe Letteri will be in Los Angeles so on Oscar night, after he attended previous parties, we will be sure to invite him to our celebration this year. (more…)
Posted in Crew News, Hobbit Movie, Joe Letteri, Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, TheOneRing.net Community
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 active discussions. Watch this space as we spotlight the most popular buzz on TORn’s Message Boards. Everyone is welcome, so come on in and join the fun!
I think it’s a given that 90% of all online quizzes are just rubbish. Which is why I was really surprised to stumble upon this great Buzzfeed Middle-earth quiz that will may actually stretch your Middle-earth knowledge. (more…)
The folks at Gwaith-i-Phethain, The Fellowship of the Word-smiths on the Elendilion website, have just finished analysing and translating the Sindarin dialogue from The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies.
They’ve set up a page with and with translations of the Sindarin dialogue of Tauriel, Galadriel, Legolas, etc. by Hungarian linguist Gábor Lőrinczi. (more…)
Posted in Hobbit Movie, Languages, The Hobbit, The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, TheOneRing.net Community
As we posted on our Facebook page last night, today (Friday, January 16) will be the FINAL DAY to pledge for ‘full’ tickets for our One Last Party event.
Tickets for the Perk Pledge levels Expected Party Goer and Rivendell Reveller will only be available until MIDNIGHT PST tonight! (more…)
Posted in Events, Hobbit Movie, Oscar Parties, The Hobbit, The One Last Party, TheOneRing.net Announcements, TheOneRing.net Community
While the Academy Awards did not recognize “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” in the Visual Effects category, the Visual Effects Society did. The 13th Annual VES Awards were announced with “The Hobbit” receiving 4 nominations. The VES Awards will be held on February 4th in Beverly Hills.
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects-Driven Photoreal/Live Action Feature Motion Picture
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Guardians of the Galaxy
Interstellar
Maleficent
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
X-Men: Days of Future PastOutstanding Models in any Motion Media Project
Big Hero 6; City of San Fransokyo
The Boxtrolls; Mecha-Drill
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies; Laketown
Transformers: Age of Extinction; KnightshipOutstanding Effects Simulations in a Photoreal/Live Action Feature Motion Picture
Captain America: The Winter Soldier; Helicarrier Broadside and Crash
Edge of Tomorrow; Destruction and Sand
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
X-Men: Days of Future Past; Quicksilver Pentagon KitchenOutstanding Compositing in a Photoreal/Live Action Feature Motion Picture
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Edge of Tomorrow; Beach
Interstellar; Water
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
Full list of nominees at VES.
(more…)
Ben Pitchford builds Lego creations. In particular, over the last 11 months he’s been designing and constructing a 120,000-plus piece replica of Peter Jackson’s Rivendell from The Hobbit.
It’s enormous.
Sitting on a five feet by four feet baseplate, his replica Rivendell environment is more than 50 inches tall. (more…)
Posted in Creations, Fans, Hobbit Movie, LEGO, The Hobbit
The 87th Academy Award Nominations for the 2015 Oscars were announced this morning. Every year there are surprises and “snubs” and this year is no exception with chatter about films like “Selma” and “Gone Girl” lighting up Twitter and award blogs.
“The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” received only 1 nomination for its final outing for Sound Editing. “The Desolation of Smaug” and “An Unexpected Journey” each received 3 nominations so this a bit of a surprise. “The Battle of the Five Armies” missed out on a nomination this time in the stacked Visual Effects category despite being a finalist. Joe Letteri did receive a nomination for his work on “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes”. The other nominees in this category are “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”, “Guardians of the Galaxy”, “Interstellar”, and “X-Men: Days of Future Past”. Sadly, “The Hobbit” also missed out in the Original Song category. Here’s the list for Sound Editing:
SOUND EDITING
American Sniper – Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) – Martin Hernández and Aaron Glascock
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies – Brent Burge and Jason Canovas
Interstellar – Richard King
Unbroken – Becky Sullivan and Andrew DeCristofaro
Full list of nominees at Oscars.com. Weta Digital won a scientific and technical Academy Award that was announced yesterday. Finally, congratulations to Benedict Cumberbatch who received his first Oscar nomination for Best Actor in “The Imitation Game”.
(more…)
