Actor Orlando Bloom is currently making his Broadway debut (sans blonde wig, we assume) in a new production of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

This is the first time Romeo and Juliet has been staged on Broadway in 36 years — and we have THREE pairs of tickets to giveaway to lucky TORn readers!

Bloom’s co-star is two-time Tony Award® nominee Condola Rashad, and the production is directed by five-time Tony Award® nominee David Leveaux. The play will open on Broadway on Thursday, September 19, 2013 at the Richard Rodgers Theatre; preview performances have been running since Saturday, August 24, 2013.

How do you enter?

To enter to win one of these three pairs of tickets, all you have to do is follow @RomeoJulietBway on twitter, then send @theonering.net a TWEET!

Simply follow ‘@RomeoJulietBWay’, then tweet:

Please enter me to win tickets to R&J on Broadway! @RomeoJulietBway @theoneringnet #TORnRJ

Tweet us by MONDAY 16th Sept – don’t delay!  We’ll then pick three winners from all the tweets received, and we’ll be in touch with those lucky folks to let them know!

The winners will be able to choose tickets for a WEEKDAY performance of their choice (depending on availability) before Nov 1st of this year.  (Which means, if you’re planning on coming to New York ComicCon, you could go and see Romeo and Juliet on the Wednesday and then come to TORn’s party in the Big Apple on the Thursday – more on that soon!)

If you aren’t lucky enough to win, you can still buy tickets to see the lovely Orlando on stage!  All details of this production can be found here.

Don’t forget the #TORnRJ in your tweet!  Good luck!

Tweets about “#TORnRJ”

Blanchett is sitting in a Sydney hotel room recalling the eight takes required to nail the scene in mid-2012. ”I thought, ‘I’m really not going to last the week’.”

She had watched Robert B. Weide’s Woody Allen: A Documentary during the flight to the US for filming. She knew there would be little small talk on set; that Allen is unforthcoming with direction and likes to do scenes in one take. Perhaps, she thought, he was unhappy with her work.

She need not have worried. Later it emerged Allen hadn’t liked anything about the scene, which he dropped in the final cut. Blanchett, playing the character Jasmine French, was not the source of his worries. In July he told Variety that it was ”like having an atomic weapon or something, to get an actress like that”.

Critics are claiming that 44-year-old Blanchett’s performance as the self-absorbed, Xanax- and alcohol-addled Jasmine, a woman who has lost everything – her philandering white-collar fraudster husband, her status as a New York society princess, and her mind – is her most extraordinary yet. The chatter is that her first major role since stepping away from the position she shared with her husband, Andrew Upton, as artistic director at the Sydney Theatre Company will earn her an Oscar nomination, at the very least, for best actress.

[Read More]

What Smaug might look like: A concept

By: Manuel Ferreira

I wanted to make an animation starring Smaug which harmonises between Peter Jackson’s films and my own imagination. But for that I needed references. Right now, we don’t have many, but the ones we have are enough for a concept – a concept that I wanted to share with you!

With The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug trailer, we got a clear picture of Smaug’s muzzle and eyes. In The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, we saw Smaug diving into Erebor’s treasure, and although we cannot see Smaug himself, we do see his horns covered in gold. Assuming that Smaug’s look won’t change between the films, we know that he has four horns in each side of his head and one spike in the middle. Joining the horns to the muzzle we saw in the trailer gives us an idea of what his entire head would be like. I drew them together but took some precautions: Smaug was diving so his horns got ‘’stretched’’ and blurry during the picture (after all, he was at movement) so I gave them a shape. For his neck, I simply followed the spikes assuming they’re in some sort of sequence.

For the side of his face, I did the same thing, only picturing the horns side on.

Another body part of Smaug that we clearly see is his tail. It’s visible when he breaks the gates of Erebor, and one feature that caught my attention was that the tail is forked.

There are almost no images of Smaug’s body, but we can (just) see the proportions of his wings, neck and tail with his head. Mixing that with elements of the common adaptations of Smaug with a realistic tone gives us a really cool dragon. As for the color, I personally think that he is a really dark red with purple/dark tone, and exposing the color of the trailer’s Smaug to daylight, my thoughts were confirmed. This is a concept of what we can expect for the next films, but I honestly hope that PJ’s Smaug, is way cooler than mine!

For my animation I added Benedict Cumberbatch’s voice to this Smaug. You can see it here:

About the Author

Hi, my name is Manuel Ferreira, I’m 13 years old and live in Portugal. I’m a recent Tolkien fan, and discovered Middle-Earth trough Peter Jackson last year. Since then, I’ve started to read J.R.R. Tolkien’s books, watched The Lord of the Rings trilogy and basically became a die-hard fan. Middle-Earth is currently my inspiration for my draws and videos.

Like the dwarves of Erebor, the Celts were a group of people renowned for their warriors who were forced to flee their mountainous homeland in the east due to unknown strife around 1600 BCE (the Bronze Age). Spilling into Europe, the Celts wandered for generations, making their way west to the British Isles. It is worth noting that the term “Celts” applies to several groups of un-unified peoples who, much like the dwarves, were prone to both fighting against each other and in turn, banding together to unite against a common enemy, such as the Roman legions.

When comparing the Celts to dwarves, it is important to focus on one of the northern tribes (in modern Scotland): the Picts. They were given their name by the Romans, who found the animal shapes and designs they painted on their bodies with blue woad to be curious pictures. The Celts were also in the habit of shaping their hair before battle – using a mixture of lime and urine as a sort of styling clay that caked white onto their tresses and made their hair stand on end. For a cinematic example of these ancient warriors, check out the trailer for Kevin MacDonald’s adaptation of The Eagle (2011).

The Eagle (2011)

If the interviews with Billy Connolly from last summer are still accurate, then we can expect Dáin Ironfoot to “have a Mohawk and tattoos on my head…I arrive riding a wild pig.” Sound familiar?

It should also be noted that as a Scot, Connolly himself is a Celt. In fact, many of the actors portraying dwarves in The Hobbit are of Celtic descent, and several were allowed to keep their respective accents. James Nesbit’s Bofur speaks in his Northern Irish brogue, and Graham McTavish’ Dwalin (who also bears war-paint like tattoos) sounds like the Scot he is. Aidan Turner, Kili, is an Irishman, Dean O’Gorman, playing his brother Fili, is a Kiwi of Irish descent, and Ken Stott (Balin) is another Scotsman.

As an interesting side note, belonging to the Order of Fili (wisemen and poets) was required for a warrior to enter Ireland’s elite Fenian ranks. Kili, similarly, could be argued as an alternate spelling/pronunciation of the common Irish surname Kelly, which means warrior (and is coincidentally why I was given my TORn nickname, since it is my birth name).  Naming the two youngest of Durin’s heirs names that invoke a warrior heritage makes sense, however, it is unknown if Tolkien was aware of these linguistic connections.

Any listener of The Hobbit: The Unexpected Journey Special Edition soundtrack will know that the track “Erebor” begins with a proud bagpipe solo: a clear nod to the Scottish. Artist John Howe makes several references to Celtic inspiration in the first Hobbit Chronicles book, citing references to both Kili’s flip knife and Ori’s board game as being based on Celtic artifacts.

Even Celtic dress sounds similar to that of the dwarves: “In terms of clothing, the Celtic women wore a simple long garment with a cloak. The men wore trousers (sometimes knee length), a sleeved tunic reaching the thigh, a cloak, and sandals or boots. A metal piece of jewelry for around the neck called a torc (torques) was quite popular. Clothing dyed in bright colors was common. Men wore droopy mustaches, sometimes beards, and often long hair, all of this in contrast to the contemporary Romans.”

An artist’s rendition of male Celtic dress

However, the Celtic link to the dwarves in Tolkien’s writing isn’t as obvious as the Nordic influences, so why did the filmmakers take this route?

The easy answer is because it hasn’t been done yet. None of the races previously explored in Jackson’s Middle-earth had a Celtic slant, and identifying the dwarves with the proud warriors of the Celts distinguishes them as a race and culture apart from the rest, especially where the Picts are concerned.

The dwarves are from the north, just as Scotland is north of England, the nation that is conceivably Tolkien’s main inspiration for Middle-earth. More than any other race, Tolkien’s dwarves link their existence with the mountains, very much like Highlanders. Also like the Highlanders, Dáin and his people are renowned for their endurance, running for days to come to Thorin’s aid.

Similarly to the Dwarves, the land of the Picts was under constant threat. While such a military force may seem unimpressive by today’s standards, imagine yourself back at the dawn of the Common Era when the world was a much quieter place. The roar of a Roman cavalry charge echoing across the land like earthen thunder would have been much like the advance of Smaug. The armor of the legionnaires glinted in the sunlight like so many serpentine scales. Such a monstrous force was hitherto unknown to the indigenous Britons and was, understandably, often likened to a dragon.

Smaug the Terrible is very much a metaphor for warfare and greed. Just as the Roman invaders laid waste to villages and scattered tribal peoples, so did the dragon. The Romans modified Britain’s landscape and scoured the land for natural resources, just as Smaug scorched the earth and hoarded the treasure of the dwarves.

Scotland in the Roman era

The Picts, like Durin’s folk, stood strong against the Roman dragon and slaughtered entire legions and then some. Unable to subdue the northern tribes, Emperor Hadrian began construction on a massive wall to keep the tribes out of the fertile lands of England in 122 CE. This wall is known as Hadrian’s Wall and its remnants remain near the modern Scottish-English border. Had the dwarves ever turned on the race of Men, such a measure would have probably been taken!

Ruins of Hadrian’s Wall

Tolkien would have been well-aware of this history, and in fact, even his beloved Anglo-Saxons found the Celts to be formidable opponents. The Icelandic sagas written in the 13th century warn their people not to go to Scotland if they wished to live. One Scot in the saga, said to be Grjotgard, a kinsman of Melkolf (the king of Scotland), was quoted as saying to the Saxons: “You have two choices. You can go ashore and we will take all your property, or we’ll attack you and kill every man we lay our hands on.”

Given that the tale survives, it’s not difficult to tell which option the Icelandic warriors chose. It also isn’t difficult to imagine Thorin Oakenshield issuing such an ultimatum to invaders.

We must await the next two films to see what further Celtic traits will be shown through the dwarves. But as a Celt myself, I applaud Jackson and Weta’s decision to explore a facet of British culture that was previously understated in Tolkien.

Staffer Kili is one-half of the TORn Happy Hobbit crew. The views and opinions presented in this article are her own, and do not necessarily represent those of TheOneRing.net or its staff.

We were proud to present this one night only gallery exhibit held on February 22, 2013 at Lot 613 in the historic arts district of downtown Los Angeles. In this cool space, we featured a variety of artists who use many different mediums and are creatively inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth universe. The all volunteer TORn staff spent hours setting up the space, coordinating and meeting with artists from around the world, and cleaning up after a wonderful night of music and artwork. We then had to hurry over to help set up for our next event — the Oscar party we threw the very same weekend! As you can imagine, it was quite tiring but very rewarding to see and meet so many fans admiring the beautiful artwork and having a chance to mingle with such an incredible group of talented artists. It was a true celebration of how much J.R.R. Tolkien’s works mean to all of us.

Acclaimed artists Tim Kirk, Donato Giancola, and Jerry VanderSelt were on hand to meet fans, sign prints, and in the case of Tim, get a portrait of yourself drawn as a playful Hobbit! They also took the time to autograph and draw on a special TORn stretched canvas panel for us. Tim drew Smaug, Donato drew Gandalf, and Jerry sketched Strider. Eleven other artists who attended the show also signed the canvas including LEGO artists OneLug, graphic artist Nancy Steinman, stained-glass artist Christie Wood, and more. You can own this truly unique and one of kind piece of artwork from this spectacular TORn event by bidding today!

The Dwarves take a boat to the Lonely Mountain, but it is not yet known if they will be met on the far side by ponies to get them the rest of the way to the mountain. The scene of them sailing out of town with all the Townspeople singing them on their way is straight out of the book, but Bard’s warning that the whole town will be in jeopardy because of the Dwarves’ quest is not. Bard’s skepticism was always hinted at in the book, but it appears he get’s to play the ‘voice of reason’ in Laketown, which should give more dramatic weight to his character.

Thorin is captured by the Elves ‘with the rest of the Company’, rather than having been caught the night before while crashing an Elven party. In the book, the rest of the Company does not quite realize Thorin is gone because the forest is so dark and they soon become quite busy with giant spiders. After Bilbo frees them of the spiders and the elves capture them, they are imprisoned away from Thorin, not knowing he is there as well. This gives Thranduil an advantage when questioning Thorin since he has no idea what the fate of the rest of his Company is. By capturing them altogether in the film, this changes the dynamics when the Dwarves are brought before Thranduil. Again, this may not make a big difference in the overall story, we shall see this December.

The barrels have no lids, which means there is a higher risk of swamping, but may add a little bit of drivability for the dwarves. It also means poor Bilbo has nothing to perch on. The fact that they hit some white water rapids, it is amazing that Bilbo is still  hanging onto Kili’s barrel.

The Dwarves’ escape from the Mirkwood Elves apparently does not go unnoticed by the Elves, or Orcs for that matter. This is shown with the Elves running through the trees above the river as the barrels go by on the river. But there may well be an inside person involved in the escape, since Kili has his bow and Thorin has Orcrist. This is a much bigger change from the books than some of the previous events, we’ll have to wait and see how this all plays out.

Bilbo climbs the trees of Mirkwood to give the Company their bearings, and gets to see a cluster of butterflies. Martin expresses such joy on his face at the sight, this will be a nice break from the darkness of the forest.

Gandalf gets into a scuffle in Dol Guldur with what appears to be a Dwarf, presumably Thrain. This should be a flashback to how Gandalf came into possession of the Key and Map to the Secret Door.

Bilbo will be fighting the giant spiders, and he looks scared. It also appears he gets to do a bit of gymnastics in those trees, should be a rather awesome sequence of events when Bilbo leads the spiders on a merry little chase.

Beorn in bear form is ginormous. That is, if the critter busting through the door the Dwarves are trying to close is Beorn.

Gandalf and Radagast explore the Tombs where the Witch King and his cohorts were supposedly locked away forever. Radagast seems more hesitant, while Gandalf is resolute in exploring, and neither seem happy with what they find.

Tauriel tells Legolas that they should get involved, a coming fight is also their fight. We do not know entirely what she is referring to, but this appears to happen after the Elves have fought with the Orcs chasing the Dwarves down the river.

Because I’ve read a lot and thought a lot about Tolkien and his invented world, and I’ve engaged in a lot of debates about the quality and accuracy of the movies, I feel entitled to say things like, “Well, there are parts he would have loved and parts he would have hated.”  But that’s not Tolkien talking. That’s me. The author died long before The Fellowship of the Ring was released in 2001, so I’ll never know how he might have reacted to the Jackson films, and neither will anyone else.

The nearest we can come to Tolkien’s assessment might be that of his son, Christopher Tolkien, who did not give the Jackson movies a positive review.  “They eviscerated the book by making it an action movie for young people aged 15 to 25,” Christopher told the French newspaper Le Monde in July 2012.

There’s a good chance Christopher’s father would have agreed with his son’s (rather unfair, in my opinion) assessment. It’s well known that, of Tolkien’s four children, Christopher was the one most drawn to his father’s creation.  “As strange as it may seem, I grew up in the world he created,” Christopher (who is 88) told Le Monde. “For me, the cities of The Silmarillion are more real than Babylon.”

As a boy, Christopher, “huddled for warmth by the study stove, would listen motionless while his father told him” tales from his imaginary world, Humphrey Carpenter wrote in his biography of Tolkien. In his teens and twenties, Christopher was “deeply involved with the writing of ‘The Lord of the Rings’. He had read the first chapters in manuscript, and had drawn maps and made fair copies of the text for his father,” Carpenter wrote in The Inklings.  When Christopher eventually joined the Inklings (the informal literary group that included Tolkien and C.S. Lewis), “it grew to be the custom that he, rather than his father, should read aloud any new chapters of The Lord of the Rings to the company, for it was generally agreed that he made a better job of it than did Tolkien himself,” Carpenter wrote.

Christopher Tolkien

So Christopher, clearly, knows The Lord of the Rings and his father’s thoughts about it more intimately than anyone else alive. With that in mind, it may be safe to assume Tolkien’s view would have aligned with Christopher’s, and he would therefore have hated the Jackson movies.

Then again, father and son don’t seem to have shared the same opinion about whether or not the book should be turned into a movie – any movie – at all. Christopher seems to think that The Lord of the Rings is so layered and complex that no film version could do it justice.  “My own position is that The Lord Of The Rings is peculiarly unsuitable to transformation into visual dramatic form,” Christopher stated in December 2001, just before the first Jackson movie hit theaters.

Tolkien himself, however, was quite willing to see his book turned into film – under the right circumstances. In fact, he sold the movie rights for The Lord of the Rings (along with The Hobbit) to United Artists in 1969, according to Le Monde.

Tolkien was first approached about a Lord of the Rings movie in 1957, when three American businessmen proposed an animated version, according to Carpenter’s biography. “I should welcome the idea of an animated motion picture, with all the risk of vulgarization; and that quite apart from the glint of money, though on the brink of retirement that is not an unpleasant possibility,” Tolkien wrote one of his publishers that year. (The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter No. 198)

In regards to selling the film rights, Tolkien and his publishers came up with a “cash or kudos” policy, according to Carpenter. Tolkien put it this way: “Either very profitable terms indeed; or absolute author’s veto on objectionable features or alterations.” (Letter No. 202)

The 1957 proposal included some “really astonishingly good pictures (Rackham rather than Disney) and some remarkable colour photographs. They have apparently toured America shooting mountain and desert scenes that seem to fit the story,” Tolkien wrote (202).  But the synopsis of the proposed film they gave him was “on a lower level. In fact bad,” Tolkien wrote (202). Carpenter summarized the problems: “A number of names were consistently mis-spelt (Boromir was rendered ‘Borimor’), virtually all walking was dispensed with in the story and the Company of the Ring were transported everywhere on the backs of eagles, and the elvish waybread lembas was described as a ‘food concentrate’.”

Tolkien’s overall problem with the script was that it was “a compression with resultant over-crowding and confusion, blurring of climaxes, and general degradation: a pull-back towards more conventional ‘fairy-stories’. People gallop about on Eagles at the least provocation; Lorien becomes a fairy-castle with ‘delicate minarets’, and all that sort of thing.” (Letter No. 201)  But as bad as it was, he was still willing to “play ball, if they are open to advice.” (201)

In these letters, published in The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, we get a rare glimpse of Tolkien the (surprisingly shrewd) businessman. The book also gives extracts from Tolkien’s comments on the 1957 film synopsis (Letter No. 210). The synopsis itself isn’t included, but Tolkien’s “review” sheds some light on its contents – and is probably the closest we’ll come to his vision of how The Lord of the Rings should be filmed.

The author’s comments also give an indirect glimpse of what he might have thought of Peter Jackson’s films.  Tolkien’s “review” of the 1957 synopsis dwelled on one scene, from The Fellowship of the Ring, in particular: the Weathertop confrontation of Aragorn and the four hobbits with the Black Riders.  “I have spent some time on this passage,” he wrote, “as an example of what I find too frequent to give me ‘pleasure or satisfaction’: deliberate alteration of the story, in fact and significance, without any practical or artistic object.”

He gave examples of what displeased him:

“Strider does not ‘Whip out a sword’ in the book. Naturally not: his sword was broken … Why then make him do so here, in a contest that was explicitly not fought with weapons?”

“The Black Riders do not scream, but keep a more terrifying silence. Aragorn does not blanch. The riders draw slowly in on foot in darkness, and do not ‘spur’. There is no fight. Sam does not ‘sink his blade into the Ringwraith’s thigh’, nor does his thrust save Frodo’s life.”

“A scene of gloom lit by a small red fire, with the Wraiths slowly approaching as darker shadows – until the moment when Frodo puts on the Ring, and the King steps forward revealed – would seem to me far more impressive than yet one more scene of screams and rather meaningless slashings …”

I could spend a lot of time laying out the similarities and differences of the 1957 and 2001 versions of the Weathertop scene, but you’re probably replaying the Jackson version in your head right now, and you don’t need my help.  I will say this: Aragorn is too much the beefcake in Jackson’s version of this scene, swinging his big sword and throwing his flaming torches at the Black Riders, who run away like screaming babies. But I’ll side with Jackson on one point: It was kind of strange for Aragorn to be carrying a broken sword, which he did at that point in the book. Besides being a priceless heirloom, the Sword that was Broken was rather useless in a fight (which Aragorn acknowledged). Why not leave it in Rivendell until it’s ready to be re-forged, and carry a workable sword in the meantime?

Tolkien also addressed the overuse of the Eagles in the 1957 version: “I feel this to be a wholly unacceptable tampering with the tale,” he wrote. “‘Nine Walkers’ and they immediately go up in the air! The intrusion achieves nothing but incredibility, and the staling of the device of the Eagles when at last they are really needed.”  At least Jackson didn’t commit that unpardonable sin.

The 1957 synopsis leaves out a scene that Tolkien considered extremely important, a scene that Jackson left in: “The disappearance of the temptation of Galadriel is significant. Practically everything having moral import has vanished from the synopsis.”

Tolkien was, however, OK with cutting out some parts of the book, if necessary. He even suggested cutting out the battle of the Hornburg (Helm’s Deep), “which is incidental to the main story; and there would be this additional gain that we are going to have a big battle (of which as much should be made as possible), but battles tend to be too similar; the big one would gain by having no competitor.”  (By the “big one”, the author must have been referring to the Battle of the Pelennor Fields in The Return of the King.)

Jackson didn’t cut the battle of Helm’s Deep. Oh no. It’s the big set piece of his second movie. Whether or not that diminished the big battle in his third movie is debatable.

Then there’s the handling of Saruman’s end. The 1957 synopsis cut out the “end of the book, including Saruman’s proper death. In that case I can see no good reason for making him die,” Tolkien wrote. “Saruman would never have committed suicide: to cling to life to its basest dregs is the way of the sort of person he had become.”  If Saruman needed to be tidied up, Tolkien wrote, “Gandalf should say something to this effect: as Saruman collapses under the excommunication: ‘Since you will not come out and aid us, here in Orthanc you shall stay till you rot, Saruman. Let the Ents look to it!’”

Seems like Jackson’s shorter version of “The Return of the King”, the version that ran in theaters (as opposed to the extended edition), handled “Sharkey’s End” in a manner Tolkien would have preferred.

Despite his distaste for the 1957 synopsis, Tolkien was still willing to “play ball”, as he wrote. So why was that version never made into a movie?

In his biography, Carpenter gave an explanation: “There did not seem to be much prospect of kudos in this, and as there was not much cash either, negotiations were not continued.”

Like I said at the beginning, we’ll never know what Tolkien would have thought of the Jackson movies; but based on what we’ve just read, it’s safe to say he would have preferred them over the 1957 proposal. And not to sound too vulgar, but there probably would have been more cash involved as well…

===================

Maedhros is a guest writer and his views do not necessarily reflect those of TheOneRing.net. Maedhros lives in Grand Rapids, MI. He’s been hooked on Tolkien since he was 11, when he opened the first page of “The Two Towers” and read about Aragorn tracking a hobbit; and Boromir’s death scene, of course. 

They have been holding casting sessions all over the country, including Seattle, Chicago, Dallas, Long Beach, and most recently in Phoenix at their Comicon, where this reporter caught up with them. There are two remaining events to earn a chance to be on “The Quest”. The first will be in New York on Wednesday, May 29 at 7pm at Times Scare NYC, located at 669 8th Ave., New York, NY. 10036. For more details and for a chance to attend, look at the flyer image posted with this article. The final casting session will be held at the Philadelphia Wizard Con taking place this coming weekend. For tickets and information about the con, please visit their website at: http://www.wizardworld.com/philadelphia.html

Not much else was mentioned at the Phoenix Comicon event that wasn’t already in the article, except to mention the time commitment. If chosen, you would be given a 5 week block of time to clear, but you would only need to be gone for 3 weeks. The filming will occur sometime during the summer, but not on where it would be, just that you would need a passport. The show will most likely air sometime in the early New Year. The interview process is pretty quick and painless, and the possible rewards endless, so if you live in either NYC or the Philly area, please do try to make it to one or the other.

It started when this year’s MTV Movie Awards announced their vote-in contest for the category “Best Hero” — allowing Instagram and Twitter users to employ hashtags like #VoteIronMan or #VoteHulk — and especially of interest to this phenomenon #VoteBilbo. A few days actually went by without us even noticing there was a contest. Over Easter weekend the staff of TheOneRing.net was working to deliver a great presentation before packed crowds (many hundreds in the standing-room-only hall) at WonderCon, happening right on the tail of a very successful April Fool’s Day prank — so no wonder we were looking elsewhere.

TheOneRing.net first brought attention to the contest on April 3rd with this tweet:

Bilbo needs your help! Losing to kristen stewart @mtv movie awards #votebilbo contest mtv.com/ontv/movieawar…

— TheOneRing.net (@theoneringnet) April 3, 2013

We saw that Kristen Stewart’s character Snow White (from that hunky HUNTSMAN movie) had a stunning 13,556 votes, far more than the other nominees… while poor Mr. Baggins was in very last place with only 226 votes.  A pathetic showing that would have me old Gaffer shaking his head in shame.

By using Twitter to muster our troops, within a mere 24 hours we saw a mighty surge of thousands of votes — yes THOUSANDS — and it kept going strong from there. We hit the Twitterverse so hard that #VoteBilbo started trending, everyone outside of our community actually picked up on it, K.Stew quickly lost her lead (causing her fanbase to respond), and thus “The Great Battle of the Fandoms” was in full swing.

We realized that TWILIGHT: BREAKING DAWN fans were supporting their chosen actress, *not* the character she portrayed, a bit of irony not lost on us.  The category “Best Hero” did not really mean “Best Actress You’re A Fan Of From Another Franchise Because You Didn’t Really Watch This Movie.” Their rigorous support for the actress rather than the character made the whole contest a bit of a sham, in that context. Rather unfair, in this Ent’s personal opinion, that a true statement of how we regard our heroes was being skewed so badly. Undoubtedly Twi-hards have been a huge segment of MTV’s target audience, and plenty of naysayers told us that we didn’t have a chance to tip the scales. We were glad to have a challenge: a task to show what genuine fan-love of a heroic character really looks like, with numbers not seen since the Muster of Rohan!

The meteoric trending of #VoteBilbo caught everyone’s attention. Warner Bros. Pictures officially supported the effort with this missive from their Twitter account ‘TheHobbitMovie’ on April 5th, which spurred tens of thousands of new votes:

Our burglar, Bilbo Baggins, is nominated for Best Hero atthe 2013 MTV Movie

Awards! Cast your vote now by using #votebilbo

—

The Hobbit (@TheHobbitMovie) April 5,

2013

The other nominees were floundering: Batman and Catwoman were left in the dust of a deserted Gotham City as Bilbo VS. Snow White became a runaway viral showdown. But the numbers were not quite right. Certain fake Twitter accounts (spam-style “bots”) were discovered processing blank-except-for-the-hashtag #VoteSnowWhite tweets, but they were reported and shut down.  Our support for Mr. Baggins was quite organic, and the funny thing was that votes were not coming from some hardcore group of Martin Freeman supporters, though they exist, but rather from Tolkien-lovers who really wanted to make a true statement about Bilbo Baggins.

April 6th proved to be a huge day! The media-watch group WHO TRENDED IT? posted this tweet on April 6th, giving TORn proper credit:

Guess what ! #votebilbo trending in the US ? @theoneringnet did it ! Now, that’s badass. Even as a cold hearted robot, I’m impressed.

— Who Trended it ? (@WhoTrendedIT) April 5, 2013

Then our friend Emil Johansson at the LOTRProject Blog gave us something masterful: he launched a special page to show statistics of the voting and how it changed in real-time. He tweeted this:

I have developed a page tracking the results for #votebilbo and MTV Best Hero Award. Please share. lotrproject.com/projects/voteb…

— Emil Johansson (@lotrproject) April 6, 2013

Within his wonderful vote-tracker page we could see exactly what was going on, relative to the timing of our announcements on TheOneRing.net (and our Facebook timeline and Twitter, of course). When there was doubt our votes were less than stellar, we rallied again!

Stars from the LOTR Film Trilogy and even newer actors from THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY jumped on board! Their timing was perfect — and because these actors are actually paying attention to what fans are saying on Twitter, it felt like a genuine grassroots effort was brewing. We had tweets from Dominic Monaghan (Meriadoc Brandybuck) and Dean O’Gorman (the dwarf Fili) on the same day Evangeline Lilly (upcoming new character Tauriel) retweeted our comments — pleased as we were to ultimately learn that retweets counted as full votes!):

#votebilbo

— Dominic Monaghan (@DomsWildThings) April 6, 2013

#votebilbo !

— Dean o’gorman (@Deanogormano) April 6, 2013

Then Sean Astin (my favorite hobbit) joined the fray:

A vote 4 Bilbo #votebilbo Is a Vote for My old Gaffer!!!!{Who you remember worked for Bilbo}. Take 2 secs tic the box-I’ll cook u taters

— Sean Astin (@SeanAstin) April 7, 2013

More ambitious creative folks within our Ringer ranks started posting videos designed to bring a smile to your face as well as playfully jab at Bella Swan  — and MTV reported on it, realizing that the race was getting quite aggressive between the two camps. ‘If you liked it then you shoulda put a Ring on it’ had a whole new meaning with Speigel Ei’s Vimeo clip:

single-bilboooo from Spiegel Ei on Vimeo.

“HOBBIT fans went straight for the gut of Team #VoteSnowWhite,
who have to watch as several of the characters from Middle-earth court
Kristen Stewart to their side over Edward Cullen,” declared the MTV blog, and we realized this was indeed a chance to show our resplendent fandom in a unique way. The fact that we have been in love with Tolkien’s HOBBIT characters for 75 years since the book was first published supported the sky-high numbers of votes.

HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF VOTES POURED IN DAILY. When the final weekend of the Awards telecast began on April 13th, we broke 1 million votes. K.Stew voters were trying to keep up; sometimes we crossed above or below their high-end total. Fans started to create one-click Twitter vote buttons, and we supplied a host of #VOTEBILBO avatars and funny images to become viral memes. Fans started creating their own images (with familiar LOLcat fonts) and sharing them.

Our lovely lady friends Kili and Fili from our HAPPY HOBBIT video channel did a fun little P.S.A. style announcement asking Ringers to bring their votes to bear! We were really building momentum as a community. There was more spirited fun to be had with this contest than we first suspected!

Did we have crossover from other fantasy fans? You betcha! *wink* GAME OF THRONES featured our very own Sean Bean (Boromir) in the first season and of course it was appropriate for him to support his halfling friend.

We were not just sending empty or meaningless tweets with a hashtag in place — we wanted to make this relevant. In an effort to really bring our feelings and honest passion to the center stage, TORn decided to host a concentrated “Tweet Quest” on Sunday April 14th, the day of the MTV Movie Awards. During a tightly-concentrated 1-hour block, and then another encore 1-hour, we asked Ringers to declare why Bilbo should be named ‘Best Hero.’ So we put forward the call to arms.

Boy oh boy, did they respond with a flood of hobbity lovin’!

Fans declared things that mattered to us, that mattered to readers, and as lovers of Tolkien we could certainly relate:  “#VoteBilbo because he was the one person who willingly let the Ring go, when no one else could,” was my personal favorite sentiment. We have an audience that included older-generation folks who had never used Twitter, so we gave quick and easy instructions to help guide our friends toward their goal. We provided everything we could — and most importantly we gave this effort true SPIRIT.

It was a phenomenal success. In the end the final tally was:

#VoteBilbo: 1,637,179

#VoteSnowWhite: 1,532,571

See Emil’s final infographic here!

Giving our furry-footed reluctant adventurer a lead of well over 100,000 to claim the win! Although MTV broadcast the announcement of the winner as a throw-away commercial bumper for Axe body spray (indeed it was shown offstage, not really part of the “actual ceremony”), and although no cast member from THE HOBBIT film was present to receive the award, we here at TheOneRing.net were entirely thrilled to have succeeded with a kind of social networking wizardry that was fueled by you, dear readers.

Such a long way to go from only 226 votes! Such an outpouring of love!

One of our volunteer staffers, Magpie, had this to say: “It was like a flash mob. We did it for us (We defined as the greater Tolkien fan community with TORn functioning a major player in focusing that fan community). It was a community campaign that was an event in itself.”

Staffer Justin who produces our Live webcasts and our weekly show TORn TUESDAY had this to say: “Over 27,000 Bilbo pictures on
Instagram in one week! Take a look at all the comments and tweets we
got, there is something for everyone to run with. Thank you all for making #votebilbo happen. I received several messages at the beginning saying I was ‘crazy’ and it was ‘Folly against Twi-hards,’ ‘Who cares about MTV,’ and ‘What’s the point of a stupid teenage online popularity contest?’ But this is why fans love being fans. Achieving something together. To Prove Their Quality.”

And that, my friends, is indeed the feeling I have at the end of the day. That we have stood up with a flag of unity once again. That we have proven our quality of thinking creatively and acting with great energy! It feels like it was months in the making but it happened over such a very short length of time (making it the more surprising).

The love that brings us together is our love of J.R.R. Tolkien and his works are evergreen. No separation of older to younger generations or access to technology can slant that.  The truth will out!

Hulk sad.  Too bad.

Batman gave up the ghost. Because we are the most.

Iron Man clad in shame. Shoulda played his own game.

Catwoman felt an itchy pox. Put kitty back in her smelly box.

Snow White drifted. Twi-hards were sifted (out).

But #BilbotheHero wins the day! We wouldn’t have it any other way.

Much too hasty,

Quickbeam

————————–
Follow Cliff “Quickbeam” Broadway on Twitter: @quickbeam2000

Follow TheOneRing.net on Twitter: @theoneringnet

You’ve voted. And voted. And voted! But you haven’t given up, because Hobbit fans are heroes!

We’re down to the final hours of MTV’s “Best Hero” contest and we’re pulling out all the stops to put our favorite hobbit on top! How? We’re launching a VoteQuest!

Short explanation: From 12 noon to 1pm Eastern, we’re going to hit Twitter with a volley of tweets answering the important question: “Why is Bilbo the Best Hero?”

Why a VoteQuest? Because not only is it a great time for Hobbit fans to pull together, but a concentrated hour of tweeting will hopefully land #VoteBilbo in the trending list, getting the important message out to all Hobbit fans everywhere. Which will hopefully mean even more votes!

And it’s so much fun to see what fellow fans tweet.

Follow @theoneringnet and its great staff for updates and announcements.

• Mr. Cere
• Garfeimao
• GreenDragon
• Quickbeam

How is Bilbo doing? Track the voting totals

Read on for all the information on this important event. Also what to do if you don’t have a Twitter account, how to schedule tweets, “Vote Bilbo” avatars & meme images to post to Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and other social media places. AND MORE.

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HERE’S HOW IT WORKS:
Beginning at 12 noon Eastern, start tweeting your reasons why Bilbo is the Best Hero, plus #VoteBilbo http://on.mtv.com/XhsEOV

Example: Can Snow White rescue 13 dwarves? I don’t think so! #VoteBilbo http://on.mtv.com/XhsEOV

Important tips

• Use no more than one hashtag per tweet. Only one #VoteBilbo per tweet will count; Using multiple hashtags affects Trending algorithms.
• Avoid aggressively disparaging Snow White or K-Stew fans. It reflects poorly on the Tolkien fandom.
• Respect your followers. We want to tweet a lot, but you also don’t want to turn people off. Use your best judgment. See below for information about dealing with complaints from followers.
• Avoid “Twitter Jail!” If you tweet too much too quickly, Twitter will lock you out for an hour. Also if you write the same things over and over. Pace yourself.
• Can’t think off-the-cuff? Pre-write your Tweets in a text editor & copy/paste during the event.
• Won’t be around during that hour? Write your tweets in advance and schedule them! That’s another friendly feature in Tweetdeck and Hootsuite. More info on scheduling tweets below.

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NOT ON TWITTER? HERE’S WHAT TO DO

If you don’t currently use Twitter, it’s easy enough to sign up for an account.

• Visit http://www.twitter.com and fill out the “New to Twitter” box.
• You’ll be asked to validate your account by responding to the email they send you. Then, voila, you have a Twitter account.
• Simply start tweeting by writing your thoughts on “Why Bilbo is the best hero” and include these two things: #VoteBilbo http://on.mtv.com/XhsEOV
• Follow @theoneringnet https://twitter.com/theoneringnet
• Follow other fans: Visit this link and follow other Tolkien fans tweeting in the #VoteBilbo event. https://twitter.com/search/realtime?q=%23votebilbo&src=hash

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AVATARS & MACROS

Also, we have great images to use as Twitter avatars! Get the Bilbo message out there right now! Click here to view & save.

Download the “Gandalf Wants You to #VoteBilbo macro

Many more images to view & download are found here

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FOLLOW THE HASHTAG TO SEE OTHER #VoteBilbo TWEETS

Would you like to see what other fans are posting? Simply click on the hashtag #VoteBilbo and check them out. Or, click here: https://twitter.com/search/realtime?q=%23votebilbo&src=hash

If you use the Twitter web page, it will load the tweets in that window. Click “All” at the top to see everything, rather than “Top”
If you use a desktop Twitter client such as Tweetdeck or Hootsuite, you can create a new column following that hashtag.

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SCHEDULED TWEET INFO:

How to schedule tweets in Tweetdeck

1) Download Tweetdeck for Windows or Mac, or use the web version: https://www.tweetdeck.com/

2) To compose a tweet, click on blue box icon in top right corner of Tweetdeck.

3) Write your text and then click on the Clock icon at the bottom of the text box. In the calendar/time drop down, select the time you want to the tweet to publish, then click TWEET. The Tweet is now scheduled.

How to schedule tweets in Hootsuite:

1) Click on compose tweet icon

2) Write your text and click on “Schedule.” Select the date and time for the tweet to publish.

Important tips:

• Use no more than one hashtag per tweet, or it will affect trending algorithms.
• Respect your followers and don’t schedule hundreds of tweets.
• Don’t write the same thing over and over again — get as creative as you can!

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MUTING TWEETS

As much as we want to reach the widest audience possible, we don’t want to turn people against the #VoteBilbo campaign or TheOneRing.net . if you get complaints from followers, please suggest they mute our hashtag. It is important to respect your followers.

CHROME EXTENSION (works with Twitter web page): https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/proxlet-tweet-filter/kmelikmboobdcnfeaaapkfombnmmbcpc

TWEETDECK: Use the “Global Filter” feature found under “Settings” http://www.thinksplendid.com/2012/02/tip-for-muting-hashtags-on-twitter.html

ECHOFON: http://www.echofon.com/support/kb/ios/muting-hashtags

TWEETBOT: You can mute specific services or keywords by going to the mute tab and hitting Edit, then the plus button. you can mute hashtags by holding down on a hashtag and selecting the mute option

Right-Click and save to your own computer, then upload to your Twitter profile editor.