From the Feb 11th Sunday Star TImes:
“A former Lord of The Rings security guard who stole $213,000 worth of costumes and props from the movie set is now selling his own memorabilia of the Tolkien classic.” [More]
Month: February 2001
The LA Times published a long article on the ineffectual nature of the American Humane Association which is supposed to oversee animal safety on film and TV sets. According to the article, the AHA was not invited to the LOTR set during production and thus won’t give its endorsement of the movies. However, the AHA talked with New Line in January and has laid no complaints. [More]
Months ago some rumours surfaced in the media about the alleged mistreatment of horses during the making of LOTR. It was left to the American Humane Association to prove or disprove the allegations, as concrete evidence seemed very hard to pin down at the time. The LA Times has a long article here on the AHA’s animal-rights work on film sets and LOTR is mentioned:
“More recently, AHA officials waited months to weigh in about persistent reports that horses were abused during the New Zealand filming of “Lord of the Rings,” part of New Line Cinema’s long-anticipated $270-million trilogy. The allegations sparked local news reports and investigations by New Zealand government officials, who found nothing.
Despite receiving dozens of e-mails since October alleging mistreatment on the set of “Lord of the Rings,” AHA officials did not contact or initiate a meeting with New Line executives until mid-January.
Barrett said the AHA is stretched too thin to look into the non-SAG production–among Hollywood’s most expensive projects ever. “We frankly didn’t have the resources to go and beat down the door and try to argue with them about it,” she said.
In a meeting last month, AHA officials “asked questions and we answered all of them,” said New Line spokesman Steve Elzer. “They were more than satisfied with our answers.” Nevertheless, Barrett said that none of the three “Lord of the Ring” films will receive the association’s endorsement, since no AHA monitor was invited to the set.”
This just came in from the band ”Glass Hammer”:
While the composer for the upcoming Lord of the Rings trilogy of movies was chosen months ago, (It’s Canadian Howard Shore) Tolkien fans may still see their favorite group playing a limited role in one of the films. According to the ‘buzz’, certain well-connected ‘lords’ of the sci-fi \ fantasy community are placing Glass Hammer’s music directly in the hands of director Peter Jackson.
Another rumor floating around points to a meeting between Jackson and Glass Hammer writers Babb and Schendel that is to occur later this year. These are only ‘rumors’, and the band will not confirm or deny their validity. Steve Babb of Glass Hammer did give us this much… “Our first connection with Mr. Jackson fell through. However, something has opened up lately; something we weren’t actually expecting.”
In other news, the new album “Live From Middle Earth” is expected to be available sometime this spring.
Get the full story at Glass Hammer
Ringer Fan Elvis Duke sends us this report and a few images from this year’s Toy Fair 2001:
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“I just got back moments ago from toy fair 2001, the world’s biggest convention of toy manufacturers. A number of companies were showing their new LOTR wares and I’d thought I’d share a little with you:
** Sideshow Toys had a bunch of amazing polystone figures. Some of the ones on display were Saruman & Gandalf standing figures, an amazing model of a Nazgul on his steed, and busts of Aragorn and Gandalf. The figures are very high quality and look amazing. I have attached several .jpg files showing what a few of them look like. I couldn’t take photos of the actual models, but these fliers should give you a good idea of the quality. Sideshow also had small-scale replicas of armor and weapons, all very impressive.
![\[ Click for Larger Version \]](http://img-www.theonering.net/images/021201_saruman_sm.jpg)
![\[ Click for Larger Version \]](http://img-www.theonering.net/images/021201_orc_sm.jpg)
![\[ Click for Larger Version \]](http://img-www.theonering.net/images/021201_helms_sm.jpg)
![\[ Click for Larger Version \]](http://img-www.theonering.net/images/021201_weathertop_sm.jpg)
** Games Workshop (the makers of WARHAMMER) had a display of miniatures and games from LOTR. The GW rep said they haven’t finalized the designs, and they haven’t finalized the licences yet, but they all looked great. The plan is to release a couple of small, scene-inspired game sets along with the first movie, with figures of the hobbits, etc, and pared-down battle rules. When the subsequent movies come out, GW will release massive game sets meant to simulate the epic battles in the book- think a giant WARHAMMER game, but instead of space marines you’ve got Riders of Rohan.
** Decipher has a LOTR card game in the works. There weren’t any examples there, but these are they guys who make the STAR TREK and STAR WARS customizeable card games, so we can kind of know what to expect.“
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By Order of Proclamation from The Hall of Fire, it is hereby decreed that The Fellowship of the Ring will be discussed in depth chapter by chapter, to commence the weekend of February 17 and 18!
More details here. It’s the Tolkien reading group you’ve always wanted… from now right up to the Fellowship’s movie debut in December… with all the comforts of your own little smial… First timers welcome!