Ringer Spy Darth Frede sends along a translation of the Viggo RealVideo.

Woman: “And know to the realm of adventures. Tolkien’s piece: “The Lord of the Rings”, has been read by 100 million people.

Now the trilogy has been made into a movie, and with the biggest marketing campaignin movie history, which began these days in Cannes, “movie-go’ers” all over the world will be tempted to the cinema and watch the hobbits fight against evil.

Narator: 400,000,000 crowns (the danish coin), or the equal to 50 danish “dogme-movies”, is what the movie company “New Line Cinema” is spending on the promotion of “Lord of the Rings” alone.

The first step was taken at a castle outside of Cannes. Press from all over the world was invited to a party with the actors and the director, in an adventure set populated by hobbits, eleves and trolls (they clearly meant orcs).

As the book is known by many, the movie company has been very secret about the project, untill the film festival in Cannes.

Peter Jackson: [I’m in a hurry, so I’m not gonna write the english parts]

Narator: It takes alot to make a movie over Tolkien’s masterpiece. 2000 people were involved in the project. Hardcore fans of the book, are allready discussing if it’s okay to make a movie over the classic from 1954.
It took more than a year to film the three movies in New Zealand. The first will premier on the 19. of december.

The total cost of the movies 2,500,000,000 crowns.
The Danish-American actor, Viggo Mortensen, has been part of the cast, and has played one of the main characters.

Viggo Mortensen: “It was a great cast and crew. And I must say, that it was probably the best experience I’ve ever had with a crew. It’ll probably never happen again for me.”

Woman The interest in the movies is allready huge. The official site, which has been up since februrary (last year ; She doesn’t say that), 365,000,000 visitors.

Looks like New Line knows where to put those trailers! “Pearl Harbor” has pulled in upwards of $75 million U.S. as the weekend’s top hit. [More]

From the desktop of Strider: New Line Entertainment have made Russel Schwartz President of Domestic Theatrical Marketing. Why does that involve us? Because Mr. Schwartz is going to be the man that oversees marketing for the trilogy over the next 3 years! [More]

Our topic: Lurtz! No one knows too much about him, except that he is an invention of Peter Jackson’s. Come down to the Hall of Fire and we’ll assess this orc. More.

Our topic: Lurtz!

I don’t know about you… but looking at this guy makes the hair on my toes go straight! Although he’s not a character in the books, Lurtz is sure to be one of the highly memorable aspects of “The Lord of the Rings” experience about to hit planet Earth. What are your thoughts about this creation of Sauruman… and Peter Jackson? What will his roll be in the movie? Come on down to The Hall of Fire and talk about it with us!

Place: #thehalloffire on theonering.net server; come to theonering.net’s chat room Barliman’s and then type /join #thehalloffire .

Saturday Chat: 7:00 pm ET (19:00) [also 12:00 am Sunday (0:00) GMT and 9:00 am Sunday (09:00) AET]

Sunday Chat: 8:00 pm (20:00) AET [also 11:00 am (11:00) GMT and 6:00 am (06:00) ET]

Sunday Chat: 6:00 pm (18:00) GMT [also 1:00 pm (13:00) ET and 3:00 am (03:00) Monday morning AET]

ET = Eastern Time, USA’s East Coast
GMT = Greenwich Mean Time, Western Europe
AET = Australian Eastern Time, Australia’s East Coast

Questions? Topics? Send ‘em here.