Our Sean Astin (Sam) made an apperance on Rosie O’Donnel today. Sam talked to rosie about his wife (who is expecting their second child) and how he had to gain 30 poinds to play Sam!

He also mentioned his daughter, and fellow LOTR castmate Alexandra Astin. The clip shown was a wonderful clip of Sam and Frodo leaving the Shire.

Pics follow:

The pitch meeting is already the stuff of Hollywood legend. On one side of the table: Peter Jackson, a talented New Zealand film maker, best known for oddball shock-horror movies and the highly acclaimed curio, Heavenly Creatures, but with no major box-office hit to his name. On the other side: Bob Shaye, chairman of New Line Cinema. [More]

Peter Jackson emphasizes the territorial nature of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth by fascinatingly playing with lines of division. [More]

With studio executives and die-hard fans preparing to scrutinize every move, New Line Cinema’s Gordon Paddison took the film industry off guard by opening the movie production of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings to fan sites. [More]

Frunk writes in to tell us that a few of the Film 2001 clips are online, check them out (RealPlayer needed) [More]

The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, the first part to be released near the end of this year is probably the most ambitious attempt to take a popular book and make it into a movie. [More]