The Lord of the Rings film trilogy got some of the credit for helping lure world tennis No 10 Nadia Petrova to January’s ASB Classic in Auckland. The Russian was announced today as the first big name player signing for the $US140,000 ($NZ200,630) women’s tournament from January 2-7. “I think you should be very thankful for the Lord of the Rings,” Petrova said. “I didn’t know anything about the country. The Lord of the Rings really influenced my decision. “I have seen the movie and really want to see the country now.” [More]
Month: October 2005
A series of three documentaries connecting Peter Jackson’s film trilogy of The Lord Of The Rings to environmental challenges facing New Zealand will be launched today. The three films, called The Middle-earth Connection, are directed and produced by Auckland film-maker David Jacobs, and focus on forests, agriculture and cities. Jacobs has used clips from Jackson’s films as a frame of reference. “The author of the Rings, J R R Tolkien, was an environmentalist and there are clear environmental values in the Rings,” he told NZPA. “The books promote what we would nowadays call sustainability. [More]
Lilia writes: I am so glad I live in Atlanta. Last night’s meet up with Alan Lee was so much fun! It was fun to think that my experience with meet up’s and getting to know other Ringers began with the Atlanta Moot back in June 2004 when I met Alan Lee for the first time. I arrived two hours early due to my astronomy lab getting out early and had a clear way all the way downtown. So I just hung around till about 5:45 when Shuya arrived. We both already had our books, so we didn’t need to get them. About 6:15 we took our seats in a little area they had set up for Mr. Lee to do his presentation. [More]
Lilia writes: I am so glad I live in Atlanta. Last night’s meet up with Alan Lee was so much fun! It was fun to think that my experience with meet up’s and getting to know other Ringers began with the Atlanta Moot back in June 2004 when I met Alan Lee for the first time.
I arrived two hours early due to my astronomy lab getting out early and had a clear way all the way downtown. So I just hung around till about 5:45 when Shuya arrived. We both already had our books, so we didn’t need to get them. About 6:15 we took our seats in a little area they had set up for Mr. Lee to do his presentation. We found out later that if you had bought your book there, you got a number to get in line for signing. If not, you had to go to the back of the line when he began signing. Oh well. RingersReprise, djdeathkiss and FoG all showed up about 6:30. Then later on, Elycia, her husband and Fiver showed up. (not together) But the seats were already full by that time. I think all in all there were about 50 people, maybe more, I’m not the best with numbers. I was actually surprised there weren’t more.
Once they got the projector set up Mr. Lee did a half hour or so slide show about his work on the films. Showed before and after shots, what he did, paintings and so on. It was very interesting to hear. And much of it wasn’t in the books. Once he finished he opened it up to questions. Some one asked if he had any other works he was doing and he said he’s working on Greek Mythology. I can’t remember what though. He said he would like to work on the Hobbit if it ever comes about. (Which he seemed to believe it would). In answer to a question about favorite artist and who inspired him, he mentioned, Turner, Rembrandt, DaVinci, Bottecelli and others.
Then the signing began about 8:00. As we didn’t have tickets we just stood/sat around for awhile and talked. We finally got in line sometime after 9:00. There was not a big rush or a huge amount of people, so this worked out well. We stood in line, talked some more.
We finally got up to the table to meet Alan Lee. He was so nice and seemed much more comfortable then when we met him in June for the Atlanta TORn Moot. More used to it I suppose. I got my book signed and told him how much I liked his art and what my favorite painting was. Then after a few others got there books signed, we all got a group picture. The Atlanta LOTR Meet Up group, and that should be up on his blog. He was, as last time, just as kind and friendly as he could be. He is so welcoming and you don’t feel at all afraid of him. He took the time to sign every ones books and some people had a lot of books (a couple of people with a large box or bag full) Even though we were the last ones and the last to leave, he was still very polite and happy to sign for us.
Chapter 11 did a great job handling all the people and even though we were so late in leaving (about 9:45) they didn’t rush us out and handled the crowd very well.
Rebekah writes: Join us for a costume party with Alan Lee at the University Bookstore, October 31st! Come dressed in your hobbity finest for a grand time with Alan Lee, compliments of the University Bookstore and the Northwest Tolkien Society! The celebration begins at 7pm with games, a costume contest, food, & prizes! What better way to spend a halloween evening than in the company of one of the greatest illustrators of our time? [washington.edu] or [nwtolkiensociety.org]
Meet Alan Lee tonight in Austin, TX at ‘BookPeople’ (603 N. Lamar). Alan will be signing copies of his latest book ‘The Lord of the Rings Sketchbook’ starting at 7pm. Alan is also keeping a travel blog of his book tour exclusively with TORN right here! [Alan Lee Travel Blog]
A BIG thank you to JPB for setting up the Blog for Alan’s book tour, you did a great job!!
More tour dates and locations are available here. [More]