Anthony and Jessica of the North East Tolkien Society write: The proceedings from the 2004 Marquette University LOTR Conference have now been published. New research by twenty scholars of J.R.R. Tolkien is now available from the Marquette University Press. The articles were originally presented at the October 2004 conference, “The Lord of the Rings, 1954-2004: Scholarship in Honor of Richard E. Blackwelder,” organized by the Marquette Libraries’ Department of Special Collections and University Archives. The international conference celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Tolkien’s masterpiece, as well as the opening of Marquette’s new John P. Raynor, S.J., Library. More information and ordering is found here. [More]

Joe Letteri LOS ANGELES, March 8 /PRNewswire/ — Weta Digital’s Joe Letteri, who was a member of the Academy Award©-wining Weta Digital teams that created the visual effects for “King Kong,” “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” and “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” will serve as the visual effects supervisor on the upcoming Walden Media, Beacon Pictures and Revolution Studios co-production “The Water Horse.” Most recently Letteri, along with Weta Digital colleagues Brian Van’t Hul, Christian Rivers and Richard Taylor, won the Oscar© for Achievement in Visual Effects for the groundbreaking work on “King Kong” at the 78th Annual Academy Awards on March 5th. [More]

Due to the overwhelming requests, we have put together a page to highlight the entries of this years Fan Film competition at ORC 2006. You can also submit additional fan films to be shared with everyone! Follow this link for more info! [FanFilms]

Strong mathematical minds at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology showed off their creativity and dexterity for the school’s fourth annual Student Origami Competition. The winning entries are on display at the school’s Wiesner Student Art Gallery through March 15. One of them, by Jason Ku, is an origami model of one of the Nazgul. Thanks to Peggy for the link. [More]