Haldirriel writes: My friends and I just returned from touring the north island of New Zealand. Whilst there, we were informed that Jane Abbott has some of the horses from the movie and offers tours. We were able to pet and take pictures of Asfaloth, Brego, Hasufel, Gandalph’s cart pony and 2 Ringwraith horses. Jane showed us pictures from filming and told stories. She welcomes tours and for more info you can go to the website moviehorsesnz.com. Our thanks to Jane & Karen for a wonderful and informative afternoon!!

Ben writes: Our mapping site – zoomin.co.nz has just released aerial photography of New Zealand. I thought you might be interested because you can use the maps to create a group of lord of the rings group and locate all the places that the film was shot. For example – here is wellington – where a lot of the filming for fellowship was done – Weta studios are also located here. Press the ‘aerial’ button to get aerial photography of Wellington. [More]

The chance to star in the movie version of the first book from Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy attracted a queue of 4,000 people. Producers of the new movie began the first of four open casting sessions this morning in Cambridge. They are searching for girls aged between nine and 13 to star as the young heroine Lyra Belacqua in what will be the biggest child role since Harry Potter. Further auditions are set to take place in Kendal, Oxford and Exeter. The queue at Cambridge’s Corn Exchange began to form at 5am on Tuesday. All 1,500 young hopefuls who attended the event – chaperoned by 2,500 parents – were seen by casting directors. [More]