Magpie writes: Peter Jackson and Tim Burton are making an appearance in the Heart of the City comic strip to encourage budding filmaker, Dean, to follow his own vision. The teaser for their appearance was on May 6th, but we don’t know who has shown up until May 8th, (These comics are only available a week back… checking sooner rather than later is good). The current day’s strip is always found here.
Month: May 2006
Dominic Monaghan’s Golden Globe winning show ‘Lost’ is on tonight at 9PM EST on ABC. TORN’s chatroom now has a special ‘Lost’ screening room, login to #lost at 9PM and watch with fans from around the country! [ABC.com] [TORN Chat]
LeiLani Hinds writes: I am an English professor who has been a huge Tolkien fan since 1967, and this fall I will be teaching a course on Tolkien for the first time at my college, Honolulu Community College in Honolulu, Hawaii. Students can earn 3 credits of transfer-level college credit for taking English 257L J. R. R. Tolkien. The course will focus on The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, with parts of The Silmarillion brought in to provide background for a fuller understanding of The Lord of the Rings. [More]
LeiLani Hinds writes: I’ve been a daily visitor to your website for the past four years, love the films, and today have a piece of news that your readers might be interested in.
I am an English professor who has been a huge Tolkien fan since 1967, and this fall I will be teaching a course on Tolkien for the first time at my college, Honolulu Community College in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Students can earn 3 credits of transfer-level college credit for taking English 257L J. R. R. Tolkien. The course will focus on The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, with parts of The Silmarillion brought in to provide background for a fuller understanding of The Lord of the Rings. We will look at Tolkien’s themes, characters, images, and symbols and see how his childhood, his interests in languages and Anglo-Saxon England, his wartime experiences, and significant cultural and historical events of the twentieth century contributed to creating his masterpiece.
We will also study the recent films by Peter Jackson and analyze how well they interpret Tolkien’s books. As well as discussing the storyline, characters, and themes of the films, we will also pay attention to the music, costumes, art, and settings Jackson uses.
If anyone would like further information on the course or registration at HCC, they may email me at leilani@hcc.hawaii.edu . I will be delighted to answer any questions.
If you are a bird that does not fly, having two legs is pretty important. So when a wild kiwi lost one of his legs below the knee to a gin trap, a New Zealand zoo decided to help out this iconic native bird. The zoo decided to see if it could fit a prosthetic leg to the North Island brown kiwi. For help, the zoo turned to its neighbours – the Wellington Artificial Limb Board and the Weta Workshop, makers of special effects for movies such as Lord of the Rings and King Kong. To create a mould of the bird’s stump, Gina Acevedo, prosthetic and visual creature effects art director at Weta Workshop, used the same techniques on the kiwi as he would on a film star. [More]
From gaminghorizon.com: Sony Computer Entertainment has announced that Ninja Theory is hard at work on Heavenly Sword for the PlayStation 3…When the invading King (played by Andy Serkis) destroys the warrior clan that guards the Heavenly Sword, the clan leader’s daughter, Nariko, takes up the sword in a desperate fight for survival. Nariko must now pay the ultimate price as she embarks on one last mission of vengeance against the King and his army before her life is finally drawn to a close. Andy Serkis, the world’s leading CG actor, famous for his roles as Gollum in “The Lord of the Rings” and Kong in “King Kong”, was heavily involved in the creative process. As well as starring in Heavenly Sword as the villain, King Botan, Andy was a major contributor to the character development, writing, casting, directing and performance capture for the PLAYSTATION 3 game. [More]