From www.stuff.co.nz: New Zealand actors Jay Laga’aia and Craig Parker are playing key roles in a new American swords and scorcery television series being filmed around Auckland. Filming of Wizard’s First Rule, the first book in Terry Goodkind’s popular The Sword of Truth books began this week. But the 22-episode series has been renamed Legend of the Seeker – apparently to avoid religious concerns among American audiences about scorcery. Executive producers Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert told a comics and fantasy convention of the name change, and announced the New Zealand actors, Entertainment Weekly reported. Craig Parker Cast in Raimi’s ‘Wizard’s First Rule’
Month: July 2008
Frank sends along word that Brazilian uber-fan Guilherme de Franco is producing a television show directed to Tolkien community. He writes that it will be presented in October on a new TV channel called HOUSETV. Some local papers says he is already shooting at Brazilian locations and studio and will start to negotiate the rights and royalties to put it on the air. Brazilian fans stay tuned!
Kristin Thompson writes: I enjoyed MrCere’s report on our Comic-Con panel and just posted my Comic-Con entry on the panel and other LOTR-related activities during the first three days on The Frodo Franchise blog. Thanks, TORN, for inviting me to take part in the panel. It was great fun! [Report]
Claire writes: There’s an article on Guillermo del Toro in the ‘Film Quarterly’ magazine which comes with this week’s Observer, a Sunday newspaper in the UK. It’s mostly about the designs for Hellboy, but does mention how he’ll be recording his ideas for ‘The Hobbit’. You can find it here.
For those in the UK who can get hold of a copy, there are pictures of sketches for Hellboy and the characters as they appeared on screen.
Also in the same magazine is Phillip French’s Top Ten Trilogies. Phillip French is a well-known and well-respected film critic. The Top Ten isn’t in any particular order, and if you scroll down the list on this page the Lord of the Rings trilogy is fifth in the list.
The phone rang early Friday morning, informing TheOneRing.net founder and Webmaster Calisuri that there was a line of around 150 people waiting to get into the 10 a.m. speculative panel on ‘The Hobbit’. Lines at the convention, which expects over 130,000 visitors each day of the event, are not uncommon. What was unusual Friday morning was that the San Diego Convention Center hadn’t even opened yet and there shouldn’t have a been a way for the people to get there at all, much less in line. Continue reading “There just isn’t enough ‘Hobbit’ to go around”
SAN DIEGO – Major media outlets from the L.A. Times to USA Today and Entertainment Weekly have converged on the San Diego Convention Center to explain the phenomenon of 150,000 popular culture enthusiasts spending a week together catching the flavor of what it means to be “geek”. Continue reading “Brisk floor action at Comic-Con”