ODEON Logo James Holden, Marketing Manager for Odeon Covent Garden, writes: I was hoping to post an upcoming Lord of the Rings event on your website. Next Saturday, the 16th August, we at the Odeon cinema in Covent Garden, London are playing all three Lord of the Rings film back to back, in partnership with the ‘Frijj film festival. The complete Lord of the Rings trilogy, theatrical editions, back to back on 16/08/08. Doors open at 1.00. Fellowship: 1.30, Two Towers: 5.00, Return of the King: 8.30. With a half an hour interval between each film. A free event, tickets available from the Odeon Covent Garden Box office. Visit www.odeon.co.uk for more details.

Del Toro and HobbitThe Times Online reports on Guillermo Del Toro’s transition from his other projects to working on “The Hobbit:”

“I’m trying to be faithful to what I read when I was young. That’s The Hobbit I’m serving. I cannot serve a Peter Jackson film. We also hope to bridge the trilogy. We will create an expansion of what lies in the four books and in a number of appendices.”

Thanks to forum member ‘And back again’ for the link.

Voronwe the Faithful – attorney, forum member and resident advisor on the Tolkien vs. New Line lawsuit reports:

“As I predicted, New Line has filed a new demurrer to the First Amended Complaint, challenging the revamped Fraud cause of action, along with a Motion to Strike punitive damages. No hearing date yet, but I’m sure that it will be soon.”

Not up to date on the demurrers and complaints? You can find Voronwe’s previous update on the latest Tolkien Family move here and/or check out the great article Clearing up Misconceptions Regarding the Tolkien vs. New Line Lawsuit
he wrote for us in June.

Pauline BaynesThanks to Ringer Diedye for the heads up on this article in The Guardian:

It was by chance, in 1948, that samples from the portfolio of the designer and illustrator Pauline Baynes, who has died aged 85, came to the attention of JRR Tolkien. At that time Tolkien was famous for just one book, his children’s novel, The Hobbit, which had been published to great acclaim 11 years earlier. The medieval style of some of Baynes’s drawings were ideally suited for Tolkien’s Farmer Giles of Ham, which he had also written before the second war, but which was only to be published in 1949. Baynes produced pen and ink drawings and three coloured plates, which Tolkien humorously maintained reduced his text to a “commentary”.

Read the full article at the Guardian website. [Read More]

By Moon AloneThe very talented Hai writes: First off, I’d like to tell you guys how much I appreciate your work on
TheOneRing.net. I’m a long time fan of LOTR and I must say your site has been an invaluable resource for all Tolkien stuff. I hope you guys keep up the great work for many many centuries!

For the longest time ever after I’ve read the book The Hobbit, I’ve wanted always to turn it into a webcomic. But seeing as it’s owned by the Tolkien estate and I’d rather not get into trouble with it, I’ve decided to just come up with my own fantasy story instead. And six months later, my fantasy webcomic By Moon Alone is finally up and running. So I’d like to invite you guys to have a look at it. There’s only 40 pages so far but I hope the quality will speak for itself. www.bymoonalone.com

Howard Shore The soaring Grand Court of the famous Philadelphia department store—home to the thunderous Wanamaker Organ—will be transformed into a magnificent concert hall on Saturday September 27.

The Philadelphia Orchestra combines its resources with those of the Wanamaker Organ, the world’s largest playing pipe organ. The organ has 28,482 pipes ranging from the size of a pencil to giants towering 37 feet tall. Performed for the first time here is Joseph Jongen’s Symphonie Concertante. One of the most famous organ-orchestra pieces, closing in a thrilling pull-out-all-the stops toccata, it was written for the Wanamaker Organ and the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1926, but to date has never been played on the instrument for which it was intended. Continue reading “Shore Helps Macy’s Celebrate 150th Anniversary”