Plans by movie heavyweights including Peter Jackson to restore part of Wellington’s Shelly Bay to be used as a base for a rare war launch have been scuttled. The project would have resulted in the restoration of the old Shipwright’s Building and slipway in Shelly Bay and the creation of a naval-themed museum.

The building would have been used to refurbish the World War II harbour defence launch Koura to its former glory, including replica weapons, but a request for funding of up to $200,000 from Wellington City Council has been turned down because of the tight economic times and new Maori ownership of surrounding land in Shelly Bay. Movie men’s wartime boat hopes slip away

For Immediate Release

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING
SCORE PERFORMED LIVE TO PICTURE
300 MUSICIANS
RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL
OCTOBER 9 & 10, 2009

EXTRAORDINARY LIVE MUSIC EVENT IN THE HEART OF NEW YORK CITY WITH ORCHESTRA AND VAST CHOIR PERFORMING LIVE TO THE FILM!

Tickets Go On-Sale NOW, for This Two-Night Only Can’t-Miss Event!

Tickets available online at: www.radiocity.com and www.ticketmaster.com

New York, NY — Devoted fans of J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic The Lord of the Rings have read the books, they’ve seen Peter Jackson’s Academy® Award-winning films, and now they will have a chance to experience composer Howard Shore’s Academy® and Grammy®-winning score to The Fellowship of the Ring live at Radio City Music Hall on Friday, October 9th and Saturday October 10th. For this extraordinary event, 300 musicians—a 75-piece orchestra and a 225-member choir—have been gathered to perform the complete score to 2001’s The Fellowship of the Ring live with the motion picture on a massive screen towering above the stage. Continue reading “FOTR Score at RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL!!”

Rumors are hitting the web today that the release of The Hobbit will not be until 2012. We are trying to independently confirm/deny this rumor so look for an update shortly! Thanks to the Ringers who are sending in the links to various news stories on the topic. Here’s a link to Yahoo! UK. [Click here]

UPDATE

We have received confirmation from the source of all sources, GDT himself stating that this rumor is NOT TRUE. Rest easy folks, it’s not happening.

Heidi from Bloomberg Television sends this in: Friday on the BLOOMBERG TELEVISION® program “Night Talk,” host Mike Schneider talks to Actor Viggo Mortensen about his latest film “Good.”

He talks about the success of The Lord of the Rings. “I think that anybody that was involved in that project, or any fan even, that says ‘I knew it was going to be huge box office success,’ I don’t think they’re being honest. I think its revisionist thinking. Because when we were shooting that movie…it just wasn’t a known thing, and it wasn’t really noticed that we were down there shooting this all that time. It wasn’t in the papers here. It was only when they showed 20 minutes of it at the Cannes film festival in 2001 that the journalist started talking.” Continue reading “TV Watch: Viggo Mortensen on ‘Night Talk’”

Bernard Hill (born 17 December 1944) is a British actor of film, stage and television. Widely recognised in his home country through a career of more than thirty years, he has been seen worldwide in two roles: as the captain of the Titanic (1997), and as King Théoden in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. These are among the most popular and award-winning films of all time.

Hill was born in Manchester, England. He attended Xaverian College although at the time it was known as “Xaverian School”, and attended Manchester Polytechnic School of Drama at the same time as Richard Griffiths. He came to prominence in the role of the unemployed Yosser Hughes, a working-class man ultimately driven to the edge by an uncaring system, in Alan Bleasdale’s BBC Play for Today The Black Stuff (1979) and its more famous series sequel (also by Bleasdale), Boys from the Blackstuff (1982). His character’s much-repeated phrase “giz a job” became popular with protesters against Margaret Thatcher’s government, because of the high unemployment of the time.

Previously, he had taken smaller parts in a number of British television dramas, notably appearing as the no-nonsense Roman soldier Gratus in I, Claudius (1976). He also played the Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York in the BBC’s 1982 productions of Shakespeare’s Henry VI plays. Also on TV, he played the part of Tom Higdon in The Burston Rebellion (1985) and Mike in Edward Bond’s Olly’s Prison (1993). Hill was also a character in the movie The Scorpion King (2002), in which he was a scientist and inventor. He also appeared in the film The Ghost and the Darkness (1996), playing Dr. Daniel Hawthorne.

Sideshow Collectibles has posted a new discount for a load of their instock LOTR collectibles:

Sideshow Collectibles is celebrating the theatrical releases of ‘The Lord of the Rings’ films by giving collector’s a huge discount on select, IN-STOCK ‘The Lord of the Rings’ products. Through the end of December 31st, 2008 (at midnight GMT) , use the E-Coupon CELEBRATELOTR when you begin the check-out process on qualified LOTR products, and we’ll take $20 off your order!

Check out the deals at Sideshow today! [Celebrate LOTR Discount]