Two global 3D Design Competitions are here now for all creative talents to compete. The cutting edge technology will bring a brand new experience for digital artists and 3D avatar lovers around the world. The Competitions are co-organised by InterGrid, a world-renowned cloud computing giant, Weta Workshop, a filmmaking special effects and post-production expert, Cyberport, Hong Kong’s unique Creative Digital Community, and Frenzoo, the first 3d-online-world with user generated content on the web and also a Cyberport’s incubatee graduate. More..
Month: April 2010
This weekend we’re happy to bring back Hercules the Strong from Ain’t it Cool News.com. Herc is celebrating his 10 years on AICN and will be sharing his most memorable moments with us! Also on tap is ‘Hobbit Tea’ makers the good folks from Mint Brook Meadow Tea, they will share the art of making Hobbit Teas with us! Join us on Sunday April 11th at 2PM Eastern on BlogTalkRadio.com!
With the release this week of the Lord of the Rings trilogy for the first time on Blu-ray, Warner Bros. offered TheOneRing.net the chance to speak to with Richard Taylor, head of Weta Workshops. (Be sure to check out our very own Xoanon’s interview with him as well)
Taylor and partner Tania Rodger famously built the New Zealand special effects house first from their Wellington, New Zealand flat in in 1987 and expanded it dramatically in 1994 when bringing in Peter Jackson. Since then it has grown into one of the elite special effects houses in the world, producing the wonders seen in films like the LOTR trilogy, King Kong, and Avatar, just to name a very few, and all of this across the ocean from the U.S. Film Industry, building what director Guillermo del Toro called, “Hollywood the way God intended it.” Continue reading “Exclusive: TORn’s interview with Richard Taylor”
Investors want to give MGM $500 million to start making new productions according to Nikki Finke at Deadline.com. Relativity Media, backed by a hedge fund, must see the profit potential in projects and properties like “The Hobbit” and further James Bond films. The report says this offer was made three weeks ago which means they probably weren’t following TORn’s advice, but maybe those holding MGM’s $3.7 billion debt will, and allow this to happen. In any case, the auction for MGM seems to be dead. If this deal is accepted, “The Hobbit,” could go forward right away. One also wonders if last Thursday’s long meeting was more about urging the bondholders to accept an offer like this and less about asking them for more money directly. Of course, investors may also want to carefully watch their money and that taps into the deepest fears of financiers wanting creative input into films. But with the LOTR track record of Producer Peter Jackson and proven visionary Guillermo del Toro directing, those fears are tempered. Thanks to Sunflower on our message boards and the many pairs of eyes keeping us up to date.
Gollum is an addict of the One Ring. Gollum identifies with the Ring, calling both himself and the Ring “my precious”. Gollum’s personality has been nearly destroyed by possessing and being possessed by the Ring for hundreds of years.
I think most readers of The Lord of the Rings would agree with these characteristic statements about Gollum. They explain his extraordinary behavior and bizarre speech patterns. The identity of Gollum with the Ring is one of the driving forces behind the primary plot of the book: Frodo’s quest of Mt. Doom to destroy the Ring, in which he is guided for much of the way by Gollum, who treacherously hopes to recover it for himself. Gollum’s degradation and tendency to evil also shows us the danger that Frodo is in. If he succumbs to the Ring, he will become another Gollum – who was, originally, a hobbit!
But who remembers Gollum from the good old days? Back when the Ring was just a ring. Back when Gollum was just a scary but funny ghoul who ate passers-by, but loved riddles. Back when he would abjectly apologize for breaking a promise, and ever so politely show his guest the way out of his cavern. Who now has read the first edition of The Hobbit, written years before The Lord of the Rings was even thought of? In that quaint book, Bilbo’s ring is truly just a ring of invisibility, introduced into the story to better his chances of success as the world’s most unlikely burglar. And Gollum, as described above, was a lot more innocent – a mere figure of passing comic-horror in the same league as the three Cockney trolls, and the cattily hissing spiders. Continue reading ““It likes riddles, praps it does, does it?””
Eowyn71 writes: The folks at Mental Floss features this informative article on our beloved Professor: “10 Things You Should Know About J.R.R. Tolkien”. From a description of his lectures, I’d *love* to be one of his students at Oxford! More..