Orlando Bloom is confident he will appear in The Hobbit.

The 34-year-old actor hopes to reprise his role as archer elf Legolas in the highly anticipated two-part film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit. The movies, which will be directed by Lord of the Rings trilogy creator Peter Jackson, have created a flurry of excitement surrounding cast members. Bloom says he would love to return to the fantasy franchise and continue his work alongside the talented director.

“I’m going to bet on it,” he said in an interview with MTV. “But I can’t really talk too much about it at the moment because it’s still sort of in the ether. But I would love to go back to work with Peter Jackson. It would be an honour.”

[Stuff]

 

We’re happy to say that our Founder’s Day 2011 celebration has been a resounding success (see Founder’s Day story below)! Of the many wonderful contributions of the day, one stood out as especially representative of the camaraderie that many of us share as fans of J.R.R. Tolkien, Peter Jackson’s movies, and fantasy in general.  Discussion board member One Ringer put together a wonderful retrospective of fan gatherings to mark the special day. In One Ringer’s own words:

“After twelves years of constant coverage of everything Tolkien, TheOneRing.net stands as the top site for a social gathering for fans of the late Professor and his work. In honor of Founders Day comes the One Slideshow to (hopefully) show many of the great memories that the members of TORn have had in the past years. Click on the link below and watch at your desired video quality. I hope you enjoy.” — One Ringer

We definitely *will* enjoy, One Ringer! Click on the link below to see this wonderful video.

TORn Founder\’s Day Video

NEEDHAM, MA – APRIL 26, 2011 — Turbine announced today that it will be expanding its global operations and will assume full control of The Lord of the Rings Online™ (LOTRO) in Europe beginning June 1, 2011. As part of this transition, Codemasters Online will continue to operate the European LOTRO service until June 1st when the existing European players will begin the migration to Turbine’s global service. For more information on the transition, please visit: http://www.lotro.com/news/latestnews/1157.

“We are working very closely with our partner Codemasters Online to facilitate a smooth transition to our new global service. We will be providing free account transfers to our new global service and players will be notified when the transfer utility is available,” said Kate Paiz, Executive Producer of The Lord of the Rings Online. “We thank Codemasters for the outstanding job they have done publishing and operating LOTRO and we look forward to continuing to deliver one of the world’s best online entertainment experiences to the gamers of Europe.” Continue reading “Turbine Assumes Control of LOTRO in Europe”

Our friend Jack from The Noldor Blog has just posted a new blog entry concerning Hugo Weaving/Elrond who’s been spotted down in Wellington, New Zealand.

An excerpt follows:

About an hour ago I received news from one of my more reputable spies, and he has reported seeing Hugo Weaving here in Wellington this afternoon, shopping at Common Sense Organics, the fruit and vege market in Wakefield Street… it’s probably a bit too hasty to assume that he’s here to be in The Hobbit, but I can’t think of any other reason why he would come here right now, just when they’re discussing Rivendell scripts. It’s certainly not for the weather (it’s howling a cold southerly gale out there at the moment).

With Peter Jackson having mentioned in his Easter Break post over at his Facebook page that there’d be “Rivendell scenes coming up“, does it seem too far-fetched to assume that Hugo Weaving is down in NZ prepping for The Hobbit?

Don’t forget to read the entire blog post over at The Noldor Blog.

Come June and Lord of the Rings fans will have much reason to celebrate, for in anticipation of the BluRay release of the Extended Editions of the Lord of the Rings films, AMC Theatres will be screening the very same director’s cuts of the films over three weeks in June.

Begin the epic journey of The Fellowship of the Ring (Extended Edition) on June 14th 2011,
experience the union of The Two Towers (Extended Edition) on June 21st 2011, and behold the end of all things with The Return of the King (Extended Edition) on June 28th 2011.

And that’s not all…

Check back at TheOneRing.net for an EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT about these events in the coming weeks!