Loughborough University, 16th-20th August 2012 Call for Papers. Postgraduate Symposium: Tolkien Studies
Friday 17th August, Loughborough University, UK. – As part of their larger scale conference, ‘Return of the Ring’’, the Tolkien Society (UK) are offering a dedicated postgraduate symposium bringing together contemporary research in any discipline from the field of Tolkien Studies such as linguistics, literature, film studies, creative responses etc.
A Birmingham nature reserve that Lord of the Rings author, JRR Tolkien, visited as a child has undergone a £250,000 revamp. New paths and walkways have been introduced at the reserve, known as Moseley Bog, the Wildlife Trust said.
Tolkien said Moseley Bog had inspired the mystical Old Forest that his Hobbit characters travelled through in the Lord of the Rings. The trust said it wanted to enhance the area with walkways not urbanise it. It is owned by Birmingham City Council and managed by the Friends of Moseley Bog and the Wildlife Trust and was awarded lottery money towards the revamp. More..
Close on the heels of their exclusive that Luke Evans has been cast in the role of Bard the Bowman, Deadline.com has broken another exclusive that Benedict Cumberbatch will be voicing the character of both Smaug the Dragon and the Necromancer in The Hobbit.
Via Deadline.com: After reporting today that Luke Evans will play Bard in the Peter Jackson-directed The Hobbit and wondering who’ll voice the dragon Smaug, Deadline can now tell you that it will be Benedict Cumberbatch. He’ll portray Smaug via motion capture. He is already on the picture, providing the voice of the character Necromancer.
Head over to Deadline.com for the complete article.
What think you of this casting decision involving the main antagonists of The Hobbit being voiced by a single actor? Our boards are afire with both excitement and apprehension. Have your say!
News is just hitting via Deadline.com that Luke Evans has been cast as Bard in the upcoming The Hobbit movies:
EXCLUSIVE TO DEADLINE.com: Luke Evans has bagged the role of Bard in The Hobbit, a last major part that Peter Jackson hadn’t cast in a production that’s underway in New Zealand. Bard the Grim is a skilled archer, and the heir of King Girion of Dale. The king was killed by the talking dragon Smaug. The character plays a greater role in the second film, and is somewhat reminiscent of the action-hero exploits of Viggo Mortensen’s Aragorn, I’m told.
What do you think of the choice? Does he have the ‘Bard’ look? Sound off! For the complete article, including a summary of his past work, jump on over to Deadline.com! [Read on] (Thanks to Ringer Jared for the heads up!)
On this special edition of J.W. Braun’s bookshelf, J.W. looks at every Lord of the Rings DVD and Blu-ray set, including the collection hitting store shelves later this month! [Michael, this is a special video that’s meant to be shared with fans sometime between now and next week – it should be about 14 minutes long. And then I’ll take a mini vacation in July before returning with another “bookshelf” installment in August.]
