Elijah Wood says he is preparing to head down to New Zealand in October to film “The Hobbit,” the two-part prequel to the hit “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, and dished on what fans can expect to see, just as we reported back in January.

Warning: Spoiler alert!

Wood’s character, Frodo, was the main character in “Lord of the Rings” movies and is the nephew of Bilbo, who also appeared in the films. The character is the protagonist in “The Hobbit” novel by J. R. R. Tolkien, who penned the entire series. The book tells of Bilbo’s quest to find a treasure guarded by a dragon and also explains how he obtained the magic ring that drives the plot of “Lord of the Rings.” More..

On this episode of Hobbit in 5, we talk about Peter Jackson’s newest Facebook note, share some viewer experiences, let you know of a Blu-Ray release party in LA, and give you a look at some new pictures from The Hobbit set! We also cover Saruman for our character study!

Thanks to our executive producer: Jonathan W. Platt

June 24th, 2011 – Episode 23 Visit our website (t-shirts in stock!)Rebekah has her own Facebook page now! Go check it out and “like” her!Go like theOneRing.net on Facebook as well!PJ’s Facebook pageLarry Curtis movies.com articleThe Lord of the Rings: War in the North Facebook page

According to the Oxford English Dictionary an ‘icon’ is a person regarded as “a representative symbol” or “worthy of veneration”.

It’s a definition – according to the Arts Foundation – fitting for Sir Peter Jackson.

He’s famed for his cameos on the big screen, but Sir Peter admits the last place he’s comfortable is on camera – or receiving an Arts Icon award.

“I always imagine artists to be those people who work alone, by themselves, producing amazing things and I guess I always feel a little bit of a cheat because I work with such a big team of people.”

Read the full article and watch the video here [3 News]

How great is it to see the first official pic from The Hobbit so soon?

We’ll all have to wait until Dec. 14, 2012, for the full fruits of director Peter Jackson’s labors on his two-part adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Hobbit. But, to tide us over, Jackson has shared the first images from his Lord of the Rings prequels with EW — and talked to us about how the fantasy epic is shaping up so far. (For the full story, pick up the issue of Entertainment Weekly on stands June 24.)

Jump over to EW.com and see the other image featuring Gandalf! [EW.com]

We wanted to take a moment to apologize for the recent downtime here at TheOneRing.net. We believe Saruman was responsible. Well…it could have also been a series of very violent storms took out the power for thousands of businesses and homes in the Chicago area over the past few days. While we are back, there are still tens of thousands of people without power, so please keep them in your thoughts. You may ask yourself, ‘Why does TheOneRing.net not have redundant systems, mirror locations, etc, etc?‘ Quite simply, we are a 100% volunteer organization with a mission to serve the Tolkien community as a not for profit entity. That means we do not actively try to make money to afford the systems and operations in which a large-scale operation should probably invest. So rest assured, we are going to look into options, and will try to prevent further outages. If for any reason we do go offline, we have a very active Facebook community that can help alleviate our addiction for Tolkien headlines during downtime. After all, Saruman holds no sway over Facebook…or does he?! [TheOneRing.net on Facebook]

One night only! The Two Towers Extended Edition is in theaters tonight and, in this reporter’s opinion, it features the best opening sequence in the history of film. If you have not seen it on the big screen, you simply cannot miss it! For those of you attending a screening, don’t forget to email us when you get home. We would love to know about your experience and feel free to send us some photos. You can email them to spymaster@theonering.net . We’ll try our best to post as much as we can. Or, if you are on Facebook, share your photos and stories on our wall.

Enjoy the show and don’t forget that trivia and other fun stuff start around 6:30pm. And for those of us who are not near a theater showing the Extended edition, plop in the DVD at home tonight and follow right along! [TORn on Facebook] [Buy Tickets] [WBshop.com]