Lord of the Rings fans will see a small LOTR reunion when the May 6th season finale of FOX’s FRINGE hits the airwaves. Actor John Noble (Denethor) has been one of the highlights of the sci-fi series, winning critical praise for his unique and always captivating role as Dr. Walter Bishop. According to TVLine.com, joining the cast for the season finale is actor Brad Dourif, who played Grima Wormtongue in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Mr. Dourif will play Moreau, a brand new character for the series. Follow the link to for the exclusive report from TVLine. [Read More] (Thanks to Ringer Irfon for the heads up!)
Year: 2011
In a recent interview with the LA Times, Saiorse Ronan, who is rumored to play the part of ‘Itaril’ in the Hobbit films, confirmed that it was still only a rumor with this interesting tidbit:
“Pete is adding a lot of characters in the film adaption,” she said. “Hopefully they have a part for me.”
A few days later, she said in an interview with Total Film that they wanted her to be in The Hobbit, though as whom remains to be seen.
We already know that PJ is bringing a lot of characters from The Lord of the Rings to The Hobbit films, including some who were only briefly mentioned in the book and were not mentioned in the LOTR films at all (such as Radagast and Drogo). How many characters, however, has he invented solely for the films? Is this rumored Itaril a special case, or are there more to come?
What roles could be played by characters created for the films? (Hobbit Book Spoilers ahead!)
Peter Jackson was kind enough to give us a glimpse inside Gollum’s cave in the above shot from his Facebook account! And if you look closer, you can see Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins! [Check it out]
Sir Peter Jackson has started his direct communication with fans worldwide through his newly created Facebook account! The first article is titled ’48 Frames a Second’ and talks about shooting The Hobbit in the much faster film speed. Here’s an excerpt. Follow the link for the complete article:
Time for an update. Actually, we’ve been intending to kick off with a video, which is almost done, so look out for that in the next day or two. In the meantime, I thought I’d address the news that has been reported about us shooting THE HOBBIT at 48 frames per second, and explain to you what my thoughts are about this.
We are indeed shooting at the higher frame rate. The key thing to understand is that this process requires both shooting and projecting at 48 fps, rather than the usual 24 fps (films have been shot at 24 frames per second since the late 1920’s). So the result looks like normal speed, but the image has hugely enhanced clarity and smoothness. Looking at 24 frames every second may seem ok–and we’ve all seen thousands of films like this over the last 90 years–but there is often quite a lot of blur in each frame, during fast movements, and if the camera is moving around quickly, the image can judder or “strobe.”
[Full Article] (And don’t forget to join us on Facebook too!)
Earlier this week, Philip Straub, our Art Director here at Snowblind, posted a developer blog about the Art Direction process. This corresponding developer video uses gameplay footage from War in the North to support his points. Watch it to see examples of our environment design process and get a look at the loot that you can use to customize your character’s appearance and defenses.
Our Art Director, Philip Straub, uses production materials and gameplay footage to walk viewers through the Art Direction process for War in the North.
[See below for info on two upcoming events with TORN blogger Ethan Gilsdorf]
I recently had a conversation with a man who scoffed at gaming and fantasy. The guy was a sports fan. So was I. But we didn’t see eye to eye. “That isn’t reality,” he said of my years reading J.R.R. Tolkien, playing games like Dungeons & Dragons, and my other interests in so-called “escapist” hobbies.
Fantasy and gaming are pointless, he said. Useless. What’s the point in playing them? Waste of time. But he’s wrong. Continue reading “When a Fantasy (Game) Is Better Than Reality (Baseball)”