“A wizard is never late, Frodo Baggins. Nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to.”

            -Gandalf to Frodo while entering into Hobbiton for Bilbo’s 111th Birthday

During Comic-Con 2011 fans of The Lord of the Rings got a chance to see the second statue from Weta’s character statue line. The character fans can now get their hands on is none other than Gandalf the Grey. This version of Gandalf captures the Wizard while thinking which route is the right route to take during their trip through Moria.

The importance that Gandalf plays to the events that happen in Middle-Earth from the time of The Hobbit through the events of The Lord of the Rings is huge. Without the leadership that Mithrandir Sauron may just come to power and events in Middle-Earth play out much differently. Leadership is what comes through loud and clear when you look at this statue.

Continue reading “Collecting The Precious – Weta Workshop’s Gandalf the Grey Statue and Giveaway!”

Join us today for Live chatting and mischief with Quickbeam!  We have an award-worthy subject today: OSCAR NOMINATIONS and revisiting the glory of Peter Jackson’s many wins for LOTR, among other things, illuminated by host Clifford Broadway on our streaming video show —   You can also join the broadcast via our BARLIMAN’S CHAT built right into our Live Event Area — showtime today at approx. 5:00pm Pacific Standard Time!
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There are already a lot of Oscar winners working on The Hobbit. Soon there might be one more. When the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the 2011 nominees, Bret McKenzie (“Figwit” in The Lord of the Rings and Lindir in The Hobbit) turned up in the “Music (Original Song)” category for his “Man or Muppet” from The Muppets. Congratulations and good luck to Bret! The Oscars will be awarded on February 26.

By the way, the highest number of nominations went to Martin Scorsese’s Hugo. Like The Return of the King, it bagged eleven–also without a single actor nomination. The parallel isn’t complete, since Hugo made it into two categories that ROTK didn’t, Sound Editing and Cinematography. It was not in two categories that ROTK won, Makeup and Original Song.

For a full list of nominees, check out the Academy’s website.

Ringer Spy Lissuin sends us these exciting new spy pictures from Stone Street in Wellington of a massive green screen set under construction.

We believe that the tall, narrow buildings currently under construction are most likely to be part of Laketown — the human town on the lake of Esgaroth a few days journey from the Lonely Mountain.

Needless to say, there are potential SPOILERS beyond the cut! Continue reading “Super new Hobbit spy pictures from Stone Street set!”

Welcome to our collection of TORn’s hottest topics for the past week. If you’ve fallen behind on what’s happening on the Message Boards, here’s a great way to catch the highlights. Or if you’re new to TORn and want to enjoy some great conversations, just follow the links to some of our most popular discussions. Watch this space as every weekend we will spotlight the most popular buzz on TORn’s Message Boards. Everyone is welcome, so come on in and join in the fun!  MINOR SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN’T READ THE HOBBIT

Continue reading “TORn Message Boards Weekly Roundup – January 23, 2012”

Wizkids Games (publisher of the Heroclix Lord of the Rings game) announced the Lord of the Rings: Nazgûl semi-cooperative game about a year ago, but gave no release date. They have now announced the release date as May 16, 2012. The idea of casting the players as Nazgûl is a fairly novel one. We will probably learn more about actual game play during the next few months, since Wizkids is pretty good about posting rules on their site. Continue reading “Wizkids announces date for LoTR: Nazgûl board game”