HRH Queen Elizabeth II took the very special occasion of her birthday and Diamond Jubilee to make new appointments to The Order of New Zealand, the country’s highest honour. Among the list of distinguished men and women who have rendered invaluable services to New Zealand Queen Elizabeth appointed Sir Peter Jackson a Member of the Order of New Zealand. This accolade follows Jackson’s previous Order of Merit in 2002 and Knighthood in 2010.
Comedian and Oscar-winner Bret McKenzie was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, adding to his long list of achievements. American born Joe Letteri, director of the Academy Award-winning visual effects company Weta Digital, was also made an honorary ONZM for his service to film. They will be joining the likes of Richard Taylor and who was knighted in 2010.
Continue reading “Sir Peter Jackson, Joe Letteri, Bret McKenzie, get top honour”
Posted in:
Share:
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!
Continue reading “TORn Message Boards Weekly Roundup – June 4, 2012”
Posted in:
Share:
I live near Allentown, PA and rarely have an opportunity to partake in any special events that would interest the Tolkien community locally. Today was a bit different. You see, the Allentown Art Museum is currently exhibiting ‘At the Edge: Art of the Fantastic,’ the most comprehensive and largest exhibition of fantastic art to date in the United States. When I saw an ad featuring Donato Giancola’s The Hobbit, I just knew I had to go! The presentation is quite impressive – showcase fantasy art from hundreds of years ago to present. If you ever wanted to see works in person, but really didn’t want deal with going to a convention convention, this showcase is a perfect opportunity. Tolkien themed works on exhibit: The Hildebrandt Brother’s Smaug and The Gift of Galadriel, Ruth Sanderson’s Galadriel, Mark Zug’s The Sands of Gorgoroth, Matthew Stewart’s Battle of Five Armies, Stephen Hickman’s Siege of Minas Tirith (triple WOW factor in person), Darrell Sweet’s The Slaying of Glaurung, and last but not least, Donato Giancola’s The Hobbit (Absolutely stunning in person – and gigantic!). The exhibit runs through September 9th 2012 in Allentown, PA. [Allentown Art Museum]
Posted in:
Share:
Back in 2009 The One Ring posted a humorous video of ex-patriot John Dybvig explaining to talk-show host David Letterman about his adopted homeland New Zealand. For more than 20 years the San Francisco native has been making a name for himself in the entertainment and sports industries in New Zealand and has just released his autobiography “The Two of Me”. This book is a frank account of how Dybvig was able to turn around his life after years of self-centered, self-sabotaging behavior and find true contentment. Included is a chapter about working on the 2005 feature King Kong and encountering director, Peter Jackson. The audio book is narrated by the author and is available for download on iTunes. In case you’re interested, John offers a US accent workshop with The Equity Foundation for any Australasian actors out there.
Posted in:
Share:
So, midnight show of “Snow White & The Huntsman,” and the auditorium was stuffed. In the luckiest casting ever, it has Thor and Bella fighting the serial killer Aileen Wuornos from that movie with the little girl from the Adams Family – except this time the serial killer is hot and she is just as much of a monster, but now she is a Queen in fantasy-land too, with way better skin from her freaky, but also sexy, milk baths.
Thor is pretty good in this film but he traded in his hammer for a big ax and he never uses his lightning powers. He can still outfight anybody except the super-creepy brother of the serial-killer-way-evil Queen who made the audience so uncomfortable they giggled sometimes. Strange thing is, Hawkeye is in this too, disguised as a prince or something or, come to think of it, maybe it was Legolas. But this guy had all the cinema arrow hero tricks stuff down cold. I mean, he has definitely studied archery movies hardcore. Plus he is way brave and way defiant of his cautious and always wrong dad who talks a lot but never does anything. And he, the son, is also really handsome. I like girls but I could tell, because all the handsome guys shaved, but only a day or two before the film got made.
Serial-Killer Queen takes over the kingdom because, mostly, she hates kings and then locks the little princess in a tower. The super insecure hot Queen isn’t all bad though because despite claiming that she has wiped out tons of kingdoms before this one, and has killed thousands (and she might be being modest on that one point) she gives Bella really spiffy clothes to have in the tower, especially with those Walt Disney, Snow White puffy shoulders, which also makes her brave in a way because Bella is the only person who could threaten her evil Queening and she doesn’t just kill her to begin with. Continue reading “Film Friday: ‘Snow White & The Huntsman’ review”
Posted in:
Share:
The day is here! The winner of an official The Hobbit “200 days to go” long sleeve black T-shirt is…
R. Greenleaf from CA
Congrats to you, Mr. Greenleaf! You will be receiving an email shortly. Usually we share only the first name and last initial of our winner, but when one has such a cool last name as ‘Greenleaf‘ we just had to share! (What are the odds that out of thousands of entrants, our random winner generator would choose a LOTR themed name!?)
Thanks to all those who entered. The accepted answer to the contest question was anything from horse, pony or plush toy. Please support the sponsor of this contest, actor Conan Stevens (Bolg in The Hobbit) and the upcoming web series ‘The Clandestine.’ Conan updates his blog quite often, so its a great site to track on a regular basis. [Official Blog] [The Clandestine]
Posted in:
Share:
