This week in the roll out we’ve seen of new collectibles tied to The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug we get something that allows you to bring parts of the film home early. These collectibles brought to you from Film Cells Ltd. capture little pieces of film placed in some pretty cool looking frames and some even allow you to bring more than one shot home. As of now you have ten different selections for film, two with six book marks and 4 different film frames. The coolest option is the film frame with 10 different scenes from what appears to be the first trailer. This is the option I went with and I got some pretty cool scenes capturing Legolas, Thranduil, Balin, Thorin/Dwarves all covered in spiderweb, Mirkwood, Azog, and I even got one with Smaug in it. I also ordered a bookmark and got a cool shot of Thorin covered in Spiderweb. I also asked the folks if there were more options coming as we get closer to the film and we will be getting more options.
Year: 2013
Over the last few weeks I’ve had the pleasure of chatting with the wonderful Conan Stevens (Bolg) about his life and career.
We’ve all been wondering at the relative absence of poster artwork for The Desolation of Smaug. Well, this new poster featuring Thranduil, Legolas and Tauriel may help whet the appetite! Continue reading “Brand-new poster artwork for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug!”
If you’re a bit of a vinyl fan (confession: I am), you’ll find this news about The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug soundtrack quite exciting. Apparently it’s going to be released on good old-fashioned vinyl on December 3. Continue reading “Soundtrack for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug to be released on vinyl!”
There are many places, stories and events which are said to have been influences on J R R Tolkien in his tales of Middle-earth. One which has long intrigued the Professor’s fans is Perrott’s Folly in the West Midlands, England. This extraordinary tower is located in the Edgbaston area of Birmingham, near where Tolkien lived as a boy. It is a 96 foot tall structure, built by John Perrott in 1758 for some reason which is unknown today – possibly it was simply a status symbol, though the more romantic belief is that he wanted a building from which he could see his wife’s grave 15 miles away (even though she was still alive when first Perrott built the tower; the sceptics say he was in fact using it to spy on her infidelities…)
You can read more about Perrott’s Folly and its supposed influence on Tolkien here. Normally this strange building is not open to the public; visitors on the Tolkien Trail in Birmingham are turned away, disappointed. However, next Saturday, 26th October, the Folly will be open for a ‘Drawing Event’, organized by Trident Reach the People Charity, which manages the building. The occasion will be a family friendly, experimental art event, where mirrors, odd objects and noise will be used to imagine how Perrott’s Folly might look, sound and function in the future.
The day will run from 11am to 5pm, and is free and open to all. You can read more about it here. If you’re in the area, don’t miss this great opportunity to see inside a landmark which would have been very familiar to J R R Tolkien, and which just might have been a seed for one of his ‘Two Towers’.
[Click here to find out more about Trident Reach the People’s Folly Project.]
The CBC radio show Ideas ran this interesting two part series on C.S Lewis and the Inklings.
In the first podcast Frank Faulk explores the early life of C.S. Lewis, and the experiences that would shape him on his journey to becoming one of the 20th century’s greatest thinkers and writers on Christianity. In part two Faulk looks at C.S. Lewis’s conversion from atheism to Christianity, and his deep friendship with Tolkien, Barfield and Williams.
You can download Part One and Part Two here.
A big thank you to Ringer weaver for sending us the podcast.