When Weta announced the Orthanc Pre-Ruin environment during Comic-Con 2011 they together with TORn it had a very special contest attached tothis announcement. Weta would be allowing the fans to submit suggestions with one of them becoming the official name to this truly amazing environment. Well, after many submissions Weta and TORn are pleased to announce the name and the Winners of the Orthanc Contest. The grand prize winner is Christopher Turner whose entry was Orthanc – Black Tower of Isengard. Mr. Turner’s prize is the awesome Bag End Collectors Edition while the two runners up Tom Barber and Chris Endicott both will receive a really cool Sauron T-Shirt. You can check out the full release of information from Weta here.
Fans of The Lord of the Rings films already know that Andy Serkis can act his face off and act without ever showing his face. He first proved it with his landmark performance of Gollum in The Two Towers. Film making and acting without a net, portions of the film hinged on Serkis’ performance of a creature and Weta Digital’s ability to put the emotion on screen digitally. It worked. Beyond all expectations, it soared.
When the screenwriters threw in some character twists of the twisted character for Return of the King (for good or for ill, but don’t blame the actor) Serkis did it again. And of course his return as the same character to The Hobbit is as essential a tie between the films as any character. He went from Middle-earth to Monster Island with King Kong and even got to die a horrible death in his own skin on screen.
Weta went on to create Pandora and its blue skinned inhabitants with James Cameron in Avatar then teamed up again on Tintin with Serkis playing a human in the hilarious Captain Haddock.
(The following is an opinion piece from long-time staffer Quickbeam aka Clifford Broadway)
This year at San Diego Comic-Con 2011 we brought tons of Hobbity goodness to all the fans who joined us to celebrate our shared love of Tolkien. It was a huge success by all accounts. Our Hobbit panel launched the weekend with wonderful buzz. We got a nice interview with Bard (Luke Evans) before he even stepped foot in New Zealand for his first day of filming! I got a brief, single question in to the legendary Francis Ford Coppola. I was delighted to feature WETA’s own Daniel Falconer and Greg Broadmore in our live feed. Here’s the big kick in the pants: overall viewership of our innovative live streaming video beat G4’s audience; proving that Ringer fans know how to bring it better than anyone! Way to go TORn!
But I look back with a bittersweet reflection on how SDCC has evolved over time. Because “much that once was… is now lost.”
At first blush any newcomer attending the mega-event titled San Diego Comic-Con International (mind you, I’m talking about the truly virginal), would expect to walk into the main hall and they would ostensibly find: comic books. Continue reading “A Look Back: Has Comic-Con Really Jumped The Shark?”
With the break in filming (that including filming in the U.K. with Christopher Lee) players in the two-part Hobbit movie are heading back to New Zealand. Word is that Peter Jackson is there now after his surprise stop at Comic-Con and we learned today from his own Twitter (@stephenfry) that Stephen Fry as the Master of Laketown is headed there at well. He tweeted:
Flying from Cape Town to Jo’burg to Sydney to NZ tomorrow. Will be Tuesday by the time I land in Wellington. Hobbitry beckons.
Luke Evans (Bard the Bowman) told us at the Con that he hasn’t stepped a foot on set yet but is scheduled for training and costume fitting soon. We do know the production is busy with decorating sets and getting costumes and extras ready for the ramp up of another 200 days of filming.
1,000 lined up, 480 got in, 57,000 watched online at TheOneRing.net/live!
TheOneRing.net kicked off San Diego Comic Con 2011 with the very first panel of the convention, Thursday 10 a.m. in room 7AB. Over 1,500 people lined up to secure one of only 480 seats in the room! Hosted by Larry D. Curtis (MrCere) and Cliff Broadway (Quickbeam), with special guest Daniel Falconer of Weta and our friends at Warner Brothers, TheOneRing.net previewed all the Hobbit actors in character and demoed a voiceover clip from Benedict Cumberpatch, the voice of Smaug doing a reading. TORn also announced its fan event surrounding two Sideshow/Weta Gandalf statues that fans in the U.S. and Europe can participate in. (Fandalf@TheOneRing.net) Each fan at the panel was then invited to an exclusively War In The North event and prizes were awarded from Badali Jewelry.
(The following is an opinion piece from long-time staffer Quickbeam aka Clifford Broadway)