There it is, right near the top of the newly released Comic-Con Thursday programming schedule: “10:00-11:00 TheOneRing.net: Hobbit Talk”.

That means Comic-Con is having TORn back to talk Hobbit with fans and media at one of the biggest and best popular culture celebrations in the world. Our own staffers Quickbeam and MrCere will take the stage to deliver multimedia images and words, rumors and truths and maybe even deliver a secret or two. Garfeimao and other TORn staff will be distributing some select items to the always supportive fans. Other staffers, like the mysterious Calisuri collaborate on the presentation to make it as full of information and fun as possible. Our team will also be reporting on everything Middle-earth related that we can dig up at the event that starts with preview night on July 20 and runs through the weekend.

As always TheOneRing.net is not-for-profit (nobody gets paid) and in fact, the site supports literacy charities, so look very soon for a t-shirt remnant sale to help cover our expenses for this big show.

The Thursday start time means, from past experience, that as soon as convention doors open, attendees will find the way to room 7AB in the upstairs of the conventional hall to line up for the always capacity crowds that leave many standing in the hall waiting to get in. Continue reading “TORn to deliver ‘Hobbit’ news at Comic-Con”

Janelle Powell from Badali Jewelry writes: Just wanted to let you know that we are bringing back the Comic Con Preview Night Exclusive Sale for 2011. During Preview Night (Wednesday the 20th) all customers will receive 30% off their entire purchase (excludes items already on sale). This is a chance to receive the lowest prices on our jewelry for the entire year.

We will have a full inventory of Sterling Silver One Rings, Nenya’s, Smaug’s and Gollum Gold One Ring Necklaces, as well as select sizes of Sterling Silver Narya’s, Vilya’s and Gollum Creature Rings. Sterling Silver One Ring will be marked down from $98.00 to $68.60. Sterling Silver Nenya’s will be marked down from $99.00 to $69.30. These will be some of the absolute lowest prices on our Lord of The Ring’s Jewelry that can be found all year long. We are even offering 30% off the regular retail price for any orders that are placed with us at our booth on Preview Night. This means that literally everything on our website will be available at the 30% discount, including all gold items. 10k Yellow Gold One Rings will be available for $581.90, that’s a savings of $235.10 off the regular retail price.

We wanted to give you readers an advanced heads up as it’s a wonderful opportunity to save a lot of money! www.badalijewelry.com

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and the upcoming 2011 videogame The Lord of the Rings: War in the North invites the general public to a special event at 8 p.m. on Saturday, July 23, during Comic-Con 2011 week. In the heart of San Diego’s Gaslamp District, at 5th Avenue and J Street, fans can experience Middle-earth like never before with a special surprise spectacle, and play the new The Lord of the Rings: War in the North video game months before its official release. Beginning on Wednesday, July 20, fans can text WITN to 82257 or log on to www.warinthenorth.com/comic-con for more details about this not-to-be missed event.

To help promote the event, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment joined with other Warner Bros. divisions in sponsoring the hotel key cards at 36 hotels in the San Diego area during the ‘Con. See below for the full details and press release regarding this activity. Continue reading “War in the North to Host Special Event During San Diego’s Comic-Con”

‘District 9,’ produced by Peter Jackson, directed by Neill Blomkamp (both rumored to be directing some ‘Hobbit’ movie) and conceptually designed by folks at Weta Workshop is now celebrated in a 160-page hardcover book, “The Art of District 9: Weta Workshop.”

While at the Weta booth at this year’s Comic-Con in San Diego, we got our hands on a few pages of a prototype of this book and those few pages were pretty cool! Published by HarperCollins,
Richard Taylor, Weta’s Creative Director and five-time Academy Award winner, together with designers Greg Broadmore, David Meng, Leri Greer and Christian Pearce worked closely with Neill Blomkamp and have contributed many hundreds of pieces of conceptual art to this book. Authored by Daniel Falconer, you can order it directly from Weta or find it at bookstores.

Writer and director Peter Briggs spent a little time at the Weta booth during Comic-Con and just as in previous interactions with the TORn staff, he was friendly and funny. Now rumors are circulating that he may be involved in a film with Weta called “Panzer 88.” The premise of the film, talked about by Briggs at a panel during the convention, sounds perfect for Richard Taylor and his team. It reportedly depicts “a German tank crew on the run from a malevolent supernatural entity in the snowy Russian wastes.” Bloody-disgusting.com has a well-written speculative piece on what could be keeping the Peter Jackson / Richard Taylor effects company busy. See the story here.

Michael Cieply at the New York Times has written a nice piece about how resistance against 3D is forming in Hollywood. He used many sources from Comic-Con and says that filmmakers may carry more clout with studios than people who cough up money to see films. He also quotes a TORn article and our own webmaster in the story that talks about an issue important to film fans world wide.