peter-jackson-2009The New York Times broke this story that one Peter Jackson will be a guest at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con.The director of the “Lord of the RIngs” trilogy of films has been a regular at the convention but only via video and has even said on recorded messages shown at the four-day celebration of popular culture that someday he would like to attend. He introduced material like the King Kong vs. three T-Rex scene from “King Kong,” and also said his “hellos” to LOTR fans during the production of the films. He will officially be on hand at this year’s event to talk about “District 9,” which he is producing for director Neill Blomkamp but he also has several other irons in the fire, such as producing “The Hobbit,” with Guillermo del Toro in two parts and working on “Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn,” with Steven Spielberg and preparing for the release of his own “Lovely Bones,” adaptation of Alice Sebold’s novel. Continue reading “Who will be at SDCC 2009? Peter Jackson! (& TORn)”

Fictional FrontiersElven x sends along a transcript from today’s segment of Fictional Frontiers: A fun show this week on Fictional Frontiers with Sohaib and Larry Curtis talking about all things LOTR and The Hobbit. Some cool Smaug/Mike Mignola news and a heads-up for something Hobbity and extremely special at ComicCon this year … someone will be there! – No, not Guillermo, someone from the Production side of things. Enjoy this week’s show. Continue reading “Fictional Frontiers May 31st Transcript”

samandfrododioramaLast week, Sideshow Collectibles revealed a small thumbnail of their upcoming Comic-Con 2009 Exclusive – ‘Mount Doom’ Sam and Frodo Diorama. In the latest edition of Sideshow TV (Sideshow’s video podcast), they have revealed many more views of the piece. While the podcast covers all of their Comic-Con 2009 exclusives, the Sam and Frodo portion is around the 4 minute mark. Check it out! [Feedburner] [iTunes] [Comic-Con Exclusives]

cc09-reveal-9721_thumbFor those of you who may not be aware, each year at Comic-Con, collectible companies release specific items just for folks attending the show. This year, Sideshow is releasing seven exclusives, one of which is a special Lord of the Rings item titled ‘Mount Doom’ – The Sam and Frodo Diorama. While we only have a teaser pic (see right) – one can deduce the diorama will feature one of the most dramatic sequences in Return of the King, when Sam struggles to carry Frodo up the side of Mount Doom. If you are attending Comic-Con, you’ll need to participate in Sideshow’s Priority Pre-Order on May 21st to snag one of these collectibles. If you are NOT attending Comic-Con, you will have a shot of approximately 10% of the edition size on May 22nd. For complete details, check out SideshowCollectibles.com. [Comic-Con Exclusives]

During my association with TheOneRing.net I have often felt very fortunate to know great people and be in great places. Sometimes I have been lucky enough to have my camera along.

Out of that vast TORn photo library that includes digital images, and old scratched negitives, I put a few images together with some music from Arjan Kiel, (with thanks to fan film ‘Born of Hope,’) to pay tribute to the whole community of TheOneRing.net.

Click on the small triangle to play and to see the best fullscreen version, click on the box at the far right.

John Howe Logo Or a Few Days Abroad

I’ve always been leery of conventions in North America – once you’ve given the convention itself the once-over, there’s not a lot to do outside the convention itself, unlike European events where there’s generally much more that’s worthwhile visiting in the city itself.

Not a problem in San Diego; you can’t actually manage to see the whole convention, it’s just too huge; the exhibition hall is about half a mile long and just packed with stalls and booths and huge displays. I diligently put in the footwork – a LOT of miles, I’m sure – but still must have overlooked whole sections. San Diego Comic-Con is pretty much an assemblage of superlatives. John Howe’s Newsletter: A WORLD (OR TWO) AWAY