In just about 2 months from now, travelers from around the world will descend upon Wellington to celebrate the release of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Some will be cast and crew who worked on the film, others will be studio executives involved in the creation of the film, and still others will be an International Press Corp writing stories about the film. And mingling amongst all these creative types will be fans from around New Zealand and the rest of the world, including TheOneRing.net, and you can be amongst all this excitement by joining our tour. You will find further details at TORn’s Hobbit Premiere Tour.

 

Just today, it was announced that WETA is designing a welcome surprise for display at the Wellington Airport. It is said to be interactive and breathtaking, and this reporter can’t wait to see it for myself when I arrive there. You can read more about it in WETA’s newsletter. Join the discussion on our message boards and let us know who or what you think will be on display at the Wellington Airport here.

Stephen Fry  (The Master of Laketown) lent his voice to narrate The Friendly Cyclist film series — a tongue-in-cheek series of cycling safety videos that follow the adventures of Mrs Penny Farthing as she learns how to cycle safely around Wellington.

Little Fighter Films wanted “a proper English voice”, and had Fry in mind when they wrote the scripts, but they unsure if they could get him involved in the project. They sent a “cheeky request” through a friend working for Wingnut films asking if he’d like to help. “Inexplicably, he did,” directors Mike and Hilleke Townsend told Stuff.co.nz.

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Weta Digital were among the winners at this years’ Australian Effects & Animation Festival. The AEAF Awards is an international competition and screening, now in its 16th year with entries from around the world. Awards are given for creative and technical excellence in the use of visual effects and animation in the creation of screened work. The winners where announced at the lively AEAF Awards event held at in Sydney at Event Cinemas George St on 24 July.

Weta Digital took home two awards for Feature Films VFX silver medal for The Avengers and best Feature Films – Animation for The Adventures of Tintin.

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For those attending viewings of ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ this weekend, you may find yourself listening to the end of Howard Shore’s ‘The Bridge of Khazad Dum’ playing as part of the brand new ‘Man of Steel’ teasers. If you have seen The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, you know (SPOILERS) that when Gandalf falls at the bridge, we have an amazingly emotional and dramatic score to accompany this significant event. I get chills just thinking of the scene. Now, for better or worse, that same theme is used to build emotion for the next attempt to revive the Superman franchise. How do you feel about it? Share your thoughts in the comments, our forum and on Facebook! If you somehow managed to go through the last 10 years without owning Howard Shore’s award-winning score, we highly suggest you pick up today! (There are obviously many versions of the score to own, so browse around a bit) [LOTR:FOTR Score] [Kevin Costner Voiceover Teaser] [Russell Crowe Voiceover Teaser]

As a follow-up to our post yesterday, we can confirm that the US and UK release date for ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey‘ remains December 14th 2012. There were a lot of websites reporting the UK release date was going to be December 26th, which then resulted in even other websites misconstruing the story suggesting the US release date was also being pushed. None of it is true, and our official sources confirm the date remains December 14th 2012. If that changes, TORn will be right here to alert you! (Join our social media outlets to get even faster alerts: @theonering.net / Facebook / Google Plus) We hope to also have a complete list of international release dates for you in the coming days. Happy Monday!