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!
Category: Events
If you’ve been too busy to attend the online Tolkien and fantasy-related lectures offered by Mythgard Institute, you’ll be pleased to know that you can download many of them at their website. In particular, “The Hobbit Lectures” are both interesting and topical and include titles such as “Bilbo Builds his Resume” and “Bilbo Earns his Reward.” These, and other downloads are free, and available at the Mythgard Institute website.
There have been a variety of rumblings out there today about the possibility of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey being delayed until December 26th 2012. A studio source has told us this is not true. The release date is December 14th 2012. Now, who’s ready for Comic-Con?!?

Tonight, via their newsletter, Weta Workshop announced they will have not one but two exclusives at this years Comic-Con. The first exclusive is the very first statue in their 1:6th line of collectibles from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. It is none other than Richard Armitage as Thorin Oakenshield – with shield. This statue will be in full 1:6th scale with a price tag of $249 and an edition size of only 700 pieces world wide. The first 500 of these pieces will be sold at Comic-Con while the other 200 will be sold to those who can make it to the Weta Cave. A second version that doesn’t have the shield will be put up for sale this October to fans around the world. The second exclusive is the new print in the Middle-Earth print series, but it is the first based on The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. This print captures the teaser image from The Hobbit, with Bilbo looking out the front door of Bag End. The print will have an edition size of 500 pieces world wide. The first 100 will be signed by artist Gus Hunter while the reaming 400 will be unsigned. More will be printed later in the year to be sold for those who cannot make it to Comic-Con. Both items will have a limit of 2 per person.
Sideshow Collectibles Online Comic-Con event is in full swing and day 13 brings us the first pre-order for a collectible from
Middle-earth. The next statue in The Lord of the Rings statue line is the Twilight Witch-king statue! It is a superb looking mirror image of the Ringwraith statue released a while back. This statue gives fans a chance to pair this up with the Ringwraith and show what both Frodo as well as the other Hobbits/Strider saw while on Weathertop. This outstanding statue costs $275 with a $27 NRD but you have time to save up as this won’t release until March of 2013. [Pre-Order]
Reports are coming in about the party last night in Wellington intended to thank cast and crew for all their work on The Hobbit movies. According to this NZ Herald article, it was a very exclusive affair with Hobbit cast and crew, entertainers and helpers only at the soiree of 3,500 people. “It’s a private party for invited guests only so there’s no public red carpet or that,” said Peter Jackson’s assistant Matt Dravitzki. “It’s just a private gathering for people who worked on the film.”
All of us here at TheOneRing.net would like to add our heartfelt thanks and congratulations to everyone who worked both in front of, and behind the scenes, to get the Hobbit movies this far. Now, on to December! …Read More

