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The Round of 32 is over and we have the Sweet Sixteen line-up for Middle-earth March Madness 2013! 22,000 votes were cast, and if you expected this year’s competition to progress based solely on ‘film’ character popularity, you are mistaken! Many non-film characters have made their way into the final 16 combatants!

Here are your Round 3 Match-ups…

The Shire Division

Looks like we have a high chance the winner out of The Shire Division will be an elf! The Lady of the Light, and number one seed, (1) Galadriel has a match-up of mind-blowing proportions as she faces the definitive antagonist of Arda, (4) Morgoth. Helped a bit by his prevalence in Peter Jackson’s Desolation of Smaug tease, (7) Thranduil now has a significant challenge as he faces J.R.R. Tolkien’s favored elf princess (6) Luthien.

The Erebor Division

The Cinderella story continues as (16) Pippin has made it past Dwarven favorite Fili. But will that journey come to a dramatic end as he faces fourth seed (4) Beren? But far more interesting is the match-up between (6) Elrond and (7) Aragorn. The soon to be King Elessar better not underestimate the Lord of Rivendell.

The Mordor Division

The two baddies from Tolkien’s most popular works (The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings respectively) will face off in Round 3! (1) Smaug the Magnificent hopes to defeat the all seeing eye of (4) Sauron! (Someone make up a cool graphic for this one and we’ll post it on FB) In the other match-up, two popular characters from The Hobbit butt heads as (3) Thorin Oakenshield, most likely helped by his RA army, will face everyone’s favorite mysterious shape-shifter, (2) Beorn.

The Angmar Division

Could this division be any more exciting? (1) The One Ring has made it past Frodo Baggins, but will it defeat the King of Arda (12) Manwe, in hopes to have a potential re-match with (3) Gollum?! Gollum shouldn’t count those eggses before they hatch though. He needs to make it by (2) Gandalf the Grey. Will Gandalf’s sympathy for the wretched creature be his downfall? We shall see!

Voting starts right now and will run until March 28th at 10pm ET.

[Download Division 3 Bracket] [Round 2 Results] [Round 1 Results]

Continue reading “Middle-earth March Madness 2013 – Round 3 – Vote Now!”

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Welcome to the latest “Getting to know…” questions that need answering. It’s based on the old Getting to know you threads that I occasionally post on the message boards here on TORn, so those familiar with them will know that the questions can be a little crazy and the answers even crazier.

This month we’re asking questions of our one and only greendragon.

Thanks so much Kirsten for agreeing to take part this month 🙂

Continue reading “Getting to know greendragon”

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Today fans of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and the works of J.R.R. Tolkien will join together in a worldwide celebration of the late author’s works for Tolkien Reading Day. The theme for this year’s event is Tolkien’s landscapes in honour of the fabulous scenery currently on offer in Sir Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy. Continue reading “Celebrate Tolkien Reading Day!”

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Middle-earth March Madness round 2 ends at 10pmET tonight, so get your votes in. [Vote] [Round 2 Bracket]

Here is how Round 2 is shaping up right now…

The Shire Division

(8) Huan is being handed his walking papers by (1) Galadriel, while the most powerful of the Ainur (4) Morgoth has a solid lead over the eldest ent (5) Treebeard. (6) Luthien seems poised to take down (3) Bilbo Baggins. But the closest story in this round appears to be the match between the Mirkwood Elvenking (7) Thranduil with a slim lead over the head of the White Council (2) Saruman.

The Erebor Division

The current Cinderella seed (16) Pippin is soundly beating ‘Hot Dwarf’ (9) Fili, can the Heir of Durin put in a late push? Last year’s champ (12) Samwise Gamgee is facing an uphill battle with (4) Beren. The owner of the Last Homely Home, (6) Elrond, is currently leading against (14) Eowyn, unless she can get some support from other Warrior Women. Can she make to the Sweet 16, possibly against Aragorn!? Speaking of (7) Aragorn, he is soundly trouncing the windlord (2) Gwaihir.

The Mordor Division

(9) Gil-galad, the high kind of Noldor, seems destined to lose to the number one seed (1) Smaug. The Dark Lord (4) Sauron is handily beating his dwarven opponent (5) Dain Ironfoot. (11) Fingolfin has a slim lead over (3) Thorin Oakenshield, where is his ARmy? (2) Beorn seems ready to send (7) Shelob packing. If things keep going this way, we could have Smaug and Sauron in the Sweet 16.

The Angmar Division

Not quite a fair battle, but (1) The One Ring seems ready to abandon (8) Frodo Baggins. The Eldar King (12) Manwe, has a very solid lead over a descendant of Girion in (4) Bard the Bowman. Some call him ‘creepy’ and ‘sneaky’ (3) Gollum, but he’s got a lead over the imposing dwarf (6) Dwalin. And last but not least, (10) Merry seems rather outranked and outclassed by (2) Gandalf the Grey.

Voting continues until tonight at 10pm ET. [Vote Now!]

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The countdown, how exciting!

Live Stream starts now… with Jed Brophy at the Post Production house
Peter is reading the newspaper
spoiler alert, it’s great weather on Monday
Cricket scores shared for the English fans
Motion capture stage visited, with Azog and another Orc, more fighting with the orcs, including orc archery
Dam Busters, someone should remake it so Jed can be in it.
James Bond walk of fame is rather cool
Pre-vis department, Pre-visualisation (animated sequences)
I see Smaug poster
Rather comic version of Smaug on a computer screen (psych)
the T-Rex with wings look a bit like Pete’s Dragon
Rivendell library is rather cool looking, even if never used
Jed loves Goldfinger
And then we enter the Editing room with Jabez Olssen
One Million years B.C was the poster over PJ’s bed as a kid
Now to see editing happening
Bard is taking the Dwarves and their barrels across the river, in a boat.
Bilbo – I should never come along, we have a saying in the Shire “never venture east”.
He seems rather miserable
“I should never have left Bagend. We have a saying in the Shire, we learn it from birth, Never Venture East.”
Peter and Jed agree that Aidan is one of the Hot Dwarves (Lisa)
Jed looks very waterlogged
We get the final cut – and it’s Bard saying “So Master Hobbit, why did you venture East?”
Yeah Luke, sends a little message to say hello to the fans. The One Ringer, that’s us!
Jed teases that Bard is out of the film but Peter says that Bard is one of the cool things about the next film
Here come the video questions.
Chris asks about problems with a middle film?
PJ answers – middle films are complicated, but with multiple story lines different character arcs and plot lines take over.
Thranduil on his throne, awesome.
elf troop, with Legolas and Tauriel, fighting orcs
Laketown and the Master looking smarmy, and his manservant looks a bit like Grima.
Stephen Fry says he’s taking over from Orlando as the most desirable man in the films
Stephen sends a video, and mentions that England is decimating NZ in Cricket
Chinese girls ask questions about Legolas and Orlando and why he was cast and whether or not he’s similar to his Elf
Orlando sends a video to ask PJ a question – he wants to know what image he is most excited to see onscreen.
PJ says fans are most excited to see Smaug and Bilbo together and so is he.
Stephen’s video has been running in the background because he’s so wordy, but he says he has no idea if he’s in the last film
Marina in Canada – asks about new characters
PJ answers – Thranduil, Bard (part of the family now), They’ve made Bard like Robin Hood, is he good or bad. And of course, Tauriel is new, a new creation. Yay for her costume, finally getting to really see it.
Tauriel wears a leather
Brazilian kids asking questions, call it LOTR and pronounce it as a word
The kids ask about PJ’s favorite weapons, theirs is Gimli’s and Gloin’s axe.
PJ loves Theoden’s sword, with the horse motifs.
And back to London and Stephen Fry’s video still running 😉
PJ was punishing Stephen about his comments about the NZ Cricket team
Twitter question about how difficult it is to stay on track or schedule
They mention the Flood in Nelson as one thing that messed up shooting
Surprise question with from Stephen Colbert – asks about the Sindar Elves and the Avari elves? PJ says yes about the Elves
So PJ rags on Stephen Colbert about two different sizes of mugs on his show, and how the quality of the printing on the mugs is poor quality
Twitter question – does he edit barefoot? Yes, he can be barefoot.
Lee Pace, woohoo, looking rather fab, as usual. Lee is looking forward to seeing the animosity of Dwarves and Elves in his own halls.
Twitter question – would Jed like to inflict any dwarf torture on PJ?
Jed says maybe, but has to say no because he wants to continue to work with him.
Great story about the Dwarves on the spit, and how Mark Hadlow got sick and asked to take a break and no one heard him. Poor thing
Billy Boyd sends a video question – In FOTR, they went as far as the Misty Mountains, but he knows in The Hobbit they go further East. Billy wants to know about any new Wildlands.
PJ answers about Mirkwood, and shows artwork the darkness and foreboding nature of Mirkwood. Misty and mirky and hard to walk through, to be sure.
Evangeline sends a question – What will Thranduil’s realm be like?
PJ mentions that Green Screens is why she does not know what the realm looks like. The artwork shows a bridge over a raging river to a structure like Rivendell, but inside the forest. The realm looks like Rivendell and Lorien mixed together, but underground.
Dom Monaghan asks a question, he is holding the camera himself.
What is the best PJ rumor you’ve heard that is not true?
What are you happiest about in transferring book to film?
PJ answers about the craziest rumor – people asked him if he was going to move his family to a ship off the coast to avoid paying Taxes. He gets too seasick to do that.
Twitter question – will the Necromancer play a bigger part, and PJ says yes and nothing else.
Here comes a look at the movie, but the Trailer is not ready yet.
PJ says that Gandalf goes to see the tombs of the Witch-king
Gandalf in a cavern, showing a dark doorway that appears to be blown open from within. He then goes inside, and sees a bird flies out of broken stonework, and then sees Radagast. The Nine tombs were broken open from the inside.
The vlogs will be starting up again, even though this is very much like one.
Sequence of action from throughout the film concluding with ‘We are the Dwarves of Erebor, we have come to reclaim our homeland’
Ran for about 55 minutes

Remember, if you missed the Peter Jackson hosted first look at “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,” or just want to watch it over again, a modified version will be archived on the Trilogy’s official website www.thehobbit.com/sneak. To access the footage, use your UltraViolet code on your copy “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” Blu-ray Combo Pack, Blu-ray 3D Combo Pack or 2-Disc Special Edition DVD.

Also, be sure to stay tuned to TheOneRing.net for a detailed analysis. Coming soon!

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(Updates in Red Below) Today is the day! At 3pm ET (worldwide), Peter Jackson will be sharing an exclusive peek at ‘The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug‘ and answering previously submitted video questions from fans worldwide. The staff here at TheOneRing.net will be covering the event but we wanted to share a few tidbits of information before the big event…

1. Limited Access

The live event is limited to holders of an UltraViolet™ code, available by purchasing The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which is in most locations now on Blu-ray Combo Pack, Blu-ray 3D Combo Pack and 2-disc DVD Special. Users should go to www.thehobbit.com/sneak at 3pm ET and enter their code to participate. According to James Nesbitt, an ‘edited version will be archived for later viewing.’ If you are unlucky enough to live in an area where the film has not been released on Blu-ray/DVD yet, at least you know you’ll be able to see the event at a later date. If you read the fine print on the sheet included in your Blu-Ray/DVD however, it does say ‘Content may not be available after 5/24/13.’ This is what we call ‘covering our butts’ with fine print. Our expectation is the content will be available.

The broadcast will be in English only and last no longer than 1 hour.

Attention UK Ringers: Thanks to Ringer Morgulvortex for sending along this info…

If you pre-ordered The Hobbit (Blu-ray or 3D Blu-ray) from Amazon.co.uk before today a code will have been sent to your e-mail address. Even though it’s being released in April!!!

Also we have a different website to view the live event; http://wwws.warnerbros.co.uk/thehobbitpart1/sneak/

2. Technical Requirements

According to more fine print….

Users should have a PC with Windows 2000 or higher or Mac computer with OS X 10.3 or higher and a high-speed internet connection, and Adobe Flash Player 10.0.22+ plug-in. Browser should be Firefox 1.1 or above, Internet Explorer 7.0 or above, Safari 1.0 or above, Google Chrome or Opera.

Mobile users should have iOS 3.0 or above or Android OS Version 3.0 or above or devices with a Flash plugin.

3. Start Time

The event starts at 3pm ET – Click here for a full list of the start time in your region! [Start Time]

4. Fan Questions

Peter will be answering previously submitted fan questions. These questions were required to be in the form of a video and submitted by March 19th. There is unlikely going to be a ‘live’ component to interact with Peter, but we do know the official hashtag for the event is #Hobbit2SneakPeek. Update: You can also tweet questions LIVE to Peter Jackson using #askPeterlive. So tweet away!

We of course will have loads of fans hanging out in our live chatroom, Barlimans. [Connect to Barlimans]

5. So what will we actually see?!

Bottom line, we’ll probably see a condensed trailer of some sort. We can expect to see our first glimpses of Legolas, Tauriel, Beorn and maybe Bard. We did see quite a bit of Smaug in AUJ, but we don’t believe we’ll get a full reveal of Smaug at this point. (Although it would be amazing if we did!!)

Since WB is hoping folks continue to buy copies of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and log in with their UltraViolet code to view this sneak peek, we can deduce we won’t see this tease in the form of a trailer until May/June in front of a big WB summer release.

6. What about TheOneRing.net’s Coverage?

During the event, you can join our staff in Barlimans to chat during the entire event. We will also be tweeting along with #Hobbit2SneakPeek @theoneringnet.

Immediately following the event, our staff will be compiling our comments and posting a comprehensive analysis of everything revealed.

You’ll want to stay tuned to TheOneRing.net for the next day or so as we digest every single detail!

So we’ll see you at the big event!

Jump over to www.thehobbit.com/sneak!

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