TheOneRing.net is pleased to announce it is headed to an embedded set visit in Wellington, New Zealand during the filming of “The Hobbit: There And Back Again,”. The site and writer Larry D. Curtis accepted the invitation from Warner Bros. and Wingnut Films. The production is currently filming the second of the two films in studio, so all of the content from the visit will reach audiences in 2013, after this year’s release (December 14) of the first of the pair of films, “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.”
The films are a two-part adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit,” celebrating its 75th year of publication in 2012. Peter Jackson is directing the films after helming a three-part adaptation of Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings,” book that appeared in print 17 years after “The Hobbit.” Jackson scripted the films with his writing team of Phillipa Boyens and Fran Walsh with the addition of one-time-director Guillermo del Toro. Fans will remember the many agonizing delays before the film’s start that eventually forced del Toro to bow out.
Curtis, reporting from the film set, is part of TORn’s Senior Staff, a writer and photographer known to the TORn community at MrCere. He has contributed to TheOneRing.net for more than a decade in a variety of roles. In December he visited and toured New Zealand including an exclusive report from the Hobbiton Movie Set after being granted permission to publish impressions and photos from the site, rebuilt for “The Hobbit.” The location can be visited as a fully dressed film set accessible to by tour. The first block of filming on “The Hobbit,” included production from the site, set on a working livestock farm near Matamata, New Zealand. Continue reading “TheOneRing.net headed for embed on Hobbit set”
The results are in! After many weeks of intense competition we can finally crown a winner! In the end, Samwise Gamgee, a sturdy and faithful Hobbit from The Shire takes the prize in our first annual Middle-earth March Madness!
Sam defeated his worthy opponent Aragorn with 65% of the votes!
We’d like to thank you all for participating in this year’s event, and look forward to next year’s competition in which we will institute a few of the changes that you have suggested in comments/facebook posts, etc. For a review of each round, click on the following links: Round 1, Round 2, Round 3, Final Four , Championship
After weeks of competition and a series of amazing match-ups, it all comes down to this! The final two combatants in our inaugural Middle-earth March Madness are Samwise Gamgee and Aragorn! Just when it looked like Legolas was simply unstoppable, Samwise proved his muster by soundly defeating the elf by nearly 13 percentage points! Gandalf was primed for defeat when he barely advanced (by one vote) against Feanor in round 1, so it was no surprise to see Aragorn pull away and beat him by 9 percent. Both characters were number two seeds throughout a tournament that seemed to heavily favor the number 1 seeds. (Round 1, Round 2, Round 3, Final Four )
Samwise Gamgee: The Trilogy starts and ends with him, the coolest landscape architect ever. After a stellar turn as Frodo’s backbone he came home to a beautiful family and a rewarding political career. “Well, I’m back,” he said.
Aragorn: This man claimed the Crown, brought powers of healing through strange herbal remedies, and kept the lovefires burning for a certain Elven Princess… He had it all, even choosing his own exit on his own terms. Now that’s why it’s good to be the King.
This historic match-up will last until April 4th at Noon ET. If you are passionate about either choice, please take a moment to share with your friends and family! We’ll keep you updated on the match-up throughout the week.
Middle-earth March Madness is down to the Final Four! Coming out of the Rankin/Bass Division, battered and bruised by some close calls, is none other than everyone’s favorite wizard, Gandalf! From the Ralph Bakshi Division, with a final match that was not nearly as close as one might expect, is Aragorn! From the Tolkien Family Division is the solid number one seed Legolas, coming hot off his latest victory over the Ringbearer himself, Frodo. Last, but certainly not least, out of the Peter Jackson Division, is tournament dark horse, and the only remaining Hobbit…Samwise Gamgee! Voting in for the Final Four will last until April 1st at 6pm ET. Check out the results from the previous rounds: Round 1, Round 2, Round 3.
Follow after the break to place your vote and see the latest version of the bracket. (Download) Good luck to all of our competitors!
A close relative of TheOneRing’s own Barliman’s chat room concept of group commentary while watching a film, DownInFront.net has completed thoughts on the entire LOTR trilogy. The site is free and interesting an the folks commenting know film but most importantly, they know story. The site leads off its “about” portion of the website with the following: “Down in Front is a commentary podcast with a difference – all of the members of the Down in Front family are, in some way, involved in the film industry and work on movies for a living. Sometimes we even worked on the movies we run commentary on. Sometimes we’re not proud of it.”
They have done many more films than these, but deserve a tip of the hat for taking on this trilogy (although we confess we have only listened to snippets so far but believe they are certainly entitled to their opinions, whatever they are!) You can either watch the film and synch their commentary or listen to it on its own. Curious? Take a look right here to check out their work. (We like the idea so much, who knows, we might even borrow it and lock some staff in a room sometime during a trilogy marathon for a TORn staff commentary.) Thanks to spy rtambree for the notice.
TheOneRing.net reached a milestone yesterday when the 15,000th soul signed up to follow the team on Twitter. To celebrate the mark, TheOneRing.net is sending that person a shirt from the deep Dwarven mines where the website is headquartered. TORn promoted the offer on the official account with 14,999 already tagging along but warned that the only shirts currently available were small. Not only does the winner wear a small shirt, it says in her Twitter profile that she is obsessed with shirts! And it turns out she uses the our homepage regularly The website you are currently reading, Founded in 1999 by a group of like-minded Tolkien fans, carries the moniker “Forged by and for fans of J.R.R. Tolkien,” which remains true of the all-volunteer staff and not-for-profit site. Here we have a thriving message board and live chat communities and the daily news. You can also participate and support us on Facebook with over 50,000 members or on the aforementioned Twitter account. And as always, you can always send news tips to Spymaster@TheOneRing.net. Look for us at conventions around the U.S. including C2E2 in Chicago in April and the San Diego Comic-Con in July. And of course, we have big things planned for 2012 and 2013 as we look forward to the big-screen adaptation of The Hobbit, a book that we celebrating in its 75th year of publication (#Hobbit on Twitter!) We would be remiss not to thank the other 14,999 Twitter supporters and the legion of readers and friends (Facebook and otherwise) who have bolstered the community since 1999. Thanks!
TheOneRing.net is pleased to announce it is headed to an embedded set visit in Wellington, New Zealand during the filming of “The Hobbit: There And Back Again,”. The site and writer Larry D. Curtis accepted the invitation from Warner Bros. and Wingnut Films. The production is currently filming the second of the two films in studio, so all of the content from the visit will reach audiences in 2013, after this year’s release (December 14) of the first of the pair of films, “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.”
After weeks of competition and a series of amazing match-ups, it all comes down to this! The final two combatants in our inaugural Middle-earth March Madness are Samwise Gamgee and Aragorn! Just when it looked like Legolas was simply unstoppable, Samwise proved his muster by soundly defeating the elf by nearly 13 percentage points! Gandalf was primed for defeat when he barely advanced (by one vote) against Feanor in round 1, so it was no surprise to see Aragorn pull away and beat him by 9 percent. Both characters were number two seeds throughout a tournament that seemed to heavily favor the number 1 seeds. (
