TheOneRing.net is kicking off the 10th Anniversary celebration of the release of FOTR with stories here on the Front Page and on the Message boards all weekend long, so please make sure to visit and participate. Here in Los Angeles, we are having an actual party, and we still have room for a few more people at the table. All ages are welcome, but you will be asked to pay $25 at the door. There is a set menu, with choice of Fish & Chips, Bangers & Mash, Shepherds Pie (vegetarian option too), Burger (also a veggie option) or Chicken Curry. One Non-alcoholic beverage is included, as are taxes and gratuities. You may, of course, order more to eat or drink at your own expense.

If you’d like to come down to Santa Monica tomorrow from 1-5pm, just email me at Garfeimao@TheOneRing.net to RSVP.

When: December 17 from 1pm-5pm

Where: Ye Olde King’s Head in Santa Monica

116 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90401   (310)451-1402

What: Not a FOTR viewing party, and sadly no Golfimbul, but there will be some fun and games, such as Trivia, and maybe a little reading of “Is this a Kissing Book”. Costumes are welcomed, as always, and participation in the fun is encouraged.

LEGO fans rejoice! LEGO has secured the rights to develop build-and-play construction sets based on The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit! Check out the release below. They’ve even set up an official site for the line at  TheLordoftheRings.LEGO.com! (Thanks to Ringer Dayhiker for the heads up!) 

BURBANK, Calif., Dec. 16, 2011 — Warner Bros. Consumer Products and The LEGO Group announced today a partnership that awards the world’s leading construction toy brand exclusive rights to develop build-and-play construction sets based on THE LORD OF THE RINGS™ trilogy and the two films based on THE HOBBIT™.  The multi-year licensing agreement grants access to the library of characters, settings, and stories for THE LORD OF THE RINGS property, as well as films The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Hobbit: There and Back Again.  LEGO® THE LORD OF THE RINGS construction sets are slated for a rolling global launch beginning in June 2012 in the United States, with LEGO THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY scheduled for later in the year.

Continue reading “LEGO Lands ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and ‘The Hobbit’”

Thanks to Ringer Duff Man for sending in this exclusive summary of what we can expect to see in the upcoming ‘Hobbit’ trailer. Read on for his report. Warning: Spoilers lie ahead.

Update – At the request of the Peter Jackson and the production, we’ve been asked to remove the trailer description. Look for the trailer in theaters and online soon!

What we know: Peter Jackson began rolling film on The Hobbit back in April, 2011 and will be adapting this story as a Duology, two films instead of just the one like the book. They’ve had periods of shooting in the studio, a hiatus on filming while post production was being done, and now they are in the midst of Location shooting, with another hiatus and more studio shooting scheduled through June of 2012. The existence of the first Teaser was mentioned by both Andy Serkis and Elijah Wood several weeks ago, and it had its world debut at BNAT13 this past weekend. The mass release of the Teaser has not yet happened, and that is where we pick up our story.

Continue reading “The Hobbit Teaser is coming, soon”

Our story so far: Peter Jackson made three Middle-earth movies and people loved them. Now he is making two more and people already love them too. MrCere, Senior Staff, Writer and Photographer at TheOneRing.net (around since 1999) went to NZ to see what he could see. Landed in Queenstown, found lots of LOTR stuff, drove north to see the people of the ring, visited Hobbiton visited Wellington, center of NZ’s cinematic empire, and will soon leave NZ. However, much more content will follow.

I haven’t seen an insect weta before in my travels (until this trip, but not this story) but I have plenty of experience with the folks who run and work at the special effects shop who identify themselves as “wetas”. Several Comic-Cons, (including the 2011 edition in San Diego) lots of emails and various TORn functions have made the crew at Weta Workshop friendly acquaintances if not just plain old friends.

My time in Wellington would need to include a visit of some kind with the very busy people who are working on The Hobbit, but as I have often joked (even though it is at least partially true) Weta’s second best talent is making special effects for movies. What they are really best at is keeping secrets from TheOneRing.net. I had no illusions that anybody was going to tour me around the workshop (I asked anyway, just in case) during the height of The Hobbit production, but they were kind enough to invite me along to a group they were hosting from a cruise ship that included one of our own message board members. (Her identity is her own to reveal.) Continue reading “Weta Cave big part of movie tourism in Wellington”