mckellen_pengilley_104842aFrom Joe Utichi at rottentomatoes.com: Sir Ian McKellen is spending the week at the San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain, where he was last night presented with a special Donostia Award in recognition of his career as an actor. RT was in town to catch the presentation, and earlier in the day we sat down with McKellen to discuss the award and his work. Of course, as Guillermo del Toro readies to direct The Hobbit, which will see McKellen pull on the cloak and hat of Gandalf the wizard for the first time in seven years, we couldn’t help but look to the future and find out how things were going with the project. In fact it was McKellen who raised the wizard’s name before we asked, rather controversially declaring to RT, “I don’t want to play Gandalf again.” But before a million Rings fans cry out in terror at the thought of another thesp stepping into the role, McKellen was actually discussing the risk of typecasting the wake of a big success. “If you play a part that gets an awful lot of attention,” he explained, “forever after you’re being asked by directors to play the same part in their movie. But I played the best wizard, and I’m happy to revisit him, which I shall do in The Hobbit with Guillermo del Toro.” More..

Viggo MortensenFor the record, there’s nothing wrong with “The Road” star Viggo Mortensen not knowing much about the plans that Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro have in place for their two-part big screen telling of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit.” Aragorn, his “Lord of the Rings” character, doesn’t actually factor into that story. That doesn’t mean he can’t be written in, but clearly no one’s mentioned anything to Mortensen. More..

DragonCon 2008DragonCon, one of the best fantasy and science fiction events in the world, concluded Monday in Atlanta, Georgia and while concluded, it will not be forgotten.

The convention, that gathers fans from the far reaches of the globe, is likely the last one before filming begins on Guillermo del Toro’s “The Hobbit,” and discussion and anticipation for the forthcoming pair of films adapting J.R.R. Tolkien’s book was a definite part of the landscape of the annual convention. Continue reading “DragonCon flies away for 2009”

-1ATLANTA – Enthusiasm is building for the two-movie adaptation of “The Hobbit” and if you don’t mind me saying, it can be felt in the air and smelt in the water. One of the first attractions of the day (after Spock and Kirk of course) was TORn’s own trio of staffers Deej, Greendragon ad MrCere, dishing about all the recent developments on “The Hobbit.”

Using quotes from TORn’s own interviews, TORn’s message boards (Guillermo del Toro) and national media, the trio tried to get everybody up to date on the soon-to-be greenlit (we hope/think) film. Sending along greetings was Guillermo del Toro via video and three members of the Weta team that will be working on the film. Continue reading “DragonCon: Day 1”

DragonCon 2008Friday is the official kick-off to the annual sci-fi and fantasy fest known as DragonCon in Atlanta and as it has for the last decade, TheOneRing.net will be there to celebrate everything Tolkien and bring you the goings-on to the best of our ability. We will have new Lake Town Archery Club shirts as well as the continuation of the themed shirts introduced at Comic-Con this year. TORn also has a panel about the very latest news on “The Hobbit,” on Friday morning and Sunday. As fast as news is changing, they may even be completely different.
The latest DCon news is Brad Dourif(television and film legend and of course Grima Wormtongue) has just been announced as a late addition-guest to the four-day convention. He will join Craig Parker and Peter Beagle as this year’s celebrities that add to a whole four-day track of Tolkien programming. Continue reading “DragonCon: Dourif! Parker! TORn!”

Celevon writes: Today’s IMDB poll is who should play Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit. Some curious choices there. More..

Chose from: James McAvoy (Currently leading), Simon Pegg, Martin Freeman, Anton Yelchin, Jamie Bell, David Tennant, Daniel Radcliffe, Hugh Dancy, Jim Sturgess, Sam Worthington, Zac Efron, Dominic Cooper, Ben Barnes, Matthew Goode, and Robert Pattinson