With a poster signed by Richard Armitage, Benedict Cumberbatch, Luke Evans, Martin Freeman and Evangeline Lilly up for grabs as the prize, many of you were eager to show us your The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug DVDs and Blu-rays, in photos submitted for our #wheresbilbo competition. We loved looking at all the entries, and as usual, it was hard to pick a winner! Lots of people sent in images showing their extensive collections of Middle-earth collectibles, whilst many others took snaps showing their adorable pets taking care of their DVDs. A group of staff from TORn all voted, and our final overall winner was @WadeAcuff, with his ‘sketchy’ entry:
The staffers were impressed by the beautiful artwork shown in Wade’s photo – he’s clearly a talented fellow!
Other images we loved included @LapisLizuli’s dragon eating her DVD:
And @TolkienistView’s clever set of ‘polaroids’:
@crazysirius clearly ‘treasures’ her DVD:
@RSinsir’s dogs are doing a great job of guarding her ‘precious’:
@EmmersChau found her DVD taking a bath – complete with bearded rubber duck! Check out the details on those bottles – the body wash is ‘Elf-repelling’!
Finally, @I_Christina_I was lucky enough to be able to take Bilbo back to his own front door:
There were many more great entries, including some of folks in costume. Many thanks to all of you who sent in fab photos and entertained us with your creativity (and with much cuteness from various pets!) We wish we could have had more than one winner! Congratulations to Wade – the signed poster will be on its way to him very soon.
As he told TheOneRing.net in his interview with us back in April, Peter Hambleton has been busy, for the first part of this year, wearing his director’s hat. His next show, at the Circa Theatre in Wellington, is Bill Cain’s fascinating play Equivocation – a piece described on the theatre’s website as an ‘explosively comedic high stakes thriller … for theatre-lovers, fashion fanatics, Game of Thrones and House of Cards fans, legal eagles, politicos – and anyone who has ever had a boss from hell.’
The plot is summarized thus:
‘London 1605. Shakespeare (Shag) is ordered to rewrite the ‘true’ story of Guy Fawkes and the treasonous Gunpowder Plot – as a crowd-pleasing play. While the plotters wait in prison, he must decide if he would rather write a lie and lose his soul, or write the truth and lose his head. He walks this dangerous tightrope with the help of his theatre troupe, his devoted daughter, and by learning the art of equivocation (the use of ambiguous language to conceal the truth).’
This modern play was described by Variety as, ‘One of the most bracingly intelligent, sizzlingly theatrical American plays in a decade’. If you’re lucky enough to be in Wellington between May 24th and June 21st, you can get tickets for this exciting production by visiting Circa Theatre’s website, here – and don’t forget to write and tell us about it!
Our friends at Weta Workshop have a couple of new books for fans to add to their collections. The first book is the next in the Chronicles series, which gives you a great inside look at the task of bringing the many costumes, armour, and weapons that were needed to bring The Hobbit Trilogy to life. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Chronicles – Cloaks and Daggers does just that, but it doesn’t just cover the second film, it also covers the many designs needed in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. If you pre-order the book right now you can get it signed by some of the folks who helped bring these films to the big screen!
The second release Weta has for fans is an amazing looking two book set covering the 20 years they have been helping to bring films to life. This inside look is brimming with never-before-seen content covering films such as; The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The Hobbit Trilogy, Avatar, King Kong, District 9, and much more. You can get The Hobbit Art Book for $39 and Weta: The Art of Film Magic – 20 Years of of Weta for $99.
Godzilla is stomping closer to theaters while Smaug is between the two films featuring the performance of Benedict Cumberbatch, but Wall Street Journal writer Michael Calia asked our own news editor Demosthenes to help out with the showdown between the two pop-culture heavyweights. Its a pretty fun read and Demos certainly did us proud but if Godzilla is King of the Monsters (1956 film) then maybe he should face J.R.R. Tolkien’s greatest dragon Ancalagon The Black. Many readers at the WSJ blog probably haven’t heard of him though, so Smaug is much more fun for the masses. You can read the blow-by-blow right here.
Middle-earth fan Kieran contacted us recently to say:
“I’m an animation student at Dundee University, and we’ve just finished a 12 week project which I think you guys will appreciate! We’re massive fans of Tolkien, and we’re really pleased with our short animation… ”
So of course we went over to vimeo to check it out – and we were impressed! The vimeo page tells us, ‘An MSc Animation class project, in association with Axis Animation, to provide an unofficial short animation to tie in with the release of The Hobbit: Desolation Of Smaug. The project took 13 weeks and explores the mysterious origins of the dragons of Middle Earth. ‘
We thought our readers would enjoy it too – so here it is!
SALT LAKE CITY — FantasyCon, with an already potent lineup of guests from “The Lord of the Rings” and “Hobbit” movies, announced that Billy Boyd will be joining the show. The convention, with its obvious fantasy theme, is striving to be different from the many popular-culture events that dot North America with increased interactivity and an emphasis on fantasy art.
Set for July 3 – 5, capitalizing on the 4th of July weekend in Salt Lake City, the convention is self described as “the first convention of its kind to answer the call for an interactive, immersive experience that encompasses all things in the genre of pop culture fantasy.”
Boyd joins LOTR partners Sean Astin and John Rhys-Davies, along with Hobbit actors Slyvester McCoy, Ken Stott, Graham McTavish, William Kircher, and Jed Brophy. The convention is Stott’s first convention appearance in North America.
FantasyCon is also a major sponsor of TheOneRing.net and the show will feature several of our own staffers, including FantasyCon Program Director Larry D. Curtis, MrCere here at TheOneRing.net. According to him, “There are more Middle-earth names to come, and by the time all the announcements are done we will offer a unparallelled Tolkien lineup. We mostly have all of these guys for three days helping us celebrate fantasy and of course signing autographs and providing photo ops with fans.
Billy Boyd at TORn’s booth, DragonCon 2012“FantasyCon’s founder Josh Patel had most of these pieces in place before he reached out to me so I was delighted immediately with his plans. I just talked to these guys about the show while we were together in Germany at HobbitCon 2 and they are excited and we are doing some really fun programming stuff, not just talking from the stage. This is a chance for fans in the U.S. to meet an army of talent from these franchises. What is more, there is a lot of other really good related content. We are having a world-class Middle-earth convention inside a spectacular fantasy convention.”
The convention also includes a group of masterwork fantasy artists, many who are bringing commissioned paintings to the event. Artists include TORn friend and Middle-earth artist Donato Giancola and Brom. The full list of artists can be found right here.
The show starts Thursday July 3rd and will finish Saturday July 5th in Salt Lake City. The Salt Palace Convention Center will host the event, close to many hotels and close to the Salt Lake airport.
