THE HOBBIT_ AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY-1 Better logoWhile this probably isn’t a distinction that anybody involved with the film would be particularly happy about, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has topped 2013’s list of most pirated movies. According to TorrentFreak, the film was illegally downloaded on BitTorrent networks an estimated 8.4 million times. Coming in at second & third place were Django Unchained and Fast and Furious 6, with 8.1 and 7.9 million downloads respectively. Continue reading “‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’ is 2013’s most pirated film”

Happy Hobbity New Year 2013-14Welcome to our collection of TORn’s hottest topics for the past year.  We’ve collected some of 2013’s most popular posts on our 10 Message Boards.  You’ll be surprised at what captured the attention and imagination of our 10,500+ members.  Come and have a look back at what has kept us busy as we impatiently awaited the release of The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug.  We actually did manage to talk about many fascinating things, besides The Hobbit.  So just follow the links to some of our most popular discussions for 2013.  Continue to watch this space as every weekend we spotlight the most popular buzz on TORn’s Message Boards.  Everyone is welcome, so come on in and join the fun!

Continue reading “TORn Message Boards Weekly Roundup – Special New Year’s Edition!!”

25aForum member Dwalin has returned again this year to give us a thorough review of the second wave of figures from The Bridge Direct. These figures are pretty awesome and, I believe, after reading Dwalin’s review you’ll see why fans are so fond of these figures. Thanks to Dwalin for helping us out with this review.

Continue reading “Collecting The Precious – Dwalin Reviews The Bridge Direct’s The Hobbit Wave 2”

220px-Wojciech_Kilar_2 Polish classical and film music composer Wojciech Kilar has died aged 81 after a long illness.

Kilar became known internationally as the author of dozens of film soundtracks such as Roman Polanski’s The Pianist, Jane Campion’s The Portrait of a Lady, and Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula. He also composed symphonic music, chamber works and works for solo instruments.

He was also, for a time, a frontrunner to compose the score for Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings films. Continue reading “Polish composer Wojciech Kilar dies, aged 81”

Smaug, The Hobbit Lauren Davis from SF webzine io9 explores why, “in a media landscape overstuffed with dragons, do we still care so much about Smaug?”.

This was first published last month, and I missed it at the time, but it’s a very worthwhile read that delves into (among other things) the literary origins of Tolkien’s dragons — the story of Fafnir, and, of course, Beowulf. Follow the link at the bottom to read the complete article.


Why Smaug still matters

“A dragon is no idle fancy,” J.R.R. Tolkien wrote in his lecture “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics.” Whatever may be his origins, in fact or invention, the dragon in legend is a potent creation of men’s imagination, richer in significance than his barrow is in gold.”

Continue reading “Why Smaug still matters”

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