Tolkien fans in Southern California will have an embarrassment of events to attend to share their love of all things Tolkien. From conventions and film screenings to enjoying the source material, here is a little rundown of events to attend and enjoy in the month of March.
First up is a Literary based Science Fiction convention in San Diego called Condor, taking place this weekend. TheOneRing.net will be hosting several discussions on Saturday and Sunday about The Hobbit, TheOneRing.net and Middle-earth. This weekend will be full of lots of interactive programming, so come on down and join in the fun.
On the following weekend, the American Cinematheque will be hosting a screening of The Hobbit and the LOTR Trilogy in a full day and night Middle-earth Marathon. This will be on Saturday, March 16 at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica. TheOneRing.net will be there to talk Tolkien, run trivia contests and play a game or two. And to help some lucky Tolkien fan to OD on Middle-earth, we have a pair of tickets to give away. Go to our Event Page on Facebook, RSVP to attend the screening and leave a message stating how you plan to survive the 15 hours or so that this marathon will take, and we’ll randomly award a pair of tickets to one lucky person. Hurry, this contest will close on Saturday at Midnight.
Just a week later, on March 23, Tolkien Forever will be hosting their annual Tolkien Reading Day event. This event is typically held on March 25, the Middle-earth New Year after the Destruction of the Ring. But March 25 is a Monday, so the event in Los Angeles was moved to the Saturday before, and is going to be at what looks to be a wicked cool used bookstore in Downtown LA called The Last Bookstore. Selections of Tolkien’s wide range of works will be read to any and all who show up, spreading the love for his written word. Visit the Facebook Event Page to see more details.
The final event for So Cal Tolkien fans to attend and enjoy will be Wondercon in Anaheim at the end of the month. This convention is typically held in San Francisco, but moved to Anaheim last year and this year because Moscone Center in San Fran has been undergoing renovations. Wondercon is a spin off from San Diego Comic Con and is run in a similar manner, but on a much smaller scale, making it more accessible for fans to enjoy all that the con has to offer. TheOneRing.net will have a panel at Wondercon, but the schedule is still pending, we will announce when and where you can find as soon as we know.
And there you have it, 4 weekends of Tolkien fandom, fun and friendship. What more could wee little Hobbits hope for?
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Our own Fili and Kili conclude their Hollywood adventure with a recap of The One Expected Party and the 85th edition of the Oscars.
Check out the video and all the amazing things they saw and experienced at the party. Finally, we want to thank you all for helping to make The One Expected Party a huge success. Continue reading “Happy Hobbit recaps The One Expected Party”
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Once a hobbit, always a hobbit. Such is the life these days of Martin Freeman, who is one-third of the way through his journey in the J.R.R. Tolkien universe, having seen the release of the first film in the Peter Jackson trilogy The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which comes out on DVD and Blu-Ray March 19. Despite a long career in the British stage, film, and television worlds, the actor has become something of a nerd icon of late as the star of two totemic nerd franchises with The Hobbit and the BBC series Sherlock.
BuzzFeed caught up with Freeman to discuss the upcoming release and look back on the making of the first installment — plus, the films ahead, and life in the center of the geek crosshairs. Continue reading “Buzzfeed quizzes Martin Freeman”
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Over on The Hobbit UK, the cast and crew of The Hobbit have been answering fan questions for the last week or so. So far, Peter Jackson, Cate Blanchett, Jed Brophy, James Nesbitt and John Callen have all answered questions about things as varied as their favourite moment on set, what they’d say to Tolkien if they could have met him while he was alive, and the difficulties of speaking elvish. Continue reading “Hobbit cast and crew answer fan questions”
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Following on from MrCere’s excellent post yesterday, telling you all about the different formats tempting you to part with your cash and take home The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, here is a ‘mini-review’ of the Blu-ray 3D Combo pack which will be available in the United States. Staffer greendragon was fortunate enough to receive a copy of the Blu-ray/DVD pack in advance of a press junket taking place in London today; here are her thoughts on the precious!
First of all, the packaging is beautiful. The cardboard slip case has the lenticular image of Gandalf which we saw on one of Empire magazine’s covers. Underneath this slip case, the box has the same image on the front, with the back showing a small picture of Bilbo running off from the Shire, contract in hand, above the details of the contents.
This ‘combo pack’ is the five disc version: it contains the movie (over two discs) on 3D Blu-ray; one disc of the movie on 2D Blu-ray; one disc of the 2D DVD version; and one disc of ‘Special Features’. These features are, as MrCere mentioned, the ten Production Videos which Peter Jackson published on his facebook page during the making of the film. I agree with MrCere’s thought that, whilst this may not be adding anything new, it is very nice to have all these videos gathered in one place, where you can easily find them to watch them again and again. One word of caution, however: if you are purchasing a Blu-ray combo pack with the thought that you will get a Blu-ray player ‘one day’ and in the meantime will watch the film on the DVD which comes in the set, note that the Special Features disc is a Blu-ray, not a DVD.
As with all the different versions available for purchase, this pack also comes with details on how to access your ‘UltraViolet’ copy of the movie, so that you can download and stream the standard definition theatrical version of the film to your various devices.
Sitting at my laptop in London, I haven’t been able to try out the Blu-ray discs, but I did watch the DVD last night. The main menu shows footage from the film, playing on a loop; it starts with a zoom in on the map of Middle-earth, a shot of Bag End, and then the dwarves singing part of the Misty Mountains song. Following scenes include Bilbo running to join them on their journey, the trolls gathered around their fire, Radagast and his rabbits fleeing the orcs, and shots in Rivendell, Goblin Town and Gollum’s cave. The montage ends with Bilbo drawing Sting for the first time; and then the loop starts again.
The movie is divided into thirty-two scenes, and the scene selection menu has part of the map of Middle-earth in the background. The other menu choice from the main menu is for languages; the DVD can be played in English, French or Spanish, and has subtitles also in those languages. The background for this menu is a picture of a pensive-looking Gandalf, seated by a tree and smoking his pipe.
As for the film – well, of course I love the film. It thrills me to hear that opening melody and to know I can now watch this movie whenever I like! After all these years of waiting for The Hobbit, it seems even a little surreal to have these discs in my hands. I must confess, though, I rather wish that the home entertainment release could have been a little later; I’d like to have seen An Unexpected Journey in the cinema a few more times before I moved to a smaller screen!
The Blu-ray and DVD of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will be available for you to take home in the US from March 19th; but if you just can’t wait that long, digital download (from retailers such as iTunes, Amazon and Vudu) will be available from March 12th. The hard copies (in whatever format you purchase) and digital downloads from ‘select digital retailers’ will come with a code which will enable viewers to watch the live stream of Peter Jackson’s sneak peek of the next movie, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. This will play live on March 24th at 3pm Eastern/noon Pacific time; so if you’re in the US and eager for a glimpse of the second part of the trilogy, (and let’s face it, if you’re reading TORn, you probably are eager for a glimpse!), be sure to get your copy of An Unexpected Journey before March 24th, so you’ll be ready to watch! (MrCere’s article lists the April release dates for the Blu-ray and DVD in some other parts of the world; I’m told by Warner Bros. that codes for the sneak peek will be available outside the US – for example, possibly given to those who preorder a Blu-ray or DVD – but as yet there’s no confirmation on details for that. We’ll let you know as soon as we hear!)
Finally – as MrCere mentioned yesterday, the press release which came with this Blu-ray pack from Warner Bros. confirmed that this ‘home entertainment release will be followed by an Extended Edition available just in time for the holidays’. Now THAT is something I can’t wait to see!
You can preorder this Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack here; or preorder the digital download here.
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So, we knew that Richard Armitage (Thorin Oakenshield) would be answering your Hobbity questions over on Twitter today at https://twitter.com/TheHobbitMovie, but now Andy Serkis (Smeagol/Gollum) and James Nesbitt (Bofur) are joining him as well. Continue reading “Send Serkis, Armitage and Nesbitt your question now!”
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