Despite his everyday physical appearance mimicking that of a wizard in Middle-earth, it looks like Billy Connolly, playing Dain in ‘The Hobbit‘ films, is not a fan of Tolkien or Tolkien fans. In a statement to MSN UK Connolly admits:
“No I never read it. And I probably never will. It’s not my cup of tea. Youthful society when I was younger was divided into Tolkien and non-Tolkien and I was a non-Tolkien and I didn’t like the Tolkien people,” he said.
“They were all corduroy and limp wrists and we were all string band people, banjos and bluegrass players and blues players, chasing women about the place, having long hair and they were all talking about the ginks fighting the gonks.”
As a renown comedian, we are pretty sure Billy is having a spot of fun. After you check out the full article at MSN UK, we can get back to talking about ginks and fighting with gonks : / [Read more]
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Production designer Dan Hennah and Joe Letteri from Weta Digital spoke to Medakdo Murphy from the New York Times about the challenges of bringing The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey HFR 48fps to the big screen by using a combination of digital sets and normal sets and merging the two together.
Mr. Hennah supervised the building of a flexible set. “We set it up so that we could make every component something we could move, lift up, turn around, interchange,” he said. They had two studios full of these movable elements, from the rock walls to the walkways and ladders. A digital version of some of those elements was created by Mr. Letteri’s team and blended together with the on-set props to create a seamless environment. Spoilers ahead.
[Read More]
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The Tolkien Society has issued a press release today detailing its plans to celebrate J.R.R. Tolkien’s birthday on January 3rd with world-wide festivities. This is the 12th such annual event and the Society is using its platform to urge the public to read Tolkien’s The Hobbit with so many getting exposure to the work from Peter Jackson’s film The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, in theaters now if you haven’t heard.
Here is the press release:
TOLKIEN FANS WORLDWIDE UNITE TO CELEBRATE AUTHOR’S BIRTHDAY
On 3rd January, Tolkien fans from across the world will join together to celebrate the Twelfty-First Birthday of the late Professor J.R.R. Tolkien CBE.
Tolkien aficionados in Brazil, USA, Canada, Spain, Australia, Japan, Italy, and the Netherlands will be uniting with events up and down the UK to hold birthday parties in honour of J.R.R. Tolkien. In the UK events are going on in many cities, including Brighton, London, Oxford, Bristol, Milton Keynes, and York. This is the 12th annual Birthday Toast and it will take place at 9pm on the 3rd January 2013.
This year, for Tolkien’s 121st birthday, the Tolkien Society is encouraging the public to read J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1937 book The Hobbit in light of the monumental success of Sir Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. This year’s Birthday Toast will tie together the man, the books and the films – the Society will be encouraging people to talk about all of these on Facebook, Twitter and on its website, www.tolkiensociety.org.
The Tolkien Society tradition of celebrating Tolkien’s birthday stems from Tolkien’s best-selling epic The Lord of the Rings. In the book, after Bilbo vanished on his eleventy-first birthday, Frodo continued to celebrate Bilbo’s birthday every single year. The Tolkien Society was founded in 1969 dedicated to promoting the life and works of J.R.R. Tolkien; J.R.R. Tolkien remains the Society’s Honorary President in perpetuo whilst his daughter, Priscilla, is the Society’s Honorary Vice President.
J.R.R. Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa on 3rd January 1892 and died in Oxford on 2nd September 1973. He was the author of best-selling novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
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Warner Bros., New Line Cinema and MGM have announced that The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has surpassed the $500 million benchmark at the worldwide box office.
To date, the blockbuster has earned an estimated $179.7 million in the USA. In addition, on the heels of its record-breaking release in Australia — the biggest Boxing Day opening of all time — the film has grossed an estimated $344 million internationally. The global total is $523.7 million, and steadily climbing. Continue reading “The Hobbit hits half a billion”
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Spanish Tolkien website El Anillo Único is reporting that a teaser for The Desolation of Smaug will begin showing in theatres in Spain from January 4.
UPDATE: A few readers have informed us that December 28 is a traditional day of pranks (Called inocentadas) and jests in Spain in a similar way to April Fool’s Day. So best to take a huge grain of salt with this one. Well, that’s a bit of a pity.
To try and make up for the disappointment, here’s an animated GIF of Smaug’s eye. Continue reading “UPDATE: No Desolation of Smaug teaser just yet”
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Welcome to our collection of TORn’s hottest topics for the past week. If you’ve fallen behind on what’s happening on the Message Boards, here’s a great way to catch the 
highlights. Or if you’re new to TORN and want to enjoy some great conversations, just follow the links to some of our most popular discussions. Watch this space as every weekend we will spotlight the most popular buzz on TORn’s Message Boards. Everyone is welcome, so come on in and join in the fun!
Continue reading “TORN Message Boards Weekly Roundup – December 27, 2012”
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