After a little more than a decade, fans of Howard Shore’s score for The Lord of the Rings films will finally be able to purchase the complete score for the first movie in the trilogy on vinyl.
To be released on March 30, 2018, the vinyl release of the Complete Recordings of The Fellowship of the Ring will comprise 5 LPs on 180 gm red vinyl packaged in a gorgeous boxed set which includes Doug Adams‘ liner notes that accompanied the original Complete Recordings’ CD+DVD set back in 2005.
And for fans who have been deprived of getting their own copies of the Complete Recordings on disc due to their being long out of production, the score is also being re-released on CD and BluRay.
As a long-time fan of these scores and as one who has had the CRs since their initial release, I cannot recommend the physical sets highly enough, especially at their current price points. I truly feel both versions are more than reasonably priced, considering the almost-3 hours of the complete film score (EE scenes music included!) and the quality of the physical products themselves. I say this without having seen or held the vinyl product in hand, but if the quality of the original CD+DVD set is anything to go by, one can rest assured the product will exceed expectations.
The Bodleian Library in Oxford has an exceptional exhibition coming up later this year, which fans will no doubt travel far and wide to see. Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth (June 1 – October 28) will display an extraordinary collection of illustrations, manuscripts, letters, personal belongings and more, giving a unique insight into J.R.R. Tolkien and his works. This ‘once in a lifetime’ exhibition is not to be missed – and thanks to our friends at the Bodleian, TheOneRing.net can reveal exclusively that tickets will be available from 2pm UK time tomorrow, Tuesday 13th February. Here’s what the Bodleian tell us:
The Bodleian Library is pleased to announce that free tickets for the upcoming, once in a lifetime exhibition, Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth, will be available for booking from 2pm UK time on Tuesday 13 February 2018. We know that some visitors will want to travel some distance to this exhibition and want to help them ensure their entry in advance.
Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth explores Tolkien’s amazing legacy from his genius as an artist, poet, linguist, and author to his academic career and private life. The exhibition takes you on a journey through Tolkien’s famous works, The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings, displaying an array of draft manuscripts, striking illustrations and maps drawn for his publications.
Visitors will discover Tolkien’s early abstract paintings from The Book of Ishness, the touching tales he wrote for his children, rare objects that belonged to Tolkien, exclusive fan mail, and private letters.
The exhibition runs 1 June to 28 October 2018 at the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford.
If you’ve been thinking about making a pilgrimage to Oxford, this summer/autumn is the time to go; and be sure to grab those tickets tomorrow! Check out the exhibition website, here.
Thanks to the Bodleian Library for allowing us to make this announcement.
The recent, completely Unexpected news of new Middle-earth stories coming from Amazon Studios has left Tolkien fandom in a bit of a Party mood. There haven’t been many details about which stories will be told, what the format will be, and who will actually be designing and managing this whole process. Do these Middle-earth stories need a Showrunner, or has Amazon Studios just not announced that they already have someone on the team?
Amazon is purported to have paid between $200 to $250 million just for the rights to the story before any costs for development, talent and production are taken into account. This is considered somewhat risky since there is no concept and no creative leader at the helm, and no characters or story to build upon. The only news to come out since the announcement is that Sir Ian McKellen has said he would be happy to don the Grey, pointy hat again.
In a fascinating article, TORn staffer and author Kristin Thompson gives us some invaluable insight into some of the legal wranglings which may have led to this new The Lord of the Rings television series deal:
The announcement that Amazon will be producing a multi-season television series based on The Lord of the Rings has caused much speculation and not a little confusion. One common assumption seems to be that the television rights to the two hobbit novels were sold to United Artists in 1969, when it obtained the production and distribution rights to make film adaptations. Continue reading “Tolkien Rights and the Amazon Television Deal – some insight”
As is to be expected, the internet, our discussion forums, and comments to our story from yesterday are abuzz with the news broken by Variety magazine yesterday of talks between Warner Brothers and Amazon to make a series adaptation based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. Since there are many outstanding questions, we thought we’d go back over some of the background related to the movie and television rights to The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, as well as relate some additional information also published yesterday at Deadline Hollywood.
Check your calendars. This is not, I repeat NOT one of our famous (or infamous) TORn April fools jokes. Variety broke the story tonight that Warner Bros. is in talks with Amazon to develop a series based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings novels! According to Variety, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is personally involved in the negotiations, which are still in the very early stages.