“A wizard is never late, Frodo Baggins. Nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to.”
-Gandalf to Frodo while entering into Hobbiton for Bilbo’s 111th Birthday
During Comic-Con 2011 fans of The Lord of the Rings got a chance to see the second statue from Weta’s character statue line. The character fans can now get their hands on is none other than Gandalf the Grey. This version of Gandalf captures the Wizard while thinking which route is the right route to take during their trip through Moria.
The importance that Gandalf plays to the events that happen in Middle-Earth from the time of The Hobbit through the events of The Lord of the Rings is huge. Without the leadership that Mithrandir Sauron may just come to power and events in Middle-Earth play out much differently. Leadership is what comes through loud and clear when you look at this statue.
There are already a lot of Oscar winners working on The Hobbit. Soon there might be one more. When the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the 2011 nominees, Bret McKenzie (“Figwit” in The Lord of the Rings and Lindir in The Hobbit) turned up in the “Music (Original Song)” category for his “Man or Muppet” from The Muppets. Congratulations and good luck to Bret! The Oscars will be awarded on February 26.
By the way, the highest number of nominations went to Martin Scorsese’s Hugo. Like The Return of the King, it bagged eleven–also without a single actor nomination. The parallel isn’t complete, since Hugo made it into two categories that ROTK didn’t, Sound Editing and Cinematography. It was not in two categories that ROTK won, Makeup and Original Song.
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! MINORSPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN’T READ THE HOBBIT
Chemical Engineering student Emil Johansson has an amazing passion project he developed mapping out the genealogy of everybody in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth. Called the LOTR project, it provides a great big family tree for Tolkiendom. Its scope is amazing as is the effort and organization, although it is still a work in progress. We asked Johansson to tell us more about his project and this is what he had to say:
“I first read the Lord of the Rings when I was eleven years old, just in time for the first movie to come out. At that point it’s not fair to say I was passionate about it but rather that I found it a good way of escaping reality for a while. I was the kind of kid who lived a lot in my imagination.
The first family tree I made was probably six years ago and consisted of two huge papers, 1 by 1 meters. I quickly realized this was something I wanted to share, but my knowledge of the web was too poor to allow it. I was not until November last year that I decided to give it a try. Even though much of the research already had been done, programming the site and adding the characters into the database have taken a lot of time. Too much for me to want to think about it.
I still have a massive amount of work left before I’m finished and I will not give up until it is perfect.”
PARK CITY, Utah — The first trailer for “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” made it quite clear that Middle-earth hasn’t changed much in the years since Peter Jackson concluded his “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. That’s not a complaint, mind you — fans have come to know and love Jackson’s interpretation of the J. R. R. Tolkien fantasy epic with the same passion they have for the source material. When it comes to “The Hobbit,” in other words, change is not necessarily welcome.
Speaking with MTV News at the Sundance Film Festival, Jackson explained that it was always his intention to keep “The Hobbit” tonally and visually consistent with the “Lord of the Rings” films.
Our pal Gunnar sends this along: Take a look at this story for German TV, coverage of The Hobbit starts around 22:10. It’s about Film NZ, Park Road Post, Hobbit, Avengers (Special fx by Weta) and Sam Neill (The Hunter), thought you might enjoy it. Some of the grabs are in English.
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! MINOR SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN’T READ THE HOBBIT