Sir Ian Holm, aka Bilbo Baggins, is turning 80 today! We’d like to wish Sir Ian an absolutely marvelous day and hope there are many more to come. Sir Ian was born in Goodmayes, a north eastern portion of London back in 1931. He will be reprising his role as the ‘older’ Bilbo Baggins for Peter Jackson’s upcoming two-film adaptation of The Hobbit! (Martin Freeman is playing the younger Bilbo) [More about Ian] (And happy birthday to our staffer Garfeimao as well!)

When Weta announced the Orthanc Pre-Ruin environment during Comic-Con 2011 they together with TORn it had a very special contest attached tothis announcement. Weta would be allowing the fans to submit suggestions with one of them becoming the official name to this truly amazing environment. Well, after many submissions Weta and TORn are pleased to announce the name and the Winners of the Orthanc Contest. The grand prize winner is Christopher Turner whose entry was Orthanc – Black Tower of Isengard. Mr. Turner’s prize is the awesome Bag End Collectors Edition while the two runners up Tom Barber and Chris Endicott both will receive a really cool Sauron T-Shirt. You can check out the full release of information from Weta here.

ATLANTA — DragonCon 2011 marks the 11th year of involvement with the Atlanta based convention, where it has grown dramatically and yet remains true to its fan-based roots. (We dug up the earliest reports we could find, well worth a look here and featuring Karl Urban, Corvar and Calisuri.)

But this DragonCon had significant differences as well. With an over 2,500 mile journey from Los Angeles to Atlanta sponsored by War In The North, this convention featured the Fellowship of Drivers on The Road to DragonCon. They not only went there but back again with the help of Badali Jewelry and Anglotopia.net.

And on content partner Stickam.com, TORn was the most watched event for the week and the month. A special thanks to those who supported the trip with personal meetings, donations, texts, phone calls and other help.

The journey helped promote the forthcoming video game but it also served as a chance to get one of the Gandalf World Tour statues to Europe. (A story coming soon!) Continue reading “DragonCon 2011 wrap up!”

Thanks to Pioneer for this clip from The Christchurch Press: The top of the Takaka Hill and northwestern Golden Bay are set to become Hobbit country, with filming of Sir Peter Jackson’s anticipated two-part movie expected in the Tasman district at the end of this year. Tasman District Council communications spokesman Chris Choat said the production company for The Hobbit, 3 Foot 7, approached the council last week about filming in the district in December. Choat said the company had yet to lodge any official land-use consent applications.


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From [NZHEARLD] : Master fimmaker James Cameron will return to New Zealand to snoop around the set of The Hobbit as director Peter Jackson follows in his footsteps to create a blockbuster 3D film.

Jackson let slip to Australian film magazine Empire that Cameron would visit the set in September.

It’s been seven months since Cameron was last in New Zealand to celebrate his award-winning film Avatar. He announced in 2010 he would return here to film two Avatar sequels but since decided to take the action to California. [Read more]