Peter Debruge of Variety revisits The Lord of the Rings Trilogy a decade later and shares his thoughts:

It’s hard to believe it’s been 10 years since a humble B-movie director named Peter Jackson came along and reinvented the fantasy film genre. Before tackling Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, Jackson was best known as the guy who had made “Dead Alive,” “Heavenly Creatures” and a couple of foul-mouthed puppet pics — a background that shows in the approach he took to “The Lord of the Rings.”

Revisiting “LOTR” a decade later — thanks to the three-week series of theatrical screenings tied to the extended-cut Blu-ray release — I was struck by how remarkably well the three films hold up. If anything, they’ve gotten better with age, which I never would have guessed at the time they bowed.

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During Toy Fair 2010, Sideshow Collectibles announced they would be going back to their roots in their The Lord of the Rings license by once again doing maquettes of the characters in Middle-earth. What Sideshow told us was that this line would give us different aspects of the characters we have grown to love. Also during the video (view it here) from Toy Fair we got a tease of the concept drawings of several early pieces in the line.

Then in December of last year, during the twelve days of Sideshow, we got a beautiful look at protos of the pieces to come. The image included: Aragorn as Strider, Gandalf The Grey, Arwen, Legolas, and a hidden character in the back. The hidden character was Gimli, Son of Gloin and shortly after we got a great preview video of the upcoming Boromir maquette. We’re now two pieces in hand for this line with Aragorn already in our collections and now Gandalf the Grey joins him.

Continue reading “Collecting The Precious: Sideshow Collectibles Gandalf the Grey Maquette Review”

Well folks…the journey is complete. Last night, the final film in the trilogy screened in the US and NZ. Now we are left with our brand-new, excessively high-quality Blu-Ray sets to satisfy our LOTR needs. But before we leave the trilogy screenings in the dust, let’s take a moment to thank Warner Bros. and Fathom Events for making these screenings available to the US market. Wouldn’t it be great if they did this once every few years? And if they could arrange for international viewings as well? We’ll work that angle and report back! Just like with the extended editions of FOTR and TTT, we are looking for your reactions to seeing The Return of the King Extended Edition on the big screen. Please feel free to send those reports to spymaster@theonering.net and make sure to include your theater name and location. Below are the first few that have trickled in this morning. [TORn on Facebook] [WBshop.com]

Continue reading “ROTK Ex Screening Experiences – Fan Reaction”

Middle-earth Madness lived up to its name last night as hundreds of fans gathered at the Best Buy in Los Angeles, CA to celebrate the release of The Lord of the Rings Extended Edition Trilogy on Blu-Ray. Actors John Noble (Denethor) and Sala Baker (Sauron) signed copies of the Trilogy as fans snatched up the brand new high-def version of the films.

Nicole Roberts walked away with the Grand Prize trip to New Zealand with her inspired and creative ‘Showgirl Balrog’ costume. (pics below) As you will see in our photo gallery, the competition was challenging and we’d like to thank all of the contestants for their talented entries!  Nicole’s costume was judged as the best by Academy Award Winner Sir Richard Taylor of Weta Workshop with help from Lead Designer Daniel Falconer. (We recently interviewed Daniel here)

The LA wing of TheOneRing.net staff was out in full force, and for those of us who could not attend, we’d like to thank them for their tireless efforts to make everything go smoothly! These volunteers spent nearly 15 hours yesterday! So a special thanks to Quickbeam, Cathy, Josh, Suvi, Justin, Peter, Alyse, Catherine, Michael, Echo, Alex, David and Cat from Alleycatscratch.com!

We’d like to thank Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, Weta Workshop and Best Buy for making this event possible!

Click the ‘continue reading’ button to view all of the photos from the event as well as some videos. We’ll be updating them as more come in!

 

Continue reading “Middle-earth Madness – A Night to Remember!”

Want to win a massive, 15-disc Lord of the Rings box set to rule them all?

Punch in your expectations for Peter Jackson’s cinematic adaptation of The Hobbit in the comments section below for your chance at winning one of three Blu-ray copies of The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy (Extended Edition + Digital Copy).

Scores of makeshift Orcs and Halflings are expected to line up Monday night in Los Angeles for the Middle-Earth Midnight Madness event marking the $120 box set’s Tuesday release. On hand to sign copies for the first 150 fans in line: Actor John Noble, who creeped out viewers as The Return of the King’s Denethor (and currently stars as Walter Bishop in sci-fi show Fringe). Stuntman Sala Baker, who inhabited various Orcs and even the Dark Lord Sauron in the Rings movie trilogy, will be doing the same. More..

This is it folks. One night only! The Return of the King Extended Edition is in theaters tonight, and it may just be your last chance to see it on the big screen for many many years! Relive the conclusion of the epic film trilogy with hundreds of devoted fans like yourself. Like FOTR and TTT before it, seeing ROTK on the big screen is something not to be missed! For those of you attending a screening, don’t forget to email us when you get home. We would love to know about your experience and feel free to send us some photos. You can email them to spymaster@theonering.net . We’ll try our best to post as much as we can. Or, if you are on Facebook, share your photos and stories on our wall.

Enjoy the show and don’t forget that trivia and other fun stuff start around 6:30pm. And for those of us who are not near a theater showing the Extended edition, plop in the DVD at home tonight and follow right along! [TORn on Facebook] [Buy Tickets]