In 2005 we premiered our very own documentary feature film RINGERS: Lord of the Fans at the Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, where it was quickly snapped up by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment for worldwide distribution on DVD and cable! It is finally available on iTunes after 7 years of hopeful waiting… you can also find it on Amazon Instant and on VUDU.
What a fun movie! Dominic Monaghan (Meriadoc Brandybuck) came on board to be our wonderful narrator! Actually this film is a time capsule of many decades of pop culture history — giving us the full story on how the world has embraced Tolkien’s masterpiece THE LORD OF THE RINGS over 50 years and more!
Winner of the Outstanding Achievement Award at the Newport Beach Film Festival, RINGERS was produced in association with TheOneRing.net — this remarkable little film was forged BY fans and FOR fans, just like our website, with the production/writing talent of Clifford “Quickbeam” Broadway (who hosts TORn TUESDAY every week), Jeff Marchelletta, and supercool director Carlene Cordova. It was executive produced by X-Men/Transformers guru Tom DeSanto.
With a wonderful rock-driven score and detailing all the outpouring of love bestowed on Tolkien over many generations, this film is a must-have for your digital collection! Get it on iTunes now for only $9.99!
From the original Sony Press Release:
“RINGERS is comprehensive, entertaining and informative pop culture history.”
– The Toronto Star
“…Will always be a salient part of ‘LORD OF THE RINGS’ history…
See it, absorb it, love it.” – FilmThreat
Winner of “Outstanding Achievement” Award at the
Newport Beach Film Festival
RINGERS: LORD OF THE FANS
FASCINATING DOCUMENTARY CAPTURES THE HISTORY, INFLUENCE AND PHENOMENON THAT IS LORD OF THE RINGS
CULVER CITY, Calif. (September 12, 2005) – Sony invites you to return to the Shire with the release of the feature-length documentary RINGERS: LORD OF THE FANS, direct to DVD. In association with the popular fan-site TheOneRing.net, Carlene Cordova produced, directed and wrote this award-winning film with executive producer Tom DeSanto(X-Men, X2: X-Men United and Transformers), which charts the incredible influence and ripple-effect that Lord of the Rings has had on worldwide pop culture over the past five decades. Whether you are a fan or first timer, critics agree, RINGERS, stands as the most comprehensive film documenting the ongoing impact of J.R.R. Tolkien’s literary achievement.
Dominic Monaghan (star of ABC’s Lost and the Academy Award® winning Lord of the Rings trilogy) narrates the documentary as it looks behind the curtain between Lord of the Rings and how it inspired so many artists of different mediums. The film moves beyond “cult classic” and through different generations unearthing the way legendary rock musicians, filmmakers, professors, actors and authors all unite under the banner of ‘Ringer.’ Interviewees included in the film are Lord of the Rings trilogy filmmaker Peter Jackson as well as Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortensen, Ian McKellen, Sean Astin and David Carradine. Infused with a dynamic rock-driven score, irreverent cut-out animation (á la Terry Gilliam), and a centerpiece audience sing-a-long, RINGERS is a genre-busting documentary that shows how a single literary work continues to spark the minds and hearts of millions.
RINGERS continues the momentum of the motion picture trilogy Lord of the Rings, a winner of 17 Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director for Peter Jackson, who made history as the first person to direct three major feature films simultaneously.
From the official synopsis:
Ringers: Lord of the Fans is a feature-length documentary that reveals the ongoing cultural phenomenon created by The Lord of the Rings. Very funny and often moving, Ringers shows the hidden power behind Tolkien’s books — and how after 50 years a single literary work continues to spark the minds and hearts of millions, across cultures and across time.
Shot with groundbreaking new digital technology in 24P, Ringers explores the real foundations of Middle-earth; a community of true fans who share a common bond. Moving beyond “cult classic” and over several different generations, the film unearths academics, musicians, authors, filmmakers, and a plethora of pop junkies — the people gathered under the banner of ‘Ringer.’ From the hippie counter-culture to the electronic age; from the Bakshi animated film to Jackson’s epic trilogy; this documentary brings together extensive footage from across the globe. With units in Los Angeles, San Diego, Atlanta, Salt Lake City, Bonn, Germany, Wellington, New Zealand, and Oxford, England, our cameras capture the most fascinating “Ringers” and Lord of the Rings events.
What began as the private amusement of a tweedy Oxford professor has now become a new mythology for the 21st century. Ringers: Lord of the Fans shows how an adventure story published in 1954 has had dynamic ripple-effects through Western pop-culture. Ringers carefully pulls away the veil between Tolkien’s book and the creations of art, music, and community that have been inspired by it.
Check out the official trailer here:
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General Manager of Weta Limited Tim Launder teased what’s to come from Weta Workshop over the next few months with a post at The Shadow and Flame message board. From his post there are some big things to come via The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit including something totally new for The Hobbit collectibles. If you love the work Weta does as much as I do this announcement has you super excited!
Shows
We had a wonderful time in April, attending 3 shows in Melbourne and the Gold Coast of Australia, and our first visit to CalgaryExpo in Canada. It was exciting to meet some new and old Flamers in person for the first time. We were especially grateful for the kind donations of chocolate for the crew !
Most of us just got back to work on Monday, a bit tired, but ready to get going again. And of course, we are only 2 months away from the Big Show; San Diego Comic Con. Time flies, we can’t wait ! We will be in the same booth space (3513B) as last year. This has now become our own Weta booth, we are no longer sharing someone else’s space. We will have our largest ever team of Weta crew at Comic Con this year. We’ll be announcing names soon. Please come and say Hi We are shipping out a container full of goodies to San Diego at the end of May, full of confidential, new stuff. We still have lots of work to do, as there are always a handful of items packed in at the last minute.
The Hobbit – 1/6th scale polystone range
We have now launched the first seven pieces in the 1/6th scale range: Thorin, Gandalf, Bilbo, Dwalin, Balin, Bombur and Gollum. Thanks so much to all of you who have supported this range, we consider these to be the best quality sculptures we have created. This will be our signature line for The Hobbit trilogy of movies and we have several more outstanding pieces in production. A lot of thought has gone into the poses, and how the various characters could be displayed together. We expect this will become clearer over time. We will most likely unveil the next sculpture in the range in July.
Some of you have asked why there are no creatures launched yet ? The reason is that most of the creatures are created in digital form for the films, and the digital work is normally finalized very late in the film making process. So therefore we could not start work on these creatures until very late last year. But never fear, they are coming !
The Hobbit – Environments
We had hoped to have launched an environment by now. We were actually building a few pieces last year. But once the decision was made to change from 2 to 3 movies, we had to put them on hold until the second movie is released.
The good news is that we do have 2 new environments in production now, so you will be seeing them at some stage soon.
The Hobbit – New Polystone Product Ranges !
Over the next few months, we will be launching some new smaller scale pieces, priced under US$100, including a few special pre-releases from the upcoming movie The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Look out for these at Comic Con!
The Hobbit – Prop Replicas
Our Staves have been extremely popular. The first production of both the Staff of Radagast the Brown and the Staff of Gandalf the Grey, sold out even before they arrived in our warehouses. The second and final production run will take place over the next few months and we hope to release these final pieces before the end of 2013. We strongly suggest pre-ordering to ensure you don’t miss out.
The Key to Erebor is our highest selling item. We have sold out our stocks twice and are struggling to keep up with production
Daniel Reeve has had a great time creating hand made Contracts and Maps.
Jewelry from Middle-earth
Our new range of Jewelry from Middle-earth has been a huge hit, especially The One Ring in gold plated tungsten carbide, created by Jens Hansen Gold and Silversmith. We continue to struggle to keep up with supply for this item, the Evenstar and the Elven Leaf Brooch
We have a new Stone Pendant launching in the next week. Keep an eye out for it
The Hobbit – Maps and Art Prints
We now have a room in our office dedicated to storing tubes with all the Maps and art prints created by the artists who worked on the movies. We will continue to expand this range and would be grateful for a poll to vote on the scenes you’d like to see from LOTR and The Hobbit.
If you are coming to Comic Con in July, this would be a great opportunity to get some of these art prints signed.
You can also expect to see something new from Daniel Reeve soon too
The Lord of the Rings
There are a couple of items in production from LOTR.
The Fellowship of the Ring – Set 2 starts arriving in our warehouses over the next month, and will be followed up by Set 3 in a few months time. All three sets look fantastic displayed together, with a mirror set behind them, as we have done in the Weta Cave
We will also be releasing a new sculpture of Arwen soon, as part of the range of smaller scale pieces; Gollum, Gandalf and Strider
Next shipment
Our next shipments arrive in our 3 warehouses in the US, UK and NZ over the next month, including new pieces such as:
- The Fellowship of the Ring – Set 2
- The Pipe of Fili the Dwarf
- The Staff of Gandalf the Grey (already sold out)
- Gollum Enraged
Changing Warehouses in the US
In late May / early June, we will be changing our warehouse in the US. So if you are planning to make any orders in the near future, we recommend making your order in the next 2 weeks.
And for customers in North America, we will be announcing a range of special offers early next week, to help us reduce our inventory before we move to the new warehouse. Watch out for this in our next newsletter !
Cheers
Tim
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As we announced the other day Asmus Toys has announced they will be making 1:6th figures based on The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Well, last night via their Facebook page they gave a preview of the character chosen to lead off their line of figures and that character is none other than the Morgul Lord himself. When will we see this figure? According to the preview on May 20th the Morgul Lord will show himself and fans can begin ordering. This is just the tip of the iceberg for Asmus Toys as they’ve announced via their website that their plan is for five years worth of figures with 20 figures already in production. These figures will be broken down into four different categories: Heroes of Middle-earth, Man of West, Army of Mordor, Armors in the battlefields.
Below are the full descriptions of each line from the Asmus Toys website:
Heroes of the Middle-earth will be the premier line of important characters. Presented by well know heroes such as Aragorn, Gandalf…etc, who will be built in top quality head sculpt, realistically accurate clothing, and mixed media accessories. Each hero will have its own custom base, and together they will be puzzled into a huge battle field diorama. Also, heroes don’t necessarily have to be the good guys.
Man of West and Army of Mordor will feature the soldiers from both side of the force. Some of the familiar faces we see in the movies but not as important as the heroes. Examples like Uruk-hai, Orcs and even Merry and Pippin.
Armors in the Battlefields is a series of products that will contain only the armors, weapons and clothing. Collectors can use whatever figure body you have at hand to custom a figure in a relatively cheaper price, in this way, collectors can put together an army in affordable budget. Examples such as Gondorian soilders, Orc armors..etc
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The Eighth Sort-of-Annual Lord of the Rings Extended Edition Trilogy Marathon takes place today, staring 9am Eastern. Feel free to join us any time during the day – we’re happy to tell you what part of the movies we’re at.
People from around the world are online with one common goal: to virtually gather with other fans to watch all three films straight through. Geeky? Yes. Fun? Absolutely.
Please browse through our FAQ below, you’ll find the answers to many of your questions.
JOIN THE MARATHON Continue reading “Today: TORn’s LOTR-EE Trilogy Marathon!”
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TV3 reports that Park Road Post’s film laboratory
is closing, after more than 70 years of processing New Zealand made films and playing a part in many of the country’s most successful movies. The lab, which processes stock 35mm film, was purchased by Sir Peter Jackson and partner Fran Walsh in 1999 from the government-owned national film unit, and became part of Park Road’s Post Production facilities. The Lord of The Rings trilogy was processed for a total of $7 million, at the expensive rate of a dollar per foot of 35mm film stock – a price which few filmmakers nowadays can afford.
“If you’re shooting digitally…once you’ve got your camera, once you’ve got your memory card or memory stick then really there’s no cost, or very little, and that’s one thing that’s driving people away from film and more toward digital,” says laboratory employee Brian Scadden.
The article goes on to say, ‘Kodak and Fuji are the world’s largest producers of film stock, but because filmmakers are using digital more and more, Fuji’s already stopped and Kodak’s future is in doubt.’ [Read More]
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Middle-earth March Madness round 2 ends at 10pmET tonight, so get your votes in. [Vote] [Round 2 Bracket]
Here is how Round 2 is shaping up right now…
The Shire Division
(8) Huan is being handed his walking papers by (1) Galadriel, while the most powerful of the Ainur (4) Morgoth has a solid lead over the eldest ent (5) Treebeard. (6) Luthien seems poised to take down (3) Bilbo Baggins. But the closest story in this round appears to be the match between the Mirkwood Elvenking (7) Thranduil with a slim lead over the head of the White Council (2) Saruman.
The Erebor Division
The current Cinderella seed (16) Pippin is soundly beating ‘Hot Dwarf’ (9) Fili, can the Heir of Durin put in a late push? Last year’s champ (12) Samwise Gamgee is facing an uphill battle with (4) Beren. The owner of the Last Homely Home, (6) Elrond, is currently leading against (14) Eowyn, unless she can get some support from other Warrior Women. Can she make to the Sweet 16, possibly against Aragorn!? Speaking of (7) Aragorn, he is soundly trouncing the windlord (2) Gwaihir.
The Mordor Division
(9) Gil-galad, the high kind of Noldor, seems destined to lose to the number one seed (1) Smaug. The Dark Lord (4) Sauron is handily beating his dwarven opponent (5) Dain Ironfoot. (11) Fingolfin has a slim lead over (3) Thorin Oakenshield, where is his ARmy? (2) Beorn seems ready to send (7) Shelob packing. If things keep going this way, we could have Smaug and Sauron in the Sweet 16.
The Angmar Division
Not quite a fair battle, but (1) The One Ring seems ready to abandon (8) Frodo Baggins. The Eldar King (12) Manwe, has a very solid lead over a descendant of Girion in (4) Bard the Bowman. Some call him ‘creepy’ and ‘sneaky’ (3) Gollum, but he’s got a lead over the imposing dwarf (6) Dwalin. And last but not least, (10) Merry seems rather outranked and outclassed by (2) Gandalf the Grey.
Voting continues until tonight at 10pm ET. [Vote Now!]
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