It’s hard to remember now, when every respectable household contains the Special Extended DVD Edition of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings, but the celebrated trilogy was once considered a somewhat iffy proposition. That’s part of the explanation for how Jackson, a rather obscure director from Kiwiland, was able to gain artistic control over what Newsweek once called “the most expensive and ambitious movie project in history.” And by filming in New Zealand, where he had built his very own world-class production facility, Jackson was able to use the Pacific Ocean as a moat, protecting him from Hollywood interference. The result was that rare thing, a global film franchise that bears a personal stamp — an intimate epic.
Category: Books Publications
While there is no official news on ‘The Hobbit’ movie yet, we can always count on Houghton Mifflin to continue to put out wonderfully crafted publications from Tolkien’s universe. The lastest batch of new books, ‘The History of the Hobbit,’ are coming this Friday to stores new you, just in time for the 70th Anniversary of the publication of ‘The Hobbit!’
“A beautiful boxed set: the definitive examination of how Tolkien came to write his original masterpiece, including the complete unpublished draft and little-known illustrations and unpublished maps, along with a new edition of the classic work itself.”
The books are being sold individually and released on Friday, Sept 21st in bookstores nationwide. However, if you are interested in purchasing the two books together, along with the speciacl Anniversary Edition of ‘The Hobbit,’ you’ll need to wait until October 26th. All are available right now on Amazon.com for pre-order.
Rick was one of my interviewees for The Frodo Franchise, and he provided a lot of fascinating information. As most TORN readers know, he was involved in the film in a wide variety of ways, including directing some scenes, helping to coordinate the videogame production, and touring visiting VIPs around the Wellington facilities. [More]
Ostadan writes: Parma Eldalamberon #17 is now available from the Elvish Linguistic Fellowship. This issue is a commentary by Tolkien from the late 1950s and early 1960s concerning the words and names from his invented languages incorporated into The Lord of the Rings. This includes not only the Elvish languages, but Dwarvish, Black Speech (including some analysis of the words in the ring inscription), and the language of Rohan. It has been edited and annotated by Christopher Gilson, with the permission and guidance of Christopher Tolkien and the Tolkien Estate. This 220-page journal is available for $35. [More]
The first children’s picture book to be illustrated by artists from the award-winning Weta Workshop is due to be launched in September, New Zealand Book Month. Featuring a little rescue helicopter, Champ the Chopper is the first book in a series written by local author Rebekah Palmer with the illustrations done by artists from Weta Workshop, Daniel Falconer and Chris Guise. [More]
‘The Frodo Franchise’ autuor Kristin Thompson writes: I’ve recently started a blog for my book, The Frodo Franchise. On it I’ll continue my series of comments about progress on the Hobbit film (including a new entry called “New Line, MGM, and the Hobbit Film”). I’ll also be posting about upcoming events relating to TFF (including two interviews coming next week on New Zealand radio programs) and updating some of the subjects I discuss in the book. [More]