Tourism New Zealand chief executive officer Kevin BowlerThe DVD package of Peter Jackson’s first Hobbit film An Unexpected Journey will be released mid-2013, according to Tourism New Zealand boss Kevin Bowler. Speaking today in Queenstown, he revealed it will also contain a New Zealand tourism feature directed by Jackson himself.

No word in the article on whether the DVD will be an “extended edition”. Cheers to Eldaria for the spot.

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Dads and Grads Sale at WBShop.comThe WBShop.com is celebrating graduates and fathers with their ‘Dads and Grads Sale.’ The sale is quite extensive, featuring:  $5 OFF the catalog of The Lord of the Rings (and Hobbit!) shirts, $5 OFF LOTR iPhone cases, 20% OFF LOTR keepsake boxes, 10% OFF LOTR jewelry, 50% OFF Blu-Ray, and 20% off canvas prints. Yup – sounds like a great time to build your LOTR collection. These specials are only available for a limited time, so we suggest checking out asap! [WBShop.com Dads and Grads Sale] [LOTR Shirts] [Official Hobbit Shirt]

Welcome to our collection of TORn’s hottest topics for the past YEAR.  We’ve collected some of 2011’s most popular posts on 10 of our Discussion Boards.  You’ll be surprised at what captured the attention and imagination of our posters.  Come have a look back at what has kept us busy as we patiently [?] wait for news of the filming of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. We actually did manage to talk about many fascinating things.  Just follow the links to some of our most popular discussions for 2011. 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!
Continue reading “TORn Message Boards Weekly Roundup – Special New Years Edition!!”

From digitalspy.ca: The final movie in the Harry Potter series has become the most pre-ordered film or TV product of all time on the UK arm of Amazon, beating the long-standing record of Mamma Mia!. Amazon said today that pre-orders for the DVD and Blu-ray release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 are more than double those achieved by Part 1. Continue reading “Boy Wizard Beats LOTR For Amazon Pre-Order Record”

Elijah Wood has good reason to praise 3D, seeing as his old pal Peter Jackson has taken the stereoscopic route in his The Hobbit films. On the publicity circuit for Happy Feet Two, we asked Wood what he’d make of the mooted 3D conversion for the Lord Of The Rings trilogy.

“I think it would be cool to see. There’s talk of releasing a dimensionalised trilogy eventually. I’m okay with doing post-process 3D, as long as someone takes the time.

He also had this to say about the oft-mentioned future release of the LOTR films to home audiences:

I think there will be a DVD edition in which there are deleted scenes. There are deleted scenes, I don’t know how many there are, it’s been a long time. A lot made it back into the cuts for those extended versions, but there are some scenes that never made it. There are also hours… there has to be at least a couple of hours of blooper reel stuff, because we were having a blast.

You can read the entire article at Den of Geek.

The group SF in SF presents a special charity fund-raiser screening tomorrow night (Aug. 25th) of the award-winning feature documentary RINGERS: LORD OF THE FANS. The evening will feature a discussion featuring the film’s director, editor and also legendary fantasy author Peter S. Beagle. Doors and cash bar open at 6:00PM, the event begins at 7:00PM. The screening and discussion will be held in the Variety Preview Room Theater in San Francisco.

Peter S. Beagle is no stranger to The Lord of the Rings. He penned both the screenplay for the Ralph Bakshi animated adaptation and the introduction to the infamous 1970’s Ballantine re-issue of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. Mr. Beagle is one of the many outstanding authors featured in RINGERS. A resident of Oakland, Beagle recently accepted the 2011 World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Continue reading “SF in SF to Screen Indie Documentary, Ringers: Lord of the Fans”