As many of you know, we had an exclusive giveaway running over the weekend for Sideshow Collectibles (now sold out!) Gollum Premium Format Figure . We are proud to announce that the winner of this giveaway is:

Mike M from Tomball, TX

Mike will be contacted in the next few days to claim his prize. Thanks to all those who participated and if you didn’t place your order for Gollum yet, you can still get on the wait list.  [Gollum Figure] (BTW – If you enjoyed this giveaway, please let us know by leaving a comment below)

Congrats to Ringer Mike M from Tomball, TX!

This contest is now over – thanks to all those who participated!

To celebrate their Spooktacular event, Sideshow Collectibles has kindly offered fans of TheOneRing.net a chance to win the Gollum Premium Format Figure! Priced at $299, this figure (just announced on Tuesday and shipping 2nd Qtr 2011) features a swappable torso, so you can display either Smeagol or Gollum. And in case you want to display them both at the same time, they are including a separate base to accommodate. Since this giveaway is exclusive to TheOneRing.net, you’ll need to follow these directions to participate. Go to SideshowCollectibles.com and visit the Spooktacular Contests area. [right here] Click on the ‘Gollum Giveaway’ link near the bottom. Enter your details into the form and use the word ‘HobbitNZ‘ when prompted for the contest word. And that is it! One winner will be chosen at random on Saturday at 4pm ET, and we will post the winning name as an update to this story. You must be 18 years or older to win. Good Luck! [Gollum Figure]

Doug Adams, author of the recently released book “The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films”, has written up an article over at his site on why New Zealand matters for The Hobbit. Doug has worked closely with Howard Shore for the better part of a decade and he has had great insight into the production for the music of the Lord of the Rings movies. So besides enumerating the enormous difficulties the production would have faced were it to move off-shore, Doug writes this article through a “music-specific lens” and details the impact the move would have had on the music for The Hobbit movies.

Here’s a snippet from the article:

That impact would have been felt most painfully during the post-production. Post, as you all know, is where the lion’s share of the music is created. Yes, Shore has already begun his creative process, but nothing other that pre-recorded songs an diagetic music can be recorded and mixed until the film is shot, edited, and locked. Performers and rooms need to be booked for specific schedules … as do technicians, editors, producers, and so on and so forth. It’s a small army, and it needs time and care.

My greatest fear — viewed through a music-specific lens, that is — was that the production would be rearranged in such a manner that there would be very little time for the music to be created appropriately.

Happily, with New Zealand now set and a February kick-off locked, it looks like none of these concerns will materialize. With a December 2012 release for part one, Shore and company should, presumably, be able to earnestly start into the post-production in late summer of 2012 … essentially the same schedule that was in place for the LOTR pictures. And those came out pretty well, I think! 🙂

Read the entire article over at Doug’s site. Many thanks to message board member Magpie for pointing us to this article.

Jabes writes: The crews and local businesses have come together to pay for this full page add in the Dominion Post today.