This weeks guests on TheOneRing.net Radio Show are WETAs Richard Taylor and LOTR/King Kong DVD producer Michael Pellerin!

Click on over to BlogTalkRadio to hear Richard talk about the LOTR Blu0ray DVD, and to chat live with Michael! The show airs May 16th at 2pm Eastern. Click here for more info!

Richard Taylor, ONZM, is the creator and head of New Zealand film prop and special effects company Weta Workshop. A close friend of Peter Jackson, he and his company created all of the props, costumes, prosthetics, miniatures and weaponry for Jackson’s epic The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. For his work on the three films, he shared in winning four Academy Awards. This included two for The Fellowship of the Ring in Make Up and Visual Effects, and two for The Return of the King in Costume Design and Make Up.

Michael Pellerin, founder and CEO of Pellerin Multimedia, Inc. (PMI), is an award-winning DVD producer and filmmaker. He and his PMI team have produced more than 100 hours of behind-the-scenes documentaries for DVDs and earned numerous honors, including The DVD Academy’s “Best Disc of the Year” three years in a row for the Collector’s Editions of The Lord of the Rings, produced for New Line Cinema.

For the past five years, PMI, a Los Angeles- and New Zealand-based company, has worked with Academy Award-winning director Peter Jackson on all of his films, producing all the behind-the-scenes material for The Rings trilogy and, most recently, Universal’s King Kong.

Peter Jackson has hinted in the media for years and told us at TheOneRing’s own Oscar Party (not in that linked video) that he always planned to deliver a high definition ultimate edition of the LOTR trilogy.

Blu-ray sales for the LOTR trilogy were / are strong, taking the #1 position on the sales chart its first week, moving over 124,00 units despite its hefty price. But did it sell well enough? Can fans look forward to that Ultimate version to rule them all jam packed with new extras and the Extended Editions we have been waiting years for?

Nobody knows and Warner Bros. hasn’t revealed its plans, but the media is starting to pay attention to the possibilities. EE DVD architect Michael Pellerin is in-the-know (look for him soon with our very own Xoanon on TORn’s blogtalkradio) and spoke recently with Hollywoodnews.com.

In some of the highlights from the interview he said: (emphasis mine) ” . . . Thinking ahead, from the very beginning, we always saved the best for last. Now, people wouldn’t believe that because the Lord of the Rings extras were so extensive. . . . It’s very real, but right now the future of when these treasures will see the light of day is unknown. Continue reading “More hints about an ‘Ultimate’ hi-def LOTR box set that may never happen”

Margaret Davis from Flowinglass Music writes: Flowinglass Music is pleased to report that after seven years of negotiations with the Tolkien Estate, we have received permission to reprint The Starlit Jewel CD and Songbook. The Starlit Jewel contains 13 songs from THE LORD OF THE RINGS and THE HOBBIT, set to music by fantasy author Marion Zimmer Bradley (author of THE MISTS OF AVALON), Kristoph Klover, and Margaret Davis. Music is performed by Celtic/Medieval group Broceliande. This edition is one of the very few to be officially sanctioned by the Tolkien Estate, and has once again been limited to 2000 CDs. To hear samples and for more information, visit http://www.flowinglass.com/sjewel.html

Thanks to Ringers Rory and Kelgalad for the heads up on this:

“Tonight’s episode of ‘The Marriage Ref’ will include a couple who are arguing over the husband’s Lord of the Rings collection. Should be funny, even if you’re not a fan of the show. NBC, 10 EST”

Check out the official website for more details and your local listings! [NBC]

Our pal Michael Pellerin sends this in: The Digital Bits just posted a new article with me about the Theatrical LOTR BDs. This one is far more detailed than the interview I did before for HollywoodNews. I was able to go into more details about the potential future Box Set and what we have planned for it. More..

Keep an eye out for Michael to join us on TheOneRing.net Radio Show next month!

Michael Pellerin has long been a much admired figure for his work on the standard-setting “Lord of the Rings” Extended Edition DVDs and his contributions to our sister site “KongIsKing.net” where you can still see the final goodbye from the production diaries. He is a key figure in what the world knows about the whole LOTR production. With the release of the movie trilogy on Blu-ray, Pellerin has turned in a written account that covers a lot of ground that only he is in a position to explain. It is a great read, full of interesting information:
Such as:

“Peter (Jackson) and I began talking about LOTR on HD as far back as 2001 – during the making of the films. As we knew the film would eventually be released in some yet-to-be-determined HD format, we began planning The Lord of the Rings HD Box Set from the very beginning, nearly a decade ago.”

And this bit about the ultimate box set which does not yet exist:

“We had made a very conscious decision to make everything on the original Appendices Supplemental discs very specifically about the technical process of making the three films, as told by the many, many voices of the people who made them. Therefore, anything that was not specific to that goal, or approach, we saved for the Box Set.”

His own words can be read right here, so enjoy and thanks to message board members Patty and Oscarilbo for finding the interview.