We’re delighted to share an exclusive interview from fellow Tolkien fanatic Eirik Bull – a journalist from Norway. He recently sat down with our friend, Weta Workshop’s own Daniel Falconer.
In Eirik’s interview with Daniel they cover a lot of topics, looking at Daniel’s history in working in Tolkien’s amazing world, as seen in Sir Peter Jackson’s brilliant adaptations over 20 years ago. Eirik and our friends at Weta asked us to share this interview – and you can look forward to another interview coming soon, with Sir Richard Taylor. We all hope you enjoy this amazing look at Daniel Falconer’s journey in Middle-earth.
Private Division and Weta Workshop have today shared a trailer for their upcoming sim game, Tales of the Shire: A Lord of the Rings Game. It’s a bucolically blissful as you might expect; see for yourself:
Coming in the second half of 2024, Tales of the Shire will be available for Nintendo Switch™ system, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam. Here’s what the official press release tell us:
Welcome Home, Hobbit! Private Division and Wētā Workshop Announce Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of the Rings Game
Upcoming cosy The Lord of the Rings game set in the Middle-earth universe inspired by the books of J.R.R. Tolkien arrives later this year
New York, NY – April 22, 2024 – Private Division, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO), and Wētā Workshop, known for their work on the world of Middle-earth for The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, today revealed Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of the Rings Game, a cosy Hobbit life sim set in the Middle-earth universe of J.R.R. Tolkien. Developed by Wētā Workshop Game Studio, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Wētā Workshop, Tales of the Shire will launch in the second half of 2024 on the Nintendo Switch™ system, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam.
In Tales of the Shire, experience the storybook return to Middle-earth’s most inviting region by living life as a Hobbit in the idyllic town of Bywater. Unwind in the breathtaking pastures, visit the townsfolks’ local shops, or even enjoy second breakfast. Help bring the community together and achieve official village status by throwing the greatest Bywater Festival the Shire has ever seen!
“We’re excited to provide players with the opportunity to fulfil their fantasy of living their own humble Hobbit life in the Shire,” said Kelly Tyson, Head of Product at Wētā Workshop. “Tales of the Shire brings a cosy new dimension to the way fans can experience Middle-earth, with plenty of wholesome, Hobbit- centric gameplay to win-over newcomers to the genre.”
Create and personalise a Hobbit with an array of customisations to experience the world of J.R.R. Tolkien’s beloved Middle-earth universe your own way. Settle in and decorate a cosy Hobbit home, choosing from an array of furniture and home décor to create your unique, humble abode. Then head outdoors to Bywater for plenty of cooking, fishing, foraging, gardening, and more relaxing activities in the Shire. Toss your lure to catch trout from the glistening waters of Bywater Pool, gather wild mushrooms, and then use the collected ingredients to bake a succulent pie to serve for luncheon. With a full belly, stroll back outside to explore the Shire and build relationships with the Bywater locals by helping them to build a garden, sharing one of the many daily Hobbit meals, and more.
“The team at Wētā Workshop is creating a brilliant representation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s beloved works that gives players the agency to create their own Hobbit experience in Middle-earth,” said Michael Worosz, Chief Strategy Officer, Take-Two Interactive, and Head of Private Division. “Players have been clamoring for a warm and inviting The Lord of the Rings game for years now, and it’s exactly what we’re delivering with Tales of the Shire.”
It’s no surprise that a video game in which Weta Workshop have had a hand should be stunning to look at; here are some screenshots from the game:
Become a Hobbit, decorate your Hobbit hole, and then explore the Shire to your heart’s content; what could be better? Tales of the Shire: A Lord of the Rings Game can’t come soon enough!
In an unexpected journey that rivals Bilbo’s own, TheOneRing.net is thrilled to announce the launch of its very own food truck, bringing the flavors of Middle-earth to the world – well, a portion of the world! Aptly named ‘Middle-earth on Wheels’, the plan is for the food truck to visit conventions and geeky gatherings across America, serving a delectable array of Tolkien-themed treats. Our truck will first appear at NYCC 2024.
The Menu
Inspired by the diverse experiences and tastes of our staff, the menu will vary, with various themes planned, including the seasons in the Shire, spicy dishes of Mordor, and the sumptuous feasts of Rivendell, offering an Elvish twist on classic flavors. The menu to appear at NYCC will include a chicken dish “Amon Hen”; “Salmon Frodo“; “Isengard Unquiched,” “One-ion Rings” (Of course!); and a variety of artisanal bread, so fans can ‘share the loaf.’
Barad-dûr croquemboucheArtisanal BreadsAmon HenSalmon FrodoIsengard UnquichedOne-ion Ring
Our very own Happy Hobbits, known for their culinary magic making (Check out their YouTube!), will bake fresh bread for each appearance.
But that’s not all – in a revelation as surprising as Gandalf’s fireworks, we can reveal that TORn co-founder Xoanon is not only a master of Middle-earth lore but also a pastry chef extraordinaire, holding the world record for the tallest croquembouche, eerily resembling Barad-dûr, complete with the Lidless Eye, and almost mirroring the height of Weta’s Minas Tirith bigature.
Special Menus and Events
But what of Second Breakfast, you ask? On select days, Middle-earth on Wheels will honor every crucial Hobbit mealtime—Breakfast, Second Breakfast, Elevenses, Luncheon, Afternoon Tea, Dinner, and Supper—throughout all-day festivals and events. Whether you crave the sweet simplicity of Seedcake for Second Breakfast or the hearty richness of a Minas Tirith Meat Pie for Supper, TORn will have you covered. Dates for these special events will be announced at a later time.
On Tuesdays when Middle-earth on Wheels is on the move, don’t miss Tolkien Taco Tuesday—every purchase of a taco gets you another one on the house!
Why a Food Truck?
Why this culinary quest, you ask? It’s all in an effort to combat the ever-mounting Google Business Apps bill! Yup, they raised their prices…again! As a not-for-profit site powered by volunteer staff, TheOneRing.net relies on the generosity of its community and, perhaps now, the proceeds from its gastronomic ventures.
Don’t miss this chance to feast like a Dwarf, snack like a Hobbit, and dine with the elegance of the Elves. The Middle-earth on Wheels food truck is coming to a location near you. Follow the journey on TheOneRing.net and our social media channels.
Because in the world of Tolkien, even the smallest meal can change the world.
VICE News has published a feature-length documentary on Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings movies, including new interviews with cast and crew of the epic film series. Rare new interviews with LOTR Executive Producer Barrie Osborne, Peter “Swords” King, the Tolkien Professor Corey Olsen, Variety’s Tim Gray, and fan favorite actors like Jed Brophy, all tell the story of the history of Rings adaptations from Bakshi to Jackson.
Watch the full documentary here:
VICE has earned a reputation for unblemished deep dives in interesting cultural moments such as the series Dark Side of the Ring about professional wrestling. The parent company VICE Media has been in the news lately shutting down its operations, and the quality of this documentary implies this was originally meant for the VICE channel on cable TV. Possibly because of changes in the marketplace, fans can also access to the full doc for free on YouTube.
Shout out to staffer Thorongil for first spotting this doc, and our friend Varking for sharing the viewing link. Be the first to know what’s going on in Tolkien by joining our Discord.
A couple of weeks ago saw those wonderful performances at Radio City Music Hall, of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, with live orchestral accompaniment. Various TORn staffers and friends were there; our friend Constance G. J. Wagner shares her thoughts about the event:
The Two Towers at Radio City Music Hall
February in New York can be wind-whipped and cold — much like the gusts one experiences when standing before the doors of Meduseld in Rohan. This is all an artsy way of describing the walk TO Radio City Music Hall In New York City on February 17th to immerse myself in the “score to screen” live music performance of Howard Shore’s powerful score for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. However, as cold as it was outside on the streets of Manhattan, the fellowship felt among the audience waiting for the performance to start created warmth and energy that crackled with electric anticipation. When conductor Ludwig Wicki came onstage to begin the show, the walls of Radio City vibrated with a fan-fueled roar of expectation and excitement. It would, they felt, be a night to remember.
Hearing the score played live, seeing a choir and soloists bring both intimate and epic musical moments to life in real time, is an experience not to be missed. It deepens the depiction of character and the emotional context of the saga as a whole, particularly since this is a shared experience with all of Middle-earth spread across a 60-foot screen.
The audience cheered the arrival of each hero’s first appearance on the screen, but also gave rousing applause to soloist Kaitlyn Lusk, who dazzled with lyric, numinous vocals and a glittering golden gown to match. Equally impressive was the boy soprano soloist who captured the intensity of the battle cry of the Rohirrim with soaring, impossible notes.
At night’s end, cheers and more cheers for the soloists, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, the adult choir — MasterVoices, and the conductor rolled through the audience like a great wave with a standing ovation that lasted several minutes.
The experience was immersive and impressive and amazing – particularly for those fans whose viewing of the film may have only been on small screens. For this part of Tolkien’s tale to be presented as literally larger than life with sound to rock the soul … well, it is something for the ages.
Finally, the audience left the theatre filled with anticipation for another round in another year when Return of the King comes to the screen with its own sights, and sounds … and wonder. And so to all the musicians who brought Howard Shore’s score to an audience in such brilliant fashion, one can only offer thanks and say: Elen síla lúmenn’ omentielvo — A star shines on the hour of our meeting.
The Return of the King in 2025?
The Return of the King is the one movie of the trilogy which was not part of the original performances with orchestra at Radio City Music Hall; so, we’re very much hoping we’ll see that movie presented in 2025! Of course, we’ll let you know as soon as we hear!
New Line Cinema and Adult Swim’s upcoming anime film spinoff to The Lord of the Rings, titled The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, is still shrouded in mystery even after an industry-only preview last summer. The all-star production, starring Miranda Otto and Brian Cox, is led by Oscar winning LOTR Executive Producer Philippa Boyens and the highly respected production team behind Blade Runner: Black Lotus and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.
The initial announcement in 2021 listed the Emmy winning writing team behind Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews, who spent a year exploring the story. Since then the script has gone through normal retooling, eventually landing a new credited screenwriting duo: Phoebe Gittins and Arty Papageorgiou.
Billed as the next generation of writers by EP Boyens, childhood friends Phoebe and Arty initially were brought in to write background dialog for the movie. Through the creative process, it became apparent that their youthful perspective – raised on the exploding growth of anime — helped the film’s collaboration with the Japanese director Kenji Kamiyama and animation studio Sola Entertainment. Plus, who better to tell the story of Héra [Editor’s note: the name’s not taken from the Greek, but from the Anglo-saxon] than someone closer in age?
In a brand-new interview with Nerd of the Rings, writers Phoebe Gittins and Arty Papageorgiou join excecutive producer Philippa Boyens for an in-depth conversation on bringing the history of Rohirrim and Rohan’s shieldmaidens to the big screen. Enjoy this exclusive preview of the conversation, edited for format and clarity, which will be posted in full tomorrow.
Delivering the characters where Kamiyama needs them to be
Q: Tell us a bit about Helm Hammerhand (namesake of Helm’s Deep from The Two Towers)
Phoebe: I find one of the most redeeming qualities of Helm in the film is his love for his children. Sounds a little cheesy but some of my favorite parts of the storytelling is the relationship between Helm and Héra (his daughter and main protagonist of the film). There’s a lot of tension and a lot of conflict there, but you know at the heart there is this deep father-daughter bond. Those moments were really special, writing and working on those. That’s one of my favorite things about Helm: this love for his children. It’s so nice.
How do we as writers deliver the characters to a place that Director Kamiyama want them to be at the end of the film? That was a really fun journey to try and take on, and figure out how to do that.
Q: Did you guys revisit the films before embarking on this?
Phoebe: Didn’t really need to. I grew up with them!
Arty: I grew up around the corner from Weta Workshop. But also growing up in Wellington at that time it was infectious. It was impossible not to be captivated by this huge film being shot in the hills behind you. At night you go to bed and you look up to the hills behind with film lights. Might be normal in other places, but it certainly wasn’t normal in Wellington. It really was just like the coolest thing! My friends and I still watch the movies every Christmas, so it wasn’t a matter of trying to fall back into the world of the cinematic Middle-earth. Here was a really amazing opportunity to try and think about animation and Anime, and how that could bring a fresh look not only visually but also thematically.
Philippa: I remember the hesitation. I thought you guys would turn us down (to write on Rohirrim)!
Arty: The deep respect for what had already been done! It’s stressful because what’s going on here? It’s just what comes with it. There’s these podcasts and bloggers and YouTube channels (looks at Nerd of the Rings) who are going to judge and fly out to your country to meet up with you while you’re trying to finish the film to make sure you’re doing a good job. So that was came with a lot of a lot a lot of trepidation!
Phoebe: For us, we didn’t see foresee that being a problem because so many of the same players are making this film. You have Philippa producing, but you also have the same sound teams. You have Mike Hedges (LOTR). You’ve got Steven Gallagher composing (The Hobbit). You’ve got John Howe, Alan Lee, Richard Taylor. For us, that opened up space to be like, how do we make this blend with the world of anime. It was actually more about coming from that direction. We knew the film was in pretty sick hands!
Q: Well you guys grew up on anime too.
Arty: We grew up not just on anime but Japanese cinema in general. That wasn’t the brief (for Rohirrim) but I was such a fan of different Japanese genre films and directors. It just seemed like, this is such a cool opportunity to draw on a whole bunch of other influences in adapting this material. It ended up going from this is really scary, to wowthis is so exciting. Then what sold us completely was seeing some concept art and it was like, oh hell yeah.
It also helped that we happen to be in Covid lockdown in Queenstown, and we’re walking daily by different LOTR film locations. So that probably helped a lot as well to get in the zone.
Phoebe: Yeah we were in the zone!
Q: Did you have any moments like that where you a saw an interesting connection to what has come before?
Arty: What is interesting is re-reading the books. You sort of pick up on different things and like, oh wow, it really is informed by some of these things which took place in the books. Whether at the time we were totally aware of it or not, you know it was just ingrained in us. That’s been interesting.
The full interview with Boyens, Gittins and Papageorgiou
Like what you’re hearing from the writers of the new LOTR film? This spur-of-the-moment opportunity for Matt (Nerd of the Rings) to chat with them during his filming schedule at Weta Workshop was a real treat one the first time these new writers have ever done an interview. The full conversation is 90 minutes on his YouTube channel. Join TORn’s daily active chat about Rohirrim on Discord.
Big thanks to Matt at Nerd of the Rings for sharing his exclusive interview for The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim. Watch the entire conversation on YouTube, and join us on TORn Tuesday as Matt talks about landing the interview and other fun facts he learned. War of the Rohirrim releases in December 2024 in theaters worldwide.
TORn’s complete The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim coverage
