HobbitAUJOSTWe are happy to finally announce that the 5 lucky winners of TORn & WaterTower Music’s “Hobbit Day” mathom are Iván, TammyConnor, Reagan V & Meaghan M.

You can expect an email from our friends at WaterTower Music with the code to download your very own digital copy of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey soundtrack. Congratulations and we hope Howard Shore’s wondrous music brings you many enjoyable moments.

Many thanks also to the few hundred fans who entered this giveaway. If you don’t already have the soundtrack, consider purchasing the Standard Edition from iTunes or Amazon, or better yet, the Special Edition from iTunes or Amazon.

Andy Serkis Mo-CapWhat a busy man Andy Serkis is!  His new film studio, The Imaginarium, specializes in Performance Capture Technology, and they have all kinds of projects on the go.  Recently, Serkis and his team at The Imaginarium bought the film rights to a new book called The Bone Season.  On Monday, TheOneRing.net will be bringing you an exclusive interview with Serkis, where he tells us more about this book, his interest in bringing it to the big screen, what else he’s working on, and how Gollum remains a part of his life.  He’ll even have something to say on the question of whether or not we might get another glimpse of our favourite performance capture character, before The Hobbit movies are over…

TORn staffer greendragon (’tis I!) had the good fortune to read a preview copy of The Bone Season this summer.  It’s a real page turner.  Author Samantha Shannon has created a detailed, complex world, which offers enough depth and richness that there will be plenty to explore in future books; this first novel is the beginning of a planned series.  Even the minor flaws I found in the writing style didn’t stop it being impossible for me to put the book down – if the secret of a good story is keeping you wanting to know what happens next, then Shannon has certainly cracked that!  Set on earth – but an earth of the future, run by a race quite different from humans – The Bone Season is a tale of action, fantasy, suspense, intrigue and yes, even romance.  If you’re looking for the next series in which to lose yourself, this is definitely one to try; I suspect it will be the next big literary hit.

You can order a copy of The Bone Season by clicking here.  Don’t forget to check back at TORn on Monday 30th, for our exclusive Q&A with Andy Serkis!

[The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon is out now! To order your copy click here]

Official Facebook  www.facebook.com/TheBoneSeason  Official Twitter – @TheBoneSeason

CakeTORn’s LA staffers hosted their 11th annual Baggins Birthday Bash today in Griffith Park. We’ve always held it here, but have been a couple different positions over the years. Today, we moved over to the Mineral Wells area, past the Harding Golf Course, and it finally afforded us some much needed room, since the party has been expanding the past couple of years. There must have been close to 150 folks eating, drinking and having a Tolkien Good Time.

The design motif this year was definitely Dragons and Spiders, we had spiders all over the cake and cupcakes, they were on every table, in the trees and all over the food tent. But there were also dragons, also on the tables and in the trees, but it was Smaug sitting on his pile of gold that got the most attention. You may not be able to notice it, but there are some jewels under his belly in this image, look closely and maybe you will see them. Nothing remains of Smaug, he was desolated when one child ate his head and another ate one of his wings. Someone else asked for a foot, no word on what happened to the tail. There was plenty of Dragon Gold to go around as well, thanks to Wonderland Bakery and their amazing cake designers.

shirt winners

Bag winner

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many games were played, including everyone’s favorite Hobbit game, Golfimbul. Prizes of Hats, Bags and Shirts were given out to winners of Golfimbul, both in the Adult and Youth divisions. There was also a very interactive Trivia game contest, two rounds, to determine who knew their Hobbit material best. There are only a few images here, check out the facebook page to find the Baggins Birthday Bash photo album to see the rest. In the crowd, you will notice many Hobbits, Elves, Dwarf women and Gandalf, among other Middle-earth notables.

Yes, we will be hosting this party again next year, so if you find yourself in Los Angeles the weekend of Sept. 20/21, look for the Party Sign and party like a Hobbit, or Dwarf, or Elf, or even a Wizard or two.

Food tent Hat winner

hobbitereboralrg2One of my favorite moments from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was seeing Erebor finally come to life. The whole thing just simply blew me away but the detail and how cool the front gate look, really took my breath away. I’ve been awaiting some kind of collectible to come around and the first one landed this week from our friends at Weta Workshop. Created by artist Nick Keller fans can add The Front Gate of Erebor Art print showing the design of what we would later see in the movie. This print comes in at $50 and is available to ship right now. Don’t hesitate to add this great collectible to your collection!

 

HobbitAUJOST

As we celebrate September 22 and the birthdays of two of our favourite hobbits, Bilbo and Frodo Baggins, we are joining with our friends over at WaterTower Music to give away some special little mathoms – 5 digital copies of Howard Shore’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Original Soundtrack.

All you have to do is email earl@theonering.net with the subject “Hobbit Day” before midnight EST on September 22.

Film Unit sound stages Oct 2003

Welcome back to another in my occasional series about how I did the research for my book, The Frodo Franchise: The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood. (Click here to read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.)

By the time I got to Wellington for my first research trip, in late September of 2003, principal photography was over. I didn’t expect that I would get to to on set and see Peter at work. In fact, Peter was in London supervising the editing and musical scoring for the first week and a half of my four-week visit. As I described in the second part of this series, I did get a delightful tour of the Stone Street Studios on my first day of active research. At that point, pickups of some orcs, destined to be inserted via CGI into battle scenes, were being shot against a big green-screen as they fired bows (the arrows to be added via computer). One of the cinematography crew members was directing this action. I was briefly in the studio again later and saw a little more filming of orc pickups. Those were my only on-set experiences.

Continue reading “Researching THE FRODO FRANCHISE: Part 5, Watching Peter Jackson Direct”