BROOKLYN HEIGHTS — Music of Middle-earth will soon be brought to life by 300 musicians, singers and choruses in an October concert at Radio City Music Hall. In preparation for the concert, Howard Shore, an Oscar, Grammy and Golden Globe winner, rehearsed his The Lord of the Rings score with the Grammy Award-winning Brooklyn Youth Chorus (BYC) at their studios in Brooklyn Heights last week. BYC’s members are between the ages of 10 and 15. More..

There’s a fair bit of news over at the Noldor Blog, including booksignings at the Weta Cave by Alan Lee and Ian Brodie as well as a new kids’ book with Richard Taylor and possibly Dr Grordbort himself, Greg Broadmore. There’s news about the Capitol Court Cinema co-owned by PJ, Richard Taylor and PJ’s editor Jamie Selkirk. Apparently it’s being fixed up -hope their sense of fantasy runs wild with it! (Read More) The Chocolate Fish cafe beloved by LOTR cast and crew is opening in a new beachside location not far from the original. And finally Jack asks who’ll join him in celebrating the 10th anniversary of first day of LOTR filming?

The Paley Center for Media Presents in association with New York Comic Con: Shore on the Score: The Music of Lord of the Rings: Thursday, October 1, 2009, at 6:30 pm. In anticipation of composer Howard Shore’s live performances of the full score of The Fellowship of the Ring at Radio City Music Hall on October 9 and 10, Shore will stop by the Paley Center to share his insights into his craft, and the creative challenges posed by the Lord of the Rings. In Person: Kurt Loder, moderator; Doug Adams , author, The Music of the Lord of the Ring Films; Billy Boyd, Peregrin “Pippin” Took; and Howard Shore, composer/conductor, The Lord of the Rings films. Tickets are available at paleycenter.org. $20 for General Public/$15 for Paley Center Members. Continue reading “Shore on the Score: The Music of Lord of the Rings”

MGM LogoMGM’s financial woes continue to worsen according to Nikki Finke over at Deadline Hollywood. MGM had a conference call yesterday with its bond holders for the benefit of the lenders: “MGM made a desperate plea for money because the studio had missed its numbers and was going to be out of funds very soon. “The implication was that it’s teetering on bankruptcy,” one source told me. MGM said it needed $20M in short-term cash flow to cover overhead, and an additional $150 million to get through the end of year and continue funding its projects, and to start Peter Jackson’s Hobbit.” Read More

mckellen_pengilley_104842aFrom Joe Utichi at rottentomatoes.com: Sir Ian McKellen is spending the week at the San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain, where he was last night presented with a special Donostia Award in recognition of his career as an actor. RT was in town to catch the presentation, and earlier in the day we sat down with McKellen to discuss the award and his work. Of course, as Guillermo del Toro readies to direct The Hobbit, which will see McKellen pull on the cloak and hat of Gandalf the wizard for the first time in seven years, we couldn’t help but look to the future and find out how things were going with the project. In fact it was McKellen who raised the wizard’s name before we asked, rather controversially declaring to RT, “I don’t want to play Gandalf again.” But before a million Rings fans cry out in terror at the thought of another thesp stepping into the role, McKellen was actually discussing the risk of typecasting the wake of a big success. “If you play a part that gets an awful lot of attention,” he explained, “forever after you’re being asked by directors to play the same part in their movie. But I played the best wizard, and I’m happy to revisit him, which I shall do in The Hobbit with Guillermo del Toro.” More..