From BBC: Director Guillermo del Toro has announced plans to write a trilogy of vampire novels with crime author Chuck Hogan. The 43-year-old, best known for making Pans Labyrinth, Hellboy and The Devil’s Backbone, said the trilogy would advance in “unexpected ways”. The first book, The Strain, will be released next summer. Earlier this month it was reported that del Toro had signed a four-picture deal with film studio Universal. Del Toro to release book trilogy

Xoanon here: Just a little note about these books. THE STRAIN, the novel to be published is already written. The book was finished a while ago, before del Toro even began work on HELLBOY II. He will not be writing it during THE HOBBIT. It is safe to say what happens in NZ will mostly be Hobbity related!

Fictional FrontiersTheOneRing.net will be providing a segment on this Sunday’s broadcast of ‘Fictional Frontiers with Sohaib,’ on WNJC 1360 AM, Philadelphia at 11AM ET. This week, Sohaib will be speaking with Xoanon about the latest news and rumors concerning ‘The Hobbit’ movies. Be sure to tune in for an interview with Howard Shore as well! As always, the show is broadcast live via the internet via the WNJC website. Hope you can join us! [Fictional Frontiers] [Netcast] Join us in chat while the show goes on! [Live Chat]

Word to us has come across the web in regards to the Alan Lee book tour we posted about a little while ago.

The *only* place to get early copies of TALES FROM THE PERILOUS REALM will be at Alan Lee’s bookstore events in October, as well as at Faeriecon — the very first place the book will appear in public. TALES FROM THE PERILOUS REALM will not be in wide release until November, so Alan’s events offer a very special opportunity for fans to be the first to get their hands on copies!

Click here for a full schedule of Alan’s tour

The Children of Hurin
The Children of Hurin
The folks from Houghton Mifflin write: I saw your recent posting about Alan Lee attending FaerieCon in Philadelphia, and I wanted to spread the word that Alan will be visiting a few other U.S. cities to promote THE CHILDREN OF HURIN paperback (national release date: October 14) and the brand-new TALES FROM THE PERILOUS REALM, immediately following his FaerieCon appearance!

As TORn readers know, THE CHILDREN OF HURIN is the first complete book by J.R.R. Tolkien since the 1977 publication of The Silmarillion. It was a #1 New York Times bestseller in hardcover, and the Associated Press called it “the book for which [Tolkien] readers have been longing.” The paperback edition of THE CHILDREN OF HURIN includes eight color paintings by Alan Lee and a two-color fold-out map. Continue reading “Alan Lee Book Tour Announced!”

Alex writes: I visited the Royal Armouries yesterday to see the “Arms and Armour from the Movies: The Wonderful World of Weta” exhibit and attended the fantastic lecture by the great Peter Lyon, Sword smith. Many people came along to hear his speech. He talked initially about his work on the Narnia films and how the process from concept drawings to the fully developed weapon was achieved. Continue reading “Peter Lyon Confirmed Work on The Hobbit!”

Doug Adams has just announced that the release of his book, “The Music of the LOTR Films”, will be tied in to ‘another major release’. The downside is they are no longer considering November, 2008 as a potential release date. The upside, however, is that the whole project will take on a larger scale. Doug writes:

Deluxe just got deluxe-er… again… heck, even standard got deluxe-er this time! Oh, and if you’re still not convinced, let it be noted that you’re also likely to get significantly more unused music in your hands this way. Yes, I said “significantly.”

The intriguing question that remains is, what is this other ‘major release’? Let the speculation begin.