Hollywood movie studio accounts are famously opaque, but in New Zealand Warner Bros. is obliged to file detailed accounts of production spending on Peter Jackson’s films of The Hobbit.
Associated Press reports the latest filings reveal that, as of March this year, total production costs had reached 934 million New Zealand dollars — the equivalent of US $745 million. AP reports it is unclear whether the documents factor in worldwide marketing and distribution costs into this figure.
Continue reading “Hobbits films’ production costs head north of US $745 million”
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We finally know Billy Boyd (Pippin from The Lord of the Rings trilogy) will be performing the end credits song for the final film set in Peter Jackson’s cinematic Middle-earth. Warner Bros. have posted their ‘For Your Consideration’ list for “The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies” listing all the people and categories they want Hollywood to pay attention to come Awards Season. On that list for ‘Best Original Song’ is “The Last Goodbye” written by Billy Boyd, Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh, and performed by Billy Boyd. It now seems that the use of Pippin’s song “The Edge of Night” in the recently released teaser for the film was a bit of foreshadowing. That song, with the lyrics coming from the last stanza of Tolkien’s ‘A Walking Song’ and the melody written by Billy Boyd himself, demonstrates a great level of empathy on the part of Billy for the melancholic feeling at that point of “The Return of the King”. It seems almost too perfect that Billy should be called upon again to deliver what promises to be a very emotional and fitting ending to all things Middle-earth. And because it’s fun to speculate, you will notice 15 other categories listed ‘For Your Consideration’ on that list, many names familiar to us all. Who do you think might get a nomination this Awards Season?
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Over the last week, in conjunction with New York Comic-Con, we teamed up with our friends at Weta Workshop to give away a signed copy of their The Art of Film Magic: 20 Years of Weta. Through our Instagram account and Weta Workshop’s Instagram account we received a lot of great pictures that fans have sent to us of their favorite Middle-earth collectible made by Weta or their favorite Middle-earth moment.
We are very pleased to announce that the winner is Heather H. of Florida! Thank you to everyone who took the time to send us your wonderful entries and thank you to Weta Workshop for allowing us to give away such a fantastic item.
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Last weekend at New York Comic-Con fans got a look at three new items among the many that Weta Workshop brought with them. Two of the new items are from The Hobbit Trilogy, while the third is from The Lord of the Rings.
Joining his father Azog we can now look forward to adding Bolg to our collections. This massive statue comes in at 15″ tall with a base width of 11.22″ and has an arrival date during the first quarter of next year.
One prop I have been looking forward to being made after seeing The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, was the Black Arrow that we see Bard bring out of storage. This has become a reality with Weta having this on show at New York Comic-Con. Due out in the fourth quarter of this year this awesome looking prop comes in at an impressive 82.6″ long. Also due out during the fourth quarter of this year is Saruman the White’s staff. This joins the staffs of Gandalf the Grey and Radagast the Brown.
Continue reading “Collecting The Precious – Weta Workshop’s New York Comic-Con Reveals”
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New York Comic-Con starts tomorrow and we’ve teamed up with our friends at Weta Workshop to do a pretty awesome giveaway. The prize for this give away is Weta’s amazing The Art of Film Magic – 20 Years of Weta!
The winner’s copy of this amazing book (easily the coolest art book in my own collection) will come signed by Richard Taylor and several other of the super cool folks who work for Weta Workshop as well as Weta Digital.
Continue reading “Collecting The Precious – Enter our 20 Years of Weta Contest”
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New York ComicCon is almost upon us, and as you know, TheOneRing.net will be there, at booth 3040, at our panel Saturday at 9pm, and at our party with Weta Workshop on Thursday evening. (More details here – two more tickets just became available for the party, so snap ’em up before they’re gone!)
One of our generous sponsors for New York ComicCon is Houghton Mifflin Harcourt – publishers of Tolkien in the United States. They have given us some wonderful items for the party goody bags, as well as some lovely prizes for giveaways. One such item is a SNEAK PREVIEW – this beautiful ‘pocket boxed set’ of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings will not be available to buy until October 21st, but we have two sets to give away to some lucky folks at ComicCon!
Here’s what Houghton Mifflin Harcourt say about this new set:
‘This four-volume, deluxe pocket boxed set contains J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic masterworks The Hobbit and the three volumes of The Lord of the Rings (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King). Each book features a leatherette cover with stamped title and all four books are held in a leatherette bound box with gold foil stamping.’
The books are roughly 7 inches tall, and are therefore an ideal size to take with you whenever you want to have the Professor’s words to hand! If you aren’t lucky enough to win a set from us at New York ComicCon, you can order from HMH here. Our thanks to them for their continued support of TheOneRing.net!
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