Happy birthday this week to John Howe and Richard Armitage! Continue reading “Birthdays of the week: John Howe, Alan Lee and Richard Armitage!”
Category: Crew News
All news about the LOTR Crew.
The World Soundtrack Academy has nominated Howard Shore’s “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” soundtrack in the category “Best Original Film Score of the Year.” The Academy is dedicated to the art of film scoring and the preservation of its history. Shore’s work is one of five in the category.
The rest are:
Anna Karenina by Dario Marianelli
Life of Pi by Mychael Danna
The Master by Jonny Greenwood
Skyfall by Thomas Newman
With an awards show in Belgium, there are also categories for “Film Composer of the Year,” and “Best Original Song Written Directly For a Film.” You can see the full list of nominees and learn more about the organization right here. Tickets are available on the site as well.

TORn staffer Justin caught up with Weta conceptual designer Paul Tobin at the San Diego Comic-Con last month and scored this long, informative chat about the intense effort that went into the design of the dwarves of the Company, and about John Howe’s immense artistic talent.
As well as working on Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit Trilogy, Tobin has worked on James Cameron’s Avatar (2009) and Andrew Adamson’s The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005), Prince Caspian (2008). Continue reading “Weta’s Paul Tobin on dwarf design and the sublime skill of John Howe”
The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra has cancelled a tour of main centres, so that it can record music for the second Hobbit movie.
The orchestra, via its website, has apologised to those who bought tickets to the Heights of Passion tour that was scheduled to start in Wellington on September 20. Continue reading “Hobbit takes precedence over tour for orchestra”

Fact is that, while noting that people often tend to automatically respond negatively to change then rapidly adapt, the reader response has been largely unfavourable. Overall, people don’t seem to like Beorn.
It’s a reaction seemingly propelled by the crazy mane of hair that sweeps over Beorn’s head like a mohawk, and stretches down his back like a long, rangy mullet.
It’s prompted a wide-ranging variety of negative comparisons to Sonic the Hedgehog, Blanka, Joe Dirt, ’80s hair metal bands, David Bowie in Labyrinth and Beast from Beauty and the Beast. Continue reading “Peter Jackson’s Beorn not yet convincing fans”
TheOneRing.net with Galatia Films offer this exclusive interview with the always phenomenal Richard Taylor, Daniel Falconer and Peter Lyon of Weta Workshop. If you watch the video you will learn about Weta’s first meeting with Peter Lyon and how “The Lord or the Rings,” behind-the-scenes videos were created, developed and even changed people’s lives. The original interview was done for Galatia’s Live Reclaiming the Blade Day. Check out its Kickstarter page for more details and the full interview. Tomorrow we will release another interview from the live broadcast, this with one of the stars from “The Lord of the Rings” film. Tune in tomorrow to find out which one! You can also support the Kickstarter campaign for a new film that will feature “The Hobbit” swords and Narnia actors Ben Barnes (Prince Caspian) and William Moseley (Chronicles of Narnia).
Weta Workshop has produced well over fifteen thousand museum quality weapons for projects within the creative industries of film, gaming and replica collectibles, including Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, “King Kong,” Peter Weir’s “Master and Commander,” Edward Zwick’s “The Last Samurai,” Andrew Adamson’s “Chronicles of Narnia,” Guillermo del Toro’s “Hellboy,” Stephen Spielberg’s “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” the Microsoft Halo 3 short films and, more recently, James Cameron’s “Avatar” and Neill Blomkamp’s “District 9.”