Darren writes: Here’s a link to a BBC programme about British novelists. There is a section dedicated to Tolkien that starts around the 02.40 minutes mark. More..
Category: Tolkien
We just ran across this video this morning and thought we’d share! Musician Colin Rudd released ‘Songs of J.R.R. Tolkien’ back in 2001, and included on that release is a pretty impressive rendition of the ‘Lament for Boromir.’ We’re embedding the video below for your viewing pleasure. You can also click on the link to view all of Colin’s Tolkien related videos. [YouTube]
File this under the unusual news of the day (via Monkeyday.org)…
New babies are showing up regularly at the Philadelphia Zoo this year. The latest is the aye-aye, born July 14, joining other recent giraffe and orangutan births.
The aye-aye boy, born to mom Medusa and dad Tolkien, was named Smeagol after his resemblance to the Lord of the Rings character, according to a release by the zoo.
Smeagol already has started to leave the nest box to explore his exhibit at the Zoo’s Peco Primate Reserve.
Check out all the pics at MonkeyDay.org.
Got a spare 27 minutes in your day today? If so, take some time to watch this BBC 2 John Izzard interview of Professor J.R.R. Tolkien. Here’s the official synopsis of the March 30th 1968 broadcast:
John Izzard meets with JRR Tolkien at his home, walking with him through the Oxford locations that he loves while hearing the author’s own views about his wildly successful high-fantasy novels. Tolkien shares his love of nature and beer and his admiration for ‘trenchermen’ in this genial and affectionate programme. The brief interviews with Oxford students that are dotted throughout reveal the full range of opinions elicited by ‘The Lord of the Rings’, from wild enthusiasm to mild contempt.
Jump on over to the BBC to view the video. [Video]
From the Birmingham Mail:
The great nephew of legendary Birmingham author JRR Tolkien is sculpting a statue of Cardinal Newman which will be specially placed in Cofton Park for the Papal visit.
Award-winning sculptor and Catholic Tim Tolkien has started work on the life-size statue of the Cardinal which will be fabricated in steel and sprayed with bronze.
Read the full story at the Birmingham Mail website. [Read More]
The L.A. Times blog recently did a big story on Gary Kurtz who was a guiding hand in the Star Wars galaxy until he left after “The Empire Strikes Back.” He talks a lot about those films and his split from George Lucas over creative differences but he drops a little nugget about what Weta will be up to as well. It says,
He’s now working on a ramping feature-film project called “Panzer 88” that he says will begin filming later this year and will feature visual effects by Weta, the same New Zealand outfit that populated Middle-earth in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.
It isn’t thought that this should have any effect on the pair of movies based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit,” but people in New Zealand are certainly staying busy. Read the whole story here.