Check out these two video clips from the local coverage of Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit casting news, featuring Evangeline Lilly as a Sylvan Elf ‘Tauriel’ and Barry Humphries as the ‘Goblin King’. [PJ Facebook] [TVOne] [Prime]
Category: J.R.R. Tolkien
Fans of PBS’s ‘Antiques Roadshow‘ will want to catch the upcoming El Paso episode, just filmed yesterday in the historic Texas City. From the El Paso Times:
A book by J.R.R. Tolkien and an Andy Warhol pop art collection were among the most expensive items appraised at Saturday’s PBS “Antiques Roadshow” at the Judson F. Williams Convention Center.
“The most expensive item appraised (Saturday) was a first edition of ‘The Hobbit’ with original dust jacket and the signature of J.R.R. Tolkien,” said Judy Matthews, for the “Antiques Roadshow.” “It was appraised at between $80,000 and $100,000.”
This is the most in-depth interview we’ve seen to date with James Nesbitt regarding The Hobbit and living in Wellington, NZ.
The Hobbit bring Nesbitt to NZ (Sunday Star Times)
Nesbitt is playing dwarf Bofur, one of the 12 companions of hobbit Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), though further details about the production are secret. Nesbitt will say only that his latest project is “an incredible experience. It is a massive, massive project. You can’t believe it when you go down to the studios. I mean, there are all these different stages, there are hundreds of people involved and yet it feels like a family”.
Follow the link for the complete interview [click here]
A celebration of all things JRR Tolkien will be held at Penkridge library to highlight Staffordshire’s local link with one of the world’s favourite authors.
Literary lovers can take part in a guided walk from Penkridge Library across the Teddesley Estate, passing through Gipsy Green where Tolkien’s cottage of 1918 still stands.
Free copies of the book ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ will be given away to participants as part of the celebrations for World Book Night.
Staffordshire County Councillor for Pat Corfield, Cabinet Member for Culture, Communities and Customers, said: “This is a lovely way to spend a Spring day, exploring the area that helped to inspire JRR Tolkien. This is a wonderful and innovative idea from our library staff in Penkridge.”
That’s the big question posed by Ben Child of The Guardian!
To begin with, fans have long known that Peter Jackson’s vision for his two-part adaptation of The Hobbit involves plans to include the activities of the White Council and the Necromancer of Dol Guldur, a rather sketchy storyline that minimally involves Gandalf, Saruman, and Galadriel, and occurs parallel to the main story of Bilbo’s journey with the thirteen Dwarves to the Lonely Mountain.
But while it could be argued that the White Council storyline is at least canon, what can be said about the surprising inclusion of Frodo, his father Drogo, an older Bilbo (played by Sir Ian Holm), and Legolas?
In his article Ben poses genuine questions that most fans (on TheOneRing.net at least) have been pondering over for months now:
What shape will Sauron take – Tolkien offers no clues – as he will presumably not yet have assumed the form of a great eye in which he appears in Lord of the Rings?
Does this mean that the 89-year-old Christopher Lee has made the trip to New Zealand after all to reprise his role as Saruman?
Going further than questioning the practicalities of filming this prelude to the Lord of the Rings, the article delves deeper into the question at the heart of the much-anticipated cinematic phenomenon – by pulling us away from the central story, will the films present The Hobbit through a very different prism than what was originally intended?
Ethan Gilsdorf writes: I attended the recent 3rd Conference on Middle-earth (in Westford, Massachusetts) where I listened to talks on blond elf imagery and debates on how to adapt The Hobbit into one movie or two movies (and the wisdom of that latter endeavor).
I also wandered over to a vendor table manned by an older gentleman named Ed Meskys, who has been involved in science fiction and fantasy fandom since the early days. The former president of the Tolkien Society of America (1967-1972), Meskys had been cleaning out his garage, he told me, and wanted his old treasures might see the light of day again. Most of the stuff — magazines and old book jackets — was a buck or two each.
Among the ephemera were some yellowed, dusty, wonderful, terrible, Lord of the Rings stickers. It was the end of the day, and Meskys gave me his last sheets of stickers for free. Continue reading “Tolkien hippie stickers resurface”