Travellers who have moved on to a site in Hall Green in Birmingham said they were there to see the Pope.

Councillor Martin Mullaney said the families had moved on to a field next to Sarehole Mill, a childhood haunt of Lord of the Rings author JRR Tolkien.

He said they had told him they had no idea the event was ticket only.

Pope Benedict XVI is holding a special Mass in Cofton Park on Sunday 19 September, at the end of his four-day UK visit.

[Full Article]

The subject says it all folks. An interesting article from the LA Times comes our way this evening concerning James Cameron’s lofty quest to be mentioned alongside Tolkien, Star Wars and Star Trek.

“You’ve got to compete head on with these other epic works of fantasy and fiction, the Tolkiens and the ‘Star Wars’ and the ‘Star Treks,'” Cameron said. “People want a persistent alternate reality to invest themselves in and they want the detail that makes it rich and worth their time. They want to live somewhere else. Like Pandora.”

Check out the full article at the LA Times site.  [Full Article]

Bilbo Baggins

Ringer Cherie sent in this beautiful picture of her 17 week old puppy, Bilbo Baggins (a Corgi), and it got us thinking. We’ve never asked the fans worldwide to submit their pictures of pets named after Tolkien related characters. We know there are a lot of you out there with pictures, so let’s share them with all of Tolkien fandom!

Here are two ways to participate:

  1. Forums – Click on the ‘Discuss‘ link associated with this post and you will magically transported to our forum where you can submit a reply with your pet picture(s).
  2. Use Flickr – Post your picture in our ‘Tolkien Pet Gallery‘ on Flickr. We’ve made it a public group, so as long as you have a Flickr account, you should be able to participate.

Feel free to post in one or both places – whatever is easiest for you! We’d love to see your pictures and we will occasionally be featuring your pets right here on TORn’s homepage! Oh, and if there are any Tolkien related businesses out there that want to share some prizes for the folks who participate, drop us an email! [Discuss] [Flickr Gallery]

Update: for those of you new to posting on our message boards, no less uploading pictures, there’s an excellent tutorial at the TORn Image Guide (by board member Magpie) and/or you can email Altaira@theonering.net for help.

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..

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]

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.