According to NZPA, the big three Hollywood stars of Peter Jackson’s $NZ200 million ($A185.47 million) King Kong are already in awe of the project (even) before the cameras roll next month. [More]

Mithril writes: The pilot of the new TV series ‘Lost’ is being shown tomorrow at Sunset on the Beach in Waikiki. Dom is expected to attend, as are other cast members. Hawaii Tolkien folk are planning on attending enmasse to support Dom’s post-LOTR work.

Shaye & Lynne: Showmen of the Year! Elanor1013 writes: Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne have been awarded Variety’s top honor, Showmen of the Year, for 2004, and New Line’s production of LOTR features heavily–there is a whole special issue for the award, littered with LOTR references. Here are some scans from the issue, including an article about their websites which also mentions TORn. [More]

‘Geek chic,” proclaimed the headline on the front page of a recent Weekly Variety. Peter Bart, the trade paper’s vice-president and editor-in-chief, wrote, “The annual carnival at Comic-Con” — the convention of comic-book fans, webheads and gamesters that this year drew 75,000 attendees to San Diego from July 22 to 25 — “reminds us that while Internet geeks don’t yet rule the world, they sure scare the hell out of Hollywood.” [More]