Our own MrCere writes: Comic-Con posts its schedule with several LOTR events on the docket:
The official San Diego Comic-Con has posted its programming schedule today and there are several events that Lord of the Rings fans will not want to miss. Beyond the tent-pole events the Con is LOADED with Fantasy and LOTR related topics so follow the links and search carefully for the content you crave. Read on for news of the major features.
Our own TORN Ringers are featured on Thursday evening with the following from Comic-Con schedule:
“6:00-7:00 TheOneRing.Net: Ringers/Peter S. Beagle—Get an exclusive first look at the upcoming feature-length documentary Ringers: Lord of the Fans and meet legendary fantasy author Peter S. Beagle (The Last Unicorn)! Very funny and often moving, Ringers uncovers the past 50 years of Tolkien pop mania. This special hour includes writer/producer/director Carlene Cordova; writer/producer Cliff “Quickbeam” Broadway; 2nd unit director/producer Danny Lukic; and director of photography/co-producer Josh Mandel, with Ringers footage shown for the first time anywhere. Peter S. Beagle makes his Comic-Con debut with revealing stories of his work on the 1978 Bakshi version of LOTR, and several surprise announcements! Room 6CDEF” [More]
On Friday there are a couple of LOTR related panels but the biggie is New Line’s ROTK EE DVD presentaton.
CAUTION: Don’t assume the folks mentioned will be present, their comments may be on video.
“This hour-long presentation will debut select clips from the extended version of the film and will include a panel discussion featuring key cast and crew members who were involved in the creation of the extended DVD. Program elements will include Peter Jackson’s scene selection process (his favorite moments, etc.) and stories from The Lord of the Rings co-producer Rick Porras and cast member David Wenham about the behind-the-scenes preparations necessary to deliver this extended version of the DVD.” More detail is available here.
Saturday kicks off with a screening and discussion of Dominic Monahan’s new ABC series “Lost”.
“10:00-11:00 ABC’s New Fall Series Lost— Come to the screening of the new pilot by Alias creator JJ Abrams! Join the actors, producers & writers of this new ABC series debuting in the Fall. Starring actors Matthew Fox and Dominic Monahan who have established their fan following from appearing in TV’s Party of Five and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy respectively, and Evangeline Lilly, a radiant actress who is the female lead in Lost. Lots more details here.
Sunday features not one but new LOTR cast members doing voice work together on a horifying new project!
“11:40-1:00 Universal/Focus: Seed of Chucky and Shaun of the Dead—The killer doll is back! The all-new Seed of Chucky is the fifth in the popular series of Chucky (Child’s Play) horror comedies. Making his directorial debut is the franchise creator and writer of all five films, Don Mancini. The film introduces Glen (voiced by Lord of the Rings star Billy Boyd), the orphan doll offspring of the irrepressible devilish-doll-come-to-life Chucky (again voiced by series star Brad Dourif) and his equally twisted bride Tiffany (again voiced by Jennifer Tilly). “
(MrCere’s Editorial comment: Buzz on Shaun of the Dead is off the charts. Apparently this is as good as horror gets.)
Again, Comic-Con is FULL of items of panels and events of interest to LOTR fans in addition to the LOTR Pavillion on the dealer’s floor which dominated fan interest last year. It is Tolkien’s pop-culture crush as its finest.
In Middle Earth, there are wizards and sorcerers, shape-changers and giant spiders, rings that make you disappear and seeing-stones. For many fantasy writers, these types of characters and objects are magical and mandatory in a fantasy work where there is often good magic and bad magic.
Magic and Art in Middle Earth
After being asked by Sam for elvish magic, Galadriel was confused by the hobbit’s request for it. For Tolkien, magic was not both good and bad, but something used only by the forces of evil.
What is magic in Tolkien’s Middle Earth? How does Tolkien see magic, and how is it different from art? Furthermore, where do objects such as the Silmarils and Galadriel’s mirror fall into these definitions? And how does Tolkien’s treatment of art and magic distinguish him from other fantasy authors?
Come join us this week in #thehalloffire as we discuss magic and art in Middle Earth.
=== Upcoming topics:
July 17-18 — Powerful Objects in Middle Earth’s History July 24-25 — Gandalf’s Involvement with the Hobbits August 7-8 — Middle Earth’s Greatest Cities August 14-15 — The Hobbit: Chapter 11: On the Doorstep
=== Chat Times:
Saturday Chat: 5:30pm ET (17:30) [also 11:30pm (23:30) CET and 9:30am Sunday (07:30) AET]
Sunday Chat: 7:00 pm (19:00) CET [also 1:00pm (13:00) ET and 5:00am (03:00) Monday morning AET]
ET = Eastern Time, USA’s East Coast CET = Central European Time, Central Europe AET = Australian East Coast
Folk from The Edge write: We’re very excited to let you know about our current plans for the upcoming “LORD OF THE RINGS” MOVIE MARATHON CELEBRATION @ Cleveland State University, November 19-20, 2004, in Cleveland, Ohio. This event is a cooperative effort between The EDGE: Lutheran Campus Ministry & Art Gallery and the Cleveland State University Film Department. All events are FREE and open to the public.
We would love to have viewers of your website who could make it to Cleveland, Ohio, come for the Keynote Lecture on Friday, Nov 19 and then see all three extended DVD movies on Saturday, Nov 29 from 12 NOON – Midnight. We also will have several drawings in which we give away over $2,000 worth of books and related “Lord of the Rings” merchandise (donated graciously from Houghton Mifflin and New Line Cinema). We also have a Walden Books booktable during the Marathon with all sorts of interesting books and related Tolkien merchandise available for sale.
If you have any questions or comments about this event, please don’t hesitate to email us at: edge@csuohio.edu
Below is the Schedule of events for the “LORD OF THE RINGS” MOVIE MARATHON CELEBRATION. Attached is the Flyer as a Word Document about the event that could be posted on your site.
Friday, Nov. 19
7:30 – 9:30 pm: Keynote Lecture (Speaker To Be Announced)
Saturday, Nov. 20
‘Lord of the Rings’ Movie Trilogy (DVD Extended Versions)
12 NOON – 3:30 pm: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING 3:45 – 7:45 pm: THE TWO TOWERS 8 pm – MIDNIGHT: THE RETURN OF THE KING
MAKING OF LOTR & FIGWIT Films: 2004 New Zealand International Film Festival Festival Dates: Auckland: July 9 – 25 Wellington: July 16 – August 1
Wellington filmmaker Costa Botes, a long-time associate of Peter Jackson and his conspirator on “Forgotten Silver, assembled a small team in July 1999, three months before cameras rolled on principal photography for LOTR, to shoot and compile a behind-the-scenes video record. By the time the production of the trilogy finally ended late in 2003, they had over 800 hours of footage. In the first of the three documentary features to be cut from this material, there’s a much fuller and more playful appreciation of activity behind the scenes than you might have seen on the more formal guided tours provided by the excellent DVD extras.
FRODO IS GREAT….WHO IS THAT?
The future, when everyone would be famous for 15 minutes is far behind us: now all it takes is three seconds, which is how long Wellington actor and musician Bret McKenzie appeared as an extra in “The Fellowship of the Ring.” A glimpse of his elvish pout during the Council of Elrond scene enflamed the imaginations of Israeli woman, Iris Hadad, and English woman, Sherry de Andres. They met on internet message boards (where else?), coined the name ‘Figwit’, an acronym of ‘Frodo is Great…Who is That!!?’, and created the website www.figwitlives.net. Peter Jackson and the LOTR producers have taken a suitably indulgent view of the elf-hijack and this amusing magazine-style documentary culminates in the spectacle of McKenzie undergoing Figwit make-up once again for his one-line part in “The Return of the King.”
Film info: www.nzff.co.nz Venue details, dates and session times are available in the festival brochure and on-line.
Tickets: All ticketing for the festivals is managed by Ticketek Ticketek.co.nz AKL: ph: 09 307 5000 / WGTN: 04 384 3840 * please note for GROUP BOOKINGS of 30+ there is a discounted rate of $10.50 per tx (standard price $13.50)
HARTFORD SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PRESENTS OSCAR(r)-WINNING COMPOSER HOWARD SHORE AND “THE LORD OF THE RINGS SYMPHONY” TICKETS FOR THE SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 19 PERFORMANCE ON SALE NOW
HARTFORD, Conn. – Tickets to the Sunday, September 19, 3 pm performance of the triumphant “Lord of the Rings Symphony” featuring Oscar(r)-winning composer and conductor Howard Shore and the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, are on sale now. Call HSO Ticket Services at (860) 244-2999, Monday to Friday, 9 to 5, or visit www.hartfordsymphony.org.
“The Lord of the Rings Symphony: Six Movements for Orchestra and Chorus” will be presented on Saturday, September 18, 2004 at 8 pm and Sunday, September 19, 2004 at 3 pm in Mortensen Hall at The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts. The performances will feature six symphonic movements, drawn from the twelve hours of music Shore composed for the motion pictures in the “Lord of the Rings” Trilogy, along with projections of original illustrations and storyboards by artists Alan Lee and John Howe. “The Lord of the Rings Symphony” is one of the largest productions in the history of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, calling for more than 100 musicians, along with The Hartford Chorale, the Connecticut Children’s Chorus and vocal soloists – all under the direction of Howard Shore.
Howard Shore has composed the scores to more than 60 films and received the Oscar(r) and Grammy Awards for Best Original Score for “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring,” the first film in the Tolkien trilogy, for which he was also honored with awards from Los Angeles Film Critics, the Chicago Film Critics, and the Broadcast Film Critics. The score for “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” recently won the Academy Award, the Broadcast Film Critics Award and Golden Globes for both Best Original Score and Best Original Song for “Into the West.”
The soundtracks for “The Fellowship of the Ring,” “The Two Towers,” and “The Return of the King” have sold more than 4 million albums worldwide and both albums have remained on the Billboard Top 100 Soundtracks chart since their original release in 2001, 2002, and 2003 respectively. The U.K.’s Classic FM voted “The Lord of the Rings” soundtracks “Best Film Score of All Time” for two consecutive years. Shore conducted the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in the world premiere of his symphony, “The Lord of the Rings Symphony: Six Movements for Orchestra and Chorus” in Wellington, New Zealand on November 29, 2003. The U.S.-premiere took place on March 27 and 28, 2004 in Columbus, Ohio.
“Shore manages the admirable feat of summoning up a Wagnerian atmosphere without copying the original.” Alex Ross, The New Yorker
“The ‘Lord of the Rings Symphony’ is still a big success because of the power and appeal of Shore’s themes.” Barbara Zuck, Columbus Dispatch
“Brilliantly hued … and so completely exploitive of the symphony orchestra’s potential.” John Button, The Dominion Post
“The rich combination of orchestra and choir were working magnificently…” Gerry Maddox, Sydney Morning Herald
Tickets to the Sunday, September 19, performance of “The Lord of the Rings Symphony” range from $25 to $65. Tickets will be available through HSO Ticket Services at (860) 244-2999, Monday through Friday, 9 am to 5pm, and online at www.hartfordsymphony.org.
The Saturday, September 18, performance is part of the 2004-2005 Hartford Symphony Pops! subscription series. Subscriptions to the entire
HSO Pops! season start at $84 and are available through HSO Ticket Services at 860-244-2999. More information on the Pops! series is available at www.hartfordsymphony.org. Single tickets to this performance will go on sale on August 2, 2004.
Megan writes: Austin Meet-Ups, Rings on the Range & Pedazo Chunk International Headquarters invite all local Ringers to an evening of LotR movie trivia on Thursday, July 8th, 7-9pm
This is one Austin meet-up you won’t want to miss! We are very lucky that Pedazo Chunk International Headquarters has reserved their dvd projection room for our meeting, so we can all have tons of fun sharing our favorite scenes, easter eggs, and various trivia from the movie trilogy on DVD.
PLUS!!! Harry Knowles of Ain’t It Cool News may come to share some anecdotes about the movies from his treasury of knowledge. This is a real treat!
Don’t miss this meeting!!!! Pedazo Chunk is located at 2009 S. First Street (a block and a half north of Oltorf on the east side of the street). The meeting will go from 7 to 9 pm.
MAKING OF LOTR & FIGWIT Films: 2004 New Zealand International Film Festival