Steve writes: I thought I could make use of your excellent site to advertise Chelmsford Theatre Workshop [CTW]’s production of The Hobbit.
CTW is an amateur theatre group, often admired for its professional standards. Formed in 1969, the group is proud to own its own theatre and currently produces 10 plays a season.
We are based at The Old Court Theatre, Springfield Road, Chelmsford, Essex, U.K. A 15 strong cast, most of whom treble up as dwarves, trolls, goblins, etc.. are currently working hard in rehearsals to be ready for opening night on Tue 16 December. I myself am playing Dwalin, an elf, a spider and more excitingly the plum role of Gollum.
We are all enjoying it immensely with the only downer being the prospect of having to miss the opening night of Return of the King.
An equally strong backstage team are also busy creating a multi-levelled set, various costumes and puppets and working on special effects such as how to portray an enormous fire breathing dragon on stage.
Any Tolkien nuts in the region who would like to come and support, please come and swell our audiences. Dates and booking details are below. Please feel free to email me if you require any further information.
Tue 16 – Sat 20 December Tue 23 December Wed 24 Decrmber Fri 26 – Sat 27 December Tue 30 December Thu 1 – Sat 3 January
There are also matinées on Sat 20 & 27 Dec, but not sure of time. Please contact Box Office for details.
Book at Civic Theatre Box Office Chelmsford, UK Tel: 01245 606505
Hernadez writes: I thought I’d send in the info I got today. They’ll be doing Trilogy Tuesday at Kinepolis Liège (Belgium). Tickets went on sale yesterday (November 26th). There’s no mention of the first two movies being the extended edition or not. [More]
Monday 15th Dec 19:30 Lord of The Rings : Fellowship of the ring 23:00 Lord of the Rings : The Two Towers
Tuesday 16th Dec 16:00 Lord of The Rings : Fellowship of the ring 19:30 Lord of the Rings : The Two Towers 23:00 PREMIERE Lord of The Rings : Return of the king
Animations on 16th Dec! Pre-sales as of today at reception En préventes dès aujourd’hui à la réception Note: only sale of combo-tickets !
At last our four heroes come back to their beloved Shire. One evening they reach the Brandywine Bridge wet and tired, but to their dismay they are denied entrance. The Shire is no longer the place they left behind. Shirriffs guard the gates and uphold new unreasonable laws, ugly buildings sprout everywhere, and there are evil Men in the Shire who are using the Hobbits as slaves. And all orders seem to come from Bag End, from the mysterious Sharkey.
How do the four travellers set about organising the resistance against the ruffians? How is Frodo’s reaction to the state of the Shire different from the others, and what is Frodo’s part in the scouring of the Shire? In what ways do Frodo, Sam , Merry and Pippin show how much they have developed on their travels?
We shall also look at possible inspirations for ‘the scouring of the Shire’, and compare Saruman and Frodo at their last encounter. Join us in #thehalloffire as we take a look at The Scouring of the Shire – Chapter VIII of the Return of the King.
Times: Saturday Chat: 5:30pm ET (17:30) [also 11:30pm (23:30) CET and 7:30am Sunday (07:30) AET]
Sunday Chat: 7:00 pm (19:00) CET [also 1:00pm (13:00) ET and 3:00am (03:00) Monday morning AET]
ET = Eastern Time, USA’s East Coast CET = Central European Time, Central Europe AET = Australian East Coast
Do you have a possible topic for Hall of Fire? Drop us a line at halloffire@theonering.net
Many people have asked us about easter eggs on the LOTR DVDs. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the concept of ‘easter eggs’, think of them as hidden gems on your DVD that you would not be able to find with regular viewing.
Thanks to one of my favorite websites dvdeastereggs.com we’ve compiled a list of DVD eggs according to release date and region. Take a look!
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Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring (Theatrical Edition) REGION 1: U.S., Canada, U.S. Territories
Egg: DVD Credits
Highlight Play Movie, then press up and you will have the New Line logo highlighted. Press enter, and you’ll have DVD credits.
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Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring (Extended Edition) REGION 1: U.S., Canada, U.S. Territories
Egg: TTT Trailer
To access The Two Towers sneak peek trailer that was shown briefly in theaters at the end of The Fellowship of the Ring, go to the last page of the scene selections menu area and select the number “48” on the far right-hand side of the screen. Then navigate “down” to reveal a hidden Two Towers symbol. Press “Enter”.
Egg: MTV Spoof
To find this one, go into the Scene Selection menu on disc one, and head to the final page where you’ll find the real Council of Elrond scene. Highlight that scene and press “down” to find an image of the Ring. Press enter to view the entire clip from MTV complete with an introduction from Peter Jackson.
Egg: DVD Credits
From the Main Menu of Disc Four, use your down arrow to move down to highlight the ornament at the bottom center of the screen. Selecting this will give you a limited version of the DVD credits.
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Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring (Extended Edition) REGION 2: Japan, Europe, South Africa, Middle East
Egg: MTV spoof
On Disc 1 go to Scene selection screen. Highlight Scene 27 “The Council of Elrond”. Press down to highlight image of The Ring. Press enter to view the clip.
Egg: Two Towers Trailer
To access ‘The Two Towers’ trailer, follow the instructions given for the R2 discs elsewhere on this site. The MTV spoof will not, however, appear on the set issued by EiV in the United Kingdom. This is because the spoof would have casued the disc to have a rating which is higher than the ‘PG’ given to the film and all the other elements on the DVDs. Since all DVDs are classified by the British Board of Film Classification overall with regard to the ‘highest categorised element’, EiV were not willing to put this on the disc, risk a higher classification and prejudice sales. This will not be the case with LOTR:FOTR R2 discs issued elsewhere in the region.
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Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring (Extended Edition) REGION 4: Australia, New Zealand, Central and South Americ
Edd: Two Towers Trailer
On Disc 2 go to Scene Selection screen. Highlight Scene 48 “Official Fan Club Credits” Press down to highlight image of the Two Towers. Press Enter to watch trailer.
Egg: MTV spoof
Go to Scene selection screen on Disc 1. Highlight Scene 27 “The Council of Elrond”. Press down to highlight image of The Ring. Press enter to view clip.
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Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers (Theatrical Edition) REGION 1: U.S., Canada, U.S. Territories
Egg: Special Thanks
On the movie disc, select play movie, but do not press enter. instead, move down and the new line cinema logo will be selected. press enter to view them
Egg: MTV Movie Awards Acceptance Speech
Put in the first DVD of the set and go to the scene access. From there go to the final set of scenes and keep pressing down until you are on the 30th scene. From there press down and a small picture of a ring will appear. Select it and watch Gollum’s acceptance speech from the MTV movie awards.
This week we have two great releases for The Return of the King, plus this month’s issue of White Dwarf magazine!
MOUNTED THEODEN $9.00 ($13.00 CAN) Monarch of the land of Rohan, King Théoden is a courageous leader and soldier. By way of the slithering machinations of his servant Gr’ma Wormtongue, the fallen wizard Saruman was able to subvert and poison Théoden’s mind, for a time plunging Rohan into darkness and despair. Through the intervention of Gandalf the White, Théoden was exorcised of Saruman’s influence. Restored to health and soundness of spirit, the King banished Wormtongue from his hall and once again leads his people with wisdom and bravery.
After the Battle of Helm’s Deep, King Théoden chooses to honor the old allegiances and ride to the aid of Gondor. Upon his great war-horse, he leads the charge of the Rohirrim against the innumerable hordes of the enemy that assail the White City, for the hope of all Men and free peoples now lay in the defense of Minas Tirith. Against the thralls of Mordor they must prevail, lest all Middle-earth fall into darkness. Théoden resolves to lead his Men to this great doom, knowing that in all likelihood they ride to their death.
This blister pack comes complete with King Théoden riding a barded warhorse.
RUINS OF MIDDLE EARTH $15.00 ($22.00 CAN) This set contains two of the building ruins seen in the previous game sets, plus one of the new terrain sprues featured in the new game box. Evoking the strong imagery of the motion pictures, where the fallen statues and building columns of forgotten ages abound as the characters move through the lands, these plastic sets reinforce the fact that these games are set in in Middle-earth and nowhere else. The set even comes with a life-size plastic Ring, ideal for tracking which player has Priority that turn!
In sharp contrast to the skating polar bears, frolicking penguins, candy canes and dancing teddy bears one usually expects from holiday department store displays, the Neiman Marcus department store in Beverly Hills, California and New Line Cinema teamed up to create a one-of-a-kind storefront window display. It did hint at an Elvish theme – just not the kind that build toys in Santas workshop. Instead the window displays feature glorious tapestries and furniture from Rivendell. Arwen’s “mourning” dress and Aragorn’s “Strider” costume.
The TORn Digital team was on hand to witness the unveiling of these windows, designed by Oscar nominated “Rings” Art Director and Art Department Coordinator, Dan and Chris Hennah. The windows were to be unveiled by a Wizard and two Hobbits – Sir Ian McKellen, Billy Boyd and Elijah Wood. After some discussion about who would pull the rope, and how they’d actually pull the rope that would lower the large red velvet curtain hiding the windows, the responsibility was given to the wise Wizard, Sir Ian.
The curtain successfully dropped to much applause, and the stars stopped to admire the display. Bag End’s green round door and inviting round glowing windows were revealed. A “life” sized Bilbo and Frodo costume standing in front. “I hope that they have security for this – the Ring’s in there!” quipped Elijah Wood. The other windows featured the amazing chain mail, banners and costumes of Rohan, and the Gondorian costumes of Faramir, Boromir, Denethor and Pippin.
The stars obliged the line of press with interviews, we were able to speak to Billy and Sir Ian. Alas – Elijah was whisked away by a handler before we could speak to him. Luckily, I was able to shoot some photos of the elusive Ringbearer and his costars. I snapped some of the windows too.
As with any LOTR related event – the fans were on hand, lining up on the sidewalk in the cold. We knew some of them, some of them knew Quickbeam, and they all knew each other. Elijah and Billy signed a few autographs. Everyone seemed to be having a great time looking at the displays and catching up. And I’m sure it didn’t hurt to catch a glimpse of the stars. There was to be a reception in the store after the unveiling – but none of us seemed to be invited! Of course we were too busy snapping photos, shooting footage and speaking to the fans.
TORn Digital would like to thank Mr. Keith Stern of McKellen.com (Sir Ian’s Official site) for giving us the details for this event. I’m sure that they’ll have more photos of the event featured on their site.
The windows will be on display from November 24 to December 29. Neiman Marcus is located at 9700 Wilshire Blvd. in the heart of the Beverly Hills shopping district. [More Pictures]
