There is a new guest added to the Best of Both Worlds convention in Canberra, Australia – none other than John Noble, who will appear as Denethor in ROTK.
BOBW has also added a Guest Table Auction. Organiser Adele writes:
Following several inquiries re the possibility of an auction for spots at the official tables, the following are the guidelines if you wish to bid.
Rules for Banquet Auction for the Lord of the Rings Convention.
There are two places available at each of the official tables at the banquet:
Table 1: Craig Parker, Bruce Hopkins, John Noble Table 2: Sarah McLeod, David Weatherby and Ben Wootten
– Please note: No cameras are permitted at the banquet, however a photographer will be available to take photos of you with the guests at your table, and copies of these will be available on Sunday (2 free 5*7″ prints)
– Bidders must already be attending the convention during the weekend and have a ticket for the banquet. If you have not booked yet for either, please do so when you make your first bid.
– The winning bids will be payable immediately the auction ends.
– You may bid for either table, or both (of course you can only sit at one on the night, so be prepared to choose!!).
– If you want to bid for seats for both yourself and a partner please tell me when you are placing two separate bids.
– Bids will be in Australian dollars. You can place a bid in your local currency and in the reply accepting your bid we will tell you what that means in aussie dollars (that way you know how much you are spending as well as how it stacks up against other bids).
– All bidder details are private and will not be disclosed.
– When you place a bid, you will be added to our bidders email list. Each evening Australian time we will email all bidders the current bids for each table in order (but ONLY the bid amounts, no names or pseuodonyms – you know what you bid so you’ll know immediately how well your bid stacks up against everyone else’s). Note: you won’t see this list unless you first place a bid – we won’t be spamming everyone.
– You may make as many bids as you like during the auction period.
– Bidding shall start on Monday sept 1st September and cease at the end of Monday Sept 8th September, Australian Time. The final bidders list will be emailed as usual, and the top two bids for each table will be the winners.
– If a place is tied, the people concerned will be allowed to make ONE FINAL bid to separate them.
– The judgement of BOBW regarding the winners is final, no correspondence will be entered into.
News from BOBW in Australia. Adele writes: “As most of you would know, Brad Dourif cannot join us as he will be filming, we look forward to his company at our next LOTR event. “We were very lucky and were able to secure David Weatherley & Ben Wootten to complete our line up for our first LOTR event.”
So here goes:
The first Lord of the Rings Australian convention Bruce Hopkins aka Gamling, Guardian of Helm’s Deep ( Two towers)
Sarah McLeod aka Rosie Cotton
Craig Parker aka Haldir, Guardian of Lothlorien
David Weatherley aka Barliman Butterbur Innkeeper of The Prancing Pony
Ben Wootten one of the Senior Designer WETA WORKSHOP LTD
Dates: Sept. 20 & 21, 2003
Venue: Rydges Lakeside Hotel, London Circuit, Canberra City
The costing for the LOTR events is as follows:,
1) Basic passes: cost $135.00 per person per day, may not be eligible for autographs
2) Gold passes cover the following: cost AUD $190.00 per person per day rows 8th to 12th seating, autographs are guaranteed, however we cannot guarantee professional photo availability.
3) VIP tickets cover the following: cost AUD$250.00 per person per day guaranteed 3 to 7th row seating, included is 1 professional photo with 1 guest , the ability to have a photo taken with the other guests, and of course autographs are available with the purchase of official merchandise. There are only 100 of these places available.
Cocktail party / banquet, and wrap party places are only available to convention attendees and cost as follows:
1) Cocktail party place $55.00 pp 2) Banquet place $75.00 pp 3) Wrap party place $55.00 pp
Accommodation rates:
1) Single / double / queen size rooms @ $120.00 per room per night, 2) Upgrades at $40.00 per night extra, namely $160.00 per room per night.
We’re very excited to let you know about our current plans for the upcoming 3rd ANNUAL J.R.R. TOLKIEN’S “LORD OF THE RINGS” MARATHON READING CELEBRATION @ Cleveland State University’s historic MATHER MANSION, 2605 Euclid Ave, November 20-22, 2003, in Cleveland, Ohio. This event is a cooperative effort between The EDGE: Lutheran Campus Ministry & Art Gallery and the Cleveland State University English Department. All events are FREE and open to the public.
Anything you could do to publicize the event on your site, to encourage people to be involved, would be greatly appreciated.
We would love to have viewers of your website who could make it to Cleveland, Ohio, to be involved in this event, to attend the workshops and/or be readers in the Marathon Reading itself, or just come and listen.
If you have any questions or comments about this event, please don’t hesitate to email us or visit our website at www.csuohio.edu/lotr/
We will be reading “The Return of the King” this year. In addition to the Marathon Reading itself, we also have four Workshops, a keynote lecture, the DVD movie version of “The Two Towers,” a Reception, 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 at all the events with all sorts of interesting books and related Tolkien merchandise available for sale.
This LOTR Reading Celebration promises to be the best one yet. We’ve got a FANTASTIC LINEUP of Presenters for our Workshops and Keynote Lecture!!!!!!!!
We’ve got Tom Shippey coming and Joseph Pearce as well. They are incredible Tolkien Scholars. Shippey is the foremost Tolkien scholar around these days.
Our Celebration is an inter-generational event with people ranging from college students and faculty, to high school and elementary children, to other interested adults, local authors, actors, etc…, all from our Northeast Ohio area.
Below is the Schedule of events for the 3rd ANNUAL J.R.R. TOLKIEN’S “LORD OF THE RINGS” MARATHON READING CELEBRATION. Attached is the Flyer as a Word Document about the event that could be posted on your site. We also have a current Brochure which can be mailed to you that has ALL THE DETAILS that the Flyer does not.
Peace and blessings,
Pastor Gordon
The EDGE: Lutheran Campus Ministry at CSU & Art Gallery
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20: 4 WORKSHOPS
6 – 7:30 PM:
1) “The Lord of the Rings” on the Screen: Does it Work? (Prof Bruce Beatie, CSU)
2) Tolkien and Wagner: The Two Rings (Prof Ed Haymes, CSU)
7:45 – 9:15 PM:
3) Tolkien: Truth & Myth (Prof Joseph Pearce, Ave Maria College)
4) Trees, Chainsaws, and Visions of Paradise in Tolkien (Prof Tom Shippey, Saint Louis Univ)
FRIDAY, NOV 21: THE MOVIE
12 NOON – 3:30 PM
A Special Edition DVD extended version of “Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers”
FRIDAY, NOV 21: MARATHON READING RECEPTION
6 – 7 PM:
Free Food, Refreshments, Live Music, Mt. Doom Cupcakes, Raffle for GREAT PRIZES, as we gather for the Keynote Speaker & Marathon Reading of “The Return of the King”
FRIDAY, NOV 21: KEYNOTE LECTURE
7 – 8:30 PM:
J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century (Prof Tom Shippey, Saint Louis Univ)
FRIDAY, NOV 21 – SATURDAY, NOV 22: MARATHON READING
9 PM: The MARATHON READING of “The Return of the King” will begin and conclude 1 PM on Saturday.
FREE ADMISSION FOR ALL EVENTS: (Registration required for workshops and to read). Lots of FREE Prizes! Call 216-241-7120 to register, or visit www.csuohio.edu/lotr/
Peter Jackson’s Wellington Embassy Theatre needs your help! They are currently going through massive renovations and are accepting donations! For your donation (depnding on the amount you give) you are given a seat in the cinema with your name on it for a DECADE. I personally have my own seat, as do most of the actors in LOTR. TheOneRing.net herself is buying a seat, but WhiteAslan and other members of the TORN Message Boards wanted to do something as well. They decided to buy a ‘Platinum Seat’, the last one available. Take a look at her story.
WhiteAslan writes: The Trust is going to give the last Platinum seat to us, the TORNsibs. We’ve decided to have “Discussion Board Members@TheOneRing.net” s the name on it. As I’m sure you know, the seat cost over $1000. Right, now I’ve only collected $370.
I’m expecting more donations through snail mail but they are coming slower than I expected. The PayPal account is TORNado_chair@excite.com. I’m asking those people who’d rather send their doantion through snail mail to send me an email here (WhiteAslan@netscape.net) and I’ll send them my mailing address. If you could help, that would be great.
A BIG thank you goes out to Jens for translating this portion of Germany’s Cinema Magazine. We posted the articles a little while ago, however the text was all in German. This small portion is Ian McKellen’s letter.
Even thought the principal shooting for the „Lord of the Rings“-trilogy wrapped in December 2000, the actors still return to Middle-Earth every year to film new scenes. This is the case now, too, in June 2003.
About 6 months before it’s World premiere in Wellington on the 1st of December, we find ourselves in the Stone Street Studios and film more material for the third and last part of the saga: „The Return of the King“.
With these new scenes Peter Jackson wants to raise the drama of the story even more, will make it even more obvious for the audience what is on stake the nearer the ring-bearer is coming Mount Doom. Will he make it? And will Frodo throw the Ring into the fire? What are Gollum’s plans? Will Minas Tirith and the troops of Gondor withstand Sauron’s Orc hordes? What will happen with Saruman, what with Aragorn? What will become of Merry and Pippin? Will Sam stay true as always? And Gandalf?
Arriving at the studio my first way leads me to my dressing room. My only hope is, that my size has changed only slightly since I ended my life-long affair with cigarettes last year. My costume has to be widened a bit and I am afraid that I won’t escape a diet.
The atmosphere at the set is slightly tense. The end is near. Some of the actors had their last day of filming and are now returning home. Today it’s Bernard Hill. The Crew presented him videotape with his out-takes. Yesterday Miranda Otto left for home with her sword as a souvenir. The sense of farewell has even reached the technicians who will keep working until October.
Everywhere on the studio lot I stumble over remains of Middle-Earth. Here are parts of Minas Tirith, over there are the battlefields of Pelennor.
I film a scene in the Golden Hall of King Theoden, together with Aragorn, AKA Viggo Mortensen. It’s his last day, too.
I have to say some sentences that will be fitted into old material that was filmed two years ago, which I didn’t even remember that it exists. Peter Jackson is in the same situation but he has a portable VCR, which helps him to bring it back into his memory.
In the end he shows us actors the film in his own little cinema. It’s only a first edit, without special effects, music and roughly cut. But even from this very first version I can assure you, this movie will be the best of the whole trilogy. Heart-breaking scenes are followed by epic battle-paintings. Elijah Wood and all the other hobbits deliver wonderful performances. I watch the movie with writer Philippa Boyens who explains to me, where my scenes will be add in and that I have 10 days of filming in front of me. After this they surely can make might trousers tighter again.
Doug Anderson writes: Today is the official publication day for my new anthology, TALES BEFORE TOLKIEN: THE ROOTS OF MODERN FANTASY. It is being published by Ballantine Books simultaneously in hardcover and trade paperback. The idea of the anthology was to collect a number of rare fantasy stories that directly influenced Tolkien, along with other stories to show what the genre was like before THE HOBBIT was published in 1937.
Here’s the listing of the full contents:
Introduction
“The Elves” by Ludwig Tieck
“The Golden Key” by George Macdonald
“Puss-Cat Mew” by E. H. Knatchbull-Hugessen
“The Griffin and the Minor Canon” by Frank R. Stockton
“The Demon Pope” by Richard Garnett
“The Story of Sigurd” by Andrew Lang
“The Folk of the Mountain Door” by William Morris
“Black Heart and White Heart” by H. Rider Haggard
“The Dragon Tamers” by E. Nesbit
“The Far Islands” by John Buchan
“The Drawn Arrow” by Clemence Housman
“The Enchanted Buffalo” by L. Frank Baum
“Chu-bu and Sheemish” by Lord Dunsany
“The Baumoff Explosive” by William Hope Hodgson
“The Regent of the North” by Kenneth Morris
“The Coming of the Terror” by Arthur Machen
“The Elf Trap” by Francis Stevens
“The Thin Queen of Elfhame” by James Branch Cabell
“The Woman of the Wood” by A. Merritt
“Golithos the Ogre” by E. A. Wyke-Smith [an extract from THE MARVELLOUS LAND OF SNERGS]
News from BOBW in Australia. Adele writes: “As most of you would know, Brad Dourif cannot join us as he will be filming, we look forward to his company at our next LOTR event. “We were very lucky and were able to secure David Weatherley & Ben Wootten to complete our line up for our first LOTR event.”