Even though many of his papers and Middle-earth tales were published posthumously, JRR Tolkien wrote prolifically throughout his life. Nevertheless, there remain huge gaps in many of his stories.
So this weekend we’re going to ask ourselves: ‘If you could commission Tolkien to write more on one thing, what would it have been and why?’
Stories such as the origins of the cats of Queen Beruthiel (which is reduced to little more than a few lines in LoTR), the travels and fate of the Blue Wizards or the early adventures of Thorongil/Aragorn.
Perhaps you might have liked some tales of the Fourth Age — the dwarves at Aglarond, the elves in Ithilien or the glory days of Gondor under Aragorn.
Hobbit fans might want to know the details of the founding of the Shire, or the life of the Bullroarer and the Long Winter. Or maybe you’d like to understand better what drove the Dunedain of the north to self destruct and what they did in their long years in the Wild.
Which periods do you think it was a tragedy that Tolkien left unplugged? What enigmatic vistas intrigue you the most?
Join us this weekend for: ‘Stories never told: If it had been possible what further books or tales would you have liked JRR Tolkien to write?’
Time and date: Saturday February 26
America: 5.30pm EST 4.30pm CST 3.30pm MST 2.30pm PST
Europe: 11.30pm UK 12.30am (Sunday) Central Europe
Asia-Pacific: 8.30am (Sunday) Brisbane 9.30am (Sunday) Sydney 11.30am (Sunday) Wellington
Upcoming topics:
Sunday, Mar. 6 “Stories never told: If it had been possible what further books or tales would you have liked JRR Tolkien to write?”
Saturday Mar 12 “Silmarillion Chapter. 7 – Of the Silmarils and the Unrest of the Noldor”
Sunday, Mar. 20 “Silmarillion Chapter. 7 – Of the Silmarils and the Unrest of the Noldor”
Got a topic? Let us know!
If you have a burning desire to discuss something in Hall of Fire, drop us a line with your topic at halloffire@theonering.net
Nominees and industry heavyweights will mingle in a fantastical setting at this annual exclusive dinner in Los Angeles.
A mystical theme from “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” will greet guests for the fourth annual celebration of New Zealand Filmmaking and Creative Talent dinner on Friday, Feb. 25 at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
NZ is celebrating three Academy Award nominations this year, including “Two Cars, One Night” (Best Short Film), Andrew Adamson (Shrek 2, Best Animated Feature) and Joe Letteri, lately of LOTR, (I Robot, Best Visual Effects).
Productions in New Zealand in the past 12 months include “Narnia,” (which is based on teh classic CS Lewis novel and directed by Andrew Adamson); “King Kong,” (directed by Peter Jackson with Naomi Watts and Adrien Brody); “The World’s Fastest Indian” (with Anthony Hopkins,) “River Queen” (with Kiefer Sutherland and Samantha Morton, “Legend of Zorro” (with Catherine Zeta Jones and Antonio Banderas); “Without a Paddle” (with Seth Green and Matthew Lillard); “Perfect Creature” (with Dougray Scott) and “Boogeyman (with Lucy Lawless).
Andrew Adamson will be there, among others.
“New Zealand filmmakng is going from strength to strength,” notes Rob Taylor, the NZ Consul General, Los Angeles. “Oscar Weekend is the perfect opportunity for us to celebrate with our friends and colleagues in Hollywood.”
Hosted by the New Zealand Ambassador to theUS, the Honorable John Wood – with support from TheNew Zealand Consulate-General and Investment New Zealand – the dinner will feature keynote speaker producer Rob Tapert (Boogeyman) and a three course indigenous menu of New Zealand salmon, beef and blueberries, complemented by Morton Estate wine.
Powerhouse Museum presents An Evening with Peter Jackson
To celebrate the record success of The Lord of the Rings Motion Picture Trilogy – The Exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum, Academy Award-winning director Peter Jackson will headline a special once-only event on Saturday 12 March, 6pm – 8pm, at the State Theatre in Sydney.
Direct from the set of King Kong, the creative maestro behind The Lord of the Rings film trilogy will provide a rare behind-the-scenes insight into the making of the epic trilogy that captivated millions around the world and will reveal never before seen footage. The event will be hosted by film critic and co-host of ABC TV’s At the movies, David Stratton.
Before The Lord of the Rings and world-wide fame, Peter Jackson was director, writer and producer of such films as cult classic Bad Taste, Meet the Feebles, Brain Dead, The Frighteners and Heavenly Creatures and is currently in New Zealand directing a large scale remake of King Kong with actors Naomi Watts, Adrian Brody and Jack Black.
Tickets for An Evening with Peter Jackson at the State Theatre go on sale Saturday 26 February through Ticketek on 132 849 or visit www.ticketek.com.au. Cost: $65 adults, $55 concession, $50 Powerhouse Members, $45 under 30s & students (plus booking fee).
An Evening with Peter Jackson is held exclusively for the Powerhouse Museum in conjunction with The Lord of the Rings Motion Picture Trilogy – The Exhibition now showing. This blockbuster exhibition has drawn record crowds since opening on Boxing Day with more than 128,000 people from around the country experiencing the magic of Middle-earth.
Due to overwhelming demand, the exhibition will be extended to Sunday 3 April. Don’t miss this final opportunity to go behind the scenes of the film trilogy to marvel at the costumes, jewellery, weapons and props, plus hear exclusive interviews with cast and crew and discover the secrets behind the award-winning special effects.
Bring your Peter Jackson ticket stub to the Museum door to receive 20% off admission to The Lord of the Rings exhibition. Visit www.powerhousemuseum.com/lotr for further information.
We’ve been running two Hall of Fire sessions on the TORn IRC server each weekend for a couple of years now. It’s been extremely successful and we’ve had some wonderful chats, but it’s time to shake things up a little.
As of this weekend, we’ll be trialling one session each weekend for the next four weeks. However, we will be spreading one topic across two weekends.
We hope this may allow people who would otherwise miss out on a particular topic one weekend to come along on the next weekend. It also helps conserve our dwindling moderator resources.
At this point, the times themselves will not change.
Anyway, because that explanation is probably a little confusing, here’s some upcoming topics to give you an idea of how things will work out …
Upcoming topics:
Saturday, Feb. 26 and Sunday, Mar. 6: “Stories never told: If it had been possible what further books or tales would you have liked JRR Tolkien to write?”
Saturday Mar 12 and Sunday, Mar. 20: “Silmarillion Chapter. 7 – Of the Silmarils and the Unrest of the Noldor”
Times reminder:
Can’t remember what time Hall of Fire is on in your part of the world? This may help you out …
‘Saturday’ session:
America: 5.30pm EST 4.30pm CST 3.30pm MST 2.30pm PST
Europe: 11.30pm UK 12.30am (Sunday) Central Europe
Asia-Pacific: 8.30am (Sunday) Brisbane 9.30am (Sunday) Sydney 11.30am (Sunday) Wellington
‘Sunday’ session::
America: 2.00pm EST 1.00pm CST 12.00pm MST 11.00am PST
Europe: 8:00pm UK 9.00pm Central Europe
Asia-Pacific 5.00am (Monday) Brisbane 6.00am (Monday) Sydney 8.00am (Monday) Wellington
Additionally, we’re looking to mix up things with an increased variety of topics over the coming months — as well as continuing with our Silmarillion chats. Watch this space for more — or drop us a line at halloffire@theonering.net of you have a topic you’d like to suggest.
Went to the Hollywood Collector’s show today and got the chance to meet John “Denethor” Noble! The day was due to start at noon, lucky for the fans that were in line, John arrived about 10 min prior and they were running a bit behind so he just stood and chatted with us for that time! He told some nice stories about filming and some of the exterior locations and spoke about some of the other actors as well. He said that he just finished a film with John Rhys-Davis, a biblical epic, which is due to come out in the fall. He had his daughter Sam (I believe that was her name!) with him. She is also an actor and said she had just gotten a part in a film here in the states and was working as her father’s assistant for the day! He spoke about the Hobbits and said that in Australia they would call them “scallywags”, as they were pretty ornery! I asked him if he liked working with Sean Bean and he said they were both excited to do the pick up shots as they had never met or worked together before and they really got on well.
Both John and his daughter were just lovely people and had the same sense that I have gotten from most everyone that has been involved with LOTR that I have been fortunate enough to meet, which is a genuine love for the fans and deep down a really good sense of self.
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Don
Mae govannen, Xoanon! I drove 800 miles round-trip from the San Francisco Bay Area to the Hollywood Collectors and Celebrities Show at the Hilton Burbank Airport and Convention Center to meet and get autographs from John Noble today. Here is my report:
It was a dark and stormy night (literally – I left my home in Oakland before sunrise, and it was raining like heck). I gathered up my camera and scrolling autograph poster box (more on that, later), and hopped in the car. It takes me roughly about 5 hours to get to LA from home, and I figured in an extra two hours to make it to Burbank due to the weather and the infamous LA freeway traffic. I have just one word to say: Rain-X. Fast forward through the hours of driving in and out of rain cells and into beautiful downtown Burbank!
The place was a lot easier to find than I had expected, what with signs on the freeway directing you to the Burbank Airport, and all. Cool. I arrived at the convention center a half-hour early , and found out that if I wanted to get in right away, it would be $25, or, if I wanted to wait a half-hour in a short line outside in the rain (holding an umbrella with one hand, and my poster box under my other arm) it would only be $15. After all that driving, I was in no mood for 30 minutes of aching arms with the possibility of moisture damaging my poster, so I paid the $25, and went right in.
This was a big hall, and it was filled with row after row of tables. Some tables had vendors selling movie posters and photographs of stars from every era of Hollywood. Mostly, there were dozens of nameplates spread out over the tables for the celebrities that were going to be there to sign autographs – most of them I didn’t recognize, but there were a few that I did: Ruth Buzzi (Laugh In), Robert Culp (I Spy), Noel Neill (Lois Lane on the B&W TV series, Superman), Mary Badham (Scout, from To Kill A Mockingbird) and I even got to chat a bit with Felix Silla out in the parking lot who, among many other things, played Cousin Itt on the B&W TV series, the Addams Family.
I wandered around and found where John Noble was going to set up shop; he wasn’t there, yet, so I just continued to wander and browse. A little bit after noon, when the event was officially supposed to open, I saw John approach his table, so I stepped right up, set my poster box down, oh yes, my scrolling autograph poster box! A little something a threw together to accommodate the 5-foot long by 12-inch high LOTR:ROTK character poster that you can get from the NewLine Cinema website store. I bought this poster and decided to *try* and get all 20 (well, 19 if you count Smeagol and Gollum as one) celebrity signatures. I was concerned that handling this large poster would cause it to get damaged (creased, wrinkled, torn, etc.) so I designed and built a box that would hold the poster so it could be “rolled” to display the whole thing, marquee-style. This would protect it, but still make the different pictures easily accessible to sign. I used it at ORC to get the four hobbits and dwarf, and today, I was going for the steward.
It was well worth the extra $10 bucks to get in early, because when John and his daughter arrived, his assistant wasn’t there, yet, so the first few of us that were ready and waiting when he arrived got to chat and take pictures with the both of them for several unhurried minutes! I spoke a little with his daughter (Jessica?) who mentioned that she had met and became friends with Billy Boyd, and was starting to do work as an actor in Australia. (I could easily believe that – as you can see in the picture I took of them, she is quite pretty!) I asked John about the scene where he catches on fire; it seemed to me that in the film, he was already on fire before Shadowfax kicked him up onto the pyre, but, no, he was not. The flames I saw were simply behind him. I then showed him my poster box, and the signatures I’d already acquired, and both he and his daughter were duly impressed. His assistant arrived, and I bought two signatures from him; one for the poster, and another on one of the glossy 8x10s he had available. A nice, amiable fellow who really enjoys talking with fans, taking pictures, and *he* reached out to shake *my* hand! After that, I left immediately, and I regret doing that, because I forgot there were a few other celebrities I would have have liked to at least seen (Kim Darby in particular – she was so great in True Grit and the Star Trek episode, Miri).
As a side note: after leaving the convention center, I made my way to the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM) in downtown LA, because I somehow found out on the web that there was a free display of costumes from a dozen or so movies, including LOTR:ROTK! There were a total of five LOTR costumes: the Pelennor Fields Morgul Lord w/Mace(!), Eowyn’s green dress, Aragorn’s Black Gates Gondorian Battle Uniform, Arwen’s red dress, and Theoden’s Pellenor Fields battle armor w/shield. Really nice to be able to inspect these costumes up close, with no glass or barriers in the way; the legendary detail on these is for real! You could really stick your nose up close, but don’t touch! Unfortunately, they didn’t allow photographs, but I did get a picture of the Ringwraith on Steed in the FIDM’s atrium. This display will be there until April 23rd. If you’re in the area, go see it. They also had Viggo’s costume from Hidalgo; costumes from movies such as Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Vanity Fair, Spiderman 2 (with Doctor Octopus – arms and all!), and even the puppets’ costumes from the movie, Team America World Police! Find out more about it by going to seeing-stars.com
Kathryn from The Powerhouse Museum writes: I am writing to you from the Powerhouse Museum Members department, and was given your email address by one of our LoTR exhibition volunteers. We have organised a series of talks and workshops with various people from WETA Workshops. The first two feature head of WETA Richard Taylor, who will be performing an application of prosthetics and makeup to Jed Brophy on Saturday 26 February, while on Sunday 27 February he will be giving a talk with Tania Rodgers about their experiences on-set. We look very likely to have other events featuring LoTR behind the scenes talent in the next few weeks.
I hope that some of your members may be interested in these events, I have forwarded an e-card below. All bookings are through TicketMaster 7 with a two day pass costing $75 for non-members. (Powerhouse Members get both days for $70 as well as free unlimited entry to The Lord of the Rings Motion Picture Trilogy- the exhibition.)
Unless you let me know otherwise, I will send further details to this email address as they come to hand about other special events that we are running in conjunction with the exhibition.
If you would like any further information please do not hesitate to contact me directly. You can also check out the information on our website.
