I work part-time as a bookseller at Waldenbooks, a division of Borders International. Anyway, today I was intrigued to find a large white envelope lying upon my manager’s desk with a bright orange sticker with white lettering on the front proclaiming’Lord of the Rings material inside.” The return address read as follows:

Marketing Dept.
Houghton Mifflin
222 Berkeley St.
Boston, MA 02116

Needless to say (me being a Tolkien fanatic like the rest of you) my curiosity was piqued. The package was already opened so I had no moral qualms about reaching inside and taking a gander at whatever treasure it might hold. I drew forth some curious items:

1. A ‘Teacher’s Aid’ for helping to teach Lord of the Rings to students.
2. Something called a ‘shelf talker’ with a whole bunch of movie art and photos that’s meant to be put up in the fantasy section.

I also found this EXTREMELY interesting letter which I photocopied and am now reproducing exactly…

Houghton Mifflin HOT TITLE ALERT

THE LORD OF THE RINGS by J.R.R. Tolkien

Now a movie from New Line Cinema!

Dear Bookseller:

J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic adventure THE LORD OF THE RINGS is coming to a theater near you! The movie, directed by Peter Jackson, releases next year, but the trailer…

…is in the theaters December 8th

Tolkien sales spiked last spring after 10 million people downloaded the film teaser released on-line.

Please place the enclosed shelf talker in your fantasy section immediately!

We’ve included the ISBNs of our best-selling Tolkien backlist to help you order up today; and please let us know if you’d like more Teacher’s Guides.

Are you ready for the movie of the year?!
Shelf Talker
Full-color, featuring movie art, ‘¹/₂‘ (ISBN: 0-618-13857-9 /NC)

For a complete, annotated listing of our best-selling Tolkien-titles, please visit our web-site: www.lordoftheringstrilogy.com

For the latest movie news, please visit:

www.lordoftherings.net

To order, please contact your Houghton Mifflin sales rep or call / fax customer service at (800) 225-3362, Fax (800)634-7568

————

That was the whole letter, and boy was I surprised when I read that whole December 8th part! The only New Line film I know of being released that day is the Dungeons and Dragons films.

What happened to ’13 Days?’

Well, I quickly grabbed that letter, photocopied it, and retyped it. Now I pass it on to you all for judgment…

-Leonides

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Ringer Spy WaiSpy sends along some great pics from the Minas Tirith set.

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At first glance it’s obvious. Of course it’s an elephant.

But on closer inspection it becomes apparent that this is a very big elephant, more like several woolly mammoths rolled into one than the comparatively tiny frame of say, Kashin, from Auckland Zoo. [More]

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Hi there TORN people,
I went to look at the Mount Victoria Set after seeing it in the Evening Post. I live out at Lyall Bay so I knew the set that used to be out that way.
The set at Mount Victoria does almost look identical to it, with the same type of tents that have beautiful detailing around the entrance-ways. The layout of the Mount Victoria set is almost identical to the set that used to be at Lyall Bay.
But I do not think they are reshooting scenes that someone wrote in about though I did see the same sort of soldiers at the new set: Rohan soldiers, mounted on horses, and foot soldiers.
The following might be a clue to where this set is meant to be: I saw a woman dressed as a man, with a hobbit. I never saw a woman and a Hobbit at the Lyall Bay set. I have only read the book once some years ago so I don’t know the story that well. But I do remember there being a Lady of Rohan, who dressed as a man, and went into battle with a hobbit. Sorry I don’t remember their names. I will leave that up to you to work out!

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It seems fitting that so close to the end of filming, the crews should return to the place where they first started shooting, Mt. Vic. An eyewitness sent in this report:

“The New Film Set

There is a new film set in Mount Victoria. One drives up a residential street and there it is situated in a clearing at the bottom of the town belt. I don’t know how they are going to keep this one secret as it is in a public area and is also behind some residential houses. The public can view the set clearly from walking tracks above the set. The set has identical tents that were at the Lyall Bay set. I believe they are reshooting scenes that they did out at the Lyall Bay set, as this set is identical. It is below a very steep bank and is surrounded by pine trees. If they were to use Lyall Bay to reshoot these scenes, they would have to replant the area with trees as the Lyall Bay area, that they used in the past, is very barren. If people cast there minds back to Lyall Bay, they will remember that Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) was there preparing to leave for the paths of the Dead !

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WAITING GAME: Extras of the two and four-legged kind complete with armour and shields wait for their cue during filming of a scene from The Lord of The Rings on Wellington’s Mt Victoria yesterday.

Thanks to MN for the tip!

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