Jo writes: The White Tree Fund is hosting a Tolkien lecture in Toronto next Thursday, September 27 at 7.00 pm. It will be held at Hart House, University of Toronto. Dr. John Browne is speaking on “Tolkien as Wordsmith: One Reader’s Journey Through the Lord of the Rings”. Tickets are $10 if you’re a member of the Toronto smial or $15 for non-members. Please bring along any old children’s books or magazines to be donated to the Parkdale Project Read, a local literacy group. For more info and to get tickets see: www.whitetreeefund.org.

The History of the HobbitWhile there is no official news on ‘The Hobbit’ movie yet, we can always count on Houghton Mifflin to continue to put out wonderfully crafted publications from Tolkien’s universe. The lastest batch of new books, ‘The History of the Hobbit,’ are coming this Friday to stores new you, just in time for the 70th Anniversary of the publication of ‘The Hobbit!’

“A beautiful boxed set: the definitive examination of how Tolkien came to write his original masterpiece, including the complete unpublished draft and little-known illustrations and unpublished maps, along with a new edition of the classic work itself.”

The books are being sold individually and released on Friday, Sept 21st in bookstores nationwide. However, if you are interested in purchasing the two books together, along with the speciacl Anniversary Edition of ‘The Hobbit,’ you’ll need to wait until October 26th. All are available right now on Amazon.com for pre-order.

History of the Hobbit – Part 1 Part 2 Set

The Hobbit: 70th Anniversary Edition Discuss

Baker Imprisoned in Panama? No, you were not seeing things when you caught the season 3 premiere of ‘Prison Break’ tonight on FOX, that was Sala Baker. Baker, who played a few roles in the LOTR trilogy (most notably Sauron), had a small role as ‘World’ in tonight’s episode. Sharp eyed fans may have even caught his Eye of Sauron tattoo during the pivotal final fight scene!

Discuss

The MTV Movie Blog is back at it with more ‘Hobbit’ rumors, this time picking up on a suggestion started right here at TheOneRing.net’s very own message boards.

Martin Freeman as Bilbo?“…But one actor we wouldn’t want to see return is actually the actor when it comes to a Hobbit movie. While wizards and elves and part elf-men all age slowly (or not at all), hobbits get old quick, and we can’t imagine a 51-year-old Bilbo played by the same actor who brought him to life on his eleventy-first birthday.

But if not Ian, than who? How about “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” star Martin Freeman? Internet scuttlebutt has him front and center as a replacement candidate, and no one can argue that he doesn’t looks the part. So when we caught up with “The Office” alum while he was promoting his new film “The Good Night,” we asked him to address the hubbub…’

Granted Martin gets Hobbits and Goblins mixed up, we still think he looks pretty darn good for the role. Jump over the MTV for the Q/A and then rant and rave on the TORn boards.

MTV Movie Blog Discuss

Collectormania 7 Images
Today is Bruce Spence’s Birthday! Bruce Spence (born September 17, 1945) is an Australian character actor. He is perhaps most famous as the Gyro Captain in Mad Max 2 (also known as “The Road Warrior”) and Jedediah the pilot in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. He also performed the voice of Chum in Finding Nemo, the Mouth of Sauron in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, the Trainman in The Matrix Revolutions and Tion Medon in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith.