If you are a bird that does not fly, having two legs is pretty important. So when a wild kiwi lost one of his legs below the knee to a gin trap, a New Zealand zoo decided to help out this iconic native bird. The zoo decided to see if it could fit a prosthetic leg to the North Island brown kiwi. For help, the zoo turned to its neighbours – the Wellington Artificial Limb Board and the Weta Workshop, makers of special effects for movies such as Lord of the Rings and King Kong. To create a mould of the bird’s stump, Gina Acevedo, prosthetic and visual creature effects art director at Weta Workshop, used the same techniques on the kiwi as he would on a film star. [More]
Category: Original TORn
From gaminghorizon.com: Sony Computer Entertainment has announced that Ninja Theory is hard at work on Heavenly Sword for the PlayStation 3…When the invading King (played by Andy Serkis) destroys the warrior clan that guards the Heavenly Sword, the clan leader’s daughter, Nariko, takes up the sword in a desperate fight for survival. Nariko must now pay the ultimate price as she embarks on one last mission of vengeance against the King and his army before her life is finally drawn to a close. Andy Serkis, the world’s leading CG actor, famous for his roles as Gollum in “The Lord of the Rings” and Kong in “King Kong”, was heavily involved in the creative process. As well as starring in Heavenly Sword as the villain, King Botan, Andy was a major contributor to the character development, writing, casting, directing and performance capture for the PLAYSTATION 3 game. [More]
Adele sends this in: North Country native and Hollywood superstar Viggo Mortensen will be one of three former graduates to be honored at St. Lawrence University’s Commencement on Sunday, May 21st. [More]
The New Zealand feature film THE FERRYMAN commenced principal photography in Auckland, on 31 March and is well on track to wrap on Saturday 13 May. This official NZ/UK co-production is produced by key producing partners Matthew Metcalfe (Nemesis Game) and Atlantic Film’s Alan Harris (Wallis & Edward). Developed initially by New Zealand producer Matthew Metcalfe, this production rallied from concept to production in only 14 months…This independent New Zealand horror has attracted a strong local as well as international award-winning cast including Emmy-Nominated John Rhys-Davies (The Lord of the Rings, Indiana Jones); Kerry Fox (An Angel At My Table, Shallow Grave) winner of the Silver Bear at Berlin in 2001 for her Leading role in Intimacy; Tamer Hassan (The Business, Football Factory); Craig Hall (The World’s Fastest Indian, King Kong, Perfect Creature); Julian Arahanga (Once Were Warriors, The Matrix); Lawrence Makoare (The Lord of the Rings, Die Another Day), Amber Sainsbury (Channelling Baby). [More]
Kerewyn sends along this review from worldwidewords.org: The Ring of Words : Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary “It’s little known that, before he wrote his famous books, Tolkien worked as a sub-editor at the Oxford English Dictionary for two years, helping to compile the last section to be published. Peter Gilliver, Jeremy Marshall, and Edmund Weiner—the authors of this book—are among the present-day senior editors of the same work. Their commemoration of his linguistic facility comes a little late to the Tolkien party, but will interest anybody who regards the language of the books to be one of their prime qualities.”
Pre-Order ‘The Ring of Words : Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary’ on Amazon.com today!
From gaming.hexus.net: The completely new Spyro adventure, featuring gameplay focused heavily on dynamic action and fast-paced combat, uncovers the true origin of Spyro the Dragon as he evolves into a living, breathing weapon of explosive destruction! This epic story of Spyro’s quest to discover his roots and realize his destiny is amazingly brought to life by leading Hollywood voice-over cast members Elijah Wood (Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings trilogy) as the new voice of Spyro; David Spade (The Benchwarmers) as Spyro’s sidekick Sparx the dragonfly; and Gary Oldman (Sirius Black from the Harry Potter films) as Ignitus, the Fire Dragon Elder and Spyro’s mentor. [More]