Today is Marton Csokas Birthday! Marton was born on June 30th, 1966 in New Zealand. That makes him 39 today, happy birthday Marton!

Tim writes: The cast and crew of “The Dork of the Rings” will be quite busy this August making appearances and running seminars on the making of the film at Gen Con in Indianapolis and Elf: A Weekend of Wonder in Orlando, as well as having the UK premiere of their trailer and footage at The Fellowship Festival. The film is currently in post-production with plans for a Spring 2006 release. [More]

The fantasy-laden, visually stunning “Lord of the Rings” films had the benefit of computer-enhanced animation, but when it came to bringing J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” to the small stage at Harwich Junior Theatre, director Lisa Canto was on her own—no high-tech studio graphics for this production. “I have to use real bodies and real makeup,” Canto said in an interview last week, just days before opening night. “But I’ve taken on the challenge with full gusto.” [More]

Twin Australian filmmakers Michael and Peter Spierig told SCI FI Wire that they were inspired to make their zombie thriller film Undead by audience reaction to some of New Zealand director Peter Jackson’s early schlock horror movies. “One of [my] best movie experiences was seeing Braindead [aka Dead Alive] in Brisbane,” Peter Spierig said in an interview (he and his brother, Michael, both attended Brisbane’s Queensland College of Art). “The audience had never seen anything like that, and it was so good. The audience went nuts.” [More]

Ringer Feather Iron visited the LOTR exhibit at the Houston Museum of Natural Science and was able to get a couple of pictures. She writes: “I found the exhibit itself to be really nice. There were three rooms total, a life-size Treebeard, Sauron, Lurtz and cave troll. There is lots of making-of stuff and all the great costumes. There is a room you go in that is round and dark and it has the ring in the middle of it. You hear all the clips from the movie concerning the ring and there is fire all around you. It’s very hard to describe but really cool. Seeing the costumes and the armoury up close was amazing.” [More]