We’ve been inundated with question about how to find out what theater in what cities will be carrying the Hobbit extended edition trilogy showings, now all but confirmed to be scheduled during the first two weeks of October. So far, we’ve only had confirmations from readers in U.S. locations. But, it turns out there might be an easy way to find out more.
TORn staffer Justin recommends doing a search at movietickets.com at this link. The current link is designed to search for movie times for BOFTA, but can easily be re-set for the other two movies. Remember that not all theaters in your area may have it on their schedule yet, so until we get more definitive official information, don’t despair just yet if your local theater doesn’t appear on the search. Another thing to note is, when I did a search on my area, my local theater’s date for BOFTA was Wednesday, October 14, not the 13th as we reported yesterday. So, it appears that each theater may have some leeway as to when it’s going to be shown, or the dates aren’t set in stone yet.
Unfortunately, this particular search is designed to enter a U.S. zip code. But don’t despair just yet either if you’re not a U.S. resident. There are undoubtedly similar movie search sites for the country you live in. If you find them, and more importantly, if you find showings in locations outside the U.S., let us know.
Regarding questions as to whether we’ll be publishing a list of all the theaters that will be showing the trilogy, the answer is: no. With today’s search engine’s, and cell phones, it’s easy enough to do your own search or call your local theater, not to mention that such a list could be hundreds of theaters long and we’d rather spend our time bringing you new articles, and updates to articles, like this one.
As many of you already know, there is sad news in our community of fans today: Sir Christopher Lee passed away Sunday morning at the age of 93 due to respiratory problems and heart failure. Of course, we all came to know and love him for his role as the evil wizard, Saruman, in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies, a role that came at the end of a long, and very distinguished career as an actor in horror movies and other dramas. For many of us, it’s difficult to picture a better Count Dracula than Christopher Lee. But, for many more of us, it’s impossible to think of anyone else playing the role of Saruman. All of the professionalism, passion and dedication of his long career shone out in that role, making it perfection.
From the U.K. telegraph website, here is a nice obituary, and a short video of his career highlights. Námarië, Sir Christopher. You are dearly loved and will be dearly missed!
This is it! The Finals are set! An epic battle of historic proporations! In one corner we have Gandalf, the Istar responsible for helping save the fate of all Middle-earth. In the other, Bilbo Baggins, the Hobbit who would successfully weild and then, more importantly, pass on the most powerful object in Middle-earth, The One Ring.
Since this is the finals, we are not going to share the results until the contest is complete. So you will NOT see a percentage of votes when you cast your own vote. Don’t fret, the committee will be monitoring the competition behind the scenes.
Middle-earth March Madness has been touched by scandal! When we tallied the votes in our Elite Eight round-up last night, we noticed the votes in The Hobbit division were suspciously more than those of the other divisions. While yes, certain match-ups spur passionate participation, the numbers on this particular match-up were significantly different. So we dug a little bit deeper. As it turns out, one person managed to bypass the system and vote 2300 times!
As the commissioner of Middle-earth March Madness, I took it upon myself to resolve the issue. I converted those 2300 votes to 1 vote. I also reviewed any other multiple votes and converted those to a single vote. As a result, the winner of The Hobbit division for 2015 is…. Bilbo!
So we have our Final Four!
The Silmarillion division winner is, not too surprisingly, the creator of all existence, Eru Ilúvatar. Eru will face off against Bilbo Baggins, fresh off an attempt to wipe him out of this entire tournament!
Coming out of The Lord of the Rings, non other than Gandalf! Can he easy sweep past The Others division winner, Hurin? Or will Hurin pull off the biggest upset of the year!
Stay tuned and vote!
Voting in this round will remain open until April 6th at 10pm ET. And oh yes, you can count us keeping a close eye on any potential cheaters out there!
No April Fools here folks! We’ve reached the Elite Eight in our 2015 Middle-earth March Madness! This round will determine who will represent each division!
Because today is April 1st, and there are a slew of April Fool’s jokes out there, we’re going to just get right too it! Can (4) Bilbo take out the tournament Cinderella, (11) Thranduil? Can (14) Elrond really take out (5) Gandalf?
We are down to the Sweet Sixteen as the chase to crown the 2015 Middle-earth March Madness champion continues!
Look for special analysis of the match-ups in this round coming soon!
But what about you? Have any strong opinions about this round? Send us a report and it just may make it to the homepage of TheOneRing.net! Email spymaster@theonering.net with your display name and a small bio, and article.