Maybe it’s the time zones, but I really thought that John Howe’s interview with Empire about The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power was coming out tomorrow. Instead, if you’re keen (and an Apple News subscriber), you can read it right now over on Apple News.

The interview expands on the teaser Empire provided the other day, that “this is not the Middle-earth you remember”. Instead, it’s a story of a different time (the Second Age), when Middle-earth was visually and politically a different place.

An excerpt:

Howe can’t elaborate on what that tale may be, but does hint that it takes place against a backdrop of “Sauron’s rise to power, the forging of the Rings of Power and the epic tale of [human city] Númenor” — all events with important repercussions for Middle-earth.

“I was convinced the Hobbit trilogy would be the last we’d see of Middle-earth on film,” Howe admits, explaining that it took an exciting new approach to Lord Of The Rings lore to unlock a story worth telling.

Read the full interview with John Howe on Apple News.

IGN reports that, during an interview at the 2022 Calgary Expo, Sean Astin confided that the “preview” for The Rings of Power gave him “the chills”.

“I for one am excited,” he said. “I saw the preview for it, and it gave me chills. It looked like they got it. I’ve been saying the whole time, they’re gonna do it right. There’s no way Amazon is gonna pay almost a billion dollars for a franchise just to screw it up.”

Sean Astin at Calgary Expo 2022

(Ed: it’s a bit ambigiguous, but we’re pretty sure Sean means the teaser trailer and that, unlike, the Vanity Fair folks, he has not seen the initial episodes.)

Astin, who was being interviewed by bestselling author Sam Maggs, said he hopes the Amazon TV series will bring new fans and renewed awareness to Peter Jackson’s films. And he added that, even if the series didn’t prove a hit, he still supported the attempt and “people with being determined and trying and expressing themselves.”

“I feel that way about all remakes. You have classics that you think ‘please don’t touch that,’ but the truth is, nothing can ever take it away.”

Read more at IGN here.

“Sam” (Sean Astin) fends off the attack of Shelob in New Line’s epic film, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.  Photo: Pierre Vinet/ New Line Productions  2003

IGN writer Cian Maher spoke with Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd as part of their seven show re-union tour of North America.

As well as sharing a few of the foursome’s many reminisces of their moments together on the set of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings, Maher observes that even now they share a close bond and friendship.

An excerpt:

“Billy said this thing recently about the scene of second breakfast, where we stop and Aragorn is saying, ‘What’s going on?’ and we have the second breakfast thing,” he says. “I didn’t remember this, but Billy is totally right and jogged my memory. That was an incredibly rushed scene because it started flash-snowing [Wood clarifies that this was in November, so this shouldn’t have happened in the Southern Hemisphere]. And Pete basically came over to us and was like, ‘You’ve got about 45 minutes to an hour to get this and go, otherwise we’re in real trouble with all of our gear.’ And we got what ended up being a real amazing moment in the film, but it was fast.”

“It was meant to be like a half day’s work,” says Wood. “It was so fast.”

Boyd explains that as an actor, that kind of hastiness usually leads to disappointment. Astin, meanwhile, recalls being concerned that maybe not everyone cared about a scene the hobbits were all excited about because it wasn’t strictly necessary for the film.

“But then it becomes a scene that a lot of people talk about,” says Boyd. “And it was honestly done in like, an hour. And then we’re sitting on washing machines drinking whiskey like… what just happened?

Read the full interview on IGN

When TheOneRing.net marked its 10th anniversary in 2009, we celebrated in style.  We had such a good time, we decided to celebrate every year on April 26, the date when TORn was established.  Today is our 13th Founders Day Anniversary and our 23rd Anniversary (TORniversary).

This year is also a celebration of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring 20-year release.  The Founders Day games theme will be about The Fellowship of the Ring.

Continue reading “Welcome to TORn Founders Day – 2022!”

On April 26, 2009, TheOneRing.net marked its 10th anniversary with a huge celebration. It was quickly agreed that the TORn-born Founders Day holiday would be an annual event.  The Discussion Board members wanted a proper logo to mark each year; so being fans of J.R.R. Tolkien, we decided a Party Tree would be perfect!  Discussion Board member Ainu Laire gave us this lovely elvish design to build upon. Every year, a unique leaf has been added to mark each TORniversary.  So, beginning with our 11th Founders Day/Anniversary/TORniversary (also like Tolkien… there are several names applied ;), we planted our Founders Day Party tree with a leaf for our 10th and 11th TORniversaries (2009 & 2010).  We have just added our 23rd Anniversary Leaf (2022).  Please see below for the description of each year’s leaf. Continue reading “TORn’s Founders Day Party Tree – 2022”

If the smallest person can change the course of the history…what can one of the largest officially licensed Lord of the Rings collectible do? Impress some friends – that’s for sure!

Our friends over at Sideshow.com are now offering a six-foot tall Sauron life-size bust from Infinity Studio X Penguin Toys. No, no…you read that correctly. The scale of this item, priced at $5000, is immense.

We will include the fine details below, but in case you were wonder…YES…it comes with a full realized light up The One Ring, but alas, the finger is NOT removable! (Between us, that does feel like a bit of a lost opportunity)

Worried about the life-span on this investment? The whole piece is made up of a high grade fiberglass material, equivalent to that of a steel alloy – resistant to temperature fluctuations and humidity.

There are only 99 being made for the entire world…so if you have the money to spare, you probably don’t want to wait to get one on the secondary market. It is expected to starting shipping in November of this year. As a small aside, with anything thing big, don’t expect it to ship via a standard delivery service. Guaranteed this is one of those items that is going to arrive in a truck!

Continue reading “You Need to Check out this Life Size Sauron Bust!”