A recent CNN story about film tourism featured a woman who enjoyed two guided tours of LOTR film locations. Of course I was curious to know whether the woman, Michele Maro, had taken the Red Carpet tours that are advertised on TORN. A chat to RC tour director Vic James confirmed that indeed Michele had enjoyed her Red Carpet experience so much that she’d returned for a second tour – and she’s not the only one to have done that. “You’d be surprised how many people come back because they want to do the tour again to meet new LOTR friends or see New Zealand in a different season,” James says.

The Hobbit
“The Hobbit,” has to be cast but that just leaves more time for fans to speculate, guess and suggest regarding the casting of the two-films planned by producer Peter Jackson and director Guillermo del Toro.

There are a few givens. According to the decision makers, as many of the main characters that appear in both Jackson’s LOTR trilogy and GDT’s Hobbit films will be cast using existing actors from those roles as possible. And while media outlets trying to create news about the film have asked any actor they can find if they will appear, the list of sure crossovers are relatively small.

Ian Holm, approaching 80 years old, has stated that he is too old to play Bilbo because of the physical demands of the role and the required relocation to New Zealand. So the search for the main character is on. Most readers will be familiar with characters like Gandalf that belong to actors such as Ian McKellen so they will not be rehashed here because there is no debate about who will fill the role.

Read inside to find lists of names with links to help fans become familiar with many of the offered suggestions. Continue reading “Casting ‘The Hobbit,’ via TORn’s message boards”

Illustrated by Michael Hague
Illustrated by Michael Hague
Fictional Frontiers Radio show host Sohaib Awan talked to Hobbit Illustrator Michael Hague about The Hobbit films. Below is the partial transcript, the bit regarding the Hobbit … Micahel is such a fan of the Lord of the Rings films and is looking forward to seeing the Hobbit films.

I’m just excited as a filmgoer to watch these films when they come out. I’m jazzed by it!

 
You can read the transcript below and discuss in the Main Forum.
Continue reading “Sohaib Awan Talks to Illustrator Michael Hague on The Hobbit”

Our friends at Popcorn Taxi have come through with the audio of their August 18 Q&A with Guillermo del Toro regarding Hellboy II to transcribe. The biggest bombshell of the night came near the end of the 42 minute session: The first official news that the scripting team of Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and Guillermo del Toro had begun writing The Hobbit. Here’s how Guillermo described the breaking news:

Guillermo:

“Well the only thing I can say is that we are now finally and officially and merrily in progression on the scripting process. We are all actively working on it and having a grand time at it. It keeps transforming and changing and it is ‘the most beautiful’ writing experience of my life, I’m enjoying it tremendously – and there’s bound to be news soon enough.”

 

Without further adieu, here is the transcript in full of the Q&A session. The Hobbit news can be found at (41:21) on the last page. I would encourage everyone to read the full transcript as Guillermo talks in depth about his early interests in automatons and clocks, his characters, cast, monsters fairies and vampires, children’s books, CGI and effects, his childhood, The Golden Compass, spirituality, his inspirations and his perspective of the world he perceives.

 

  Continue reading ““The most beautiful writing experience of my life” ~ Guillermo talks scripting The Hobbit”

Show us Your Hobbit Pride Giveaway

TheOneRing.net is proud to announce the winning entries into the ‘Show your Hobbit Pride’ Giveaway.First and foremost – thank you to all who participated. The entries were all top-notch, and we wish we could award something to everyone who participated! Congrats to everyone who entered – it is quite apparent that Hobbit Pride truly swells here at TheOneRing.net.We’d also like to thank our sponsors Houghton Mifflin and Sideshow Collectibles.

[Read More and View the Winners]