The SilmarillionIt’s the film project that many of us fear we may never see. Yet surely, with time, all may be possible. In this article, Rud the Spud takes a look at how a trilogy based on Professor Tolkien’s The Silmarillion might be constructed – should such a project ever come to fruition – and discusses whether or not it could possibily live up to the Professor’s massive collection of stories. Continue reading “How would ‘The Silmarillion’ fare as a film trilogy?”

TORn Amateur Symposium The folks of the TORn message board Reading Room, the section of our forums devoted to discussion of Tolkien’s literary works, have just put out for a call for papers for the third TORn Amateur Symposium (also known as TAS3).

The first two TORn Amateur Symposiums last year published 22 essays on topics as varied as The Physics of The Hobbit, The Corrupting Nature of The One Ring, Concepts of Healing in Middle-earth, The Matter of Glorfindel, and Music and Race in Howard Shore’s Score.

TAS is an opportunity for those who love Middle-earth to share their ideas on Tolkien-related subjects in a longer written form. Continue reading “Call for papers: the third TORn Amateur Symposium”

LotR GoogleSo, you’re going out for a Sunday drive. You travel down the street, you make a left turn on Aragorn… what’s that you say? You don’t have streets in your neighborhood named after Tolkien characters? Well, plainly you don’t live in the town of Geldrop, in the Netherlands.

As residents of the area can tell you, every street in this neighborhood is named after a character or location from Professor Tolkien’s Middle-earth. You’ll find names from The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and even The Silmarillion. Continue reading “Tolkien characters found at every turn in Dutch neighborhood”

Academy Of Motion Pictures And Sciences' 2009 Governors Awards Gala - ArrivalsFilm Producer Saul Zaentz has passed away at the age of 92. Many Tolkien fans will know him as the man who held the film rights to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings – but he was so much more: a true Hollywood legend, with countless film projects to his name. He won many Oscars, including Best Picture wins for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The English Patient, and my very favorite film of all time (perhaps with the exception of The Lord of the Rings trilogy) – Amadeus. Continue reading “Academy Award winning Producer Saul Zaentz dies at age 92”

Smaug WETA Temp CoverDue to be released
on April 1 (no, not an April fools joke), the new book Smaug: Unleashing the Dragon comes from the same wonderful team behind the three The Hobbit: Chronicles books. This release will be 96 pages, exploring the creation of the title character of the second Hobbit film from concept art to digital realization. Final cover art is not yet available, but you can order the book on Weta’s website as well as Amazon.com and other online book stores. Continue reading “‘Smaug: Unleashing the Dragon’ now available for pre-order on Amazon.com”

Yahoo! Movies ExclusiveIt’s safe to say that following the release of any film adaptation, conversation naturally veers to discussing divergences from the original work and creative license taken by the filmmakers. But what of those moments in which the film follows the lead of the novel more closely? A couple of
days ago, over on our forums, Ringer Barrow-Wight started a topic, including a LIST of many moments throughout The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, in which events and/or dialogue were very faithfully transferred from book to film. We’ve got it below for you to read.

After you take a look at Barrow-Wight’s list, be sure to check out this link, posted further down in the thread, which examines the differences between the films and the book: “The Hobbit: A List of Differences between the movies and the book” Continue reading “From The Hobbit to An Unexpected Journey: A look at the similarities and differences of a film adaptation”