Amazing dollhouse based on Bag End, the hobbit hole of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins from The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. (via Boing Boing)
Orcs!
The Lord of the Rings musical moves closer a March 23 opening night in Toronto and the set designer isn’t even nervous!
It doesn’t sound like there’ll be a chorus line of dancing Orcs or a rendition of “Don’t Cry for Me Minas Tirith.” Ah well.
Ringers: on DVD today
The definitive film about Lord of the Rings fans is now available on DVD.
Amazon.com says:
Of all the documentaries devoted to J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy classic, Ringers: Lord of the Fans is the first and only one to respectfully honor the good-natured depth and breadth of Lord of the Rings fandom… Actor Dominic Monaghan (“Merry” from Jackson’s trilogy, before joining the ensemble cast of Lost) perfectly delivers the film’s eloquent narration, which runs the LOTR gamut from intellectual appreciation to the hilarious eccentricities of über-fan obsession. Unfailingly noble in spirit and delightfully comprehensive, Ringers is a collector’s gift that can proudly stand alongside Tolkien’s books and Jackson’s timeless movie trilogy.
Something else for the Christmas list!
Kids love hobbits, right?
Changes in George Lucas’s Lord of the Rings: Special Edition. Rather predictable, but good for a giggle or two. (via The Movie Blog, which also gives George props.)
Search for Hobbits widens
Rivendell, Minas Tirith, even Lothlórien. But Indonesia? Merry and Pippin got around.
Tolkien and Lewis… friends and rivals?
The Scotsman has a fascinating article on the friendship between two of Britain’s most beloved literary figures.
CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien were the closest of friends, one struggling to make his fantasy world of Middle Earth a literary reality, the other trying to convince friends his first book about Narnia deserved to be published.
But new research has revealed that their friendship was riven by the most bitter and personal of rows on everything from literature to religion and even their choice of spouse.
The fascinating revelations about their real relationship have been made by film-maker Norman Stone while researching a new drama-documentary on the life of Lewis. Stone, who made the award-winning movie about Lewis, Shadowlands, talked to mutual friends of the literary pair as well as examining documents in minute detail.
The drama-documentary is scheduled to air on the Hallmark Channel in the US this December. The BBC is hoping to air it at the same time.
Video: They’re taking the hobbits to Isengard!
Watch this for Erwin Beekveld’s trance techno look at the kidnap of the Hobbits. You’ll laugh. I promise.
The house that Hobbits built
The BBC reports that the British government has named JRR Tolkien’s house as a listed building.
This means that “protected status” will be awarded to the Oxford home where Tolkien wrote “The Hobbit” and much of “LOTRs.”
And you thought SW fans were crazy…
Quite possibly the freakiest fandom story ever has made it into mainstream media with Hobbits gone wrong, a cover story into Portland’s Willamette Week. It’s an odd story of LOTR ‘charity’ fansites, Sean Astin, a missing person, and a whole lot of waylaid cash.
The article provides a good overview – an more details can be found at fwgreatesthits, an ofshoot of the fandom point-and-laugh community fandom wank.