Today, October 31st, is Peter Jackson’s birthday. He was born in Pukerua Bay, North Island, New Zealand in 1961 and is 47 years old today. You can read his crew bio here.
In the CoE Gallery there are pictures of Peter in his own section and photos throughout the general cast and crew section.
Filming has started on Born of Hope, a prequel to the Lord of the Rings movies. The film will tell the story of Arathorn and Gilraen (Aragorn’s parents) and will be released on the internet in 2009.
Director Kate Robinson has commented; “We want to show people more of a back-story for Aragorn. Based on Tolkien’s writings in the Appendices of the books we look at Aragorn’s people and show the relationship between his parents.” You can read the full story here.
If you have money to spare you might like to think about bidding for a letter written by Tolkien in which he apologizes for the long delay in publishing volume 3 of The Lord of the Rings.
The letter goes on sale on 4th November 2008 at Bonhams, London, UK with an estimate of £2000 to £3000. You can read a transcript of the letter here.
We have hit the magic number of 10!
And to celebrate this occassion, and write about something, in this case someone, we all hold dear, the theme of this contest is J.R.R. Tolkien.
So sharpen your pencils and your typing fingers, and give your contribution to celebrate a great creator, and a great person.
You will find the contest with rules and dates here.
In a interview with MTV, Del Toro says Hugo Weaving, Andy Serkis, and Ian McKellen must be approached to do the movie. He talks about his plans for “The Hobbit” , including news on Smaug, Doug Jones as an Elven King, Guillermo Navarro, and Elrond.
Patrick Acton, the owner and founder of “Matchstick Marvels” is currently undertaking a huge project in making a large model (out of matchsticks, of course) of the city of Minas Tirith. You can view photos of the model at his website.
Del Toro reports that he, Jackson, and Jackson’s writing team are collaborating together very nicely.
“It’s working so well that the overall script for “The Hobbit” will hopefully be done “by the change of the year,” del Toro said. “And then a budget in the very near future.”
You can read the full story here.
In a blog on MTV.com, Del Toro, who is to direct the Hobbit, is having thoughts of flying solo on the directing part of the movie, and let Jackson just stay on the producing end of things.
“We talked about it. I normally oppose fully the idea of second unit so my first instinct is no, we will not have second unit on this film,” Del Toro said of whether or not Jackson might at some point get behind the camera. “If there is a scheduling conflict or a problem of that sort, we may consider it, but right now the idea is I shoot everything.”
In conversation with New Yorker staff writer Daniel Zalewski,Guillermo del Toro talked about the forthcoming films of The Hobbit. He reveals a lifelong fascination with dragons, some of his thoughts about the role of Smaug in the movies, why he has to remain “tight lipped” about the return of the Wargs and more. You can read further details at comingsoon.net.