News Archive

Digital Spy report that Guillermo del Toro has denied rumors that The Hobbit will be delayed until 2012. Del Toro said that they are still on track to start filming in New Zealand in the upcoming months.

At 9pm (local times) on January 3rd fans around the world are invited to raise a glass and toast J.R.R. Tolkien’s Birthday.

The Birthday Toast event should be understood to consist of uttering the time-honoured words “The Professor” and holding aloft a drink (not necessarily alcoholic) of an individual’s choice.

The Tolkien Society has some webpages here where fans across the globe can let other fans know where they’ll be celebrating if they’re hosting a party, or just what particular beverage they’ll be raising. Fans will be able to check the website and see who is celebrating where and if they wish to get in touch and join in.

“The Hunt for Gollum”, a Lord of the Rings inspired film made by fans for fans, will be coming out in 2009 online only, but meanwhile they’ve aired their first full trailer on their website. You can check it out here.

Changes are coming to the Humor Section in 2009, including a brand-new area, called Pippin’s Picture Parodies, and the re-opening for submissions in Haldir’s Pretty Pictures! But I need your help, as members! Click here for more information!

Today December 17th is Bernard Hill’s birthday. Bernard was born in 1944 in Manchester, England and celebrates his 64th birthday. You can read his cast bio here. In the CoE gallery there are pictures of Bernard here and of Bernard in the role of Théoden here.

Happy Birthday Bernard!

Today, December 16th is Miranda Otto’s birthday. She was born in Brisbane, Australia in 1967, and is 41 today. You can read her cast bio here. In the CoE gallery there are pictures of Miranda here and of Miranda in the role of Eowyn here.

Happy Birthday Miranda!

Ew.com is recalling the best oscar winning directors from five, ten, fifteen, twenty, and twenty five years ago. Peter Jackson won best director oscar for the Return of the King in 2004.
You can vote for The Return of the King and Peter Jackson here.

In Spain, plans are underway to make a whole Lord of the Rings themed tourist destination with a lot of the communities, people, and craftsmenship unique to Tolkien’s creation. It will be located in the Sierra Norte, a shire formed by 42 municipalities placed in the most Northern triangle of the Community of Madrid. The creators say:
“It was discovered that a map of the area, when superimposed on a map of Middle Earth, revealed a similarity of sixty per cent of the topography, i.e.: mountains in the same places, names which bear close resemblance, also rivers and forests. This caused us to seriously consider the possibility of recreating a miniature landscape of Middle Earth in the region, whereby a study team was formed, and technical experts consulted with a view to investigating further the viablity of this idea.”

You can click here to go to their website, and download a pdf with the entire idea and plans for Middle Earth cities so you can get an idea of what its all about–and put “Little Middle Earth” on your to-do list!

Dominic Monaghan was born on December 8, 1976 in Berlin, Germany.Yesterday was his 32nd birthday.

You can see pictures of Dominic here, pictures of Dominic in the role of Merry here and read his cast bio here.

Hope you had a happy birthday, Dominic.

A new book was recently published by Palgrave Macmillan and written by Dr Dimitra Fimi,”Race and Cultural History: From Fairies to Hobbits.” You can view the author’s website here.
The author sums it up for us:
“My book is a new analysis of Tolkien’s mythology, looking at his creative vision from the perspective of cultural history. My main research question was how Tolkien’s fiction fits with the cultural and historical milieu of the period he was writing. I wanted to examine Tolkien’s work not as a peculiar and idiosyncratic one-off in 20th-century fiction, but as an integral part of it.”