Here is the latest word from geek HQ down in Wellington and the good folks at WETA: G'day from New Zealand, Weta supporters! Well it's been another busy month here at Weta HQ, with lots of exciting developments!

WETA Newsletter: September 2007

It's time for Wellington to honour its home-town heroes says communications specialist Roger Ellis who is standing for the Wellington City Council in the Northern Ward. In recent years Wellington has produced some exceptional people. The whole world knows what Peter Jackson has almost single-handedly achieved - a major league movie industry right here in the suburbs of Wellington. He has received a theatre-load of awards from the good and the great throughout the world. "Yet to date the Wellington City Council has done little to honour this outstanding favourite son. The same could be said for Weta's Richard Taylor.

Tana Umaga Stadium, Peter Jackson Film Academy

Kristin Thompson, author of The Frodo Franchise: The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood, writes: I am going to be doing a signing event for The Frodo Franchise in New York on September 27. It starts at 7 pm at Barnes & Noble Upper West Side, 2289 Broadway at 82nd Street (MAP), tel. 212.362.8835. It should be an exciting evening, since Lord of the Rings co-producer Rick Porras will be joining me for a conversation before the signing! We’ll talk for perhaps half an hour and field questions for fifteen minutes or so.

'The Frodo Franchise' Booksigning in NY

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - New Zealand’s Mount Ruapehu erupted, spewing out ash and rock that injured one climber and forced around 50 people to be evacuated off the mountain, local media reported on Wednesday. The 10-minute eruption started at about 8.20 p.m. on Tuesday and sent a cloud of ash and dust to a height of 15,000 feet, Geological and Nuclear Sciences said.

Mountain featured in ‘Lord of the Rings’ erupts

Roheryn writes: The latest Entertainment Weekly article hails Viggo Mortensen's infamous bathhouse brawl in the buff as the harbinger of a new age of naked fight scenes. Huzzah!

Buff and Tumble

NEW YORK (AP) -- Viggo Mortensen is looking out the window. Across the street from his Manhattan hotel, he notices a man on a balcony and wonders aloud what the man is doing, what his life is. The moment makes him ponder, "What does that mean?" "Basically, I think life is relatively short," Mortensen concludes. "We're not here that long and I think we're lucky to be here. "And it makes sense to pay attention."

'It makes sense to pay attention'

Vanessa "Saffron" Price, Online Community Representative for The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar, writes: On your next visit to the Shire, be sure to tour the quiet and charming village of Whitfurrows. In true Hobbit fashion, it’s a pleasant place to meet and share tales (and second and third breakfasts!).

Exploring Middle-earth – Whitfurrows Discuss

She’s best known as one half of a powerhouse duo, but AJ Michalka is about to go solo in a big way, the 16-year-old singer beamed, revealing that she’s set to appear in Peter Jackson’s “King Kong” follow-up, “The Lovely Bones.” “It’s like a dream role,” she enthused, nearly jumping up and down with excitement. “I’m playing the best friend of the girl who gets murdered. I was flipping out [when I heard I won the part]. I’m really, really stoked.”

Pop Sensation AJ Michalka Cast In Jackson’s ‘Lovely Bones’

Henry Gee, the author of The Science of Middle-earth (which began life here on Green Books) has taken over the editor's chair at Mallorn, the Journal of the Tolkien Society. Mallorn is usually published annually and takes reviews, fiction, criticism and artwork of interest to Tolkien aficionadoes. But Henry wants to ramp up the journal's visibility, with a new design, more frequent publication and a change of focus. "Tom Shippey wrote that Tolkien was the Author of the (20th) Century", says Henry. "But that was then, and Mallorn will be there to chart Tolkien's evolving influence into the 21st". He can be reached at mallorn@tolkiensociety.org

Here's the news from Weta HQ this week.

Hercules [Link II]
Medieval [Link II]
Further details of Weta's work on Prince Caspian revealed
The Halo Warthog gets a test drive
Champ The Chopper launch a success
New Rayguns inspired fan art
Moon suit wearing character in Dr Grordbort's world introduced
NZ Event: Body Art Rocks Preview
ManMelter Raygun named 'Most Stunning Raygun' in fan poll

Director Jay Russell sent this along: Sony just posted the first of what will be 18 video blogs which will premiere on our official website very week. The first features LOTR mega-producer Barrie Osborne.

'The Waterhorse' Video Blogs

Jamey DuVall from Movie Geeks United! writes: Just wanted to let you know that my podcast show MOVIE GEEKS UNITED!, available to a global audience throught he internet or iTunes, interviewed composer Howard Shore this past Sunday, September 23. You can access the show anytime on replay by visiting our page.

Howard Shore Interview

Author Kristin Thompson writes: The recent announcement that a judge has fined New Line Cinema $125,000 is a major step forward in Peter Jackson’s lawsuit. On my blog, I’ve taken a stab at explaining some of the background of that suit and what this new development might mean for the Hobbit film.

New Line Fine: What Does it Mean? Discuss

It's hard to remember now, when every respectable household contains the Special Extended DVD Edition of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings, but the celebrated trilogy was once considered a somewhat iffy proposition. That's part of the explanation for how Jackson, a rather obscure director from Kiwiland, was able to gain artistic control over what Newsweek once called "the most expensive and ambitious movie project in history." And by filming in New Zealand, where he had built his very own world-class production facility, Jackson was able to use the Pacific Ocean as a moat, protecting him from Hollywood interference. The result was that rare thing, a global film franchise that bears a personal stamp — an intimate epic.

Lord of the Rings Inc. Discuss

There is magic in the last line of The Lord of the Rings. To recap: the stolidly courageous Sam Gamgee, having watched his best friend, Frodo Baggins, sail towards the Grey Havens and into a kind of death, is left to walk back to the Shire where he finds his wife and children waiting with the promise of a quiet life far from the slaughter of the War of the Ring. J. R. R. Tolkien finishes with the sentence: “‘Well, I’m back,’ he said”. It is a touchingly understated conclusion which returns the prose to the homely simplicity of the inaugural chapters after the archaic epic mode of The Return of the King. However, as Diana Pavlac Glyer tells us in her scholarly and perceptive study The Company They Keep, this is not how Tolkien originally intended to finish his trilogy. He had in mind a further epilogue, set sixteen years after the events of the rest of the book, which would have provided another, superfluous glimpse into Gamgee’s domesticity. In this ultimately excised version, a grey-haired Sam reads stories of his adventures to his children, spinning them tales of wizards and orcs and walking trees. There is even the faint suggestion that Sam has been narrating the story of The Lord of the Rings itself, before, at last, we depart the Shire for good, leaving Sam and Rose in a state of connubial bliss, tale-telling by the fireside.

Down the pub with Tolkien and C. S. Lewis

TheOneRing.net is celebrating! Click on the logo above to particpate in our 'Hobbit' 70th Anniversary celebration!

'Show us your Hobbit Pride' Giveaway

Sideshow Collectibles is joining in the celebration today:

"This weekend, Sideshow Collectibles.com is proud to join fans of J.R.R. Tolkien world-wide in celebrating the 70th Anniversary of the publication of 'The Hobbit'! To help add to the celebration, we've arranged some special Sideshow mathoms for you! Check out our special LOTR discounts, our new Balrog Legendary Scale bust preview, a brand new LOTR-themed poll, and our 'Ode to Bilbo' comment contest, in which you could win a Shelob statue, King of the Dead Statue, a Cave Troll Hammer, or a Crown of the King of the Dead simply for participating. Follow the link to get all the details"

Sideshow Celebrates the Hobbit

Sideshow Collectibles has just revealed their latest edition to The Lord of the Rings Legendary Scale line-up - The Balrog! The item will pre-order next week at SideshowCollectibles.com, but if you'd like a sneak peak, check out the preview. If you are a collector of the Legendary Scale Bust series, you may want to chime in on their frontpage poll, as it is directly related what you'd like to see created. And last but not least, Sideshow has released a new 'Backstage Pass' video on their Gandalf the White Premium Format figure page. If you were on the fence about ordering this piece and wanted some additional information, check it out!

Balrog Preview Vote! Gandalf Video Discuss

Kiwi director Peter Jackson has won the first round in his fight with Hollywood studio New Line Cinema over profits from The Lord of the Rings. A judge has fined New Line, the film trilogy's financial backer, $US125,000 ($NZ169,000) for failing to turn over court-ordered documents in the case. The Hollywood Reporter said Jackson's lawyers might also be allowed to inspect New Line's files if the studio did not produce several audits within 21 days. New Line must also hire an outsider to collect electronic documents, including e-mails, it said.

Round one to Jackson in LOTR profits fight Discuss

Wellywood's next hit could be on the small screen, with the release today of the PlayStation 3 game Heavenly Sword. The game's character dynamics are a product of the Weta Digital motion capture studio, which is part-owned by Peter Jackson. Jackson helped to develop the game version of his 2005 blockbuster King Kong, and Weta Digital's graphics were used in the Lord of the Rings' gaming equivalent. Jackson is leading the development of a series of games for PlayStation's main rival, Microsoft, based on the Halo franchise. Halo 3, due out next week, is expected to raise the stakes in the international game market.

Weta harnessed for gaming 'first'

Starting in 2001, movie fans from around the globe came to know and love Viggo Mortensen as the noble, charismatic leader Aragorn in "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy. But for his last two major film projects, his characters have teetered in the middle before traveling to the opposite end of the heroic spectrum, proving that he's not so concerned with his screen image as much as he is finding complex, challenging roles to get his hands dirty. Who says you can't tarnish that One Ring to rule them all? The digging Mortensen's been doing in the last two films has been under the auspices of acclaimed director David Cronenberg, the provocative filmmaker who's examined the dark side of Mortensen's characters in "A History of Violence" and "Eastern Promises," which opens in wide release Friday.

Mortensen Revels In History Of 'Promises'

WASHINGTON - Scientists, wringing their hands over the identity of the famed "hobbit" fossil, have found a new clue in the wrist. Since the discovery of the bones in Indonesia in 2003, researchers have wrangled over whether the find was an ancient human ancestor or simply a modern human suffering from a genetic disorder. Now, a study of the bones in the creature's left wrist lends weight to the human ancestor theory, according to a report in Friday's issue of the journal Science.

Scientists: Hobbit wasn't a modern human

Unless you've been hiding under a hobbit hole, you are well aware that that this Saturday is not only Frodo and Bilbo's Birthday, but also the 70th Anniversary of the publication of 'The Hobbit.' If you were a certain big-time Hollywood studio in charge of bringing 'The Hobbit' to the big-screen, don't you think this major event would inspire some kind of announcement from any party involved? An action like that would do wonders for repairing any tensions between this said Hollywood entity and the world of Tolkien fandom. Just our two cents - take it or leave it! And as always, if any people-in-the-know want to anonymously send us some juicy mathoms to honor this special Anniversary, feel free to email us directly at spymaster@theonering.net.

Discuss

MTV Movie Blog continues to snag some great 'Hobbit' film tidbits! This time around, they've caught up with Cate Blanchett and asked her if she'd be up for an appearance in a film version of 'The Hobbit':

""I haven't heard a thing [about a potential 'Hobbit' film]," she declared. "But, oh God, I would love to work with Hugo [Weaving] and Peter [Jackson] again."

Blanchett is the latest "Lord of the Rings" actor to tell MTV that she'd consider playing her character again for a prequel series. Like Viggo Mortensen or Orlando Bloom, Blanchett's character doesn't exactly appear in "The Hobbit," although thanks to J.R.R. Tolkien's extensive later backstories, her insertion would be completely unproblematic. In fact, it's hard to envision a "Hobbit" film WITHOUT Galadriel, particularly if the film covers any of the period between the defeat of Smaug and the War of the Ring."

Read the full interview over at MTV!

MTV Movie Blog Discuss