I note that Guillermo Del Toro has been posting again on TheOneRing.net’s message boards after a short silence. No specific Hobbit news, but he says he and his wife have put in a bid on a house. He also talks about his tastes in books, graphic novels, etc. Check it out here.

After my last post, I didn’t have access to the internet in any of the other hotels my tour stayed in in Jordan. I arrived back in London with the group yesterday and am spending a few days here before returning home. more »

Variety yesterday quoted Peter Jackson concerning an event about to start in New Zealand. The Association of Film Commissioners International will be holding its Cineposium International conference in Wellington from November 19 to 23.

Here’s Peter on the event:

Peter Jackson, whose “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy lensed on location in New Zealand, said the Cineposium helps filmmakers who work on a variety of locations and rely on the local film office to aid production teams on the ground.

“It’s great that the AFCI Cineposium brings film commissioners together to learn and exchange information and best practice,” Jackson said.

Twenty commissioners will come together from around the world. I note that Kate Bedya, New Line Cinema’s senior VP of production, will be one of a panel of three on a closing-day session on “how studios and film commissions can work together creatively and as partners to make productions more efficient and successful around the world.”

Peter gets in a plug for New Zealand as a filmmaking location: “The region is a terrific environment for filmmaking and filmmakers. The residents and local government are incredibly enthusiastic, helpful and friendly.” Given what we saw happening with LOTR, that’s obviously true.

I come to you from the lowest spot on earth. I mentioned that I’m on a tour of Jordan. In the last couple of days we’ve seen the northern sites of Jerash and Pella, and this evening we checked into the Marriott on the edge of the Dead Sea. Actually, the surface of the sea itself is 410 meters below sea level. My floor of the hotel is more like 385 meters down.

Even from such a remote spot, I am able to connect to the internet, so I send you all greetings and a couple of links. more »

Again it has been a while since I posted anything. Not that there’s much going on at this point. Guillermo Del Toro has been giving some interviews on the occasion of Hellboy II coming out on Blu-ray, but the Hobbit-related news in those is mainly that he can’t give us any Hobbit-related news.

GDT did say some interesting things about his approach to The Hobbit in an interview posted on Bloody Disgusting on November 12:

“THE HOBBIT is a book that is not as much of a children’s book as people seem to remember it. It is not a gory book, were not going to create gore for the sake of gore. There is some intense stuff, as there was in the trilogy. I remember reading it at 11-years-old and being frankly, pretty spooked! We are not imposing any darkness or goriness for the sake of it, we are trying to render the book in the best way possible.“

(You should be aware that the site lives up to its name! If you explore it, you’ll find some gory film images.)

For those of you interested in GDT’s other projects, the interview has some news about a version of Pinocchio that he will be co-producing. He’s also working on the script. When does the man sleep?!?

Right now I’m in London, about to leave on a nine-day tour of Jordan. I should have internet access during part of that, so if anything significant happens, I’ll try to post about it. Otherwise I’ll leave it to TheOneRing.net to keep you informed.

In Chapter 9 of The Frodo Franchise, I discussed how The Lord of the Rings had a positive impact on independent and foreign-language film markets around the world. Shortly after a major slump hit those markets in 2001, the first part of the trilogy pumped money into the overseas distribution companies that had helped finance LOTR. They in turn put that money into buying more films, helping bring the slump to an end.

For many international independent distributors, New Line was a major source of films. Now with the studio absorbed into Warner Bros., it is no longer distributing its own releases. Warners has its own international distribution system, and it now handles all of New Line’s films.

On “Observations on film art and Film Art,” I’ve just posted an entry on how other companies are moving in to supply overseas distributors. It’s clear from what some of the people running those companies say that the impact of Rings is still being felt. The distributors who benefited from the trilogy are still around and still buying films. As I said in the book, “The international art cinema has emerged the better for this ‘Hollywood’ blockbuster.”

Yesterday Ian McKellen posted a new set of Q&As in his “Bits and Bobs” e-post. There are some Lord of the Rings-related queries and responses concerning the technique for hitting Denethor and what Gandalf smoked in his pipe. He also deals politely with a rude diatribe by a homophobic chap named Josef, who threatens not to attend The Hobbit. If so, good riddance. As to the rumor that there might be a third pre-LOTR Tolkien film, Ian denies all knowledge of such a thing but adds, “Wherever Gandalf leads, I shan’t be far behind.” (Though I have seen rumors about a third film, I have yet to encounter any solid evidence for it.)