You probably have read this news on TheOneRing.net itself. Still, since Xoanon was kind enough to send me the official press release, I’ll pass it along:

We have been spreading unofficial rumors that TheOneRing.net would be presenting a panel at Comic-Con but the official website confirmed it today: At 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, July 22, in room 7AB founder Calisuri, the incomparable Quickbeam and fan advocate MrCere will present the latest unofficial new about ‘The Hobbit’ movies and everything else there is time for. Guests possible but not promised. If you haven’t heard, returned tickets are now available to the general public from the previously sold out Comic-Con. TORn will also be sharing space with Weta at the Dark Horse booth (#2615) and selling really cool shirts! We hope to see you there.

I was lucky enough to participate in the equivalent panel with these same worthy gentlemen two years ago and thoroughly enjoyed the experience–that and meeting John Howe and signing copies of The Frodo Franchise. I’d love to be there again, whether on the panel or in the audience. ‘Tis not to be this year, though I hope next year there will be official Hobbit hype beginning at Comic-Con, and maybe then I’ll get myself out to San Diego to observe and report.

If you have or can manage to get hold of a ticket, do get in line early for the TORN event. It fills up quickly!

If we needed any more evidence that the Lord of the Rings film trilogy built an enduring cutting-edge set of filmmaking faciities in Wellington, we’ve got it. On March 24 the Digital Entertainment Leadership Forum in Hong Kong will present a day-long program, “Innovate Locally, Collaborate Globally: The Success of Wellington, New Zealand.”

Two of the people I interviewed for The Frodo Franchise will be the keynote speakers: Matt Aitken, of Weta Digital, and Barrie Osborne, producer of LOTR. Matt’s topic is “How and Why Creativity is the True Critical Success Factor.” Barrie speaks on “Making Movies for Global Entertainment Markets.” A third interviewee, Mayor Kerrie Prendergast, will introduce the program.

The event focuses mainly on Hong Kong’s potential for imitating the success of Wellington and for collaborating with New Zealand in future filmmaking ventures.

In July I had the pleasure of meeting Sohaib Awan at Comic-Con. He’s the host of “Fictional Frontiers,” an interview show on radio station WNJC-1360 AM in Philadelphia. I’m sure many of you have listened to Sohaib’s interviews with some of the folks from TheOneRing.net over the past few months.

Now it’s my turn. I’ll be one of the interviewees this coming Sunday, December 14, talking about The Frodo Franchise and the LOTR film trilogy. You can hear it on the show’s website. Just click the “listen now” button at the upper right. The program starts at 11:00 EST and runs for an hour. I hope you enjoy it!

If you miss the interview, Sohaib assures me that it should be posted as a podcast within a few days after it airs. I’ll post a link to that when it happens.

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.

My first Comic-Con experience has been pretty exciting so far. I can’t say that generalization applied to standing in the Press and Professional line to get my badge—though it can’t actually have been more than about 25 minutes and was handled pretty efficiently. The line of people waiting to get their purchased four-day passes seemed to stretch to the horizon. Once I had my badge, I headed inside for the Wednesday night preview of the contents of the enormous exhibition hall. more »

Today TheOneRing.net announced that its team will be interviewing Richard Taylor and John Howe at Comic-Con. That event will happen at the Weta Workshop booth (#2615) at 4:00 on Thursday, July 24.

The interview is in connection with a forthcoming documentary on Renaissance martial arts, Reclaiming the Blade, produced by Galatia Films. Richard and John will be in the film, as will Viggo Mortensen, Karl Urban, and Bob Anderson (who taught the main actors swordfighting for the trilogy). John Rhys-Davies will narrate. These Comic-Con interviews will discuss Richard and John’s other project as well.

Immediately after the interview Richard and John will autograph mini-posters for the film. The interview itself will be recorded on video, which will then be posted both on TORN and on the Reclaiming the Blade website.

Snooping around the latter, I discovered that Galatia has posted some short videos on YouTube. One, from April 23, has excerpts from an interview with Richard at Weta Workshop. Another, posted March 26, features Mortensen and Anderson. Check out the index page, with links, here.

I am getting seriously excited about going to Comic-Con next week. As I’ve said, it’s my first time. I’ll be participating in TheOneRing.net’s Hobbit project panel at 10:00 am on Friday, July 25. We’ll be in Room 32AB. This is TORN’s first participation at Comic-Con since five years ago. Back in 2003, The Return of the King hadn’t come out yet. Indeed, at the time of the Con, stars like Ian McKellen were back in New Zealand for pick-ups, and the third film was still in frantic, behind-schedule production. I was patiently waiting for pickups to be over so I could go down to Wellington in the hope that some of the filmmakers would have time to talk with me for my book. more »

Recently I revealed that I had been invited to participate in TheOneRing.net’s panel on the Hobbit project at the upcoming Comic-Con. Today the schedule was posted. We’re among several panels happening at 10 am on Friday, July 25. I can’t tell you who the “possible special guests” might be, but the rumors I’ve heard are pretty exciting! I hope those of you who want to attend have purchased your passes already. The 4-day ones were sold out some time ago. The Friday and Saturday one-day passes are also gone, and there are only a few one-day passes for Thursday and Sunday.

(Variety posted an informative story on Comic-Con yesterday. Apparently the Con has finally topped out in terms of attendance–125,000 fans last year–and may be looking to move to larger quarters after its deal with the San Diego Convention Center expires in 2012.)

I’m really looking forward to my first Comic-Con. Years ago this was an important venue for promoting The Lord of the Rings, and no doubt it will be important for The Hobbit as well. This year Weta Workshop will be present, as will Sideshow Collectibles, and probably other companies with LOTR franchise tie-ins. Electronic Arts, the official video-games maker, is co-sponsoring the event.

TORN will be selling copies of The Frodo Franchise, and I’ll be around to sign copies for you. (If you’ve already got one and want it signed, bring it along. No requirement that you buy one on the spot.) I’ll also be blogging during the Con. Hope to see some of you there!

I haven’t posted much lately. That’s partly because there hasn’t been a lot of news—though plenty of speculation. It’s also partly because my husband David Bordwell and I have been hard at work on the revisions for the third edition of our textbook Film History: An Introduction. Now that it has been shipped off to the press, I’ve got a lot more time. I may need it, too. Even as I write, that meeting concerning the Tolkien Trust’s lawsuit against New Line is presumably happening in Los Angeles. There may not be any immediate announcement of progress or changes resulting, but I suspect we’ll hear something in the not-too-distant future.

In the meantime, I did get one piece of excellent news yesterday. My friends at TheOneRing.net have asked me to join them on a panel concerning the Hobbit films at Comic-Con! I’ve never been to Comic-Con (San Diego Convention Center, July 24-27), which I discuss briefly in The Frodo Franchise, but for years I’ve wanted to go. I interviewed some members of the TORN team for the book, and I look forward to meeting more of them in person. John Howe is among the announced guests, so maybe I’ll get to meet him as well. John was very cordial about letting me reproduce one of his paintings in the book, but that was all handled by mail. Of course it has been confirmed that he’ll be working alongside Alan Lee and the rest of the designers on the Hobbit project. And finally, I hope to meet those of you who will be attending Comic-Con.

I’ll post information on the TORN panel closer to the time, and I certainly expect, like many other fans, to be blogging from Comic-Con. There’ll be some companies associated with the LOTR franchise, like Sideshow Collectibles and perhaps Weta Workshop, so I’ll be sure to check out their displays.

Long-time Tolkien fan “Pippin” has notified me of a couple of upcoming events. One is coming up soon for those of you who will be in the New York State area:

Tuesday, 1 April at 6:30 PM in the William K Sanford Library, Colonie, NY there will be a panel discussion on The Worlds of Tolkien.  Contact: +1-518-456-5242; jfinder@nycap.rr.com .

I’ve been reading Tolkien for a few years, well ever since I first read the books in ‘64.  I even organized & ran two Tolkien Conferences in ‘69 & ‘71.  Some of the essays presented formed A Tolkien Compass edited by Jared Lobdell.

The other announcement is more long-term, a tour of New Zealand planned to coincide with the premiere of The Hobbit there (I presume in Wellington, as with all three parts of the trilogy). “Pippin” writes:

The Return of the Tour! 

As some of you may already know, Jan Coyle of Pacific Pathways, http://www.pacificpathways.com/ is now looking into organizing a “Reunion Tour of Middle-earth” in 2010, tho the exact date is up in the air.  Part of it depends on when The Hobbit is made/finished.

As I’ve suggested, we wrap The Tour around the Premiere of The Hobbit in Wellington.

Nothing is set yet, but if the idea of visiting Middle-earth [Beautiful New Zealand] is appealing to you, begin to put away your money.  You do have nearly 2 years at the soonest.

Truth in advertising.  This is NOT an inexpensive trip.  However, it is a once [except for a few of us real nutcases] in a lifetime trip.  Join a group of Hobbitheads/Ringers for 18 to 28 days [may throw in some general sightseeing as well]. 

Dressing up and being silly [well to the mundane world] is highly encouraged. 

If interested, drop Jan a note and tell her to put you on the mailing list. 

For those of you getting this who have not been to Middle-earth, feel free to drop me a note about your questions.  I was on the original Tour of Middle-earth in JAN 04 & led 3 hobbits on a similar tour in MAR 06.

Elen síla lúmenn’ omentielvo!  

Pippin, the wandering hobbit
jfinder@nycap.rr.com
+1-518-456-5242

Thain Peregrin Took II
Great Smials
Tookborough, The Shire

I should add that “Pippin” is also chairing the 2008 Albacon, a fan-run science fiction/fantasy con that will happen in Albany, October 10-12. I presume that Tolkien will figure in that event.