Asylum has put up a video and poll on the subject of which wizard tale is better, LOTR or Harry Potter. A roughly three-minute video shows fans giving opinions and sometimes arguing with each other, usually in a civilized way, about the topic. Judging by the video, one would get the impression that the two series run neck-and-neck. The poll, however, tells a different tale, with 73.5% of the votes going to LOTR. That’s only 185 votes, though, so things could change. The contest seems intended to be between Rowling’s and Tolkien’s books, though clearly some fans are thinking of the films when they respond.

Wired has a back-page feature in its print edition called, “Predict What’s Next.” Readers upload ideas to a webpage, and the editors create a page actualizing them. The current issue’s (April 19) prognosticators are Azriel, Sean Ramsey, Ann Linquist, Lee Steffen, Nosrednakram, jgombarcik, and the ever-popular Anonymous. At least one Tolkien and/or Peter Jackson fan among them, obviously:

My suspicion is that we will see Avatar 3 a lot sooner than even Silmarillion I, let alone VII. Despite the desire of many fans to see The Silmarillion filmed, I can think of few books that would be so difficult to bring to the big screen. (Not a whole lot of dialogue, for a start, and huge, lengthy actions described in a sentence or two.) The Children of Hurin would be filmable, but I doubt it would appeal much to the general public. A grimmer, more depressing tale it would be hard to find. Great, but grim.

For those who could use some humor after the recent tension over events involving The Hobbit, check out humorist Nuri Vittachi’s “Repay Gollum 32.8m meals or our Dark Lord will be in touch,” in today’s Hong Kong Standard.

(Thanks to Ken Bernsohn and David Bordwell for the link!)

Earlier I complained about having too few good instances of LOTR humor to tag. Now it’s two in one day! Bill Amend, whose “Foxtrot” comic strip has referenced the trilogy many times, now combines the ripped-from-the-headlines-newsworthiness of the upcoming Comic-Con with the timeless topic of Gandalf costumes. (His collection, Orlando Bloom Ruined Everything, is not 100% about LOTR, but it does deal with the topic.)

I have a special fondness for Bill Amend–apart from the fact that he creates one of the best of the widely syndicated comic strips still functioning. For The Frodo Franchise, I wanted to reproduce one of his trilogy-related dailies as an illustration of the idea of early fan concern over whether Peter Jackson would remain true to Tolkien’s books. Not an easy concept to illustrate. I wrote to him asking if I could reproduce the piece. He sent me onward to a rep who could handle the rights question–but in a nice, friendly way. That strip was the only image in the book that I paid any rights fees for, and the amount was surprisingly reasonable. Using that strip wasn’t necessary to what I was talking about in that section, but he really captured a certain aspect of LOTR fandom in a laugh-out-loud funny way.

Anne Thompson, on her “Thompson on Hollywood” blog, has linked to a pretty funny Harry Potter-Lord of the Rings trailer mashup. As she says, it makes bone obvious the LOTR copycatting we all spotted in the recently released HP trailer: “The new Harry Potter 7 Trailer seems vaguely reminiscent of Lord of the Rings.  Granted, both are fantasy films, but the sweeping helicopter shots of magical warriors running across fields and mountains seem a little too similar.”

Not all the juxtapositions work well, but there are plenty of funny ones. So check out Harry Potter 32: The Reckoning: Lord of Fantasy Dimensions. (The video is unlisted, so you won’t be able to find it by searching, only by following the link.) It does make you wonder how many echoes could be found if the maker had been working with the whole HP film, not just the limited footage available in a trailer. Good job!

In case you haven’t seen the HP trailer itself, here’s a good HD copy on YouTube. Watch it first, and you’ll already be picking out the similarities.

At last, a second item funny enough to warrant being tagged “LOTR Humor.”

I’m sure many of you had a good laugh from TheOneRing.net’s annual April Fools post. I have to admit I was ready to believe it was a real news story for the first two paragraphs–but the business about Gandalf and Saruman and other “young wizards” being educated at an “academy” began to sound a bit too much like a different franchise.

Now it turns out that the Moviefone website wasn’t so skeptical. They’ve posted it as a real news item in their round-up of the ten top movie-related items of the week. Congratulations to TORN on their successful jape!

We’ve all been assuming that Mordor was purged of evil activities when the Ring was destroyed. Yet my husband, in Hong Kong for the Film Festival, spotted this ominous booth at the accompanying Hong Kong International Film & TV Market, aka Filmart exhibition. Perhaps the Dark Lord has crept back yet again, or maybe one of the Ringwraiths survived and has set up shop as a film distributor. Or maybe it’s just some particularly clever orcs going into business in the wake of their previous employer’s demise. more »

I’m sure most of you know about this already, but today’s new episode of The Simpsons had an amusing LOTR reference. In the flashback to Marge’s short-lived college days, she passes a group sitting on the lawn. A young Comic-Book Guy tells four rapt young geeks, “And that’s why The Lord of the Rings can never be filmed.” This is supposed to be taking place in the mid-1990s. In September of 1995, Peter Jackson set out to make a film of that novel. I suspect the Comic-Book Guy’s store carried quite a few of the resulting licensed products.

There’s a very amusing four-minute film on YouTube, “The Downfall of HD-TV.” Watch it through to the end for the reference to The Lord of the Rings and its importance to the battle between the Blu-ray and HD-TV formats (which Blu-ray is on the verge of winning).

[January 19. Apparently the original film was removed due to a copyright complaint. It has, not surprisingly, been posted on YouTube again, in a distinctly less sharp copy. If that’s gone as well, do a search on “Downfall of HD-TV”; there’s a Japanese-subtitled version there as well.]