Confirmed: Del Toro to direct Hobbit Prequels

From the Guardian UK:

Guillermo del Toro has officially signed up to direct The Hobbit, according to reports leaking out from a film premiere in France. The Pan's Labyrinth creator will oversee a double-bill of films based on JRR Tolkien's fantasy adventure, which paved the way for The Lord of the Rings. Peter Jackson, director of the Oscar-winning Rings trilogy, will serve as executive producer.

The announcement was made at last night's French premiere of The Orphanage, a Spanish horror film that Del Toro helped produce. Introducing the film-maker, the host told the audience: "Today is a big day because we are announcing what everyone wanted to hear, which is that he will be directing The Hobbit." Del Toro had previously been reported to be in negotiations to take charge of the project.

DragonCon 2007 Parade Video

Happy Festivus from Arms of Middle Earth. As a gift to our members, we offer this flashback to the Parade from DragonCon 2007. Thanks to Olotie for the footage, and for my friends Sudrin and Amazing_Tito for additional photographs.
MOV | MPEG

PJ Settles w/ NewLine, HOBBIT Being Made!

From SciFiWire:

The Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson has settled his differences with New Line Cinema and will executive-produce a two-part adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, the studio announced.

New Line and MGM signed a deal to co-finance and co-distribute The Hobbit and a sequel to the film. New Line will handle distribution in North America, and MGM will distribute internationally, the two studios said. It's unclear whether Jackson will helm the films.

New Line added that it and Jackson have settled all litigation over Jackson's profit participation in the $3 billion-grossing Rings trilogy, without giving details. The settlement apparently brings to an end the acrimonious split between Jackson and New Line.

Jackson and Fran Walsh will executive-produce the films, to be shot simultaneously, and New Line will manage their production. Preproduction will begin soon, and principal photography is tentatively set for 2009. The release of the first film is slated for 2010 and the sequel in 2011.

BTP's DragonCon 2007 Trip Report

The Trip Report is up on my personal site. As usual, there is a discalimer to this:

All opinions expressed in this report are exclusively those of Bill The Pony (AKA Chris) and NOT those of AOME, it's members, staff or stockholders. That's why I host it on my personal site every year. Contains some PG-13 language, mild alcohol use and is rated PG-13. This is an subjective view of my own personal experience of the con, along with others' personal experiences, and is not meant to be a complete review of the entire Convention. Because that's not possible, there's just too much going on. Includes at least one conspiracy theory editorial on the topic of overcrowding.

Without further ado, I present:
Bill the Pony's DragonCon 2007 Trip Report.

Go read about what you might have missed, what you might have forgotten, and what you might wish wasn't recorded for posterity.

Jackson, New Line Re-enter HOBBIT Talks

From Yahoo Australia:

Peter Jackson could still make Tolkien's The Hobbit, despite falling out with the studio which commissioned him to film The Lord of The Rings trilogy.

Bob Shaye, head of New Line Cinema, has told The Los Angeles Times his studio - which Jackson had sued for profits from The Lords of The Rings - was in talks with Jackson's representatives in a bid to mend fences and get him to direct The Hobbit.

"Notwithstanding our personal quarrels, I really respect and admire Peter and would love for him to be creatively involved in some way in The Hobbit," he said.

He had previously labelled Jackson as "arrogant", while Jackson and partner Fran Walsh took the unusual step of issuing a long statement on the Internet last year declaring that because of clashes with New Line they had "no choice but to let the idea of a film of The Hobbit go".

A spokesman for Jackson told The Dominion Post on Friday night: "Peter and Fran have always wanted to do The Hobbit but whether that happens is yet to be decided."

Jackson, Spielberg To Make Tintin Films

Variety Reports:

Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson are teaming to direct and produce three back-to-back features based on Georges Remi's beloved Belgian comic-strip hero Tintin for DreamWorks. Pics will be produced in full digital 3-D using WETA Digital’s groundbreaking performance capture technology.

The two filmmakers will each direct at least one of the movies; studio wouldn't say which director would helm the third. Kathleen Kennedy joins Spielberg and Jackson as a producer on the three films, which might be released through DreamWorks Animation.

Jackson's New Zealand-based WETA Digital, the f/x house behind "The Lord of the Rings" franchise, produced a 20-minute test reel bringing to life the characters created by Remi, who wrote under the pen name of Herge.

"We want Tintin's adventures to have the reality of a live-action film, and yet Peter and I felt that shooting them in a traditional live-action format would simply not honor the distinctive look of the characters and world that Herge created," Spielberg continued.

Tintin project, announced by the two filmmakers and DreamWorks co-chair-CEO Stacey Snider, may explain, at least in part, why DreamWorks emerged the winner in the bidding for "The Lovely Bones," beating out several other suitors. Tintin also answers the question of which tentpole Jackson will turn his attention to next.

The Spielberg-Jackson project isn't likely to languish in development for long. Spielberg could become available this fall after wrapping "Indiana Jones 4." Jackson will wrap "Bones" by the end of the year. He had been developing another possible franchise, Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series, set during the French Revolution.

Jackson said WETA will stay true to Remi's original designs in bringing the cast of Tintin to life, but that the characters won't look cartoonish. "Instead," Jackson said, "we're making them look photorealistic; the fibers of their clothing, the pores of their skin and each individual hair. They look exactly like real people — but real Herge people!"

Spielberg and Jackson are currently evaluating whether to release Tintin through DreamWorks Animation. Paramount distributes all DreamWorks Animation films.

LotR Online Bans Marriage, Fears Gay Dwarves

Nik Davidson is a game designer at Turbine, the Westwood, Mass., company producing "The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar." The game has been in beta (a test version) since September, and during discussions of new features for the game, which was officially released Tuesday, the design team wound up in a heated discussion over what restrictions should be placed on marriage. They debated not only gay marriage but also marriage between members of different species. Finally, the game's executive producer settled the matter by pulling the entire marriage feature.
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The team had also originally planned to introduce a way for characters to marry other characters -- within certain guidelines.

"The rule that we tried to follow across the board was: if there's an example of it in the book, the door is open to explore it," Nik says. "Very rarely will you see an elf and a human hook up, but it does happen; the door is open. Dwarves don't intermarry with hobbits; that door is shut ... Did two male hobbits ever hook up in the shire and have little hobbit civil unions? No. The door is shut."

Um, Yeah... Merry and Pippin left their wives and children to share a Studio Apartment in Gondor... because they were such good friends. Read the Epilogue.

The most frustrating part is trying to pass off this decision as "Keeping true to Toklien"

More than that, Nik says, it seemed as if same-sex marriage would simply not have fit with Tolkien's vision for the worlds he created.

"Tolkien was a conservative Catholic," Nik says. "He went out drinking with C.S. Lewis every night, and the two of them had a worldview that was -- well, let's just say it clashes a little bit with the sensibilities of East Coast liberals who make up the largest population of Turbine."

This seems to be a HUGE disconnect with the actual target audience for this game. More on Alternative Lifestyle Gaming in the article

Tolkien Track Featured in NY Times

The New York Times ran a piece on Tolkien events in the ESCAPES Section, featuring a photo of us in the Dragon*Con parade.

Two summer events appeal to both amateur scholars and budding actors.

“I’m an obsessed geek,” said Marie Miesel, a nurse from Nashville and a presenter at Dragon*Con, perhaps the nation’s largest convention for fantasy fans, held in Atlanta annually on Labor Day weekend. “My parents brought me to science fiction conventions when I was 7.” She will be leading a seminar on Sept. 2, “The Silmarillion for Dummies.”

The four-day convention isn’t just about Tolkien, but its Tolkien Track will be a cluster of lectures, game demonstrations, films and panel discussions on topics from “Customizing Your Action Figures” to “Misconceptions of Copyright Law for the Creator of Fan Works.” A party called An Evening in Bree (Bree is a village in Middle-earth) will include folk dancing, a trivia contest and a band singing Tolkien-themed lyrics. On Saturday morning, hundreds of costumed Tolkien fans will march through downtown Atlanta — bearded wizards and snarling orcs — mingling with Klingons (“Star Trek”) and Imperial Guardsmen (“Star Wars”) from other fantasy-loving groups.

Wales Family Builds Hobbit Home

You are looking at pictures of our family home in Wales. It was built by myself and my father in law with help from passers by and visiting friends. 4 months after starting we were moved in and cosy. I estimate 1000-1500 man hours and £3000 put in to this point. Not really so much in house buying terms (roughly £60/sq m excluding labour).

The house was built with maximum regard for the environment and by reciprocation gives us a unique opportunity to live close to nature. Being your own (have a go) architect is a lot of fun and allows you to create and enjoy something which is part of yourself and the land rather than, at worst, a mass produced box designed for maximum profit and convenience of the construction industry. Building from natural materials does away with producers profits and the cocktail of carcinogenic poisons that fill most modern buildings. (Read On...)

Dragon*Con Videos

Olotie finished putting together the Dragon*Con 2006 video last week, my apologies for not posting it sooner, but ENJOY!( Windows / QuickTime )

Dragon*Con Alt Fandom

Olotie has completed a nice round-up vid of the Alternate Fandoms that some AOME Members participated in last year.



**DISCLAIMER: Contains footage of other groups outside of AOME**

Billy Boyd's Band Beecake

The UK's Evening Times ran a feature on Billy's rock outfit, Beecake.

Beecake is the musical by-product of spending a year at home in the Park District with girlfriend Ali, a ballet dancer and actress, and little Jack.

Dedicating time to Beecake - the band's name comes from a photo of a bee-covered cake sent by mate and Lost star Dominic Monaghan - meant Billy put acting on the back burner. He's in talks with record companies about releasing a record, and he's given the band a tentative five-year target to record an album and tour.

"We've got to be better than everyone else because people have that expectation with an actor in a band," says bassist Rick, who lives in Croftfoot. "Ticket sales have been exceptional, and these people have spent a lot of money to see us, so we have to be good," adds drummer John, of Cambuslang. To give up the day jobs and play drums- or bass or guitar or whatever - even just for a year, would be a great opportunity."

All three musicians testify that despite Billy's dalliances in Middle Earth, the swanky premieres and hanging out with Elijah Wood and Lost star Dominic Monaghan, his feet haven't left the ground.