Back in the First Age of TheOneRing.net when the interwebs were new and fansites were breaking ground on the way movies were covered, TORn used to consistantly swamp media or website polls that featured any “Lord of the Rings” characters. We would vote for J.R.R. Tolkien as the Author of the Century or something and chat about “what if Sean Connery is cast as Gandalf.” It was fun for a while but it actually got a little tiresome and the practice slowly faded away. There just wasn’t a need for Tolkien fandom to validate its place in the pantheon of fantasy or entertainment or popular culture. It was a nice memory or footnote in our online community’s culture.
Then, a couple of days ago, our staffer Justin, with the least Tolkien TORn handle of them all, started to hit the MTV movie awards category for “best hero,” by promoting the Twitter hashtag #votebilbo. He used our Twitter feed (@TheOneRingNet) to push the tag that tallies a vote for Bilbo as the best hero of 2012 every time somebody uses it on Twitter. Truthfully, I thought it was harmless but pretty useless (sorry Justin!) and a bit silly (sorry everybody!). Why take up the cause for fictional characters to fight it out in a meaningless contest that really only helps MTV? We have our own Middle-earth Madness for that kind of fun already. Plus, Snow White was leading the way and either kids liked that movie a whole lot more than the boxoffice showed or the votes were coming because “Twilight” star Kristen Stewart played the title role. She is big with the MTV market and any attempt to catch her would be futile. But, the community pushed Bilbo past Batman. About then, I gave Justin and his movement a second thought and support.
Joining in the Twitter voice, we redoubled our efforts and next thing you know, Iron Man was in the rear view mirror as well and Bilbo was in second place. A funny thing happened during the process: It became really fun on Twitter to #VoteBilbo! It is now something of a social media game to find clever ways to #VoteBilbo and we at TORn were able to re-tweet some of the better ideas, helping it all go viral. The group experience of the “old days” was back but in a much more interactive way. Fun with the community! Then, the hashtag started to trend in the UK and today in US as well. It has grown well beyond @TheOneRingNet and not long ago now the official Hobbit twitter account @TheHobbitMovie joined the cause. They promote the effort with dignity and restraint, something fans are not compelled to do.
So there are a lot of funny #vote Bilbo tweets out there now, a few shared in this story. It became a thing. Staffer personal twitter accounts like @SlaveBoyFilms, @MrLDC, @Quickbeam2000, @maegwen, @CruisingCathy and probably lots of others I haven’t seen (add them in the story staffers!), have joined the cause. And fellow fans have been funny and brilliant. At one point, #votebilbo took the lead but Stewart has stormed back. Its hard to imagine a Tolkien fanbase, less rooted in Twitter, having the numbers and frankly the passion to carry this to a win when voting ends April 14. I don’t know if we care enough, but it still is fun! As this is being written, less than 100 votes separate the two figures with over 40 thousand tweets cast. But, hey, this is kind of fun! Being clever and supporting a fictional character is pretty good entertainment. And, we have renamed the other character Snow WhiteTreeOfGondor since she carries a LOTR shield in her MTV photo.
Rumor has it that retweets don’t count unless the new tweet is a quote that includes a new one. And, only one tag per Tweet is counted. We don’t really know the rules exactly, but consider this a call to arms. Tweeters have been asking for help from the Sherlock crowd, Potter fans, Game of Thrones viewers (George R.R. Martin praises Tolkien at every opportunity) and anybody else they can think of really. In the meantime, be entertained and remember: #VoteBilbo! If you haven’t joined Twitter, you can follow TORn and its staff members for starters, where we usually tease our best content and even break news. We will Tweet live from the convention circuit including the Comic-Con in San Diego.
Our message board members were quick to pick up on this very cool scrolling montage of pictures from the upcoming Hobbit movie over at Entertainment Weekly.com. What’s cool is there are new scenes we’ve never seen before. What’s even cooler is you can scroll over the pictures to get a closer look. Check it out and let us know what details *you* pick out on the very active thread in progress on our Hobbit discussion board! Read More…
The day is here! The winner of an official The Hobbit “200 days to go” long sleeve black T-shirt is…
R. Greenleaf from CA
Congrats to you, Mr. Greenleaf! You will be receiving an email shortly. Usually we share only the first name and last initial of our winner, but when one has such a cool last name as ‘Greenleaf‘ we just had to share! (What are the odds that out of thousands of entrants, our random winner generator would choose a LOTR themed name!?)
Thanks to all those who entered. The accepted answer to the contest question was anything from horse, pony or plush toy. Please support the sponsor of this contest, actor Conan Stevens (Bolg in The Hobbit) and the upcoming web series ‘The Clandestine.’ Conan updates his blog quite often, so its a great site to track on a regular basis. [Official Blog] [The Clandestine]
Here’s another giveaway at TheOneRing.net ending this week…and this one is a biggy! We are 100% sure you won’t find another opportunity to win an official The Hobbit “200 days to go” long sleeve black T-shirt, supplied to the crew at the end of filming of block one. This giveaway is made possible by actor Conan Stevens (Bolg in The Hobbit) and the upcoming web series ‘The Clandestine.’ Conan has literally taken the shirt off his back to give to one lucky fan! It could not be more easy to participate – Simply visit Bolg’s official blog (Get it? Conan plays Bolg…and its a Blog…), read the entry, and come back to TheOneRing.net to fill out the form below. To find out the answer to the contest question, you will need to watch the video on Conan’s site. (Since we have a lot of rated-G visitors, I will give you a small warning that the content of the video is playfully violent. Conan is, after all, a very large imposing actor who usually plays pretty violent roles!!) The giveaway ends at midnight on May 31st so enter asap! We’ve included a gallery of the shirt at the bottom of this post as well. Good luck!
And of course, lend your support and tune in for the new web series The Clandestine!
[Bolg’s Blog Entry Info] [The Clandestine]
Continue reading “Conan Stevens is giving away his official ‘The Hobbit’ Production Shirt!”
We here at TheOneRing.net are very excited to give our audience an exclusive chance to own one of the official The Hobbit “200 days to go” long sleeve black T-shirt, supplied to the crew at the end of filming of block one. This giveaway is made possible by actor Conan Stevens (Bolg in The Hobbit) and the upcoming web series ‘The Clandestine.’ Conan has literally taken the shirt off his back to give to one lucky fan! It could not be more easy to participate – Simply visit Bolg’s official blog (Get it? Conan plays Bolg…and its a Blog…), read the entry, and come back to TheOneRing.net to fill out the form below. To find out the answer to the contest question, you will need to watch the video on Conan’s site. (Since we have a lot of rated-G visitors, I will give you a small warning that the content of the video is playfully violent. Conan is, after all, a very large imposing actor who usually plays pretty violent roles!!) The giveaway ends at midnight on May 31st so enter asap! We’ve included a gallery of the shirt at the bottom of this post as well. Good luck!
And of course, lend your support and tune in for the new web series The Clandestine!
[Bolg’s Blog Entry Info] [The Clandestine]
Continue reading “Win an official ‘The Hobbit’ Production Shirt!”
Conan Stevens is an Australian actor and stuntman. After recent work on “A Game of Thrones,” the magic of the internet created a connection between TheOneRing.net and Stevens (cast as Bolg in the two-part adaptation of “The Hobbit,”) leading to the following interview. Currently TORn is embedded in the production, but that event and this interview are not related.
TheOneRing.net: Update us on everything you have going on at the moment.
Conan Stevens: Compared to the the 24 months prior, last year was a good year for me. To start with I managed to get onto “The Hobbit,” which is a story in itself. I missed the main round of auditions but managed to get a foot in the door at the last second – just as I came down with dysentery. So that was a combination of luck, tenacity and 25 years of preparation/wasting time with RPG’s the SCA, Martial Arts, Pro Wrestling, etc.
The afternoon that Peter announced on his Facebook page that I was to be in “The Hobbit” I called a casting agency that handled the”Spartacus” TV series auditions in Wellington, and it turns out the timing was again in my favour Continue reading “Exclusive: ‘Hobbit’s’ Conan Stevens chats with TORn”
