Movies.com invites a TORn staffer to share his thoughts on “The Hobbit” every other Monday.

What makes two films based on The Hobbit one of, if not the most highly anticipated film of both 2012 and 2013 and potentially one of the biggest film smashes in history?

People simply love Middle-earth. Generations of people. Many, many millions of people.

Grandparents and parents have handed it off to children and the proliferation of genre culture has only increased the audience that looks at Middle-earth and its author J.R.R. Tolkien as one of the pillars on which so much else in popular culture, definitely including movies, is built. Read the rest right here.

Hollywood star Orlando Bloom has been seen out and about in Wellington, joining a growing number of Hobbit actors arriving in the city as production resumes after a three-month hiatus.

Wellingtonians Miranda Webster, Aggie Galloway, Kayla Carruthers, Sam Walton and Hannah Robson met Bloom yesterday when they saw him shopping in the central city.

Ms Carruthers, 19, said she and her friends were on Vivian St when they saw Bloom go into a photography store.

“We weren’t sure at first if it was him or not, so we waited around casually outside the stop, and then when he came out we saw it was definitely him.” [Read more]

Veteran actor Stephen Fry has arrived in Wellington to begin filming his part in The Hobbit.

Fry, a prolific tweeter, touched down in the capital a few hours ago, telling his Twitter followers it was “brightish but not freezing”.

After announcing he was going for “a little explore”, he posted a photo of Max Patte’s Solace in the Wind sculpture on the waterfront, prompting Wellington fans to head to the water. [Read More]

Saoirse Ronan is “really disappointed” she couldn’t appear in ‘The Hobbit’. The 17-year-old actress initially jumped at the chance to work with director Peter Jackson – after previously starring in his adaptation of Alice Sebold’s novel ‘The Lovely Bones’ – but eventually decided she has to concentrate on her Hollywood career rather than moving to New Zealand to be in the film. She said: “I’m really disappointed that I couldn’t do it. I really am. Any excuse for me to go back to New Zealand, and work with those people I’d take. “But there are other projects as well that I’ve had to consider – and to do that for over a year, it wouldn’t have left me time to do anything else.” More..

TheOneRing.net will be streaming LIVE from San Diego Comic-Con 2011 and we hope you will join us! Starting at 10AM PT on Thursday, we’ll broadcast (or attempt to!) our entire ‘The Hobbit’ panel live from San Diego. Staffers MrCere and Quickbeam will be taking us behind the scenes of the latest news and information about Peter Jackson’s upcoming films and you’ll get to react along with the audience at the convention. Then, throughout the rest of the weekend, TORn staffers will be showing up on the stream live with special guests, other panels, interviews and more! If its Tolkien related and it’s at Comic-Con 2011, we’ll have it covered! Visit the following link for the complete experience all in one place: Barlimans Chat, the LIVE stream, and a giveaway opportunity. And, if you are feeling like you want to support our efforts, you can purchase a Lake town Archery Club t-shirt! [LIVE at Comic-Con] [Facebook Event Page – Invite your Friends!]