Richard TaylorThe four Pevensie children, Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy, reappear on the big screen this month in the second installment of C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia series. New Zealand director Andrew Adamson was responsible for bringing to the silver screen the first two chronicles, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian. For each movie an entire world had to be created with a history, landscape, creatures big and small, weapons and clothing. And who could be called on to undertake such a mammoth task other than the staff at special effects company Weta Workshop? Read more at the NZ Herald [NZ Herald]

Future “Hobbit” director Guillermo del Toro and former “Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson sat down with a world-wide internet audience and answered a lot more than the announced “20 questions” this weekend.

Hosted by Weta, there were a lot of minor details and significant confirmations and revelations about the gigantic production that will yield two “Hobbit” related movies, one in 2011 and the second in 2012.

Peter Jackson said,

“2009 will be dedicated to pre-production on both movies and 2010 will be the year we shoot both films back to back. Post productin follows one film at a time with The Hobbit being released Dec(ember) 2011, and F2 (film two) release(d) Dec(ember) 2012.”

Continue reading “Hobbit chat with Peter Jackson and G. del Toro peppered with big news (and little details about both films)”

John Howe\'s SmaugStories of dragons are as old as the written word and probably a lot older. To keep things inside the J.R.R. Tolkien realm, “Beowulf”, one of the oldest written stories of Europe features not only the monstrous Grendel but his serpentine Mother. Ancient biblical writings allude to the great serpent or dragon while global mythology has oversized lizard creatures popping up so consistently that some have suggested there must be some common shared memory or primitive survival instinct built into humanity to cause us to tell our tribal stories about such a monstrosity. Continue reading “The Dragon Problem: What challenges await GDT and WETA?”

Guillermo Del Toro 2In an exclusive interview with TheOneRing.net, Guillermo del Toro talks about Ian McKellen, Andy Serkis, Howard Shore, Animatronics vs CGI, the ‘tone’ of the upcoming ‘Hobbit’ films and much more!

We had the opportunity to chat with Guillermo del Toro this morning from his current HQ in London. He’s hard at work putting the finishing touches on ‘Hellboy II: The Golden Army’ and taking interviews from news outlets about that film, and the recent announcement that he’ll be doing ‘The Hobbit’ and a subsequent Hobbit sequel down the line.

First things first, YES, that is him on our message boards, he told me he intends to post there as often as he humanly can. And yes, he is as cool and approachable as he sounds. Take a look at my interview! Continue reading “Guillermo del Toro Chats with TORN About ‘The Hobbit’ Films!”

janedragon.jpgHe’s the special effects wizard who seems to visit the Academy Awards every other year to collect an Oscar for a “Lord of the Rings” film. But it’s a gentle, animated children’s show about a Medieval knight and her goofy, fire-breathing dragon that captures most of Richard Taylor’s attention these days. Of course it doesn’t hurt that Taylor’s own preschool children are among the biggest fans of “Jane and the Dragon,” the cornerstone show of the qubo Channel, NBC’s Saturday morning block of children’s programming.

Thanks to board member diedye for sending in this article in which Taylor reveals that the eyes of Lord of the Rings actor Andy Serkis stand in for the eyes of the dragon. Read More