Now here’s an interesting concept. Assuming part of why you frequent TheOneRing.net is interest in the LOTR/Hobbit movies, would you have paid to see them on opening night – at home? Some of you may already be aware of the proposed ‘Screening Room’ offering from this article at deadline.com in March. More recently, deadline reports that Sir Peter Jackson has enthusiastically jumped on the bandwagon in support of Screening Room, joining a number of other directors, including Steven Spielberg and JJ Abrams.
If, like many of us, you heard about the making of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies before they even started production (and were old enough to read at the time, haha), you probably remember the good old days of endless debates and discussions around casting rumors! Was Sean Connery really considered to portray Gandalf? Was Sylvester McCoy considered for a role long before he brought Radagast to life in The Hobbit movies? This interesting article over at moviepilot.com puts a number of those rumors to rest.
Do you think Patrick Stewart would have made a good Gandalf? What about Jake Gyllenhaal as Frodo? If there are any rumors left over from the olden days that aren’t covered in this article, let us know in the comments section and we’ll see what we can find out. Read the full article here.
The TORn family would like to congratulate Sir Peter Jackson who is among the six new inductees to New Zealand’s Business Hall of Fame. The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit film productions contributed to the New Zealand economy for years, not to mention Weta Workshop, Weta Digital, and many other spin-off endeavors that Peter had a personal hand in founding, or contributed to in partnership with others.
The hall of fame was established in 1994 to recognise and celebrate individual business people who have made a big contribution to the economic and social development of New Zealand. According to the stuff.co.nz article, the inauguration ceremony will take place on Thursday, June 9. Congratulations, P.J.!! Read More …
Peter Jackson has agreed to direct the upcoming film, The Jumping Bean Surprise, according to Court Five Producer Mark Ordesky. Conceived by Tyler H. Jacobson, the story is set in the 1870s and involves four teenagers using a time machine to journey back three hours to scare their past selves by dressing up as clowns. When one of them falls in love with his past self, however, a love triangle develops that challenges the boundaries of time and space.
“It’s a science fiction story, a horror story and a love story all in one,” Ordesky said in his announcement. “And we knew we needed somebody who could bring all these elements together. That somebody is Peter Jackson.”
Set for release in January of 2018, Ordesky added that Jackson is so excited, “he’s already setting aside a suit for the Oscars.”
Peter Jackson is the author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, the latter of which was adapted into a feature film directed by Jackson and produced by Ordesky.
Alright, we’ll come clean: as most of you have guessed, this is just an April Fool’s Day joke! The story idea for this film, written by one of our staffers, is only a proposal that he is currently attempting to gain funding for. If you’d like to donate, visit: www.kickstarter.com/projects/jumpingbeansurprise
How time flies! Exactly a year ago today, February 21st 2015, many of us gathered in Hollywood for The One Last Party. Fans and TheOneRing.net staffers were joined by movie cast and crew members, brought together by a love of Tolkien and of Peter Jackson’s Middle-earth trilogies. Many more fans around the world tuned in to watch TORn’s live stream coverage, led by staffers Quickbeam and Justin. Bruce Hopkins (Gamling) acted as MC for the night, PJ himself sent a special video greeting, and the Professor’s great-grandson Royd Tolkien came all the way from Britain for the celebration. Partygoers danced the night away to the music of Emerald Rose and William Kircher’s group The California Dreamers. It was indeed a night to remember!
Staffer Mithril posted recently about the beautiful Red Book she made, containing the names of all who contributed to the crowdfunding campaign to make The One Last Party happen; this lovely book was sent to Sir Peter as a ‘thank you’ from all of us to whom his movies have meant so much. In another look back to that wonderful night a year ago, here are just a few moments captured from that night, and put together by film maker and TORn friend Dan McBride. Let’s reminisce – and hope that it isn’t really the last such event. We may yet have an excuse, one day, for an unexpected party…
In a recent interview with The Huffington Post, Dominic Monaghan told of a chance encounter in the Hubbard’s casting agency reception area with none other than David Bowie.
“I was at the Hubbard’s, which is a pretty notorious casting agency office in London, doing an audition for ‘Lord of the Rings,’ and when it ended I went over and talked to John Hubbard, who was running the audition, and he said, ‘Hey, it went really well. You should wait around for 5 or 10 mins. We’ll give you some feedback,” He continued, “I thought, ‘Oh, OK, cool, and I sat in the reception office. As I was reading a magazine waiting, David Bowie came in and signed his little list and went in. And I’m assuming he read for Gandalf. I can’t think of anything else he would’ve read for. He may have read for something else, but I’m a huge David Bowie fan, and I was lucky enough to know his son now so just seeing him in person was pretty special to me.”