Director Guillermo Del Toro has announced that he will no longer be directing The Hobbit, and has made a follow up statement today. Speculation is rife as to what he might work on next, having given up that massive commitment. Some are speculating, based on this AICN interview promoting the movie Splice, that going forwards with his adaptation of HP Lovecraft's At The Mountains of Madness may be on his mind again.
posted by Artw on Jun 6, 2010 - 61 comments

English Russia presents Lord of the Rings character illustrations from the USSR. [more inside]
posted by gman on May 27, 2010 - 47 comments

Middle Earth Filter: Peter Jackson and New Line to produce The Hobbit and a sequel. After a lengthy legal dispute between the director and the production company behind the epic Lord of the Rings trilogy, the two parties have come to a resolution - and Middle Earth will be back in cinemas in 2010 and 2011.
posted by crossoverman on Dec 18, 2007 - 111 comments

Write your name in Tengwar, the Elvish language/alphabet created by JRR Tolkien. You can work with Tengwar fonts based on Middle Earth languages and runes and see many examples of the script via a Google Image search. According to Tolkien, "there is quite a bit of linguistic wisdom in it." There are certainly websites devoted to his languages and thier history. And It took some thought and work to make the speech sound right in the movies.
posted by persona non grata on Aug 29, 2006 - 27 comments

Sure, Peter Jackson's might be the most famous, and you've probably all heard of Ralph Bakshi's animated version and the Rankin-Bass one, but did you know that there have been other cinematic adaptations of J. R. R. Tolkien's works? Take a look at this 1960s musical adaptation of The Hobbit, for instance, or a 1940s Warner Bros. version of the complete trilogy. (Movie downloads require Quicktime.)
posted by UKnowForKids on Oct 2, 2002 - 16 comments