Jackson Might Even Direct The Hobbit!
TheLandofShadow.com ~Ring Lord~

MGM CEO Harry Sloan talks 'Hobbit'

Can you tease us with who might be in line to direct? Guillermo Del Toro, Sam Raimi...

Well, those are the names that have been mentioned and they’re both top directors, excellent directors. It’s Peter’s project. Peter and Bob Shaye are going to oversee it creatively but in the end ... our choice had always been Peter. But if after he and Fran [Walsh, Jackson's wife] and whoever they work with develop the script, if Peter feels comfortable and Bob feels comfortable with another director, then there will be another director.

Is there any chance that Peter could direct the Hobbit sequel?

Well, he could direct either of them.

Lay your staff ~HERE~

Peter Jackson to produce 'The Hobbit'
TheLandofShadow.com ~Ring Lord~

Yes... you can start screaming now! Peter Jackson is back on The Hobbit!

Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema have reached agreement to make J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit," a planned prequel to the blockbuster trilogy "The Lord of the Rings."

Peter Jackson is set to oversee the film adaptation of "The Hobbit." Jackson, who directed the "Rings" trilogy, will serve as executive producer for "The Hobbit." A director for the prequel films has yet to be named. Relations between Jackson and New Line had soured after "Rings," despite a collective worldwide box office gross of nearly $3 billion -- an enormous success. The two sides nevertheless were able to reconcile, with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (MGM) splitting "The Hobbit" 50/50, spokemen for both studios said Tuesday. "I'm very pleased that we've been able to put our differences behind us, so that we may begin a new chapter with our old friends at New Line," Jackson said in a statement. "We are delighted to continue our journey through Middle Earth."

Two "Hobbit" films are scheduled to be shot simultaneously, similar to how the three "Lord of the Rings" films were made. Production is set to begin in 2009 with a released planned for 2010, with the sequel scheduled for a 2011 release.

Lay your staff ~HERE

The Tolkien Toast is Coming January 3rd!
TheLandofShadow.com ~Ring Lord~

Take part in a yearly event celebrated round the world! A toast to professor Tolkien!

Every year Tolkien fans around the globe pay homage to their favorite author by giving him a toast "heard round the world" and we here at The Land of Shadow.com have played our part by creating a Tribute to Tolkien that ends in a rousing Toast! If you are in a crowd of friends or just tipping a glass of your favored beverage alone by the fire, then play our tribute and make your Toast to "the Professor"

Get all the details here on our Tolkien pages.

Lay your staff ~HERE~

Tolkien Birthday Toast Press Release...
TheLandofShadow.com ~Ring Lord~

From The Tolkien Society: At 9pm (local times) on January 3rd fans around the world are invited to raise a glass and toast J.R.R. Tolkien’s Birthday

The Tolkien Society has some webpages where fans across the globe can let other fans know where they’ll be celebrating if they’re hosting a party, or just what particular tipple they’ll be raising. Fans will be able to check the webpage and see who is celebrating where and if they wish to get in touch and join in.

The Birthday Toast event should be understood to consist of the saying of the toast and a drink (not necessarily alcoholic) of an individual’s choice. The information posted by anybody on the Birthday Toast web pages will not be sold or passed on to any third party (outside of the context of the web pages and the ‘Birthday Toast’ event). Further details can be found at the website above.

The organisers do not condone drinking alcohol if it endangers the health or safety of the drinker or others, or contravenes the law.

Lay your staff ~HERE~

John Howe Updates His Web Journal
TheLandofShadow.com ~Ring Lord~

BUNNIES, WORLDBUILDING & CAPITAL-P PLOTS
Or One Author's Trip to the Woods

To me, writers are mysterious creatures. They make things with words. Pictures are easy, kids do them without thinking. Words are harder, as it implies keeping that gift of spontanteous espression, but using a sophisticated and precise tool most of us can never firmly grasp in out clumsy hands. So, when I meet an Author, I'm always faintly surprised that they seem affable and quite normal,
nay, even human.

Thus, when I met Caitlin Sweet... More

Lay your staff ~HERE

Update, Dark Domains... The Map of Mordor
TheLandofShadow.com ~Ring Lord~

We have finally completed the Map of Mordor!

The Map of Mordor has been a long time in development. The version online was not in it's completed form and had quite few missing areas as well as a few bugs... that has now all been fixed.

In addition to the brand new introduction to the map, we now have over 100 clickable links on the map with names, histories and a visual of what that area looks like. Our primary focus in this update was to give much more detail to the Plateau of Gorgoroth, the dark heart of Mordor, adding over 25 new detailed locations. We hope you enjoy this new Update!

Lay your staff ~HERE~

John Howe Updates His Web Journal
TheLandofShadow.com ~Ring Lord~

Check out the link to this great Swiss French-speaking half-hour television program to see John Howe in his element!

HEADS, CLOUDS AND CONVERSATIONS
Or the Perilous Pertinence of Perspicacity Premeditated
(Or Exercises in Applied Floccinaucinihilipilificatiousness)

I'm often told I've got my "head in the clouds". While that's clearly metaphorical, or at least I dearly hope so, I recently had the opportunity to get a little closer to the meteorological for a television interview.

"Têtes en l'Air" is a Swiss French-speaking half-hour television program somewhere between interview and conversation. The creator of the show, Manuella Maury, prepares extensive notes, reads up diligently on her subject, and then plays everything by ear, counting on an agile mind rather than a plodding list of questions. Which is fair enough, though it does mean trying to keep your wits about you.

Lay your staff ~HERE~

Update to our Dark Domains... The Dagorlad
TheLandofShadow.com ~Ring Lord~

An all NEW update to our Dark Domains... The Dagorlad, the Battle Plain of Mordor!

Frodo looked around in horror.

The gasping pools were choked with ash and crawling muds, sickly white and gray, as if the mountains had vomited the filth of their entrails upon the lands about. High mounds of crushed and powdered rock, great cones of earth fire-blasted and poison-stained, stood like an obscene graveyard in endless rows, slowly revealed in the reluctant light.

The had come to the desolation that lay before Mordor: the lasting monument to the dark labour of its slaves that should endure when all their purposes were made void; a land defiled, diseased beyond all healing --unless the Great Sea should enter in and wash it with oblivion.

Lay your staff ~HERE~

The World of Middle-earth is Growing...
TheLandofShadow.com ~Ring Lord~

Tolkien's world is expanding at an at an alarming rate. This begs the question... is this a good thing?

Almost from the moment he released his vision of Middle-earth on paper, Tolkien's world has been added to and filled in with paintings, illustrations, animation, film, and games. We here at Mordor, The Land of Shadow.com we find this both wonderful and terrible..

Wonderful, because Tolkien's vision was so clear and beautiful that it immediately inspired other artists to visualize and add on to this incredibly potent and detailed world. I would have to place myself in this category, because... MORE

Lay your staff ~HERE~

LOTRO Shadows of Angmar Update
TheLandofShadow.com ~Ring Lord~

The Gaming World of The Lord of the Rings Online, Shadows of Angmar has created a new Dark Domain in Middle-Earth.

Perhaps hinted at in the Appendices of the Lord of the Rings or in the extended lore of Middle-earth the has come through the works of Christopher Tolkien there has never been much wirtten about the North Kingdom of Angmar.

"Unbeknownst to all but the Wise, however, he also built a fortress amid the wastes of Angmar, which he called Barad Gúlaran. There, he continued his studies in the dark arts he had learned from the Dark Lord Sauron."

Lay your staff ~HERE~ Barad Gúlaran

Also here are some other new Dark Places in LOTRO!

Lay your staff ~HERE Carn Dûm

Lay your staff ~HERE Garth Agarwen

John Howe Updates His Web Journal
TheLandofShadow.com ~Ring Lord~

GETTING IT WRONG... Or the Fine Art of Pentimento, Peccadillo and Palimpsest

Occasionally, a picture goes awry. Some images have tales to tell independantly to what's actually pictured in them, some come a long way, and many abruptly come to a premature conclusion.

The snapshot of the sketchbook shows a quick sketch done for the Beowulf movie project, while Roger Avery was still planning on directing it himself. You'll recognize more than a hint of Egon Schiele in Grendel's pose; Roger desired to capture that awkward raw equipoise that Schiele's nudes display so uncomfortably. So, I dug out my Seamus Heaney translation of the story, found John Gardner's astonishing retelling in a used-book shop, raided the local library

Lay your staff ~HERE~

The Official Movie Site for The Mist
TheLandofShadow.com ~Ring Lord~

The Barrow-Downs covers the world!

After a violent storm attacks a town in Maine, an approaching cloud of mist appears the next morning. As the mist quickly envelops the area, a group of people get trapped in a local grocery store. The people soon discover that within the mist lives numerous species of horrific, unworldly creatures that entered through an inter-dimensional rift, as the world around them manifests into a literal hell-on-earth, the horrified citizens try desperately to survive this apocalyptic disaster.

Lay your staff ~HERE~ The Offcial Site

Lay your staff ~HERE~ Early Reviews

Lay your staff ~HERE~ Cool King Contest!

John Howe Updates His Web Journal
TheLandofShadow.com ~Ring Lord~

A major update to our Dark Wallpapers!

We actually make the tail end of the Beowulf launch party, which is a relief. Follow two whirlwind days of meetings and such in London, with... seats for the Lord of the Rings Musical.

We were enchanted. I'm not a regular musical-goer, so the first snippet of song was disconcerting, but from there on, it was a continuous succession of brilliantly conceived sequences and solid if necessarily abridged storytelling. I kept wondering "Now how are they going to pull off?" and each and every time it was honestly breathtaking. (The Balrog scene doesn't pale in comparison to the movie sequence, the Black Riders are astonishing and eerie, Boromir has a lovely tragic Scottish brogue, Gollum is fabulous...) All in all, it really IS worth seeing, mainly because it doesn't owe anything to anyone. In a time where interpretations of Tolkien are plentiful to say the least, plotting and holding an original course is an accomplishment in itself. We even got a backstage tour.

Lay your staff ~HERE~

All New Tolkien Pages Here at Mordor
TheLandofShadow.com ~Ring Lord~

We have created a new set of pages to honor the author of Middle-earth and the Land of Shadow.

We have updated some of our existing content such as our 'Tolkien Tribute' and our 'Tolkien Toast' 'the Professor', in addition, we have also added some new content including a biography with links, a dedication to Tolkien's beautiful resting place which allows you to visit the site with both a video and 360 degree view of the area. A page dedicated to the artwork of Tolkien with links to his artwork online and finally a secret surprise. lay your staff on the picture of Tolkien on the menu and hear him speak the words on the Ring of Fire!

Lay your staff ~HERE~

Huge Update to our Dark Wallpapers
TheLandofShadow.com ~Ring Lord~

A major update to our Dark Wallpapers!

We have added over 20 new wallpapers and have divided them into sections to make it easier to see and download them to your own desktop. Some have been updated and refined with the new Dark Wallpaper layout and some have never before premiered here at The Land of Shadow.com
Make sure to go first to the Witchkings, because we have created 6 new wallpapers for one of our favorite Dark Servants.

Lay your staff ~HERE~

Real Hobbit Holes Around the World
TheLandofShadow.com ~Ring Lord~

With the filming of The Hobbit hovering about with possibilities again, we thought we would go searching for a few real Hobbit homes around the world... the last link is to the farm in New Zealand where the LOTR was filmed... will it stand in for Hobbiton again?

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