Creatures of Middle-earth: Gaunt-lords
TheLandofShadow.com ~Ring Lord~

A new Dark Creature update at LOTR Online...

In the First Age, Morgoth summoned many fell spirits into his service and twisted countless creatures to his will. Among those were dire creatures called Gaunt-men, which had the power to instill other fell spirits into the remains of the dead and raise them as wights... More...

Dark Men Under the Sway of the Dark Lord
TheLandofShadow.com ~Ring Lord~

Take a look at our very own Dark Men of Middle-earth and see those men who fell under the will of Sauron.

Khand is an arid region southeast of Mordor which straddles the east-west trading routes. Because of the altitude and availability of water, the natives of Khand are relatively numerous.

Khand stretches between the southeastern flank of the Ephel Duath and the northwestern edge of the Ered Harmal. It occupies the semi-arid plateau bordering northeastern Harad and thus commanded the strategically all-important Gap of Khand, the hundred mile wide pass facing southern Rhûn and eastern Mordor. Nûrad lies in the hills to the northeast. More...

Moria Orc ~ Premium Format Figure
TheLandofShadow.com ~Ring Lord~

Take a look at this new offering from Sideshow Collectibles. This is definitely a favorite here at The Land of Shadow.com!

The Moria Orc Premium Format figure is a stunning 1:4 scale reproduction. Standing 20 inches tall atop the display base, the Moria Orc posed in the heat of the battle, ready to attack any man, hobbit, or wizard foolish enough to enter Moria. Each figure is hand-painted and hand-finished, and individually hand-numbered for authenticity. This stunning figure is an outstanding addition to any The Lord of the Rings collection - reserve yours today! More...

Big News! Mordor Interview with John Howe!
TheLandofShadow.com ~Ring Lord~

Exclusive interview with John Howe will be premiering soon right here on Mordor with some interesting questions about upcoming projects!

As part of our premiere of the Dark Artists section of Mordor we will be bring you an exclusive interview with John Howe. Last year we premiered our J. J. R. Tolkien pages and now we are expanding this to include a number of the wonderful artists whose work is featured here at Mordor and who inspired its grand scale. We are kicking off this new section with John Howe and will soon be adding more artists. Keep an eye out in the coming days for our Dark Artists Premiere!

John Howe News Update ~ Media Blackout!
TheLandofShadow.com ~Ring Lord~

John Howe announces on his web site the he must take a break from the media spotlight and get down to work! However, not before giving us here at Mordor an Exclusive Interview!

MEDIA BLACKOUT

Over the next few months I must concentrate on work, so if I've accepted interviews and questionnaires and the like, I'm terribly sorry, but they will all have to wait (as will the stack of mail accumulated like a snowdrift under my desk) until my looming deadlines have been taken on and beaten.
One more (long) interview will appear shortly on The Land of Shadow and then I'll have to call it quits, draw the blinds, get a promising stack of CDs fed into the sound system and then work until I'm done. (These interviews are always good fun to do, but typing out something legible, vaguely sensible and hopefully occasionally witty just takes so long it's easy to end up spending far too much time on them.)
I'll do my level best to keep the newsletter going, despite the fact that all work and no play will definitely make John a (hopefully temporarily) dull boy, and there will be the little trips to Comic Con and the Edinburg Festival (about which, more later). I hope to resurface properly after September.

And, speaking of Comic Con: Spotlight Panel, on Saturday July 26th, at 12h00, which is scheduled to run for an hour, followed by a signing session at the Impact booth at 13h00. There will be signing sessions Thursday and Friday too, I'll post the times when I have them.
There is also a live chat, organized by TORN, lined up for the film documentary "Reclaiming the Blade", which I believe takes place the Thursday evening. Once again, more when I know more. More...

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

RULE OF DESK
Or A Brief (But Memorable) Excursion into the Hinterland of Bureaucracy.

Switzerland may not have much seashore, but there are times it does feel like an island (actually, look at any map of the E.U., it is marooned farther and farther inside Europe as the borders extend east).I have just recently tested those nether shores.

Preparing a show in France initially seemed quite simple. Choose pictures. Make lists. Put pictures in packing cases. Watch solid movers lift and load said cases. Sign a paper, wave goodbye. Little did I know. Life on an island still reserves some surprises. One week before the show, the organisers phone and ask me to help arrange to get the artwork through customs. I am suddenly poised in the brink of the Great Abyss of Bureaucracy. But first, I can't resist a little etymology. (Any port in a storm when you're saddled with an unwelcome task and any distraction will do; coming to grips with the real thing required a little exploration of the word itself.) Bureaucracy may not necessarily have been invented by the French, but they did invent the word for it. More...

Sideshow Collectibles has New Product Videos!
TheLandofShadow.com ~Ring Lord~

Sideshow Collectibles has really sent it's Lord of the Rings Products into over-drive in the last weeks with the premieres of The Frodo Baggins 12-inch Figure and the Samwise Gamgee 12-inch Figure figures which both have Exclusive Editions now on second chance and will surly gone soon! Act now if you want them! In addition the brand new Dark Counsel diorama, with Grima Wormtongue and Theoden and the Treachery of Saruman diorama which is now in second chance.

The good news is they now have some great video's call Backstage Passes that show the quality and drama of each piece in addition to the Sideshow 360s for each product! Check them out!

Dark Counsel Diorama Check out the Sideshow 360

Frodo and Sam 12-inch Exclusive Cool Backstage Pass Video

Frodo 12-inch Exclusive Check out the Sideshow 360 of Frodo

Samwise 12-inch Exclusive Check out the Sideshow 360 of Sam

Treachery of Saruman Cool Backstage Pass Video

Creatures of Middle-earth: Baugarch
TheLandofShadow.com ~Ring Lord~

A new Dark Creature update at LOTR Online...

Wandering through the Chetwood and the Blackwold camp is a vile Warg that came with Éogan out of the North. Many an unwary woodsman has vanished in the Chetwood, taken by the evil Baugarch. Learn more about this terror in this week’s content update!

In the Chetwood, the Blackwold brigands have established an encampment from which they assail the various villages of Bree-land. The entire brigand band put together, however, is not as much of a threat as the guardian left there by Éogan of Angmar. More...

Jackson and Guillermo Chat a Big Success!
TheLandofShadow.com ~Ring Lord~

Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro sat down in New Zealand and London respectively at the same moment to answer fan questions! Here is a just a little bit of what was said...

WetaHost 2 - Hello Mr. Jackson and Mr. Del Toro! Thank you very much for this time. My question is one that I think you will hear alot of from many of us...from what material will you pulling the second movie from? I know it'll be great with you two on board, but I am mighty curious. I am a huge fan of both of you and I look foward to more Tolkien films!

Guillermo del Toro - The idea is to find a compelling way to join THE HOBBIT and FELLOWSHIP and enhance the 5 films both visually an in their Cosmology. There’s omissions and material enough in the available, licensed material to attempt this. The agreement is, however, that the second film must be relevant and emotionally strong enough to be brought to life but that we must try and contain the HOBBIT in a single film.

Peter Jackson - I'm really looking forward to developing Film Two. It gives us a freedom that we haven't really had on our Tolkien journey. Some of you may well say that's a good thing of course! The Hobbit is interesting in how Tolkien created a feeling of dangerous events unfolding, which preoccupy Gandalf. There's an awful lot of incident that happens during that 60 year gap. At this stage, we're not imagining a film that literally covers 60 years, like a bio-pic or documentary. We would figure out what happens during that 60 years, and choose one short section of time to drop in and dramatise for the screen. I'm really interested in how it effects The Hobbit - do we show what happens to Gandalg during his trips away? We'll see. We may well have seeds for Film Two that we'll subtly sow during The Hobbit.

Find the full transcript of the Online Chat at the link below.

Sideshow Radio Talks 'Hobbit' Figures
TheLandofShadow.com ~Ring Lord~

The artists at Sideshow Collectibles discuss the making of the Frodo and Sam Hobbit figures.

Listen to the latest podcast from Sideshow Collectibles, featuring a ‘live’ Ask Sideshow Q&A in which collectors find out some answers to their most-asked questions regarding Hot Toys Iron Man & Dark Knight figures, Sideshow’s G.I. JOE figures, and The Lord of the Rings fans will be treated to an interesting conversation among a few of our Development Team members about the much-anticipated 1:6th scale Hobbit figures, Frodo & Sam! Brought to you by SideshowCollectibles.com, the leading specialty manufacturer of TV and Film related collectibles.

Characters of Middle-earth: Gollum!
TheLandofShadow.com ~Ring Lord~

The Folks at Middle-Earth Online have just introduced one of the Major Dark Servants from the Lord of the Rings. Gollum!

The creature Gollum earned his name because of the horrible noises he makes in his throat. Gandalf the Grey speculated that he belonged to a race of river-folk akin to the hobbits, which once dwelt east of the Misty Mountains in the Vale of Anduin. Gollum’s tale is a sad and perilous one.

Sméagol, as was his name of old, went fishing on his birthday with his friend Déagol, who was suddenly pulled into the river by a fish. There, Déagol found a shiny gold ring in the silt at the river-bottom. Sméagol demanded the ring as a birthday present, but Déagol refused to relinquish it Overcome by the power of the Ring – for this was the One Ring of the Dark Lord Sauron – Sméagol murdered his friend and claimed the Ring for himself. Banished by his people, he fled to a cave in the Misty Mountains, where the Ring’s power twisted his body and mind even as it prolonged his life for centuries. More...