Photo by Chris Van de Weerd.
DeviantArt user aishafee created this fantastic female Bilbo Baggins cosplay at for Castlefest 2013. It took her 2-3 months to complete (not counting the 5 months she spent look for the perfect Sting sword), and it was worth it! (Alice)
Both Weta Digital and Park Road Post will be among the honorees at the International 3D & Advanced Imaging Society’s 5th annual 3D Technology Awards. The awards will be presented on Sept. 18 during a ceremony at Paramount Studios. The Society’s Lumiere statuettes for technology will be awarded to Weta Digital for the visual effects pipeline it created for Avatar and to Park Road Post for the 3D high frame rate pipeline it developed for The Hobbit. (Evie Bowman)
After hundreds of emails from fans asking how to play “Concerning Hobbits” from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring on the tin whistle, Elizabeth Velez Urie of inspirationalflute.com final broke down and created this handy tutorial. Grab your tin whistle and play along! (Alice)
From an insurance point of view, the events in the movie The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey are a real disaster. A fortress, a whole village, warriors and a pack of giant wolves. But Allianz experts Dr. Nils Möckelmann, consultant for special claims, and Andreas Hufgard, major claims regulator, quickly realized “As the liability insurer of the Dwarves or the wizard Gandalf, we could easily deny cover, since the injuries and deaths were clearly intentional.” But who wants to get into an argument with a bunch of heavily armed Dwarves? Or with one of the most powerful wizards in Middle Earth? Read Part 1: Liability Losses and Part 2: Property Damage. (Maria)
A bronze statue of Gandalf the Grey has been erected by Wellington City Council at the re-envigorated Miramar village centre outside The Roxy Cinema. The statue has been loaned by Tania Rodger and Richard Taylor, co-owners of Weta Workshop and the Roxy. The sculpture was created by Steven Saunders and Weta Workshop and cast at the Tenzan Bronze foundry. (Evie Bowman)
Jens Hansen Gold and Silversmith, the makers of The One Ring, will be expanding their business into an additional building to keep up with the sales boom that has followed the release of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Owner Halfdan Hansen said, “We have visitors coming to the store to buy replicas of The One Ring every day, and there are no signs of this slowing down.” With revenue having grown by 50 per cent in the past five years, and with last year the best ever, the expansion was the logical next step for the business. Hansen hopes to one day have a store in Wellington or Christchurch. (Middle-earth News Contributor Jack Machiela)
At MegaCon 2013 in Orlando, well-known voice actors, including Futurama alumini John DiMaggio (Bender) and Billy West (Fry, Zoidberg & The Professor), read select passages from The Lord of the Rings in their character voices. (Britta)
Every week, our Middle-earth News reporters seek out Tolkien/Hobbit/LOTR goodness and tag their finds with their names. If you have something to contribute, please submit it using the Got News Precious link at the bottom of the page.
