Salon.com > The Lord of the Rings http://www.salon.com Wed, 22 May 2013 14:25:31 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 “Veronica Mars” Kickstarts a movie project http://www.salon.com/2013/03/13/the_captialist_veronica_mars_movie/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/13/the_captialist_veronica_mars_movie/#comments Wed, 13 Mar 2013 20:27:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13228102 Earlier this morning, Rob Thomas, the creator of “Veronica Mars,” the sharpest, prickliest drama about a teen detective that ever was, announced that he was trying to raise at least $2 million for a “Veronica Mars” movie on Kickstarter. The beloved series was canceled after three seasons in 2007, and Thomas and the star Kristen Bell have been talking about making a movie on and off ever since. If the Kickstarter campaign is successful, a “Veronica Mars” movie will be filmed this summer. As of this writing, so just four or so hours since the project was announced, the project has already raised $1,100,000. There is going to be a “Veronica Mars” movie.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/03/13/the_captialist_veronica_mars_movie/feed/ 6 Weird news: Hobbits are still real! http://www.salon.com/2013/01/11/weird_news_hobbits_are_still_real/ http://www.salon.com/2013/01/11/weird_news_hobbits_are_still_real/#comments Fri, 11 Jan 2013 22:03:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13168686 It's been almost a decade since scientists first discovered the remains of real "hobbits" -- 18,000-year-old prehistoric creatures -- on a remote Indonesian island. Researchers named them after the J.R.R Tolkien characters because their skeletal remains were pint-sized. And because scientists are nerds.

Much like the debate over whether or not "The Hobbit" should have been split into three movies, real-life hobbits are a terribly controversial topic. Claiming they are a kind of hominid closer to Homo erectus than Homo sapiens disrupts many established theories of human evolution, but new research suggests hobbits were part of an extinct species known as Homo floresiensis.

How can they tell? It's all in the wrists.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/01/11/weird_news_hobbits_are_still_real/feed/ 0 “The Hobbit”: Middle-earth faces a phantom menace http://www.salon.com/2012/12/13/the_hobbit_middle_earth_faces_a_phantom_menace/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/13/the_hobbit_middle_earth_faces_a_phantom_menace/#comments Thu, 13 Dec 2012 01:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13123323 So let’s jump right in: Is Peter Jackson’s “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” a gaseous and self-indulgent disaster, a “Phantom Menace”-scale overinflated blimp of a movie that casts retroactive shadows across Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy? Counsel is leading the witness, as they used to say on “Law & Order,” but those were among the thoughts I had after leaving a screening of the first installment of Jackson’s prequel trilogy, especially as seen in the eerie and distracting 48 frames per second 3-D format. (The best single description of which came in a tweet from Salon contributor Bob Calhoun: It “looks like Jehovah’s Witness art.”)

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/13/the_hobbit_middle_earth_faces_a_phantom_menace/feed/ 35 Why does “The Hobbit” look so weird? http://www.salon.com/2012/12/06/why_does_the_hobbit_look_so_weird/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/06/why_does_the_hobbit_look_so_weird/#comments Thu, 06 Dec 2012 18:38:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13117132 No movie all year arrives with the crazy fan anticipation of Peter Jackson’s “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” which has morphed from being a straightforward adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1937 children’s novel into the first installment of a full-blown (and perhaps overblown) prequel trilogy to Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings.” I’ll have a great deal more to say about all that next week, when “The Hobbit” finally reaches theaters. But without jumping the gun on a full review, there’s a technical and aesthetic issue we can talk about right now, one that has provoked considerable anxiety among LOTR fans ever since Jackson previewed some footage last year, and one that could poison the movie for many viewers.

“The Hobbit” looks really, really strange. At least it does when projected in 3-D, at the 48 frames per second rate (known as high-frame rate, or HFR) that Jackson intends as the preferred format. (The movie was shot on the latest iteration of cutting-edge digital video, using a brand-new camera called the Red Epic that was developed alongside the film.) Granted, most viewers probably won’t see it that way; outside major cities, theaters will primarily screen “The Hobbit” in more familiar formats, either 3-D or 2-D, at a conventional frame rate of 24 frames per second.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/06/why_does_the_hobbit_look_so_weird/feed/ 62 Are Hobbits’ feet hot? http://www.salon.com/2012/11/17/are_hobbits_feet_hot/ http://www.salon.com/2012/11/17/are_hobbits_feet_hot/#comments Sat, 17 Nov 2012 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13073144 If there’s anything that can shut down a healthy libido — anything that might be reasonably considered the opposite of “hot” — it’s tragic nobility. And if anyone's bearing such an affliction in literature, it's J.R.R. Tolkien's heroes — to the nth degree.

Tolkien drew inspiration for his invented world from the ballads and sagas of the Anglo-Saxons, who ruled England intermittently (there were a few awkward Danish occupations) for a handful of centuries preceding the Norman Conquest. After the Conquest, Anglo-Saxons remained the predominant demographic in the country, but the Normans completely took over as the ruling class, establishing one of history’s first examples of the 1 percent versus the 99 percent, which lent the Anglo-Saxons a kind of tragic nobility in the imaginations of succeeding centuries.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/11/17/are_hobbits_feet_hot/feed/ 15 “Bilbo’s Last Song” http://www.salon.com/2012/11/15/bilbos_last_song/ http://www.salon.com/2012/11/15/bilbos_last_song/#comments Thu, 15 Nov 2012 15:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13071717 Day is ended, dim my eyes,
but journey long before me lies.
Farewell, friends! I hear the call.
The ship's beside the stony wall.
Foam is white and waves are grey;
beyond the sunset leads my way.
Foam is salt, the wind is free;
I hear the rising of the Sea.

 

Farewell, friends! The sails are set,
the wind is east, the moorings fret.
Shadows long before me lie,
beneath the ever-bending sky,
but islands lie behind the Sun
that I shall raise ere all is done;
lands there are to west of West,
where night is quiet and sleep is rest.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/11/15/bilbos_last_song/feed/ 2 Election 2012: Everything wrong with Citizens United http://www.salon.com/2012/11/12/election_2012_everything_wrong_with_citizens_united/ http://www.salon.com/2012/11/12/election_2012_everything_wrong_with_citizens_united/#comments Mon, 12 Nov 2012 23:35:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13070628 Forty years ago, as a young, aspiring political operative, I was a staff member on Sen. George McGovern’s presidential campaign. We thought we could beat Richard Nixon, but famously lost every state in the union except Massachusetts (with the District of Columbia thrown in as a forlorn consolation prize).

To commit to the presidential campaign lifestyle — endless hours and damn little charm — you really have to believe, no matter what, that your candidate will win. So last week I wasn’t surprised by the many stories about how the Romney team was convinced they would emerge victorious, polling evidence to the contrary, to the point where they reportedly had a fireworks display poised for ignition above Boston Harbor when the requisite electoral votes were achieved.

But what I don’t understand is building a castle in the air and, even in defeat, trying to keep paying rent on it, almost all evidence to the contrary. For years, the right wing has been living in its own version of Tolkien’s Middle-earth in "The Lord of the Rings": an alternative and fanciful, fierce universe rarely bearing resemblance to real life but for odd, embittered moments like the one at President Obama’s victory celebration in Chicago on election night, when Fox News’ Ed Henry dourly announced, “The crowd is near pandemonium now, despite the fact that unemployment is hovering near 8 percent.”

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/11/12/election_2012_everything_wrong_with_citizens_united/feed/ 5 Stephen Colbert is Middle-earth-bound http://www.salon.com/2012/10/23/steven_colbert_is_middle_earth_bound/ http://www.salon.com/2012/10/23/steven_colbert_is_middle_earth_bound/#comments Tue, 23 Oct 2012 16:18:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13049395 Not since the time Bob Dylan showed up in an episode of “Dharma & Greg” will a star cameo be as bewildering as when Comedy Central host Stephen Colbert appears in the second and possibly third installments of “The Hobbit” trilogy directed by Peter Jackson.

Colbert, a reported J.R.R. Tolkien fan, will not be in the first chapter, which opens Dec. 15, but Hollywood Reporter says he’s a lock for a role.

Which one? Here are five possibilities:

1. Beorn. This weird, old recluse shepherds an army of animal servants and assists Bilbo and the dwarves' escape from a goblin horde. He’s also a shape-shifter who happens to become a bear in key moments of the story. A Colbert? A prime choice if Colbert wants to skip the rubber makeup and flowery robes and just stick to the pinstripes.

2. Elrond. An Elfin leader who is described in the novel as “strong as a warrior, as wise as a wizard, as venerable as a king of dwarves, and as kind as summer.” Colbert’s venerability as a dwarf king is well known to the many little people in his life, but what makes this role certain is his keen wizardly ways — like when he produces exact change at a toll booth, or the time he knew to bring a sweater for a nature hike in October.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/10/23/steven_colbert_is_middle_earth_bound/feed/ 3 Stephen Colbert to appear in “The Hobbit” http://www.salon.com/2012/10/22/stephen_colbert_to_appear_in_the_hobbit/ http://www.salon.com/2012/10/22/stephen_colbert_to_appear_in_the_hobbit/#comments Mon, 22 Oct 2012 21:06:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13048666 Book fan and comedian Stephen Colbert will have a cameo in at least one of Peter Jackson's three upcoming "Hobbit" films, according to the Hollywood Reporter.  Colbert hinted at the possibility of an appearance in a candid interview with Playboy, during which he admits he is "a little obsessed" with Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings":

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/10/22/stephen_colbert_to_appear_in_the_hobbit/feed/ 2 “The Hobbit” uncut, at last http://www.salon.com/2012/10/18/the_hobbit_uncut_at_last/ http://www.salon.com/2012/10/18/the_hobbit_uncut_at_last/#comments Thu, 18 Oct 2012 14:53:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13044194 We're on the brink of what I think of as the season of rereading; if there's any time of the year when people are prone to returning to old favorites, it's the holidays. And chances are that the books they come back to -- for comfort, for nostalgia, for another taste of the wonder that infused them the first time they fell in love with reading — are written by J.R.R. Tolkien.

Until last week, the only downloadable recordings of Tolkien's most celebrated works, "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings," were either abridged or dramatized. About abridged audiobooks, the less said the better; I am not sure why anyone ever bothered with them (I guess they reduced the expense and bulk of physical media like tapes and CDs), and publishers seem to be phasing them out.

Dramatizations are trickier. There are some very fine ones, such as the 10th-anniversary edition of Neil Gaiman's "American Gods." More often, however, a dramatization radically multiplies the peril every audiobook is subject to: a narrator who's simply inept or (just as bad) one with a misbegotten interpretation of the text and its characters. No matter how accomplished the rest of the cast, all it takes is one bad voice in a dramatization to ruin the whole thing. This is a particular problem with comic characters, who tend to be portrayed too broadly, with a risible over-jollification that provokes a sensation I can only describe as a full-body wince.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/10/18/the_hobbit_uncut_at_last/feed/ 4 New Zealand issues Hobbit coins as legal tender http://www.salon.com/2012/10/10/new_zealand_issues_hobbit_coins_as_legal_tender/ http://www.salon.com/2012/10/10/new_zealand_issues_hobbit_coins_as_legal_tender/#comments Wed, 10 Oct 2012 16:36:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13035854

New Zealand, the backdrop of sweeping cinematic scenes from "The Lord of the Rings" and the upcoming trilogy "The Hobbit," is issuing a series of Hobbit coins. The coins are a sort of genius marketing move meant to generate "strong international interest in the build up to the premiere" of the "Hobbit" premiere on Nov. 28. (Is "The Flight of the Conchord's" band manager Murray Hewitt behind the idea?)

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/10/10/new_zealand_issues_hobbit_coins_as_legal_tender/feed/ 7 Peter Jackson’s “Hobbit” trilogy: Terrible idea or geek opium? http://www.salon.com/2012/07/31/peter_jacksons_hobbit_trilogy_terrible_idea_or_geek_opium/ http://www.salon.com/2012/07/31/peter_jacksons_hobbit_trilogy_terrible_idea_or_geek_opium/#comments Tue, 31 Jul 2012 20:30:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12968814 There are two major strains of reaction to Peter Jackson’s announcement that his long-brewing film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit,” which had already swollen from one movie to two, will now be a trilogy extending into the summer of 2014. I feel both of them at the same time: I’m excited, and I fear the worst. (Of course, that’s how I feel almost every time I watch a movie, but never mind.) On one hand, surely this is the most serious case of sequel bloat and metastasis in pop-culture history. On the other, if anybody can pull it off, Jackson can, and the idea of transforming his “Hobbit” movie into a wide-ranging “Lord of the Rings” prequel has enormous fan appeal, not to mention enormous financial appeal.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/07/31/peter_jacksons_hobbit_trilogy_terrible_idea_or_geek_opium/feed/ 100 Is “Game of Thrones” too white? http://www.salon.com/2012/04/01/is_game_of_thrones_too_white/ http://www.salon.com/2012/04/01/is_game_of_thrones_too_white/#comments Sun, 01 Apr 2012 13:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12766651 Ser Jorah’s face grew thoughtful as their horses trod together down the godsway. “When I first went into exile, I looked at the Dothraki and saw half-naked barbarians, as wild as their horses. If you had asked me then, Princess, I should have told you that a thousand good knights would have no trouble putting to flight a hundred times as many Dothraki.”

“But if I asked you now?”

“Now,” the knight said, “I am less certain.”

-- George R.R. Martin, "A Game of Thrones"

Epic fantasy -- sprawling stories full of swords, castles, magic, kings and lots and lots of white people – is slowly finding its way into America's cultural mainstream. In the age of the anemic box office, Peter Jackson's films of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy remain a gold standard of blockbusterdom – and his forthcoming version of "The Hobbit" will almost certainly follow suit. Newer writers like Brandon Sanderson and Patrick Rothfuss have sold hundreds of thousands of their "door-stopper" tomes of wizardry and courtly intrigue. And tonight, countless viewers will be glued to their sets for the return of what is arguably the hottest show on television, "Game of Thrones," HBO's adaptation of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy novels.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/04/01/is_game_of_thrones_too_white/feed/ 254 Five pop culture items we missed http://www.salon.com/2011/07/05/pop_five_broship_of_the_rings/ http://www.salon.com/2011/07/05/pop_five_broship_of_the_rings/#comments Tue, 05 Jul 2011 21:06:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/07/05/pop_five_broship_of_the_rings 1. PSA of the day: Don't drink and buy puppies! A pet store in Greenwich Village has banned boozy patrons from purchasing dogs. Finally, taking responsibility for a live animal requires the same amount of mental wherewithal as getting a tattoo.

2. Cover of the day: They Might Be Giants goes "Tubthumping" for The Onion's A.V. Undercover series. "I get knocked down, and I get up again…"



They Might Be Giants covers Chumbawamba

3. Performance slide of the day: Grantland has declared Natalie Portman to be the actor who most "cuba'd" their Oscar cred in 2011. Thanks, "No Strings Attached."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/07/05/pop_five_broship_of_the_rings/feed/ 2 Five pop culture items we missed http://www.salon.com/2011/06/29/pop_five_harrison_ford_vs_shia_labeouf/ http://www.salon.com/2011/06/29/pop_five_harrison_ford_vs_shia_labeouf/#comments Wed, 29 Jun 2011 22:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/06/29/pop_five_harrison_ford_vs_shia_labeouf 1. Grizzled old man uttering profanities of the day:

Harrison Ford on Shia LaBeouf talking crap about the last "Indiana Jones" movie, "I think he was a fucking idiot." Boom!

2. Major nerd accomplishment of the day:

Fifty thousand Lego pieces and a love of "Lord of the Rings" is what inspired Kevin Walter to create the world's most complex model of the Dark Tower Barad-dûr. One block to rule them all?

3. Exposed Twitter (non)scandal of the day:

The reason for Lindsay's sudden interest in the Federal Reserve? The Twitter blast was actually a sponsored message paid for by the National Inflation Association. Are there really so many people out there that look to Lindsay Lohan for financial advice? Wasn't she just released from house arrest today for stealing a necklace?

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/06/29/pop_five_harrison_ford_vs_shia_labeouf/feed/ 1 “Game of Thrones” actors encounter real-life violence http://www.salon.com/2011/06/14/game_of_thrones_sean_bean_attacked/ http://www.salon.com/2011/06/14/game_of_thrones_sean_bean_attacked/#comments Tue, 14 Jun 2011 19:15:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/06/14/game_of_thrones_sean_bean_attacked You have to be somewhat out of your mind to take on one of the bloodthirsty warmongers from HBO's popular George R. R. Martin adaptation, "Game of Thrones." After all, these guys wouldn't think twice about putting their sabers between your ribs on TV, and in real life, actors like Sean Bean (who plays lead Lord Eddard Stark) and Jason Momoa (Khal Drogo) aren't any less intimidating. So why are the actors constantly under attack?

The most recent injury occurred earlier this week when Bean was drinking at a pub in London. According to the Daily Mail, a drunk passing by made lewd comments toward the "Lord of the Rings" actor's female drinking partner, and Bean stepped in to confront the man. Although he initially slinked away, the guy later returned and punched Bean in the face, then stabbed him in the arm with broken glass.

But because Bean is such a badass (and has his reputation to protect), the actor refused to go to a hospital, and instead ordered another round of beer. Another patron of the pub gave a quote when Bean and his lady-friend refused to comment:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/06/14/game_of_thrones_sean_bean_attacked/feed/ 4 Five pop culture items we missed http://www.salon.com/2011/06/07/5_things_actors_action_figures/ http://www.salon.com/2011/06/07/5_things_actors_action_figures/#comments Tue, 07 Jun 2011 23:08:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/06/07/5_things_actors_action_figures Even if you spend all day surfing the Internet, some stuff will invariably fall through the cracks. Here are five pieces of pop ephemera we managed to salvage before the day was over.

1. Song of the day: Beyoncé's "4" album leaked three weeks early, and our favorite track so far is "Party" with Outkast's Andre 3000:

Beyonce - Party feat. Andre 3000 Vidéo MrMusic sélectionnée dans Musique

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/06/07/5_things_actors_action_figures/feed/ 2 Why I reimagined “LOTR” from Mordor’s perspective http://www.salon.com/2011/02/23/last_ringbearer_explanation/ http://www.salon.com/2011/02/23/last_ringbearer_explanation/#comments Wed, 23 Feb 2011 22:30:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2011/02/23/last_ringbearer_explanation First, a few words about myself. I’m not a writer either in form (no literary memberships; royalties are a negligible share of my income) or in substance (writing fiction is not my only or even main occupation). I’m a senior researcher at the Paleontological Institute of the Academy of Sciences – the very place where [Russian paleontologist and science fiction author] Yefremov used to work; professionally I’m known as the author of almost a hundred works on the classification of Chelicerata and historical biogeography. In the last few years I have found it more interesting to deal with living children than with extinct arthropods – I teach electives in high school, summer and winter supplemental courses, etc. I wrote a couple of textbooks, got involved in creating a new natural history school curriculum; if I had to state a preference, it is precisely those activities that I consider my most important. I graduated from the Biology College of the Moscow University (a well-known nest of Voltairians) and have gained most of my life experience in expeditions through Siberia and Middle Asia; I’m an epicurean hedonist in my aspirations and a skeptical rationalist by conviction. Do you get the picture?

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/02/23/last_ringbearer_explanation/feed/ 32 Middle-earth according to Mordor http://www.salon.com/2011/02/15/last_ringbearer/ http://www.salon.com/2011/02/15/last_ringbearer/#comments Tue, 15 Feb 2011 20:30:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/books/laura_miller/2011/02/15/last_ringbearer As bad lots go, you can't get much worse than the hordes of Mordor from J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings." Led by an utterly evil disembodied entity who manifests himself as a gigantic, flaming, pitiless eye, and composed of loathsome orcs (or goblins), trolls and foreigners, Mordor's armies are ultimately defeated and wiped out by the virtuous and noble elves, dwarfs, ents and human beings -- aka the "free peoples" -- of Middle-earth. No one sheds a tear over Mordor's downfall, although the hobbit Sam Gamgee does spare a moment to wonder if a dead enemy soldier is truly evil or has simply been misguided or coerced into serving the dark lord Sauron.

Well, there's two sides to every story, or to quote a less banal maxim, history is written by the winners. That's the philosophy behind "The Last Ringbearer," a novel set during and after the end of the War of the Ring (the climactic battle at the end of "The Lord of the Rings") and told from the point of view of the losers. The novel was written by Kirill Yeskov, a Russian paleontologist, and published to acclaim in his homeland in 1999. Translations of the book have also appeared in other European nations, but fear of the vigilant and litigious Tolkien estate has heretofore prevented its publication in English.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/02/15/last_ringbearer/feed/ 94 Martin Freeman cast as Bilbo Baggins in “The Hobbit” http://www.salon.com/2010/10/22/martin_freeman_bilbo_baggins/ http://www.salon.com/2010/10/22/martin_freeman_bilbo_baggins/#comments Fri, 22 Oct 2010 17:23:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/trending/2010/10/22/martin_freeman_bilbo_baggins The much maligned "Lord of the Rings" prequel just got a little … funnier?

Director Peter Jackson announced yesterday that British actor Martin Freeman will play the lead role of Bilbo Baggins. Freeman is best known to Americans for playing Tim Canterbury in the British version of "The Office." The character Tim, a mild-mannered salesman who is drolly aware of his job's pointlessness, is the U.K. version of Jim Halpert.

Freeman, at the very least, looks the part of Bilbo: boyish, unassuming, short with a decidedly British expression. "Hobbit" fans, however, wonder if Freeman can carry a dramatic movie. He was at ease starring in the underrated "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and he proved more than capable with short cameos in "Shaun of the Dead," "Hot Fuzz" and "Love Actually." But those, like "The Office," are comedies. Falling in love with the receptionist is one thing; fighting off trolls, goblins and giant spiders is another.

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