Category: General News

In May this year a Tolkien weekend was held at Sarehole Mill in the UK. You can view some images from the weekend here. Those attending the weekend included Tim Tolkien, great-nephew of J.R.R. Tolkien, who was raising funds for his statue honouring J.R.R. Tolkien. You can read more about his project here.

Karl Urban was born in Wellington, New Zealand on 7th June 1972 and today Karl is celebrating his 35th birthday. You can read his cast bio here. In the CoE gallery there are pictures of Karl here and of Karl in the role of Éomer here. Happy birthday Karl.

Christopher Lee was born in London, UK on 27th May 1922 and today is his 85th birthday. In the CoE gallery there are pictures of Christopher here and of Christopher in the role of Saruman here. Happy birthday Christopher!

Ian McKellen was born on 25th May 1939 in Burnley, UK and today is his 68th birthday. You can read about Ian in the cast list. In the CoE gallery there are pictures of Ian here and pictures of Ian in the role of Gandalf here. Happy birthday Ian!

May 14th is Cate Blanchett’s birthday. She was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1969 and is 38 years old today. You can read Cate’s CoE bio here. There are pictures of Cate here and of Cate in the role of Galadriel here. Many happy returns Cate.

The results of the Visual Effects Society 50: the 50 most influential visual effects films of all time, has been announced. Heading the list was Star Wars with Fellowship of the Ring at 19, Return of the King at 33 and The Two Towers at 36. You can read the full list here.

Silver Leaves is the official journal of The White Tree Fund. Its purpose is to educate, raise awareness, support charitable initiatives, and entertain. Silver Leaves is looking from submissions from established scholars, authors, and artists as well as from those new to the publishing world. For more information about submitting to the first issue of…

Chance Thomas wrote the music score for Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar. Five years of researching Tolkien’s work led to, “ the formulation of an authoritative Tolkien Music Style Guide, which translated the literary research into concrete musical terms.”. You can read more about his work in this interview at the article…

Howard Shore’s music for the Fellowship of the Ring topped a recent poll run by UK radio station Classic FM to find the nations favorite film music. You can view the top 50 movie soundtracks here.

John Rhys-Davies celebrates his 63rd birthday today. John was born in Wiltshire, England, on the 5th of May, 1944. John’s cast biography can be viewed here. You can view pictures of John here and pictures of John in the role of Gimli here. Happy birthday John!