Hobbit director Peter Jackson was hospitalized last night with a stomach ulcer. He has already undergone surgery for the perforated ulcer, and according to a statement issued by his spokesman, Jackson’s surgery and recovery will only cause a slight delay to the filming of The Hobbit.

As stuff.co.nz notes, Hobbit and Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien died at age 81 after he was diagnosed with a bleeding gastric ulcer.

We wish Jackson the speediest of recoveries.

(via stuff.co.nz. title pic via Wikipedia)

Ennorath is an interactive map of Middle-Earth designed and programmed by Kris Kowal. It allows you to pan across destinations, zoom in and out, look up locations and definitions, and switch languages between English and Elvish. At its highest level of resolution, it spans a full 32,768 pixels tall and wide, though you’ll probably only need to use the ’3′ and ’4′ zoom levels. Oh, and it’s got a very easy-to-remember URL: http://3rin.gs/.

Kowal says that the open-source, Creative Commons map is an ongoing project, and welcomes reader suggestions.

(via Neatorama | Main page)

The buzz about Sylvester McCoy, veteran of British television (including a stint playing the Doctor), lately has been that he is in talks to play a certain part in The Hobbit, though definitely “not the Bilbo role.” (In other interesting facts: he also once played the part of the Fool in King Lear, against, yes, Ian McKellen as the titular monarch.)

Bleeding Cool, however, has a “trustworthy source” that has pegged his negotiations as revolving around a much more obscure character: Radagast the Brown.

Why do we care about negotiations for a bit part in The Hobbit? Because we’re obssesed? Well, yes. Of course. But also because Radagast doesn’t actually appear in The Hobbit, but if he does, it gives us a big hint on one of the movies’ big spectacles.

This is one of those prime examples of how Tolkien was an incredible historian and linguist but perhaps a bad novelist.

According to the ever vigilant blastr, a number of people over at the Disney bulletin boards have been receiving surveys from Universal that are essentially testing the enthusiasm for a Lord of the Rings themed park a la The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

Posts quote the survey as saying:

Imagine if you will a world unlike any you’ve ever visited before: it’s Middle Earth, the ancient and beautiful land forged by J.R.R. Tolkien as the backdrop for his two most well known creations, Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Walk as a human among dwarves, elves, orcs and hobbits—all faithfully recreated and portrayed in the spirit of the original characters as they appeared in both the books and the movies.

In an interview with The Toronto Sun, Leonard Nimoy has announced his retirement from acting. Though the actor legendary among the sci-fi community for his role in Star Trek, the occasional voice acting credit, and odd affection for the works of J.R.R. Tolkien has taken several breaks from active duty before, he seems sincere that this is a lasting proposition.

“I want to get off the stage. Also, I don’t think it would be fair to Zachary Quinto,” he says, referring to the actor who portrayed a youthful Spock in last summer’s smash Star Trek relaunch. “He’s a terrific actor, he looks the part, and it’s time to give him some space. And I’m very flattered the character will continue.”

Read on...

Last week, I Watch Stuff reported that James Cameron and Fox Studios are in talks to rerelease Avatar to theaters with some extra footage late this summer.

Now, hold it right there.  I’m going to come back to this.  But first, from the post:

Did Avatar‘s 162-minute running time leave you another to see another [sic] 10 minutes of mundane parable whitewashed with CGI?

I don’t want to specifically call out I Watch Stuff, a site that puts out good stuff; it’s one example of many.  But seriously: It’s been three months. Everyone, stop hating all over Avatar already.