The announcement of LEGO partnering to make Lord of the Rings themed products hasn’t stopped LEGO enthusiast Blake Baer from doing up scenes from The Hobbit with interlocking bricks. Highlighting pivotal scenes from the book, Baer’s models are all in the details — a moose head on the wall, the lived-in look of Lake-town, the immensity of Smaug’s hoard, and so on. While outstanding in its own right, it’s a bit of a cruel reminder how much longer we’ll have to wait for the movie.

So it looks like for the new Lord of the Rings movie, they’re ripping off Star Wars and doing the whole prequel thing. They’ll be hard pressed to make something better than The Phantom Menace though, am I right? That being said this trailer actually makes The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey look pretty good for a shameless Harry Potter clone. I might have to check it out.

The seminal fantasy story The Hobbit turns 75 this year, and Harper Collins did what most publishing companies do to celebrate anniversaries: They began work on a special edition. But in the course of researching the material, they uncovered a veritable dragon horde of never before seen sketches and paintings by author J.R.R. Tolkien.

Though Tolkien’s art graced the original printing of the books, and has been reused since, it turns out that he did numerous alternative versions of illustrations prior to the books publication. Many of these have simply been moldering in the Bodleian Library at Oxford since then. But now, you (yes, you!) can see them for yourself. Read on below for more images of Middle Earth, as imagined by the master himself.

Following an article on a baseball bat humorously named for Orcrist the Goblin-Cleaver, a sword from The Hobbit that was owned by Thorin Oakenshield — and not Bilbo Baggins, duh– the New York Times learned the #1 lesson about writing articles that mention swords in Tolkien books: Be sure that you get every detail about the Tolkienian sword right, or you will hear very quickly from Tolkien fans that you did not get every detail about the Tolkienian sword right, dangit. (Related: Baseball fans are probably geekier than most other sports fans.)

(via Reddit)

After directorial casting woes, a near workers strike, MGM’s bankruptcy, and even a studio fire; the primary actors, screenwriters, and director of both installments of The Hobbit have had their first script read-through at the Stone Studio’s location of the interior of Bag End. According to Ian McKellen, “having Jackson and co-screenwriters Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens inviting comments on their script so far ‘is as close to bliss as an actor can get.’” >>>Pics at The Mary Sue.

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)

Not a trollquote: In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, Sir Ian McKellen disappointed Lord of the Rings slash-fic enthusiasts everywhere when he put forth the theory that there’s no sex in Middle-earth. McKellen, who is gay and an outspoken advocate for gay rights, laughingly brushed off the interviewer’s question as to whether Gandalf would be savvy about gay bars in Tolkien’s fictional universe.

McKellen:

Tolkien was the only authority on that world, and I don’t think he was very interested in sex, at least not with the evidence of Lord of the Rings. Other people can read into it what they like or what they can. But I don’t really see it. Although I have heard speculation that Sam and Frodo might be an item, but I don’t think Tolkien really saw it that way. I don’t think Peter Jackson does either.

(Vanity Fair via MetaFilter)

Perhaps in response to the latest set of fan waverings about the film, the filming location for which is still uncertain, Warner Bros. Pictures, New Line Cinema, and director Peter Jackson have officially announced a good chunk of the cast for The Hobbit.

Per the casting rumors we passed on last week, Martin Freeman will be playing Bilbo Baggins. David Tennant, Jimmy Nesbit, and Michael Fassbinder, rumored to be under consideration for roles unspecified, have not been confirmed, nor have Sir Ian McKellen as Gandalf or Andy Serkis as Gollum. But good news, everybody! Now we know the actors who are going to play a bunch of dwarves.

Well, The Hobbit has finally been greenlit, and you know what that means! That’s right! Everybody and their mom can start flipping out about casting rumors!

From the usually reliable Deadline:

Word is Martin Freeman will soon be set to play Bilbo Baggins, that Jimmy Nesbitt has been offered a role and that Michael Fassbender is being pursued for another as is David Tennant. Ian McKellan and Andy Serkis are expected to reprise Gandalf and Gollum.

It’s for real now, no backsies: MGM has finally given the goahead on The Hobbit, a movie plagued by years of pre-production anguish, involving studio bankruptcy, labor disputes, a director search, and even fire.

Well, the film is being given a budget of $500 million, Peter Jackson is directing, and according to The Coventry Telegraph, even MGM’s financial problems can no longer get in the way:

MGM is finding its share of the project’s funding from external sources and, if that fails, Warner Bros has pledged to step in and lend the money to MGM.

So the only thing left unmentioned by New Line Cinema‘s press release is whether the film will continue to be shot in New Zealand, where localized pre-production work (like the rebuilding of Hobbiton) has already begun; or if actors labor disputes will cause the production to move to Europe.