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John Garth

From the Editor

So, here we are with the June issue of the journal of the Festival of the Shire - and I am following hot on the heels of the May issue so that readers can receive another two monthly issues before the Festival takes place from 13th to 15th August. Having an online journal which appears monthly means that we can respond quickly to events as they happen and I hope we will do so with news of any kind. So hot off the presses as it were, it is my great delight to announce that Dimitra Fimi's  book  'Tolkien, Race and Cultural History: From Fairies to Hobbits'  has been shortlisted for the Mythopoeic Scholarship Award for Inklings Studies this year. She is in good company, as Michael Ward who is the author of Planet Narnia has also been shortlisted.  There will be more very interesting news regarding Dimitra Fimi and Tolkien related activities in the next journal. I would also like to make an announcement regarding the dates for the 2011 Festival in the Shire - it will be held from 12th - 15th August. More details of that event are on the website, and we look forward to this annual event growing from strength to strength.

I am pleased to include more from the Tolkien Professor on the lesser known works of Tolkien. Last month it was On Fairy Stories and this month we have his exegesis on Farmer Giles of Ham. We have an interview with Edouard Klotzko the French Tolkien linguist who is an expert on the elven languages, giving us his thoughts on Tolkien’s legacy, and an interview with Sam Roads of the gaming company Microcosm Games Ltd. about their products. I shall be reviewing the Lord of the Rings Facebook online game in the next issue.  

There is a review by Elizabeth Currie of the extended version of On Fairy Stories edited by Verlyn Flieger and Douglas A. Anderson - a useful overview of what is a very important publication. We also have the first part of a long paper on Tom Bombadil written by Jodi Storer and her friends, who are still studying at school.  She attends Ironville & Codnor Park Primary School. The other two parts will be included in the next 2 issues. It is very heartening to see this level of thoughtfulness from a young eleven year old scholar and bodes well for the future of Tolkien scholarship.  We also have another poem by Peter Kenny for your delectation.

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"There is even a rather strange rumour that  Peter Jackson is considering reworking and issuing his original 3 Lord of the Rings movies in 3D! "

I would like to pass on each month - with all the reservations and caveats possible - some of the more believable rumours that I have heard online and elsewhere about the progress of The Hobbit movies. So, please bear in mind that these snippets are just rumours that are given to me by fans in the Tolkien community or come from sites like Hobbit Movie News or from the media in general. The most obvious rumour we can begin to accept is that the start of shooting of the two movies has now been delayed from the middle of 2010, to probably the end of 2010 - some sources suggest that shooting may start in late November, but that is not confirmed by any official announcements. We do know for certain that MGM did file for bankruptcy protection at the start of this year, owing large sums. It is also reported that the flagship of the MGM movie making machine, the James Bond franchise, has also been delayed due to the financial problems at the company. We know from interviews with Peter Jackson that the scripts for both the movies have now been written and submitted - though he is at pains to stress that nothing has been ‘green-lighted’ and so the process of casting cannot begin until that happens. That hasn’t stopped many wild rumours of who will play which part. Ian Mc Kellern has confirmed (and did so on The One Show on BBC 1 in May) that he would like to reprise his role as Gandalf end of this year, but that is as reliable as it gets right now. Most recently Peter Jackson announced that the director Guillermo del Toro will be standing down as he cannot commit himself to an indefinite timescale. There are conflicting stories about whether the movies will be shot in 2D or 3D. Some sources suggest that Guillermo del Toro wanted conventional 2D movies, but others have more recently suggested that The Hobbit movies will be created in 3D. It is known that one of the directors who James Cameron invited onto the sets of Avatar early on when it was being made was Peter Jackson, and that Weta were deeply involved in the 3D development process. Of course, even 3D movies can be watched in conventional 2D at the cinema as well as 3D, so it is not really an issue for those who prefer the traditional movie experience to newer developments. The movie would be less easily pirated, I imagine, if it were in 3D. There is even a rather strange rumour that  Peter Jackson is considering reworking and issuing his original 3 Lord of the Rings movies in 3D! How that would be possible is beyond me, but I’ll throw that open to readers to discuss in the journal - would it be a good thing, or are those movies best left as they are? Does anyone know how that might be achieved technically? If I receive any other credible information concerning The Hobbit movies that is officially endorsed or at least makes some kind of sense, then I shall try and share it with the readership in future issues of the journal. I imagine we should be prepared to expect the unexpected - just as Bilbo had to right from the start of his story.

Alex Lewis