The New Hobbit Hole

This is a continuation of the infamous thread New Zealander Builds Hobbit Hole originally posted on January 26, 2001 by John Farson, who at the time undoubtedly thought he had found a rather obscure article that would elicit a few replies and die out. Without knowing it, he became the founder of the Hobbit Hole. For reasons incomprehensible to some, the thread grew to over 4100 replies. It became the place for hobbits and friends of hobbits to chit chat and share LoTR news and views, hang out, and talk amongst ourselves in the comfort of familiar surroundings.

In keeping with the new posting guidelines, the thread idea is continuing here, as will the Green Dragon Inn, our more structured spin-off thread, as soon as we figure out how to move all the good discussion that has been had there. As for the Hobbit Hole, we will just start fresh, bringing only a few mathoms such as the picture above with us to make it feel like home, and perhaps a walk down memory lane:

To fun but heartfelt debates about the integrity and worth of some of the characters…

So as you can see, everything JRR Tolkien (and Peter Jackson) is welcome here in our New Row, our soon-to-be familiar New Hobbit Hole…; philosophy, opinion, good talk and frequent silliness.

Linked from TORN, Article posted : dailyrecord - I FEARED THE KILLER ORCS

I FEARED THE KILLER ORCS
LORD OF THE RINGS STAR'S DEATH SCARE

Rick Fulton

SCOTS star Billy Boyd has revealed how he thought he was going to die during the filming of the second Lord Of The Rings movie.
In the next instalment, The Two Towers, Billy's character Pippin has to undergo terrible tortures at the hands of the Uruk-Hai and Orcs.
And the actor admits it was all too realistic for his liking. He says: "It was a horrible experience. I even feared for my life in one scene.
"The Orcs have costumes made of spikes and they were throwing me and Dom (Dominic Monaghan, who plays Merry) around. I was close to getting speared by an Orc and was thinking to myself ... `that would be a strange way to go'.
"But I was lucky. In the first film I was bitten on the backside by a horse, but this time I managed to remain unscathed."
At the beginning of the summer, Billy, who will be 34 on Wednesday, returned to New Zealand to shoot new scenes. He spent three weeks filming and doing overdubs for old footage where his speech had been drowned out by special effects or electric fans.
In the first film, Billy's Pippin Took was the clown - but cinema-goers will see a very different Pippin in The Two Towers.
Billy says: "It's a very dark story and it's important to have some sort of release for the audience. Pippin became the focus for this in the first film - he was the sort of character who, when they were in danger, would have a bath.
"But in The Two Towers, he begins to grow up and realises his naivete causes problems. What was charming in the Shire, like stealing cabbages, can get people killed."
The title of the new film has caused some concern in America. At the beginning of the year, an online petition urged director Peter Jackson to rename the film because of the September 11 attacks on the Twin Towers in New York.
But The Two Towers was first published in 1954 by JRR Tolkien and Billy reckons Jackson was right to stand firm. He says: "The books were written nearly 50 years before the atrocities. We shouldn't allow terrorists to affect stories that have been told for years."
BILLY has become a global star thanks to the Pippin role, ranking with Scots film heavyweights such as Sean Connery, Ewan McGregor and Dougray Scott.
His next project is with Russell Crowe in yet another blockbuster - the naval adventure Master And Commander.
While he was shooting scenes for The Two Towers, he was in the middle of preparing for his new role, which led to an identity crisis.
He explains: "It's been two years since we filmed the three Rings films. It was like stepping back in time when I first walked on set.
"It didn't feel like two years, but as I was saying my lines, director Peter Jackson stopped me and said ... `your voice is sounding a bit low for Pippin. Are you turning into a pirate?'.
"I was mortified at that and realised I was slipping into my part in Master And Commander. But it came back soon enough. Playing Pippin again was just like saying hello to an old friend."
Billy was speaking from the production office at the Fox Studios, in Baja, Mexico, where he has been filming for the past seven weeks.
Master And Commander is set on a British warship at the time of the Napoleonic wars. Billy plays Barrett Bonden, coxswain to Captain Jack Aubrey, played by Crowe.
The dollars 135 million high-seas adventure is adapted from the book by Patrick O'Brian, who based Aubrey on the true maritime adventures of Hamilton- born Admiral Lord Thomas Cochrane. The film features the largest active wooden sailing vessel in the world, The Rose, which is an exact replica of an 19th century Royal Navy frigate.
All the cast including Billy, Russell and Paul Bettany, who plays Aubrey's surgeon and friend Dr Stephen Maturin, had to undergo tough training.
As well as learning how a three-mast frigate sails, they also had to climb up the rigging, learn to swordfight, put up huge sails and curb nausea in the Crow's Nest.
Billy says: "It has been amazing. I learned so much - but the best bit was finding out sailors were given a ration of rum every day, so most of the time they were drunk. No wonder so many kept sinking."
Although Gladiator star Crowe has a reputation for being difficult, Billy says: "He's a cool guy, a great person to be around. It's amazing meeting famous people, but it's not that surreal when you are living it."
Despite his success, Billy hasn't forgotten his roots. In May, he spent 10 days playing an astronaut in the low-budget short film Sniper 407, which was premiered at the Edinburgh Film Festival and will be shown on Grampian and Scottish television in October. But it's not just work that brings Billy home.
He says: "I love being in Scotland. I'm looking forward to getting back and having a pint - there's only so much San Miguel you can drink."
r.fulton@dailyrecord.co.uk

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