lord of the rings-related stories
Posted May 23rd 2009 1:06PM by Kona Gallagher
Filed under: Site Announcements, Reality-Free

The folks at our sister site
Cinematical are working hard to give you news and reviews of the best -- and worst -- the silver screen has to offer. Here are some of their musings on the latest blockbusters, indies, and everything in between:
- Did you know that ten members of the Wayans family makes appearances in Dance Flick? Read the review here.
- If you remember, when Heath Ledger passed away, he was in the middle of filming the Terry Gilliam film, The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus. It premiered at Cannes this week; you can read the review here.
- Michael Moore's next film sets its release date. It's a look at the current financial crisis, and comes out October 2, a year and a day after the $700 million Wall Street bailout.
- I'm saying right here and right now, that I have zero interest in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, so I would already be in trouble. Cinematical asks, "What films would you break up over?"
- It's been getting mixed reviews, so Cinematical asks how you rate Terminator Salvation.
Posted Apr 10th 2009 10:02AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: OpEd, Video, Commercials, Reality-Free

This month we're taking a look at celebrities who did TV commercials.
Whenever you get into any profession, you have to start at the bottom. The TV business is no exception. The stars you see in prime time today probably cut their teeth working in TV commercials. Heck, some of them still do TV commercials even after they become big stars (but it's often overseas...shhhhhhhh).
After the jump, a sampling of TV commercials from years ago that star celebrities who are now household names. If you're old enough to remember these commercials, you'll probably say to yourself, "Oh yeah, I remember this ad, but I didn't realize that he was in it!"
Continue reading Brought To You By ... Steve Carell, Jason Alexander, and a hobbit who loves cheese - VIDEOS
Posted Dec 20th 2007 11:36AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Industry, Programming, Ratings
Here are the weekly cable ratings, by number of viewers.
Now there seems to be three episodes of Monday Night RAW in the top ten. Or maybe it's the same episode and three different hours, or maybe it's two different episodes, with two of the hours of one episode and one hour of the other episode making the list. I'm not sure. I've always been a little confused on exactly why separate hours of the same episode of a show is counted as different shows. Then again, if I ran television, Eyes would still be on the air.
1. Monday Night Football (ESPN)
Continue reading Nielsen cable ratings for the week ending December 16
Posted Feb 14th 2007 4:02PM by Elizabeth Chan
Filed under: ABC, News, Lost, Video
OK, so maybe you're letting your Tivo take the reigns tonight because you've got a hot date with someone you love. That's fair.
But some of us only have love for Lost on Wednesday nights.
For all you counting down the hours until Lost airs tonight, here is a video TV Tattler interview with Dominic Monaghan. He answers some great questions, such as which one of his Lord of the Rings buddies actually watches Lost, and offers some insight on what he'd like to see in the new season. But I must admit, he's looking kind of rough, as if he was really stranded on an island. Regardless, it's a great interview and a great way to kill the time between now and Lost.
Posted Dec 20th 2006 9:00AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Industry, Programming, Web, Celebrities
Ken Levine has a bunch of great stuff at his site this week, including a story about working with Peter Boyle, his opinion of the PBS Pledge Drive, and a Traci Lords family show.
- Aaron Barnhart has one question about The Golden Globes: why?
- Star magazine has their list of The 50 Most Annoying People of 2006, and it includes Britney Spears, Jessica Simpson, and...Jennifer Aniston?
- Rocco DiSpirito: Broadway star?
- What do you get when you add a baby vampire with Legolas from Lord of the Rings, a mummy, a raccoon dog, the T-1000 from Terminator 3, and Sharon Stone? Best Week Ever has the answer.
Posted Dec 7th 2006 8:36AM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Programming, TNT
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King will make its network television debut on December 15th on TNT. The cable network has already aired the first two movies,
The Fellowship of the Ring and
The Two Towers over the last two years.
The Return of the King, for those of you living under a rock, wraps up the series. TNT is airing it in HD. It'll be available on VOD beginning Dec. 24th.
As is customary with TNT,
The Return of the King will air for three nights in a row. And, on Sunday December 17th, it will be preceded by the first two movies. With commercials, that's more than eleven hours of programming. I pity the fool who sits down to watch that. I mean, yes, Viggo Mortenson and Orlando Bloom are super hot in all three movies, but if you're going to spend that much time watching television, why not just buy the DVDs?
Posted Sep 12th 2006 11:16AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Talent, Industry, Site Announcements, Web, Celebrities
Our regular roundup of what's happening over at our sister blog, Cinematical.
Posted Jun 14th 2006 5:34PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, HBO, Premium Cable, Talent, BBC, Celebrities

BBC/HBO's
Extras has some fantastic A-listers lined up to guest star in the upcoming season. Among the big names are Chris Martin (Coldplay), Daniel Radcliffe, Orlando Bloom, David Bowie, and Stephen Fry.
Sir Ian McKellen from
X-Men and
Lord of the Rings is also set to make an appearance, and, the word is, he's going to share an onscreen kiss with the star, Ricky Gervais. McKellen's a funny guy... I remember when he snuck a kiss from Jimmy Fallon when he hosted
Saturday Night Live a few years ago. It threw me, a Fallon fangirl at the time, into a fit, but it was hysterical.
Posted Jun 5th 2006 9:25AM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Cable, Watercooler Talk, TNT

I always do this. Last night, I was watching
The Fifth Element on TNT even though I own it on DVD. The profanity was edited out and it had commercial breaks, yet I kept watching it instead of putting the DVD in and watching it all the way through. (Probably because Lelu kicks ass!) I've also been known to watch
O Brother, Where Art Thou? and
The Lord of the Rings, even though I also own those on DVD.
Does anybody else do this? What movies do you find yourself watching on TV even though you own the DVD?
Posted Apr 16th 2006 9:28AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Talent, Industry, Programming, Site Announcements, Celebrities
Posted Apr 14th 2006 4:12PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Programming
ABC has a new ep of Extreme Makeover at 8,
followed by new eps of Primetime (with Tom Cruise) and 20/20.
- CBS has repeats of
Ghost Whisperer, Close To Home, and Numb3rs.
- Over on NBC, a repeat Deal Or
No Deal at 8 (see? they're running out of eps already), a repeat Las Vegas, then a new
Conviction.
- FOX has a new, hour long Bernie Mac, followed by a new Trading Spouses:
Meet Your New Mommy.
- TBS has The Lord of the Rings at 8.
- Nick has a new ep of
Avatar: The Last Airbender, also at 8.
- IFC has John Malkovich in Ripley's Game at
8.
- Larry King talks to Paula Abdul on CNN at 9.
- Discovery has a new Science of
Survival at 9.
- Also at 9: HGTV has a new Double Take, followed by a new
Freestyle.
- At 10, Fox Movie Channel has All That Jazz.
- At 10:15, AMC has
Tremors 3: Back To Perfection.
- IFC has a repeat Dinner For Five at 10:30, with Ted
Danson, Mary Steenburgen, Ernie Hudson and Laura Dern joining host Jon Favreau.
Posted Apr 3rd 2006 11:11AM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, ABC, Talent

Good news,
Goonies fans.
Or
LOTR fans. Or
24 fans. Sean Astin has bigger plans than just a
meerkat soap opera. He's
reportedly
in negotiations to star in an ABC comedy pilot called
The Guys. It's about five dads who become friends when
their kids have a playdate at one of the fathers' homes. If two of the four Hobbits are on ABC, can we start calling it
Middle Earth?
Posted Mar 25th 2006 9:18PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Talent, Industry, Site Announcements, Celebrities
Posted Jan 10th 2006 9:08AM by Keith McDuffee
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Cable, Programming

The Sci Fi network just announced its purchase of
the U.S. rights to a German production, titled
Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King, based in part on the
Ring of the Nibelungs myth. Never heard of the myth?
Apparently it's been known to have inspired composer Richard Wagner's operas and J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings
trilogy, so what's one more?
The movie stars Benno Furmann, Kristanna Loken, Alicia Witt, Julian Sands and
Max Von Sydow. The German version first aired on German TV in 2004, where it was the year's top-rated TV movie.
Honestly though, if Sci Fi's
track record
is any indication, I have high hopes for this mini-series. Though, the question is, is this mini-series meant to stand
on its own, or is it a test precursor to a full-blown series? The movie was top-rated on German TV in 2004, if that's
any indication to its success here in the U.S.