The Lord of the Rings

George Sayer, author of Jack & recorder of the 1952 home-made tapes of Tolkien reading from The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings, died recently in Malvern, Worcs.

[Order ‘Jack: A Life of C.S. Lewis’ on Amazon.com]

The upcoming movie adaptation of CS Lewis’s book, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, is expected to set a new precedent. Far from sitting back and watching, publisher HarperCollins is working closely with filmmaker Walden Media, unleashing a massive, worldwide marketing drive for the books, timed to coincide with the film – and not only for The Chronicles of Narnia, but most of Lewis’s other books as well

Richard Taylor, who supervised the designs of armor and weapons for the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the upcoming film adaptation of Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, said that although both stories were adapted from British novels of the same period, the styles of the films have significant differences.

The book, Cameras on Narnia, features scenes from the movie of C S Lewis’ the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to illustrate his guide of the various roles and processes which go into making a movie.

When Star Wars first came out, Jerry Vanderstelt was nine years old. “It was magic!” he says. “Although I saw the movie on a crusty drive-in-movie screen through old AM radio speakers of my parents’ Buick, it had a wonder about it that has had me hooked ever since.”

Rebekah sent us word of another Guest of Honor that will be appearing at TolCon: Peter Lyon, the Sword Master and creator of the “hero” swords in Lord of the Rings and “Peter’s Sword” in The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, is our newest Guest of Honor at TolCon!

It’s the last week to register at the cheaper Early Bird rates for Seattle’s Tolcon (May 13-15), and they have some good group rates too. Special guests include Ted Nasmith and Kiran Shah, who’ll have stories about his time on LOTR and the Narnia sets.

Amy H. Sturgis, Conference Director for ‘Past Watchful Dragons’ writes: Just a quick update re: the “‘Past Watchful Dragons’: Fantasy and Faith in the World of C.S. Lewis” conference on November 3-5, 2005, at Belmont University in Nashville, TN.