The Reckoning of the Shire.

Had to pop in here and make mention of a horrible occurrence in the making of The Hobbit movie(s). It appears as though New Line Cinema, the movie company who were revitalized from it's stagnant, post Freddy Kruger state by Peter Jackson and his Lord of the Rings trilogy (which brought New Line boatloads of cash and nearly saved the pathetic movie company) has made the catastrophic decision to oust Peter Jackson and all involved in creating one of the greatest movie trilogies known to movie history from any sort of inclusion in the making of the proposed prequel to the trilogy, the Hobbit films.

It seems to be a matter of New Line trying to shill Peter Jackson out of some money it still owes him from The Lord of the Rings movies. Mr. Jackson feels that there may have been some questionable practices when it came to the accounting of the money owed to him by New Line. So he enacted a clause in his contract with them to audit their financial agreement from the trilogy.

Since he did so, New Line has taken offense and told him that he and his creative forces would not be asked to have anything to do with the Hobbit project(s).

It's interesting to see how many people in Hollywood are making career ending decisions lately. Whether it be Michael Richards and his racist diatribe in response to a couple of A-hole hecklers at a stand up gig or Mel Gibson and his drunken anti-Semitic babbling while being arrested for drunk driving, it appears the powers that be at New Line want to join the tardling party (yes, that is a word, not the most politically correct, but a word).

Anybody born with a brain and soul knows that Peter Jackson and his team are the only ones who can truly bring the works of JRR Tolkien to the big screen without if being pure crap. But New Line, under the spell of pure greed, think otherwise.

You can read about the whole silly debacle HERE with a letter Mr. Jackson wrote to a Lord of the Rings fan site.


On to more pleasant avenues.....

If you haven't seen Casino Royale yet, get off you lazy butts and do so! It is the best Bond movie to hit the silver screen in a long time. Don't get me wrong, I loved Pierce Brosnan as Bond and am saddened he won't return. But, the reinvention of the series is really a good booty-kickin' event and Daniel Craig delivers!!! I'm going to see it again this weekend when I drag my Mom to go see it.


You'll be seeing a new Podcast uploaded in the not too distant future. There are some scheduling glitches, so we may not be as prompt as we usually are. But, rest assured, a really cool Zangz's Pod of Geekdom will be up soon featuring a heated review of the new Bond pic, Casino Royale!


You know who's a real cool, out of the closet Geek? Wil Wheaton! A lot of fanboys gave him flack for playing the role of Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation, but the guy is real down to earth and not afraid to "come out" on his love for geeky stuff like being a gamer. Might I direct you to a recent column he wrote about a recent gamer convention? Click HERE! Now, he's not refering to the REAL Gen Con I used to go to yearly when it was located in Milwaukee. He's reviewing a mere shadow of that con that's held in California and is related only by name (yes...still bitter). But, it's still cool that he's attending and enjoying himself. Very cool dude. BRING GEN CON BACK TO MILWAUKEE YOU GREEDY CORPORATE WHORES!!!!!!


Speaking of gaming, I've got another really cool session on the Star Wars Role Playing Game coming up this Saturday. There was a tense moment there when the game master, Mad Mario, was thinking about ending the game and starting something new. Though, I'd like to try out some new RPG in the near future, I'm way too addicted to my rogue character of Jodz Burdoz (imagine Kurt Russell from Big Trouble in Little China) to give it up just yet. Mad Mario decided to continue on with his Star Wars scenarios for a bit more. Huzzah!!!!!


I'm hoping everyone reading this will have a really good Thanksgiving and be able to cram as much food into their craw as humanly possible without any digestive catastrophes including regurgitation or a good long sitting on the porcelain god.

On that note, everybody have a great and festive Thanksgiving!

I'm outta here, like Michael Richards' career and New Line's IQ!

Zangz.