From the Hollywood Reporter:

"Guillermo del Toro is in talks to direct back-to-back installments of J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit," which is being co-financed by New Line and MGM.

Del Toro's name was on a short list of directors who could tackle the project, one of the most anticipated literary adaptations of the past decade. An ill-chosen director for "Hobbit" could put billions of dollars at stake for New Line and MGM and could turn off an audience that encompasses millions of passionate readers, Tolkien fans and obsessive geeks.

Few filmmakers have the cachet that del Toro has, as well as a deep love for the source material, an assured grasp of fantasy filmmaking and an understanding and command of geek culture as well as its respect. Del Toro has built that goodwill through such films as the Oscar-nominated "Pan's Labyrinth," "Hellboy," "Blade 2" (which was made by New Line) and "The Devil's Backbone."

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Kitteh! This little guy (or gal) considerably brightened my day today so I thought I should share.^-^

The rumour mill has gotten my hopes falsely up more than once before, but it looks like this time it's for real...

http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/Movies/12/18/film.thehobbit.ap/index.html

If they don't get Ian McKellen to reprise his Gandalf I'm going to be very, very upset!

Under the terms of the Circle Sanctuary v. Nicholson settlement, the federal government will recognize the right of Wiccans to have the pentacle made available as an emblem of belief for inscription on headstones, grave markers and memorial plaques. The VA will add the symbol to its list of available emblems of belief.

Read entire article here.

“It is rank hypocrisy for this administration to claim publicly that it cares about religious freedom and equality but then to quietly and deliberately discriminate against a minority faith like Wicca,” she said. “Until now, this administration’s view has been that Wiccans are good enough to fight for their country, but not good enough to be acknowledged with a proper headstone.”  Ayesha N. Khan, AU legal director.

The way the VA has been dragging their feet on this for years is sickening, that there is evidence of active discrimination and bias on part of the Bush administration (why am I not surprised, though) is even more so. Next elections cannot come fast enough.

My bookstore wish list has only been getting longer in the past few months, so I recently decided to cash out a godly amount of credit card reward points into Barnes & Noble gift cards. I know, not my favorite bookseller, or the cheapest, but the best I could do given Amex’s crappy selection and the fact that they don’t ship things like IPods outside the continental US (Grrr…).

Anyway, in my search for new (to me, felt like expanding my usual New Age comfort zone a bit) music I came across this nifty British group called “The Mediaeval Baebes”. Instant infatuation and “omg-I-must-have-everything-they-have-ever-recorded-right-now!!!” resulted in a frantic search through YouTube, which in turn led me to a 2005 BBC Masterpiece Theatre miniseries called “The Virgin Queen”, soundtrack done mostly by the Baebes. Be still my beating heart, I’ve died and gone to heaven!

You see, I’ve always had this thing for period dramas, double points for period dramas featuring strong kick-ass women, and Elizabeth I has long been a particular favorite of mine. I used to have a sort of horrified fascination with “Anne of the Thousand Days” as a child; the costumes, the actors, the story... That last shot of a young Elizabeth orphaned and all alone made me sniffle every single time. Calumny! Death! Woe! I hated Henry VIII with a fierce burning passion!

Ok, so sue me, I was a weird child.

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It’s been called to my attention (by my wonderful hubby lawni_blackbird ) that all comments to my journal entries were being screened, including those from people on my friends list.

Totally unintentional, sorry about that folks! It’s fixed now.

Here's mine:

1 Story in Story, Fencing, Secret Identity
2 Against the Odds, Quest, Leaving Home
3 Independent Film, Based on a Novel, Unicorn
4 Husband Wife Relationship, Magic Potion, Talking Animal
5 Leonardo Da Vinci, Class Differences, Passion
6 Father Son Relationship, Whip, Legend
7 Dismemberment, Swamp, Reluctant Hero
8 Fallen Angel, Black Comedy, Controversial
9 Detention, Coming of Age, Opposites Attract
10 Fake Illness, Skipping School, Breaking the Fourth Wall

Fairly easy ones, I think. :)

Edit - Durrr... I forgot to repost the rules!
"Go to www.imdb.com & look up ten of your favorite movies. Post three IMDB plot keywords for each movie, and have your friends guess the movie titles."

Just last night I realized why I haven’t been using my Livejournal at all… it was boring! Inertia had sort of taken hold of it, cobwebs gathered in the corners. Even thinking about posting made me feel “meh”. Well, no more!

Did some experimenting with templates and colors and what not last night, and voila! New and improved, spiffier and whole lot more "me" bloggy goodness. Something to inspire my fingers into some semblance of eloquence, I hope.

Or at the very least, it’s a lot nicer to look at. =p

From the Conlan Press website:

"On February 6, 2007, Lionsgate Entertainment is releasing a special 25th Anniversary DVD of THE LAST UNICORN. This new edition is a huge improvement over the old one. It is digitally remastered so it looks great and has 5.1 audio, it is widescreen instead of fullscreen, it has much better packaging, and it comes with special features, including a video interview with Peter. Best of all, Lionsgate has agreed to let us sell copies of the DVD through Conlan Press, and more than half of each sale will go straight to Peter and his projects. If you plan on buying this DVD, please buy it here — because Peter will get nothing from copies sold through any other outlet."

http://www.conlanpress.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc

That a fair portion of the proceeds will go directly to the author is particularly significative in light of the fact the man was never properly compensated for his work by the producers of the movie. You can read more about how he has been royally screwed (apparently he was either too naive, or lacked a good lawyer, or both) right here:

http://www.conlanpress.com/youcanhelp/index.html