The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings

The Middle-earth site at Xenite.Org has published hundreds of question-and-answer articles about J.R.R. Tolkien's books and the world he imagined. It is only natural that many of them also address fan concerns about the movies (and role-playing games.

So Long MERP-dot-Com and Thanks for all the Essays

When I stopped writing Tolkien and Middle-earth essays for Suite101 many years ago my friend Hawke Robinson asked me to continue writing for his Website, MERP.com. Dedicated to Middle-earth role-playing gamers, MERP.com served as a springboard community for about 30 Tolkien-related Websites through the years.

Read the Latest Articles on SF-Fandom

It has been a few months since this blog was updated with information about happenings on SF-Fandom. Sorry for that. Among other things we have devoted much of the summer to fighting off spammers and hackers. The brute force dictionary attacks appear to have calmed down (for now). The spammers keep splattering their proxy IP addresses and email addresses against our brick wall defenses.

Fan reviews of the Avengers on the Web

I have written a review of "The Avengers" for the SF-Fandom forums. "My Take - 'The Avengers' rocks but 3-D is out of focus" is where I'm telling people what I think about the movie and Disney's disastrous attempt to adapt it to 3-D.

Fans of John Carter Planning a Second Movie

So when a major studio makes a movie for $350 million and needs to generate $600 million in box office sales, no one is surprised when the studio announces a $200 million loss after 6 weeks of good-but-not-good-enough box office sales. "John Carter" as everyone knows by now earned most of its money outside the United States, where young audiences stayed away in droves. The movie opened against "Dr. Seuss' The Lorax" and was subsequently clobbered by "The Hunger Games". With almost $300 million in ticket sales, "John Carter" has nonetheless failed to earn enough money for anyone inside Hollywood to give serious thought to making the 2 previously planned and promised sequels.

Legend of the Seeker Fans Planning April 26 Tweetathon

Fans of the cancelled TV show Legend of the Seeker continue to raise awareness of the show and to demonstrate their support for the franchise with a new Tweetathon set for Thursday, April 26. You're invited to join the fun. You can even use Web tools like Hootsuite and Tweetdeck to schedule Tweets if you cannot be online from 12 Noon Pacific Time to 2PM Pacific.

Scarlett Johansson and the Avengers

SF-Fandom has several new discussions devoted to Scarlett Johansson and the Avengers, as the "Avengers" movie opens in theaters on May 4.
You can join our discussion on Scarlett Johansson Picture Gallery - "Iron Man 2" or our discussion on Scarlett Johansson Picture Gallery - "The Avengers" or our discussion on One Sheet picture gallery for "The Avengers".

Film Distributor Calling for Unmarketed SciFi Movies

If you're an independent film-maker and you have a science fiction movie or two in your inventory, check out this call for Scifi movies from Fuzion Filmz, an established distributor with 25 years of experience at distributing independent films.

Despite $100 Million Opening Weekend, US News Media Writes Off "John Carter"

If you don't read Forbes you might not be aware that the Disney Company's "John Carter" movie blew away "The Lorax" this weekend with $100 million in revenues at the box office. "The Lorax" made a paltry $40 million by comparison.

SciFi Fans Celebrating Xenite.Org's 15th Anniversary on March 14

If you have a science fiction and fantasy blog, I'll appreciate your helping to spread the word about a special fan promotion campaign on Twitter to be held on Wednesday, March 14, 2012.

"John Carter" of Mars Film Review Published on SF-Fandom

Tired of reading the professional film critics' attempts to shoot down "John Carter"? Are you interested in learning what a true science fiction and fantasy fan thinks of Andrew Stanton's movie? Head over to the SF-Fandom forums and read "John Carter" - My Thoughts (Great Movie).

Terry Goodkind supports new Save Our Seeker Contest

It seems an incredible opportunity has opened up for the Legend of the Seeker fans who want to Save Our Seeker. Laura from Save Our Seeker has teamed up with Terry Goodkind to offer some great prizes for a month-long letter-writing campaign that may have a real chance at bringing the show back to production.

Video for Craig Horner's Birthday Tweetathon

Here is a video I found on YouTube that promotes the January 24, 2012 Birthday Tweetathon fans of Legend of the Seeker are scheduling for Craig Horner. Craig of course played Richard Cypher/Rahl on the show. He moved to Los Angeles after Legend of the Seeker ceased production. I know he spent some time online but then withdrew. Here's hoping he is keeping busy. You may want to check out this State of the Save Our Seeker Movement on the SaveTheSeeker blog. ____________________________________________ SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.

Middle-earth Comes to Life on Xenite.org

As part of the campaign to recondition and revive Xenite.Org I have been writing a lot of new research articles for the Middle-earth sub-domain on Xenite.Org. Since July (and up to the time of this writing) I have been able to publish over 350 articles, including many old essays from my Suite101 collection (which is no longer available on Suite101). Here is a breakdown of what you can find on the Middle-earth Website:

Have you checked out this fantasy movie princess gallery?

It is no secret that Xenite.Org fell on hard times in mid-2011 when the Google Panda algorithm downgraded the site for having too many broken scripts and empty stub pages. The only solution to the Google problem seemed to be to clear the site completely of all content and start over.

Legend of the Seeker fans celebrating Craig Horner birthday

Just when you thought the Legend of the Seeker fan community had given up, they have come back in the past few months with new campaigns to raise awareness of their interest in the formerly syndicated TV show.

Look into independent film "Third Contact" and others

SF-Fandom recently published a series of blog articles and forum posts to help promote an independent film called "Third Contact". Film producer Simon Horrocks reached out to SF-Fandom for help in promoting his film, which looks pretty interesting. A therapist stumbles across a mysterious pattern of suicides that all resemble each other. What's going on?