Today, July 1st, is Liv Tyler’s birthday. She was born in New York on 1st July 1977 and is 32 today. You can take a look at her cast bio here. You can view pictures of Liv here and pictures of Liv in the role of Arwen here.

Happy Birthday, Liv.

Guillermo del Toro has confirmed that filming of The Hobbit movies will start in March 2010 and will last for about 370 days. The first film is due for release in 2011 and the second in 2012. He has revealed that the end of the first film will include landscapes not seen in the LotR trilogy and the second film will “have landscapes which are completely different from the "Lord of the Rings". You can read the full story here.

After an interesting discussion of part one of the Silmarillion, Ainulindale, The CoE
Book Club this week moves on to part two, Valaquenta. Feel free to grab your copy and join in.

Although del Toro has confirmed that Hugo Weaving would be reprising the role of Elrond, according to Moviehole Hugo Weaving has yet to speak to anyone about returning.

He did state that; “It’d be good to get back together with Andy Serkis and Ian McKellan, and whoever else comes back”.

We were hacked again earlier today, so sorry about the downtime. We were restored from a backup from a couple of days ago, so you may see some missing posts in the forum and elsewhere. If you've submitted items to any sections of the site in the last day or two, you may want to resubmit them. Thanks for your patience.

On Monday June 22nd, the Council of Elrond's Book Club will begin reading and discussing 'The Silmarillion', and all members are invited to join in.

We will be going through the book of a rate of one chapter per week starting with 'Ainulindale", the Music of the Ainur.

Guillermo del Toro has confirmed that Hugo Weaving will reprise the role of Elrond in the forthcoming movies of The Hobbit. You can read the story here.

UK members can listen to the radio interview where del Toro revealed this news here.

Christopher Lee, who played Saruman in the LotR movies,has been honoured with a knighthood for his services to drama and charity. You can read the full story here.

For the month of June the CoE Store will be featuring these Frodo and Sam in Orc gear mini busts. These busts come together for an unbelievable price. The poly resin busts stand over 6 inches tall and are hand numbered limited editions. At this price they will not last long, so get yours today.

Congratulations to Aruin for the winning entry in the Pippin's Picture Parodies contest!

If you'd like to submit to any area of the Humor Section, check here! Submissions are always welcome!

In an interview with UK BBC TV programme Newsnight Review, del Toro talks about the biggest challenge so far of working on The Hobbit, about Gollum and if his love of horror will spill over into the movies. You can read the interview here.

UK members can watch the interview on Newsnight Review, BBC2 at 23:10 tonight.

When MTV spoke to Guillermo del Toro about who will play the role of Bilbo in the forthcoming movies of The Hobbit he revealed that out of four actors they are “very close now to saying one name”. An announcement about who has been chosen is expected in the next few weeks.

Catherine Innes-Parker of the Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada) had this to say about the latest Tolkien offering:

"Yet because these are retellings rather than translations of any one particular source, Tolkien is free to exploit the force and energy of alliterative verse, recreating not only the content and style, but the very “feel” of the Old Norse poetry upon which he draws. ...The lays exhibit that same economy and restraint, eschewing linguistic and narrative extravagance in favour of vigour, displaying the power of language wielded with skill and care. "

See full article here.

The entries are in, and it's time for you to vote! Click here to see the entries and vote for your favorite! Voting ends June 6th, so hurry!

Christopher Lee was born in London, UK on 27th May 1922 and today is his 87th birthday. In the CoE gallery there are pictures of Christopher here and of Christopher in the role of Saruman here.

Happy birthday Christopher!