In the 1970's (and weren't they just halcyon days of movie making?), The Lord of the Rings was brought to the screen courtesy of CGI's bastard step-child, animation. The incomplete story (it seems they ran out of money) was produced, and though it ended right around the Battle of Helms Deep -- mid-The Two Towers -- the movie, for what it was, wasn't all that bad. The only problem with it was that it... well... it was kind of God-awful. Shoddy colouring-in aside, the vastness of the tale, the very saga-ish-ness of the saga, meant that so many vital pieces of the puzzle had to be hidden under the figurative sofa cushions, never to complete that tricky piece of blue sky up in the top left corner.

This is a pitfall that we can only hope the making of three movies will avoid, though word is already out that we can expect some lamentable omissions. But let us not delve into details. Were we to begin an explanation of the various passed-over characters, we would then have to trace their origins and the impact they had on events, and we would be here for hours. And none of us want that, do we?

In fact, it's probably best that you read the books, assuming you have not yet done so (this is only being assumed as a device to move this article along, and should in no way be construed as an insult to the reader.) The cast of thousands therein includes some old friends from another Tolkien classic, The Hobbit, including the original hobbit his own self, Bilbo. Bilbo, in fact, gets the story of The Fellowship of the Ring kicking along, for it was he who first found The Ring, and he who must protect it.

Wizard Gandalf, friend and mentor to Bilbo, helps out, and thence Bilbo's adopted son Frodo, and his friend Samwise, and then there's this whole big thing with the bad guys and stuff...

What? You still want the entire story? That could take a while. We're talking three movies here! And enough material, actually, for at least seven or eight. And I confidently predict a prequel, produced twenty years after the release of The Return of the King, in which the original story of The Hobbit will be told. And with a little judicious re-writing, we could have Bilbo in a tawdry affaire with Frodo's mother, Primula Brandybuck. "Frodo," he would proclaim, "I am your father."

Oh, don't say you weren't thinking it.

Of course, they'd have to find someone to play the young Bilbo who looked sufficiently like Sir Ian Holm, the current incarnation (mysteriously shrunk to about three feet in height) of the aged Hobbit.

Holm -- one of those actors that you see in a movie and say to your friends: Hey, I know that guy! What was he in? -- is only one of many distinguished actors attached to the project. Another Knight (and Ian), Sir Ian McKellan, will epitomise wise and wily Gandalf; Academy Award nominee Cate Blanchett stars as the beautiful and preter-natural Queen, Galadriel; Liv Tyler stars as -- well, probably Liv Tyler, just called Arwen; and there are plenty of other big names involved. Examples include Sean Astin (you remember him from, oh, the Eighties?), Ethan Hawke (probably with attendant Uma), and the Professor guy from Sliders. Plus a bunch of other people of whom you have perhaps not yet heard. But you will have after they get their own action figures.

The coveted role of Frodo, meanwhile -- arguably the lead character of the tale, and total hero guy --- is being played by the kid from that terrifying movie remake of Flipper. Yes, the fate of The Fellowship of the Ring hangs on Elijah Wood.

Interesting. Well, at least it wasn't Leo.

Whose casting choice, actually, was rumoured on the Internet, very early in the speculative piece -- even for the 'net. In fact, the advance hype for these movies surpasses even Phantom Menace-mania in its foresight... which, gosh, is a little disturbing, when you come to think about it.

The Lord of the Rings Movie Site was founded in August of 1998, when the production of the films was announced. The officially gorgeous, if decidedly sparse, Official Website went up in late 1999, but it is the other, longer-lived fansites that really impress. Sites such as Ringbearer, and The One Ring, that investigate, and perpetuate, the phenomenon. They report diligently on every facet of the movies, as they happen, and often stun an interested world with insights and exclusives that one would not have thought could possibly be achieved.

A fact over which director Peter Jackson may have had some influence.