Peter Jackson, the only man we could ever trust with J.R.R. Tolkien's iconic literary works, will begin shooting THE HOBBIT on March 21st! Divided into 2 movie installments, the story begins with Gandalf and a team of dwarves as they enlist Bilbo Baggins on a journey to recover a mountain of dwarven treasure from the evil dragon Smaug. The movies will light upon the origins of Gollum and the One Ring, as well.  

Martin Freeman will play Bilbo Baggins.  Ian McKellan will return as Gandalf.  Reportedly, Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving and Orlando Bloom will returns as the elves Galadriel, Elrond and Legolas respectively. Last but not least, Andy Serkis shall return as Gollum. 

A large storm is brewing on the internet over a book publisher's decision to politically correct and edit Mark Twain's seminal work "Huckleberry Finn" by removing all references to the dreaded N-word, as well as the term "Injun". Probably, a group of moronic parents are responsible for complaining to school boards, who in turn complained to the book publisher.  

Now, this may sound like a big deal, but it actually isn't.  You see, "Huckleberry Finn" was published in the United States in 1885. This places Mark Twain's work squarely in the public domain.  

This means EVERYONE, including you and I, holds the right to publish "Huckleberry Finn" in any way we desire. I could publish the entire Huck Finn text right now in the next Logic-cool blog post, replacing the N-word with "poopy-head!" or "cotten-headed ninny-muggins!", or place the setting in outerspace on the Planet Douche-Goo ...

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I love George R.R. Martin's writing, but I HATE the way the novels are being strung out.  If anything, the example of Robert Jordan vs. J.K. Rowling tells us that you need to FINISH your story.  Life happens and before you know it the opportunity, energy and impulse to write exactly the right words can be gone.  I stopped reading the Game of Thrones novels after book three, and I won't pick them up again until George R. R. Martin finishes his story.  All that said, I'm truly rooting for this HBO series to be great. 

You can view other trailers and teasers at the website:

http://www.hbo.com/game-of-thrones/index.html

Entertainment Weekly has a slideshow of still photos for their upcoming series A GAME OF THRONES based on the excellent novels of George R.R. Martin.    The books come highly recommended by this blog.  HBO aims for a 2011 release.

http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20385926_20442931,00.html