the buzz log

J.R.R. Tolkien in 38 minutes. For free. Online. What are you waiting for?

Actually, many have not waited, as searches have surged for the fan fiction film, "The Hunt for Gollum," which debuted on May 3 online and at the London International Festival of Science Fiction and Fantastic Film free premiere.

Billed as a prequel to "The Lord of the Rings," this new storyline tells a brief tale of Ranger Aragon and wizard Gandolph seeking Gollum, the mutated Hobbit. The filmmakers, who call themselves "a bunch of Tolkien enthusiasts," modestly call their effort "an unofficial home movie," but a contagious enthusiasm is making this a viral favorite. BBC News describes the venture as a "lavish production" that got permission from Tolkien's estate by being a non-profit enterprise.

With a cast of 10s (say, 150) and a $3,000 budget, the mini-epic dips into the beloved Tolkien minutiae of Ranger life and pays high-def homage to the epic standards set by director Peter Jackson's cinematic trilogy. And, even the volunteer actor who plays Aragon looks like he could be an English cousin to big-screen counterpart Viggo Mortensen.

Fan fiction has always had a huge online following, with regular lookups on Yahoo! for "harry potter fanfiction," "twilight fan fiction," "ncis fanfiction," "the l word fanfiction" and "sailor moon fanfiction." By all rights, this latest respectable entry into Rings lore should, as GigaOm and the blogosphere point out, inspire studios and other "content owners to get engaged with their fan bases" by equipping die-hards with the tools to make such amateur creations and keep the mania going. That would be a fantasy fiction come true.

Filed under: Movies, Literature, Viral, Videos, Cyberculture, Fan Fiction

Your high school English teacher was right. You do have to know your classics, if you want to get anywhere in the world ... or at least to the next country on a reality show.

An episode of cultural humiliation on "The Amazing Race 14" may have done more to help the cause of Russian literature than a network of KGB agents infiltrating American classrooms. The ABC reality show's globe-trotting scavenger hunt threw Season 14 contestants behind the Iron Curtain into Siberia. Of the tasks aired March 8 (booking a flight, stacking firewood, racing bobsleds), the one that flummoxed the Americans was unscrambling 7 letters to reveal the surname of Anton Chekhov.

Five out of the eight teams never heard of the famed 19th-century writer, whose plays (notably "Three Sisters" and "The Cherry Orchard") still get staged around the world. (Coincidentally, "Uncle Vanya" starring Maggie Gyllenhaal ended its off-Broadway run the same night as the "Race" episode).

The ignorance triggered righteous indignation among some critics: The EW critic said outrage wasn't from "intellectual snobbery," but over team attitudes that the "challenge was unreasonably hard. If [the show had] asked them to unscramble old Saved by the Bell plots... I bet they'd have done it in record time." (Hey, unscrambling "Thiessen" would've been hard.) Smarter couch potatoes turned the educational debacle into a learning moment: People have been cramming Web searches for "anton chekhov" and "anton chekhov plays."

All we can say is, good thing they didn't have to unscramble Dostoyekvsky, otherwise everyone would still be in Siberia subsisting on vodka and cabbage. Then again, contestant Mike inadvertently waxed Russian poetic when he described the people battling for last place (his team included) as "a caravan of idiots." Sounds like that's good for four acts.

Filed under: TV, Reality TV, Literature, Russia

A collective exhale ushered the volatile 2008 out the door this week, although one baby who caused a political storm managed to quietly slip himself out before the end. Meanwhile, a long-time Oprah hoax and high-seas piracy stirred up the Buzz—and the searches—during this transition period.

Mom, Do We Have to Do a Combo Celebration?
Bristol Palin's boy emerged not as the grandson of the first female vice president, but as another December baby who will have to insist that his birthday celebrations remain separate from Christmas. Searches soared for the aptly named Baby Tripp, as well as for his momma (+851%) and all his youthful uncles and aunts. Meanwhile, proud grandma Sarah Palin—already busy defending her future son-in-law Levi Johnston's degree aspirations—used the happy event to warn against teen pregnancy on the governor's website. The message include Bristol calling her newborn "perfectly precious," although the timing itself hadn't been "ideal."

Oprah, Who Can You Believe?
The dominoes finally fell this week after Herman Rosenblat, who had been telling a sweet little story about meeting his wife at the fence of Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany for a dozen years, recanted his story. After a New Republic article raised many questions, publisher Berkley Books (already fooled twice by other authors) canceled his forthcoming memoir, and another publisher offered refunds for "Angel Girl," a children's book inspired by Rosenblat's tale. His hoax had charmed Oprah (twice), who declared his story the "single greatest love story...we've ever told on the air." Hollywood, which always changes the truth anyway, is going ahead with a film project based on the well-meant but discredited tale.

Captain, What Do We Do with the Fertilizer?
Apparently, oil and fertilizer don't mix. Pirates worked on New Year's Day and attacked two crafts. The high-seas bandits got hold of an Egyptian cargo ship with about 6,000 tons of fertilizer, but lost an Indian tanker with a full load of crude oil. The pirates haven't done too well lately: Water jets thwarted armed brigands last Friday, while a December defense, described in this BBC interview, involved cocktail bombs made out of beer bottles. Imagine what could've been done with the fertilizer.

Also buzzing...
  • "Catcher in the Rye" author J.D. Salinger turned 90 on New Year's Day, but remained in hiding for the grand event.
  • Soon-to-be Secretary of State Hillary Clinton dropped a Waterford crystal ball on Times Square, accompanied by her husband Bill and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, to welcome in the new year.
  • "Deliverance," which made banjo music creepy for men, and "Terminator," which made Arnold Schwarzenegger creepy for everyone, counted among 25 films to be preserved forever at the National Film Registry. Cue "Dueling Banjos."

Filed under: Literature, Pirates, Hoaxes, Recaps, Babies, Week in Review, Wrap Up