Talking of Tolkien, the trailer for The Return of the King is online now. It's supposed to be available from the official site any hour now, but in the meantime links to several mirror sites can be found in this Slashdot thread. For what it's worth, you should download the 19MB version if you've got the time: it's much clearer and smoother than the 9MB version. I gather that this is the same trailer which is available on the DVD of The Two Towers, but as I'm waiting for the release of the extended edition in November I can't confirm that.

What I can say for sure is that the trailer confirms that we're in for a spectacular conclusion to the story. I just can't see Peter Jackson blowing it at the last hurdle. (I'm sorry that he's decided to push the Scouring of the Shire into the background, but I'm willing to cut him some slack on this given his track record to date.)

To put it simply, I'm going to be in geek heaven for the last six weeks or so of this year, what with the Third Annual Tolkien Fest and the conclusion of the Matrix trilogy.