A film version of The Hobbit is coming to a theater near you... although probably not until 2011. But those who can't stand the three-year wait can take some comfort in TheOneRing.net, which is working hard to keep fans abreast of the movie's progress. The goal of the site, founded in 1999, is to "provide an outlet for all Tolkien fans to express their enthusiasm for the world of J.R.R. Tolkien, from hardcore book fans to people who only enjoy Orlando Bloom's portrayal of Legolas," says Chris Pirrotta, one of the site's founders and the creative director.

Launched by Michael Regina, William Thomas, Erica Challis and Pirrotta in anticipation of The Lord of the Rings films (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King), the site's traffic reached a peak in early 2003, putting the site among the top 1,000 in the world. However, there was a natural lull in interest after the last movie was released. Credit The Hobbit film with increasing traffic, first in 2006 after rumors of the movie began circulating and then again after its official announcement. The amount of original content on the site is also on the rise, due to The Hobbit. "I would say we are about 60/40, 40 being original content. As the movies start to kick up again, I would expect to see that ratio, at the very least, flip," notes Pirrotta, predicting that reporting from "spies" in the field during filming of The Hobbit will make its way to the site, as it did during filming of The Lord of the Rings.

Tolkien-related news, however esoteric, is the lifeblood of the site. "We will report anything related to the Tolkien universe to accommodate any fan, so we can have obscure headlines about Viggo Mortensen all the way to reporting on when pieces of an old Tolkien homestead are being auctioned off," Pirrotta says. "We have a great relationship with many of the people involved in the Tolkien world, so we also happen to get news and information to the community first." Indeed, director and producer Peter Jackson is unusually close to the fan site, even going so far as to attend TheOneRing.net's Oscar party first to address the fans after The Return of the King took home 11 Academy Awards.

Pirrotta's introduction to the Tolkien universe was the animated version of The Lord of the Rings (1977). After that, he discovered the books, re-reading them every year. His favorite of Jackson's film versions is The Fellowship of the Ring. "It was pretty uncanny to have someone take the imagery from my imagination and realize them onscreen in such an accurate and authentic way," he says. As for The Hobbit, he's excited that Guillermo del Toro will be the director, "as he brings such a unique vision, style and intelligence to the films." He thinks Tolkien's work has such enduring appeal because he had an "expert ability to capture basic human themes and movies. Unlike a lot of fantasy, Tolkien's work was based in a world that seems real because he used classic myth and legend to compose the story. There are many Tolkien fans who don't consider themselves fans of fantasy because they see the world he created as something that could have easily existed."