South Bend, IN September 2006

It's "One spoof to rule them all!"
According to Peter Lyon who designed and created the
hero swords for
Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" film trilogy.

The ambitious parody movie "The Dork of the Rings",
which was produced
in the Michiana area and is being heralded
internationally, will be
shown on the I.U.S.B. campus in Wiekamp Hall, Room
1001 on Saturday,
September 23 - 4:00 p.m. & 7:00 p.m.; Sunday,
September 24 - 2:00
p.m.; Friday, October 6 - 7:00 p.m.; Saturday, October
7 - 4:00 p.m. &
7:00 p.m.; Sunday, October 8 - 2:00 p.m. Admission is
$5.00 at the
door.

The 100-minute film was produced in Indiana and
Michigan over the last
two and a half years by director Tim Richardson and
his company
Richardson Productions LLC in conjunction with Somehow
Cinema.
Richardson grew up in Granger, Indiana, is a current
resident of
Edwardsburg, Michigan and an I.U.S.B. alumnus. The
screenings are
sponsored by the I.U.S.B. Alumni Association. More
information about
the film can be found at www.dorkoftherings.com.

The story revolves around a young Throbbit, Frudo
Buggins, who must
stop the insidious Dork-mart corporation from taking
over Muddle-earth
with its endless franchises. The only way to do this
is to deliver the
One Ring of Circular Credit to Bank Boom to close Lord
Mauron's
account and stop the evil empire from spreading.
Pursued by
Nosedrools and Sporks, Frudo is joined by his plump
companion Ham,
Randolf the Wizard, Gimpi the Dweeb, Legoblocks the
Elfis, Arogant the
Rangler, Princess Femowen and the annoying creature
Scrottum.

The film held its World Premiere and two other
screenings this August
at the enormous GenCon convention in Indianapolis to
packed audiences
and a few weeks later it graced the big screen at the
IMAX in
Indianapolis, which was organized by Woodworks films.
"The film is
huge in its scope," says filmmaker Gary Wood. "It's
not your normal
low-budget, independent movie. It's the perfect
example of what you
can accomplish if you don't limit your vision to what
you think you
can accomplish and, rather, just go about
accomplishing your
vision--and limitations be damned!"

Over half the film was shot against a giant green
screen sound stage
Richardson's crew constructed themselves. The
post-production art team
consisted of around 30 artists including digital
artists, matte
painters, sculptors, graphic designers, illustrators,
animators and
costume designers.

Michael Kouroubetes who co-wrote, produced, and acted
in the film
says, "It was kinda' like a bonsai tree: looks great,
but it takes a
lot of patience to grow. We owe so much to ever
evolving consumer
level technology. Without the advent of terrific
software and faster
PC's, this movie would've cost hundred's of thousands
more to make."

Art Coordinator Ian Strandberg created many of the
digital backgrounds
and offered input to the wide variety of artists
working on the
project. "The task of making FX for 'The Dork of the
Rings' is not
about fooling the audience. Most audiences are too
sophisticated to
be hornswoggled by the likes of us. Rather, I look at
the dork FX
first as a matter of entertainment and second as a
matter of
suggesting that no matter how crazy something seems,
it can be sold as
a stylistic choice and not an anomaly of artistic
temperament."

The scriptwriting process began in January 2004 and
the 18 days of
principle photography followed that summer and fall.
During the long
post-production process, which included not only the
digital effects
but also re-dubbing all the actors' voices and
creating foley and
sound effects, the cast and crew were also busy
marketing the film.

The Dorks first traveled to TolCon in Seattle in 2005
where they
previewed the film and also met Elijah Wood's scale
and stunt double
from the trilogy, Kiran Shah, who they were able to
recruit to do a
comical introduction for the movie where he claims he
auditioned for
"Dork" but was rejected as the lead actor's stunt
double because he
was "too tall." Shah has been in many films and was
seen most recently
as the White Queen's sleigh driver in "The Chronicles
of Narnia."

Since Tolcon, they've previewed behind the scenes
footage and clips
from the film at GenCon, Ring*Con in Germany,
Dragon*Con in Atlanta,
The Fellowship Festival in Toronto, ELF I & II in
Orlando and New York
and The One Ring Celebration in Pasadena just to name
a few. At these
conventions they've met with sword maker Peter Lyon
and actors Sean
Astin, John Rhys-Davies and Elijah Wood and talked up
their dorky
movie. Lyon gladly agreed to send copies of the movie
directly to Weta
Workshop head honcho Richard Taylor and hopefully
director Peter
Jackson himself.

Speaking of directors, in order to assist with the
promoting of "Dork"
the film's "co-director" Jack Peterson (with his large
girth, fuzzy
beard and huge round glasses) has been making the
rounds at these
events interviewing stars such as Justin Long
("Accepted"), David
Prowse ("Star Wars") and Doc Hammer ("Venture Bros.")
for his online
video reports. By shear brute force, he has pushed his
way into
semi-celebritydom, even appearing as a special guest
on a Tolkien
panel with Shah. " You simply can't miss me, " say
Peterson. "Elijah
Wood told me I was awesome, and at over 300 pounds,
he's quite right."

"The Dork of the Rings" was recently one of only three
feature films
to be selected for Dragon*Con in Atlanta, the
country's largest
Sci-fi/fantasy/horror/pop culture convention held over
Labor Day
weekend. The film's own Randolf the Wizard was a huge
attraction at
the event, garnering the actor numerous television and
print
interviews during his visit.

Now that he's famous, actor David Kiefer who plays the
doddering
wizard Randolf says: "I can't even eat a ham sandwich
without someone
coming up to me." He's been a big hit at all the
conventions and his
costume won him and his Indianapolis-based designer
Janice Bennett the
Staff Choice Award at GenCon 2005 in the costume
competition.

Over 150 actors and crew came from all over to help on
the film:
Chicago, Peoria, Indianapolis, Louisville and all
around South Bend.
"Everyone was very excited about this project and I
think they all had
an awesome time on the set. It was cool to not have to
worry about
whether anyone was going to show up or not, as can be
the case in
making indie movies where folks work for free, but
everyone was very
dedicated so I feel very blessed," says Richardson.

Their original soundtrack was created by veteran film
composer Mark
D'Errico from Colorado whose score definitely captures
the "Rings"
flavor. They also recruited The Great Luke Ski to do a
theme song for
the movie. Ski is a Wisconsin-based comedy song
performer who has been
Dr. Demento's most requested artist since 2000 and is
best known for
his hit song "Stealing Like a Hobbit," a parody of
Eminem's "Cleanin'
Out My Closet."

Pre-orders for the DVD have been pouring in at
studio-style pace. The
Dorks plan to enter the film in festivals and screen
it at as many
conventions as possible worldwide and their first
scheduled
international engagement is in Germany this November.

Just what Europe needs: More American Dorks.



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