"The Real Middle Earth" Released on DVD

Janson Media today announced the release of the new one-hour documentary film, The Real Middle Earth, to worldwide DVD markets. Produced by a UK-based independent production company, the film is a quest for the magical places that inspired J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Sir Ian Holm (Bilbo Baggins in The Fellowship of the Ring) narrates this fascinating exploration into an imaginary world that seems so real we pore over its maps and contemplate its journeys and its quests. Is this because the foundations of Tolkien's imagined world were inspired by very real places? Was there a real shire in the English countryside that inspired the Shire of Middle Earth? What influences shaped the darker and more troubled lands beyond its borders? How did European languages fuse in Tolkien's creative genius to create a vocabulary that evokes extraordinary places and heroic adventures? The quest for The Real Middle Earth takes viewers to England's west midlands, to Warwick and Oxford, to an ancient Lancashire school, to Saxon burial sites and many other places, including the real Dead Marshes, otherwise known as the Great War battlefields of the Somme. The Real Middle Earth was produced by Multi Media Arts Limited of England, The documentary is available exclusively from Janson Media for DVD and electronic sellthrough worldwide. The DVD includes such special features as a profile of Stephen Raw, the official mapmaker of The Lord of the Rings, a profile of the prosthetics team behind The Lord of the Rings special effects, and extended interviews with Tolkien scholars Helen Armstrong, Patrick Curry, and John Garth. MSRP: $24.95 Catalog #20336 ISBN# 1-56839-234-6 UPC# 6-4603203369-4 Pre-book Date: January 22, 2007 Street Date: January 29, 2007