Tolkien sequel to be released under tight security

Hobbit mania is about to hit the island again as ardent Tolkien fans eagerly await next Wednesday's release of the author's second classic in film, The Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers.

KRS Film Distributors will be travelling to the UK in the coming days to bring down the prints under tight security.

"There is extreme pressure - now more than ever - to stop pirated copies of the film from hitting the market. There were pirated copies of Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets and the Bond film Die Another Day on sale the day after they were released," KRS general manager Charles Pace said.

"We will be personally delivering the prints to the cinemas on the morning of its release and staying there until the first performance," he said.

The three-hour sequel starts off exactly where the first one, The Fellowship of the Ring, left off.

Peter Jackson, the trilogy's wizardly director, assumes that the audience already knows what has gone on before.

Film critics are all saying that the sequel is a worthy, if not better, successor with ample excitement and a formidable army of 10,000 beast-like creatures which have been brought to life with computer graphics.

Tolkien's trilogy represents an unprecedented undertaking - three films made simultaneously over an 18-month production schedule.

On its release, The Two Towers will be competing for audiences with Potter and Bond, but KRS manager Alex Pace believes it will do extremely well, especially since it is being released at Christmas time.

Mr Pace said that KRS had a line-up of entertaining films for the whole family during this festive season with three adventure stories, three animated features, four comedies, two thrillers and a romantic drama.

Children will surely drag their parents to watch Walt Disney's new animated comedy Lilo & Stitch, an imaginative story about the galaxy's most mischievous alien.

Another film expected to go down well with the kids is The Powerpuff Girls, about kindergarten girls who have superhuman strength.

Walt Disney's the Lion King has been reformatted specifically for Imax and will hit the giant screen on Christmas Day.

Santa Clause 2 and Asterix & Obelix Mission Cleopatra will also be released later this month.

A Walk to Remember is not to be missed either. This tear-jerker follows the love affair between the daughter of a preacher and a privileged but aimless young man.