LORD OF THE 'RINGS' SAUGUS FAN AN EXPERT ON TOLKIEN'S TRILOGY.Byline: Sharon Cotal Staff Writer SANTA CLARITA Santa Clarita, city (1990 pop. 110,642), Los Angeles co., S Calif., suburb 30 mi (48 km) NW of downtown Los Angeles, on the Santa Clara River; inc. 1987. Situated in the Santa Clara valley and nearby canyons, Santa Clarita includes the former towns of Canyon Country, - David Mullich David Mullich (born 1958, in Burbank, California) is an American game producer and designer best known for creating the cult classic 1980 adventure game The Prisoner, producing the 1995 adaptation I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream was 12 when a friend told him about a book set in a fantasy world. It was J.R.R. Tolkien's ``The Fellowship of the Ring,'' which intrigued Mullich so much he read the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy A company founded in 1979 by Gene Amdahl to commercialize wafer scale integration and build supercomputers. It raised a quarter of a billion dollars, the largest startup funding in history, but could not create its 2.5" superchip. in three days, and has been rereading them ever since. ``Tolkien created such an interesting and detailed world. It was unlike anything I had read before,'' Mullich said. ``It has stayed with me all these years, and every time I reread Verb 1. reread - read anew; read again; "He re-read her letters to him" read - interpret something that is written or printed; "read the advertisement"; "Have you read Salman Rushdie?" the books or talk to other fans, I learn something new. So the fun and enjoyment renews itself constantly.'' The 43-year-old Saugus resident joins scores of other Tolkien fans anxiously awaiting Wednesday's release of the live-action feature film ``The Fellowship of the Ring,'' but he probably knows a bit more about the coming movie than most. Tolkien Online - www.tolkienonline.com - invited Mullich to be its movie message board operator after noticing his comments about the upcoming film and how it will differ from the books. He considers himself an expert on the books after years of readings, and most recently his attendance at the Lord of the Rings reading group at Barnes & Noble in Valencia. The reading group, which began in July in anticipation of the movie, meets Monday nights to complete an in-depth analysis of the trilogy, discussing one chapter from the books each week. Having never lost his fascination with fantasy stories, Mullich fits all of his Lord of the Rings activities into his schedule when he's not working full time at New World Computing New World Computing, Inc. was an American computer game developer and publisher founded in 1984 by Jon Van Caneghem and Mark Caldwell. It was best known for its work on the Might and Magic RPG series and its spin-offs, especially Heroes of Might and Magic. . There he creates fantasy computer games and runs the team that develops ``Heroes of Might and Magic Heroes of Might and Magic (sometimes called simply Heroes or HoMM) is a series of turn-based computer games developed by New World Computing, a division of The 3DO Company. ,'' a series of fantasy-based strategy games in which players control armies of heroes and fantastic creatures and explore and conquer areas of a fantasy world. Mullich's job fits in with his hobby A hobby is a spare-time recreational pursuit. Origin of term A hobby-horse was a wooden or wickerwork toy made to be ridden just like the real hobby. From this came the expression "to ride one's hobby-horse", meaning "to follow a favourite pastime", and in turn, so nicely that his boss plans to take the office staff to a showing of ``The Fellowship of the Ring'' on opening day. He considers it research. Mullich can hardly wait. ``I never thought anyone would be able to do a live-action version of the stories, so I'm tremendously excited about it,'' he said. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: (color) David Mullich first read J.R.R. Tolkien's ``The Lord of the Rings'' trilogy when he was 12, and he's been hooked hooked adverb Addicted on the series ever since. Tina Burch/Staff Photographer |
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