Set in the lands near Rivendell, the home of Elven lord Elrond, “Born of Hope” follows the travails of Arathorn II and Gilraen, parents of the future King of Arnor and Gondor, as they fall in love and seek to marry despite some misgivings by Gilraen’s father. The film-makers have said on record they were aiming to replicate as much of the look and feel of Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” movies, which have been widely criticized by Tolkien purists for not looking very much like Middle-earth.

But Tolkien purists make up only a very small part of the online Tolkien fan community, most of whom turned out by legions to push the three “Lord of the Rings” into the top 20 films of all time. “The Return of the King”, the third movie in the franchise, cleaned up on awards in 2003 and 2004. Tolkien fans have been waiting to download “Born of Hope” for free ever since it was first announced.

Many fans of Peter Jackson and J.R.R. Tolkien gather in Tolkien forum Web communities to discuss the books and movies.

I tested the U400 service plan, which comes with approx 270 non-HD channels and begins at $100 a month. ATT has bundled deals that mix U-verse and Net access, but do not start getting excited at the idea of ultra fast Web surfing. The internet access offered with ATT Uverse is largely the same as ATT’s regular package, though upload speeds are faster.

ATT installations take a couple of hours, depending on 2 to 4 your house should be fixed to accommodate U-verse. In our case, technicians had to change the wiring in the back of some of the phone jacks. Because I have been using regular wiring, I’d not yet tried a Video on Demand movie, which U-verse includes. This gives you the option to choose from both movies and tv episodes from a selection of networks, including Showtime, and play them on your Television like a VCR.