There's a whole world of J.R.R. Tolkien movie sites on the Web.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

Just call it "The Lord of the Web."

The first of the three long-awaited "Lord of the Rings" films doesn't even open until Dec. 19, but the Internet buzz has already reached heights unheard of, even in the bloated world of Hollywood hype.

Part of the ballyhoo, of course, is due to New Line Cinema's official movie site, www.lordoftherings.net, but this isn't just a case of Tinseltown tub-thumping.

Freaks for J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy trilogy have created dozens of sites that feature daily debates about the film versions' expected merits and flaws, juicy info-nuggets allegedly based on scuttlebutt from production insiders, and even photographs pirated (or purposely leaked) from the sets in New Zealand, where the three movies are being filmed.

It's not uncommon for movies to have Web sites these days, but it is unusual for grass-roots sites to sprout as fast as _ well, as fast as a hobbit can scurry into a hobbit hole. Only the "Star Trek" and "Star Wars" films seem to have generated this kind of fanaticism.

New Line officials realized they had a tiger by the tail last April when the then-fledgling Web site offered a few seconds of teaser footage from the film.

"We had more than 1.7 million downloads in the first 24 hours," said Gordon Paddison, New Line's senior vice president for interactive marketing and business development. "I won't say we've been stunned because we always knew how popular the books are; there have been 90 million copies sold in 50 languages. But we're grateful that the fan base has remained so involved."