Hi - I've just come back from red carpet parade for the LotR premiere in Wellington. There was a great crowd of thousands. I got there at 4.30pm and got a "third row back" spot. By 6pm there were 20 or so rows deep of people in places.
Wellington turned on a very typical day: heaps of rain in the morning and lots of rain threatened for the afternoon. Around 5.30pm the wind got up to about the level that Wellington's mayor described as a "gentle zephyr" (i.e. bloody windy). Fortunately it did not rain which allowed the stars to spend plenty of time shaking hands, signing autographs and chatting with the crowd.
I've included photos of Peter Jackson, Elijah Wood, and a group of Gondorian soldiers being followed by four hobbit children.
Elijah stopped immediately in front of me and was handed a mobile phone by one of the girls in the second row back. He spent about 2 minutes talking to the girl's mother before passing the phone back to the thrilled fan. His blue eyes were absolutely stunning (I thought the film makers might have slightly emphasised their blueness in the film but I can vouch for them being completely genuine) and he came across as a very nice guy.
The biggest cheers in the crowd were saved for Peter Jackson who was received rapturously by everyone. Wellington feels, quite rightly, that he has made us all extremely proud. Though it was great to see the actors, I suspect that most people were there in order to acknowledge and applaud Peter's fantastic efforts (and patriotic contribution to New Zealand's economy).
Now I can't wait until I see the film tomorrow!!
Emelan writes:
I've been reading theonering.net since you started in 1999, but have never had the guts up to write to any of you. Its a fab site.
Anyhow, I'm from Wellington and I just wanted to give you my lowdown on what went on in Courtney Place. IT ROCKED!
There were at least 10,000 people lining the barriers leading up to the Embassy. The carpet was said to be about 200 metres long, and people were lined at least 5 deep along its whole length. Down by the embassy there were just masses of people.
Gondorian guards were staged on the roof with the Cave Troll. They had the Ringwraiths on horses looking very scary by the entrance, then a whole group of Gondorian guards marched down the carpet with hobbits behind them.
The celebrity entrances were kick started with a powhiri (Maori greeting) by a local Kapa Haka group (Maori cultural group). If you've ever seen the Adidas advert of the NZ rugby team, the All Blacks, doing the haka you'll have an idea of what I mean. Pretty stirring stuff. Then the stars came out to play and I mean literally.
They looked stunned at the reception. A big screen had been erected so we the fans could see close-ups of all these fab celebrities. The best thing was watching them stop to sign autographs and chat to people. You could see they were buzzing over the atmosphere and I definitely saw Orlando spot someone he must have known in the crowd because he stopped to hi-five them and chat and they were at least 3 people back from the barrier.
The very best part of the premiere though was Peter Jackson, the movie showing ended up being at least half an hour late because he just would not stop signing autographs and talking to people along the length of the carpet. It is just another reason why we kiwis love him because he definitely showed he had time for us. But because he took longer than expected doing this, we could see the antics of Dominic, Billy, Orlando and Elijah. They were jumping around and tapping the camera lenses and just acting very laddish, very fun to watch.
I think Elijah summed their experience of this premiere up when he said that he was just felt stunned and humble at the reception they got and that out of all the premieres that they attended they wanted to come to this one. Now as your typical kiwi who generally doesn't like to brag, it made my heart go really warm.
Oh I just can't wait to see it, only nine hours to go before I see it at 6am.
Anyhow I'm sure Tehanu will give a bigger and better review of the lowdown, I'm off to watch the news to see if its on telly. I hope you find this gushing (yeah I couldn't help myself) report on our premiere of some use.
From: Soathus
Attended the Australasian premier in Wellington tonight, here are a few photos if you are interested.
It was amazing the number of people that came out; the energy was incredible. The cast in attendance were Billy Boyd, Dominic, Orlando, Elijah, Hugo plus some others (not of the fellowship); and of course Peter Jackson and Fran.
It was a magic experience. They gave our souvenir cards for the occasion and a couple of the cast signed my (Billy, Dominic plus Peter Jackson).
From: Democritus
I was there at the Premiere of the FOTR in Wellington, New Zealand, and I can tell you right now it was a joyous affair.
Fate has seemed to play an important part in the making of these movies, and it continued today at the premiere when all the weather forecasts predicted a continuation of the loathsome weather that Wellington has been experiencing recently, were proven wrong with an afternoon/evening that wasn't wet or windy.
I was there in the crowd that started big and just kept getting larger, absolutely cramming out the downtown centre of Wellington. Honestly I have not seen Wellington like this since NZ won the america's cup the first time round. And what a happy, buzzing, raptuous crowd it was too.
Highlights of the Premiere
There were so many, but here is just a few:
The hobbits: Elijah, Dominic and Billy: turned up laughing and giggling, and absolutely hammed it up for the cameras and the crowd, they were charm personified. Aided and abetted by an infectious Orlando Bloom who had a few girls gasping next to me let me assure you.
Hugo Weaving: A class act with a great voice and real presence, I can see why he made such a great Agent Smith (and will make a great Elrond).
Peter Jackson: while the crowd had great fun with the cast, and really enjoyed them, the real emotion was saved for Peter Jackson who got an absolutely raptuous reception when he arrived at the end of the procession, I think he was genuinely taken back by the hometown reception and looked absolutely proud and happy. In fact a new side of PJ was revelaed tonight, a PJ that was happy to hold up the start of the movie by almost half an hour as he interacted with the crowd, signing autographs, taking photos of himself with happy punters, and talking to anyone and everyone. It was a sight to behold.
The Gondorian warriors: earlier on a decent sized company of fully armoured gondorian warriors strode down the red carpet and went inside the embassy before reappearing on the Embassy roof behind the cave troll, where they stood at attention for the rest of the night, it was an awesome sight, and I hope that someone has pictures which they can post.
At one point some models of creatures that will be appearing in the second and third movies wandered their way down the carpet and interacted with the crowd (not Treebeard or Gollum obviously), I think I recognised a miniture oliphant at some point.
The Maori warriors, they brought in the procession and were a fearsome sight (and sound) in their face paint and exhibition.
One really cool thing was that before the LOTR crew was taken into the embassy, they were all called onto stage one by one for a few words by the evenings compere Jay Laigia. Dominic and Billy in particular were fantastic, as was LURTZ himself (or the guy that plays him at least), in fact one real treat of the evening was seeing him standing next to the tiny Elijah Wood. Lurtz could have taken Frodo in one gulp that's for sure. The actors seemed genuinely taken back by the crowd and the reception, and they all claimed that it was a bigger night than the London Premiere
Another nice touch just before the end was video recordings shown on the big screen of the actors and actresses that couldn't make it tonight including Viggo, Ian and liv. All said lovely things, as did the hobbits before they went in, including Dominic who said that they were all thinking of buying houses in Wellington, and raising children here etc.
The night ended with a surprise burst of streamers from out of every shop roof, and a happy cast and crew (and guests) going into the embassy.
A wonderful evening all round I would say.