The interview with Sir Ian is broadcast here on Friday at 11am on the Kim Hill show. For those of you outside of NZ, I think I’ve got my head round the daylight saving adjustment. The McKellen interview is on Radio New Zealand’s website, broadcasting live at just after 6pm EST on your Thursday. Check you’re set up to receive it first.

The webmaster at RNZ says: “Occasionally <.5% users experience problems due to javascript client engine problems integration with the Real Player. This is true for Apple and Linux. I have consulted with US experts and there is nothing I can really do to fix this.

It is also important that all visitors to the site already have Real PLayer installed. While there are links available to download and install the player – this site uses Real Player and autostarts immediately site is loaded so if the plugins are not installed the user will get an error message.

Real Networks will not allow plugins to autoinstall as they want to get people to load the entire application.”

Don’t mean to sound like a sales blurb, but you can download that here

Mr. Ekted sends in the following link to eyeballdesign.com, there is some rather nice Tolkien Desktop Wallpaper you can download and be the envy of all your friends. [More]

New Zealand Website Stuff posted a great new pic of the Minas Tirith set, located at the same Haywards Hill quarry in Upper Hutt, where Helms Deep was also filmed. [More]

New Zealand Website Stuff posted a great new pic of the Minas Tirith set, located at the same Haywards Hill quarry in Upper Hutt, where Helms Deep was also filmed.

MINIS TIRITH?: Construction is under way again at Dry Creek Quarry near Wellington’s Haywards Hill in preparation for further filming the Lord Of The Rings trilogy. Earlier this year the site was used to film battle scenes depicting the Helm’s Deep sequence. Now speculation Internet is that the new set is Minis Tirith, the chief city of Gondor.

Map

Ringer Spy DocDanz sends in the latest word on a possible new set on the South Island, with a promise to get more news later! [More]

Ringer Spy DocDanz sends in the latest word on a possible new set on the South Island, with a promise to get more news later!

Just a quick note to say that I saw an interesting article in the “Central Otago Mirror”. Apparently a Lord of the Rings set is being built near the Poolburn Dam in the Ida Valley – a beautiful and remote valley in Central Otago. There was a picture of construction but litte else. I passed through the area in January and it is quite spectacular – a dry, wide, open valley with mainly sheep farming and a river with willow trees alongside. The Poolburn Gorge is particularly spectacular but I don’t think that this is where they are filming. I hope to check it out in the weekend so watch this space.