Check out the Spy Reports, since filming has started, the spies have been sending us stuff non stop!
Month: October 1999
From: Sam
Hey. I’ve become enthralled with The Lord Of The Rings through your website…i’m going to go out
and read the books straight away. ANyway, the reason i’m writing…don’t know if you’ve heard yet or
not. I live in wellington, nz, and get the evening post daily..and on page three i was interested to see
this article…
By Tom Cardy
Part of Mt Victoria’s Town Belt became a dense wood and a walking track for hobbits as filming began on The Lord Of The Rings today.
Producer Tim Sanders said the bush around Mt Victoria was ideal for a scene for the $360 million epic, which will be filmed at various locations around the country. Extra trees were taken in to make Mt Victoria’s bush denser.
“We’re pretty excited. It’s been a long time in preparation – 2 1/2 years,” he said. Depending on the weather, filming on Mt Victoria would continue for the next few days.
Film publicist Claire Raskind said about 140 crew were involved today, filming a scene with hobbits walking through the woods, including one of the film’s stars, Elijah Wood, who plays the hobbit Frodo.
“We have some hobbits working today and that’s pretty much it,” she said.
The Post was not allowed on the set, but was allowed to look down from Alexandra Rd at the top of
Mt Victoria where several equipment trucks and a wind machine were parked.
Film crew with several large lights could be seen hidden in the bush down a steep bank, but no sign of anyone with big hairy feet.
The only hint as to what audiences may see on film was a black horse wearing a medieval-style saddle and armour in the Mt Victoria Bowling Club carpark, with another two horses.
Cast, crew and equipment were ferried up into the steep hill tracks using four and six-wheel motor
cycles.
Hope that helps. Would love to hear back from you.
Sam.
This is just a reminder that the Tolkien Brain Bender contest begins tonight. At 8PM EST the question will be posted, the first 3 people to mail the correct answer to the GreenBooks staff will be winners. For full details on the contest click here.
So make sure to really sluff off at work today so your mind is in top form tonight.
Everyone in NZ who was watching the evening news got to see a bit of the first day’s filming. We’ll look at ways to post a video clip of the TV news on the website, but meanwhile, we have a juicy monster spy report describing what was seen.
Filming began on Mt. Victoria, a wooded hill in the middle of Wellington. The reporters were not able to get as close as they…as YOU would have liked, but some joggers were interviewed after they’d charged blindly right through the set. And producer Tim Sanders was quite talkative by (LOTR film standards)when interviewed.
Check it all out in ‘The Spy Reports’
This item was on the main evening news. Many thanks for our contact in Wellington who kindly transcribed what she saw, first on Channel Three news and later on Channel One.
TV Channel Three News:
REPORTER A stand of old pines on Mount Victoria becomes the magical realm of Middle Earth. Just a fraction of the 500 people involved in the mammoth production are working on two sets around Wellington over the next month.
TIM SANDERS Producer “We have got a large crew here and we have been building up a long time and the day has finally arrived and there is a lot of excitement.”
REPORTER There is also a lot of secrecy surrounding the production. Producers don’t want to spoil the movie for the multitude of Tolkien fans by exposing too much during production.
TIM ‘Our project is going to have meaning for a lot of people. We also have to take it very seriously because we have an obligation to get it as authentic to the original work as possible.”
REPORTER Information about the production has already been leaked on the hundreds of LOTR internet sites. Some of the casting predictions were confirmed last week. The lineup includes Elijah Wood, Liv Tyler and Cate Blanchett. But there is no easy way of finding out whether any of the big names are down under the macrocarpas. (macrocarpas are a big coniferous tree and a familiar feature of Wellington’s Mt. Victoria – Tehanu)
TIM “On any given day we may have one of the bigger name actors or we may not, but I can’t disclose which sort of day it is.”
REPORTER Next month, cast and crew will go to the South Island for shooting. The three titles will be shot concurrently in one of the biggest movie ventures ever.
TV CHANNEL ONE NEWS
ANNOUNCER -“…..swung into action today shooting the first scenes of LOTR.
HORSE ON SCREEN
reporter One of the bit players in the $360m production filming today deep in Wellington’s woods, our cameras not getting close but the odd jogger did.
JOGGER They told me to keep off actually – it’s all a bit mysterious, all very very mysterious.
reporter Did they say what they were filming?
JOGGER No they didn’t no, it’s top secret
REPORTER Very hush hush.
REPORTER TO TIM SANDERS producer Are some of the hobbits being filmed today?
TIM I can’t comment on who is being shot today, no.
REPORTER It is all for a very short opening scene as hobbits journey through woodland of Middle Earth, the mythical kingdom of Tolkien’s epic trilogy. He then reads “The hobbits scrambled down a steep green bank and plunged into the thick trees below.Their course had been chosen to leave Woodhall to their left, and to cut slanting through the woods that clustered along the eastern side of the hill, until they reached the flats beyond. Then they could make straight for the Ferry over country that was open, except for a few dithces and fences. Frodo reckoned they had eighteen miles to go in a straight line. He soon found that the thicket was closer and more tangled than it had appeared.”
(Recognise this? It’s the Hobbits, still in the Shire, the day after meeting Gildor. Remember though, this is just the TV reporters making a bit of a scene up out of not much evidence – Tehanu)
REPORTER Peter Jackson didn’t have to go very far to find a setting that matched these passages. He is filming in the green belt below me, just a stone’s throw from the city. America’s Elijah Wood is the first star in action today; he is the hobbit Frodo in all three movies – the first time three are being filmed at one time. Filming will take eighteen months and involve 3,000 extras, 400 film crew, even 250 horses
in locations around the country.
TIM Anyone who has travelled here would know that the geography matches the novel really well, from the rolling shire countryside, if you read at the beginning of the book, all the way to the mountains and even the volcanoes in the central plateau.
REPORTER Filming moves to central Otago next month.
This come from Ringer Spy BigKev a spy with the nose for news.
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Calisuri will optimize it with all his jiggery pokery skills.
The article tells nothing new that isn’t covered on this site in ‘The Movies’ section.