My travels in the South Island continue. [ chapter 4 ]
Month: February 2000
Today’s ‘Dominion’ newspaper has a nice picture of Peter Jackson chatting to the Prime Minister. The occasion is a party being thrown to celebrate the opening of Jackson’s new film unit at Avalon, near Wellington. The film production crew also attended, as did the producers and crew of the TV series “The Tribe” which is also made there; also invited were film and broadcasting industry figures.
The National Film Unit used to belong to Television New Zealand, and is the only full post-production film processing laboratory in the country, and is said to be “the only one-stop post-production lab offering a 16-millimetre and 35-millimetre laboratory and sound production” in NZ and Australia.
The PM said the industry had untapped potential.”I’m sure that in the future, as in the past, some form of government support and facilitation is going to be needed. That’s why we’ve said we want to work with the Film Commission and other relevant players to investigate the establishment of a film development fund to attract more investment into the country.”
I also heard a soundbyte from Radio New Zealand covering the same event. Peter Jackson arrived by helicopter, and was interviewed. He said that in such a huge undertaking, three films at once, small problems had a way of snowballing. Or at least, that’s what I think he was trying to say; he’s one of those people that sound like their mind is racing way ahead of their tongue. He also said that filming was going very well and the actors were turning in great performances.
The PM talked more about finding govt. support for NZ film-makers onto their second or third project. Jackson and other local producers/directors have pointed out that there is a need for that. Jackson is one of the only directors to stay in NZ after ‘making it’ as a successful film-maker; usually there isn’t the funding available to produce larger films here, so people tend to go overseas as soon as they’ve had any success.
Matt chimes in with a report about AOL’s daily crossword:
“AOL Daily Crossword, 39 across, Frodo (looks wrong to my untrained eye – shouldn’t it be Bilbo?)
Enjoy!“
We have an Exclusive pic of that burned Hobbiton building! Check out which one and what it looked like before it burned! [More]
TheOneRing.net brings you Exclusive images from the Hobbiton set!
As written earlier not all of the Hobbiton set has been burned down, read on:
From: Evan
I took a look-see at the set on Saturday. There were only a few vehicles left (only one big-shot-star-trailer). The reported fire damage is limited to one building. There is a semi circular structure with courtyard at the other end from the stone bridge from the mill which has been substanially damaged by fire. It looks as if there is a pole set in the middle of the courtyard which may be a flag pole or a burning stake (as in Joan of Arc)
A number of sightings in Spy Reports confirm that all was not as it seemed originally.