Actor Andy Serkis was languishing in showbiz obscurity until he landed the role of Gollum in Lord of the Rings. He provided the character’s voice and movements but only briefly appeared on screen himself. He repeated his CGI antics as the great big monkey in King Kong, out on DVD now. [More]
Month: April 2006
Te Papa, New Line Cinema and principal sponsor Air New Zealand are delighted to announce the return of the most popular exhibition in New Zealand’s history – The Lord of the Rings Motion Picture Trilogy – The Exhibition. Opening at Te Papa on 14 April 2006, this interactive and immersive exhibition with many brand new exhibits explores writer/director/producer Peter Jackson’s epic trilogy based on the J.R.R. Tolkien masterpiece.
The exhibition first opened at Te Papa in December 2002 attracting 220,000 visitors, and since then seen by over a million people worldwide. The exhibition has been shown at science museums in London, Boston, Singapore, Houston, Indianapolis, and the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney.
The exhibition covering over 1000 square metres of gallery space will be significantly refreshed to include stunning new items from the film trilogy. These include Aragorn’s coronation crown, Arwen’s coronation crown and dress, and Gandalf the White’s robes. The impressive and large scale ‘miniature’ of the great fortified city Minas Tirith and Corsair’s boat will also be on display for the very first time, as will preliminary sculptures of Gollum’s facial expressions used to develop his character.
Items never before seen in New Zealand also include a model of a mumakil, maquettes and information about the making of digital creatures such as Shelob, and Anduril, the sword of Aragorn. Visitors will be treated to all-new interviews with the cast and crew about their personal experiences and relationships during the making of the films. Original artworks developed for characters and scenes will also be exhibited.
“The return of this internationally successful exhibition gives visitors one last chance to explore the magical world created by the vision of director Peter Jackson and the groundbreaking technology behind the movies,” said Dr Seddon Bennington, Te Papa’s Chief Executive. ”From skilled artisans to computer wizardry – this exhibition displays kiwi ingenuity at its finest,” he added.
Air New Zealand Group General Manager Marketing, Network and Sales Norm Thompson said there was no questioning Air New Zealand’s involvement in the second exhibition following its huge support for the movie a few years ago when the airline visually themed all its jet aircraft.
“We are proud to be supporting the return of New Zealand’s most popular exhibition. Not only does it showcase our country’s talent, creativity and innovation, it’s a great way to celebrate the movie that put Middle-earth on the map, our people under the international spotlight, and inspired people to visit our beautiful country,” said Mr Thompson.
The exhibition will see the return of models of Ringwraiths, Orcs, the Cave Troll, and Treebeard, as well as costumes, jewellery, and weapons of characters such as Frodo, Arwen, and Aragorn. Magnificent miniature sets and models used to create the epic world of Middle-earth returning to this exhibition include Frodo’s vision of the ruined Hobbiton Mill, the Tower of Orthanc, and Sauron’s tower, Barad-dur.
Visitors will learn how some of the amazing special effects in The Lord of the Rings films were achieved, and how make-up techniques were used to such great effect.
Behind the scenes footage demonstrates the revival of traditional crafts to create ‘authentic’ medieval weaponry and armour, such as chainmail. This craftsmanship is demonstrated in twelve complete sets of armour in the armour corridor.
Animatronics, a combination of animation and puppetry that brought characters such as Treebeard to life is explained through audiovisuals.
A scaling interactive explores how actors are made to appear to be hobbit or wizard-sized using an ingenious mix of trick photography, forced perspective sets, and props made at different scales. Visitors can enjoy first-hand experience of the films’ special effects by being photographed in a set from the film to see how the technology works.
This second season of The Lord of the Rings Motion Picture Trilogy – The Exhibition at Te Papa has been made possible though the support of New Line Cinema, Peter Jackson, and principal sponsor Air New Zealand.
The Lord of the Rings Motion Picture Trilogy – The Exhibition
14 April – 20 August 2006
Level 5, Te Papa
www.tepapa.govt.nz
Admission charges apply.
Adults $12, Children (4-14 years) $6.50. Family concession available.
Developed and presented by the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in partnership with New Line Cinema.
Earlier this morning I was allowed access to the coolest place on earth, WETA Workshop. Located in a non-descript area of Wellington near the airport, this small groupings of offices and warehouses has produced some of the best practical and special effects seen in this century (and the last one too). Not only that, but it is also a digial studio, miniatures unit, production facility and more. If you’ve seen, held, or heard anything from Lord of the Rings, King Kong, Narnia and a few other films in the last few years, chances are it was made here.
My tour began with a meet and greet with Richard Taylor. Richard gave us a detailed background of WETA. From its humble beginnings to the huge powerhouse operation it is today, Richard outlined it all for us. The conference room at WETA HQ is most likely the most ‘polished’ place on the complex. It is filled wall to wall with photos, plaques and awards on one side, and the other side is full of WETA Collectible statues, busts and figures. One shelf in particular holds 5 golden Oscars that Richard proudly displays for all guests. He promptly took them out for us and passed them around. Richard was kind to take time out of his busy schedule (two cell phones that kept ringing) and was not short on words detailing their work on King Kong as well as LOTR and Narnia, easiest the three biggest projects they have taken on so far.
The details that went into the Skull Island people was so complexe that I felt I was listening to an anthropolgy course about real natives than a film production house. Richard and his team really work on these characters from the ground up to make sure they seem believeable to the movie going public.
We were next shown the WETA showreel. This, I assume, is shown to producers or toymakers or any sort of suit who need a quick demo of what WETA can do. All the ‘money’ shots from the LOTR Trilogy, King Kong and Narnia was seen on this video. We were given a great DVD copy to take home and enjoy as well.
Next we were introduced to an old friend of any TORN regular, Daniel Falconer. Daniel took us on the rest of the WETA tours. After saying goodbye to Richard we headed down into the main complex of the building that housed the metalworkers, leather area, paint, sculpt, models and more. The folks at WETA seem to pride themselves that they are still very down to earth, which in itself is kiwi philosophy. You can tell by walking around the complex that they don’t like to pamper themselves with things that will only get in the way of their work. However you can also see how proud they are of some of the major work they’ve accomplished. All along the buildings there are props, art and photos from earlier work. Swords and other weapons, maquettes, paintings, models, clothing, along every hallway and around every corner. I got the feeling they use it to inspire themselves to achieve even better and higher quality of work.
These days the team seems to be in between major projects. The buildings were not that busy today. Daniel assured us that during LOTR production people were working 24/7 on models, props and other things. Today we saw some great Narnia bookends they plan to have out by Christmas. We also saw one of the Venture ‘bigatures’ alongside a corsair ship being repaired for the grand opening at the Te Papa museum (It seemed very surreal to see those two together). There were also a few smaller jobs being worked on like a plane wing model and some sculpt work for a children’s feature.
WETA‘s latest pride and joy is a new computer animated feature called ‘Jane and the Dragon’. Canadian fans can currently see season one on YTV. We were given a tour of the digital studio they use to create the show, as well as the ‘mo-cap’ stage where they shoot the main characters. (Think of an entire show being made the same way they made Gollum and King Kong with Andy Serkis). We were then privy to a special few minutes of an as-yet unfinished episode of the show. I have seen the show on YTV before back home and think it’s a great show for kids. You can tell the folks at WETA are very proud of it.
That led us back to the main offices where we started. It really went WAY too fast and I know the folks with me and my wife wanted to hang out a bit more just to smell that air of creativity around the place.
I know a TON of fans have made the trek to Camerdown Street to see the studio and only managed to get a shot of the front door, so I feel extreemly lucky to be able to get down here and see a place I have only read about for years. Thanks to Richard Taylor and Daniel Falconer for the tour and special thanks to UBISOFT for the trip!
We at TORn, and on behalf of EA Games, would like to thank all the writers who entered this writing contest. We had entries from all over the world who eagerly put words to their thoughts and imaginations and sent us some outstanding entries. It was the sheer quantity and quality of these entries that caused us to delay announcing the winners, but we are now ready to do so. And don’t forget to check out EA Games latest venture into the world of the Lord of the Rings – The Battle for Middle-earth II, in stores now! Winners will be contacted via email in the next few days. [Winners] [Battle for Middle-earth II]
William writes: I don’t know if you read ‘Pooch Cafe’ — but it’s hysterical. Today’s was quite poignant for Rings’ fans. [More]
K. Roberts writes: Cate Blanchett and Orlando Bloom recently met up at a party in Geneva, Switzerland, thrown by Swiss watchmakers IWC at an aircraft hangar in the city’s airport. [More] [Photos]