TURNING A PHENOMENOM INTO BUSINESS SUCCESS: HOBBITON MOVIE SET AND FARM TOURS FIVE YEARS ON
This week marks the fifth anniversary of the opening of the farm gates to visitors at the Hobbiton Movie Set site.
The location, near Matamata, was Peter Jackson’s choice for the creation of the fictitious village ‘Hobbiton’ used in the filming of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.
Today Hobbiton Movie Set and Farm Tours, run by the family who own the land, is a thriving business and has proven the skeptics wrong. During the five years over 130 000 visitors have taken the tour, with a trebling of numbers between years one and two. International visitors make up 80% of the customers, with the strongest marketing coming from the UK. Continue reading “5 Years Gone By… Matamata ‘Hobbiton’ Set Still Popular”
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Kristin Thompson, author of ‘The Frodo Franchise: The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood’, writes: I’ve posted the third and final part of my conversation with Lord of the Rings co-producer Rick Porras, from the New York Barnes & Noble signing back in September. This part continues the enjoyable question-and-answer session. Thanks again to Rick and to the fans who attended! Rick Porras Chat Part 2
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Weta Productions’ debut television series, Jane and the Dragon, has been nominated for The Best Animated Television Production at the 35th Annual Annie Awards.
The Annie Awards are the industry’s oldest and most prestigious awards, and are considered an important industry benchmark and an annual predictor of the Academy Award for Animation. The winner of the most coveted and high profile Best Animated Feature Annie has gone on to claim the Oscar for animation every year but one since its inception. Continue reading “Weta TV series nominated for prestigious animation award”
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Harry Potter’s magic was not enough to beat the ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy in a new list of Britain’s favourite children’s book adaptation. The movies based on JRR Tolkien’s literary series of the same name, emerged the winner in the poll taken to find which book’s adaptation kids liked best. The movies based on JK Rowling’s books came next in line at the second spot. Third place on the list went to the adaptation of Roald Dahl’s ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’. ‘Lord of the Rings’ voted Britain’s Favourite Children’s Book Adaptation’
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Meghan S. Rodberg, Online Community Manager for Turbine, Inc. writes: First, our servers came back up this morning with a patch to the game. Patch notes can be found here. Continue reading “Lord of the Rings: Online News”
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Fantasy is in style right now. “Narnia” fans are jonesing for the sequel next May (did you see that trailer?). “Harry Potter” can’t be stopped. The “Lord of the Rings” franchise earned and deserved all its awards, and “The Hobbit” is a fierce issue on every film forum on the Web. All are popular by economic demand, but often passable and forgettable by design. The problem with fantasy is that it’s difficult to film. Who doesn’t think 1988’s “Willow” is a little hilarious? For the level-headed filmgoer, magic is kids’ stuff without the right execution. It takes great deal to buy into witches, wizards and faraway places outside the norm. Sure, teen magic and epic journeys are familiar and affecting as an extension of the usual tropes. But anthropomorphized, battling polar bears? That’s just crazy. Fantasy tunes of a more astute ilk
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