Stephen Colbert is an unabashed popular-culture geek and frequently drops his Middle-earth knowledge and displays various swords, rings and LOTR stuff on his show The Colbert Report. So when he had Elijah Wood on to chat about Happy Feet 2 he “unexpectedly” dropped into a conversation about the currently filming Hobbit movies and made it clear that he has visited the set and been privy to secrets and then “duels” with Wood. Is he steeped enough in Tolkien pop-culture to someday drop a TORn reference? We wish he would but in the meantime, enjoy the clip! Thanks to spy Esme, the first of many to drop that little gem to us at Spymaster@theonering.net.
Month: November 2011
Luke Evans, who’s been cast in THE HOBBIT in the key role of Bard the Bowman and currently stars as Zeus in the mythical actioner IMMORTALS, recently spoke with Fresno Bee on being part of possibly the biggest film of his career.
“It’s keeping life real, that’s what’s important, and not losing yourself in the fact that you’re in ‘The Hobbit’.
I had a little bit of a heart flutter the first day I got there [New Zealand] because they have this thing where they show the new actors around all the sets and I saw Bilbo’s house, and I was like, “I actually walked into Bilbo’s house!” It was the most amazing thing.”
Read the full story over at Fresno Bee.
Thanks to message board member gaer_carreg for the heads-up.
mr. reno sent along some great spy photos and a little photo montage video of some scenes being filmed in New Zealand in the last 24 hours. This is in the Golden Bay region, where crews have been spread out filming recently.
Take a look at the little video animation, I see men on horseback and a helicopter getting some nice arial shots. Take a look! Continue reading “More Spy Photos & Video from NZ”
The beautiful and varied landscapes of New Zealand provided the setting for Peter Jackson’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy, one of the most successful film ventures of all time. From the peaceful Shire to the fires of Mordor, locations were found for the magical world of Middle-earth where hobbits, elves, dwarves and wizards live.
When Peter Jackson was 18, he took a train ride across New Zealand’s North Island – one of the two islands that comprise the country. On the trip he read The Lord of the Rings, the great J R R Tolkien saga. The now famous film director tells how he was fascinated to see how the landscape he could see from the train window was exactly like the mythical Middle Earth imagined by the British author some 30 years earlier. More..
One of the biggest things to happen in the Strath Taieri and Maniototo areas of Otago in recent years has tongues wagging – but only those of outsiders.
Six helicopters, a giant marquee, security guards and dozens of trailers have been parked in a paddock east of Hyde for the past four days.
But ask the locals why the trailers are there, and most reply “can’t say” or “don’t know”.
However, use the words “hobbit”, “film set” and “Sir Peter Jackson”, and sly, knowing smiles cross their faces.
Filming for Sir Peter’s two-part Hobbit series started in Wellington in March and, while other locations have been closely guarded, they include areas around the Strath Taieri and Queenstown. More..
Tom from Artstars.us writes: I just interviewed Grant Major for my production design blog. He talks about designing the Lord of the Rings and his mixed feelings about not doing the Hobbit. Here’s the interview.