A tired but jubilant Weta crew unveiled their new Gollum statue at a press function at Wellington Airport this morning. Working almost around the clock for three days, Gollum was hoisted up overnight to hover over diners at the airport’s main lounge.
A tired but jubilant Weta crew unveiled their new Gollum statue at a press function at Wellington Airport this morning. Working almost around the clock for three days, Gollum was hoisted up overnight to hover over diners at the airport’s main lounge. The 13m sculpture was designed and produced by Richard Taylor and Weta Workshop supervisors
Rob Gillies and Sarah Morris. Richard made a short speech to thank the team that made the incredibly realistic sculpture – a testament not only to their talent and hard work, but also to the technology and skills Weta has developed. He also thanked the “excellent” team at Wellington Airport, who have been a pleasure to work with in creating something that would bring delight to Wellington’s visitors. Airport CEO Steve Sanderson said the airport was proud to work with Weta and have such a magnificent sculpture on display. “Everyone will be amazed when they enter the terminal.”
We teased it last week, and now its time for action! The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey tickets go on sale Nov 7th, 2012 and that means millions of fans from around the globe will be securing tickets to the movie event of the year. It also means you – yes, you! – have an amazing opportunity to lead the charge in your local community by becoming an official TheOneRing.net Line Party Leader! As a Line Party Leader you will work with your local theater to arrange for special festivities surrounding the first screening of The Hobbit. We at TheOneRing.net will do our best to help you manage your party with our online tools, exclusive promotions, exclusive swag, and of course tips and tricks from our team of Line Party veterans.
How do you get started? First you will need to make sure you are signed up for a TheOnRing.net Fellowship account (upper right corner of the page). When you’ve completed your registration process, visit our Line Party landing page and click the ‘start a line party’ button. The most important information at this point is getting the correct address for the theater. Everything else can be adjusted at a later time. Further details from our staff will be happening in the coming weeks! [Line Party Landing Page]
So we’ve told you all about Denny’s new Hobbit menu, and what you can expect in restaurants from November 6th. And all very delicious it is, too. But here’s the stuff that’s really exciting for fans….
On Hobbit placemats in Denny’s there will be four QR codes which can be scanned for exclusive content. These include some ‘behind-the-scenes/making of’ footage from the fun Denny’s ‘fandom’ commercial (which you can see here); various social-mobile games; and a link to Denny’s ‘Hobbit Hub’, where you can play games, send virtual postcards from Middle-earth, take quizzes, ‘Hobbitise’ yourself and other fun activities. Much of this content has been developed with or by Warner Bros., and is shared through Denny’s partnership with them. (Also it’s worth noting – in the ‘Inspiration’ commercial (linked above) – the music used is not Howard Shore’s, but it WAS provided for the commercial by WB. The first part is rather ‘Potter-esque’ in its tinkly, sparkling sounds, while the second part sounds like the music used in the second Hobbit trailer.)
Most excitingly of all, one of the QR scans takes you to EXCLUSIVE behind-the-scenes footage from the set of The Hobbit movies. This has been put together by WB specially for Denny’s, and we were lucky enough to see it (twice!) at Denny’s HQ last Tuesday. MINOR SPOILERS coming up – read no further if you want to stay spoiler free!
Thanks to the standee maker, we’ve just received an exclusive image of the official standee that may appear at your local theater for ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.’ The standee features a life-size Gandalf outside of Bag End and ample room for you and your friends to appear on the doorstep. Should make for a lot of great photos! Speaking of theaters, our Line Party system is currently in beta launch, but if you want to secure your local line party, click here to find out more!
As we revealed yesterday, the diner chain Denny’s has secured a big Hobbit tie-in and is releasing a new, Hobbit menu plus collectible trading cards on November 6th. Staffer greendragon had the pleasure of visiting Denny’s HQ to find out what this is all about, and she was surprised by what she discovered. Here’s what she had to say:
OK, full disclosure here folks. I have never been to a Denny’s. I didn’t know what their food is like but I had my assumptions – fast food, all frozen, pre-cooked, processed rubbish, I thought… And then I heard they were going to have a Hobbit movie tie-in campaign. Hooommm. Sounds like orc mischief to me; slap a few gimmicky names on a few already-designed dishes and make a fast buck. Right? Turns out, I was wrong; read on to find out what I discovered yesterday….
Empire magazine has revealed their special Hobbit edition which features five different covers in glorious lenticular 3-D. Readers have a choice between the Bilbo cover, pictured, Gandalf, Gollum, Galadriel or Thorin (or all five – why not). In this edition, Peter Jackson confirms that the final running time (without credits), is 2 hours 40 minutess:
“It’s looking like it’s going to be about ten minutes shorter than Fellowship was,” explains Jackson. “So it’s going to be officially our shortest Middle-earth yet. I mean, Fellowship was just under three hours and this is about 2 hours 40 minutes at the moment.” The “at the moment” refers to the fact that the credits hadn’t yet been added and not all effects shots finalised when we spoke to Jackson, but it’s going to be close.
Look for the new Empire Hobbit edition to hit stores and newsstands today, October 24. Read More…
We teased it 
