QUEENSTOWN, NEW ZEALAND — Queenstown is the kind of place where people come and never leave. In fact, talk to a few dozen folks in town and chances are good a few of them wandered into the place and never found their way out.
If it isn’t already, get it on your bucket list.
The mark of the Lord of the Rings films are still indelibly written here and to a degree that might surprise. Nestled on the shores of Lake Wakatipu with majestic mountains on either side, this busy adventure town looks a good bit like cinematic Middle-earth because many times this regions served as such in Peter Jackson’s films. In fact, the list is too long to include comprehensively here.
With a town big enough to have good food, amenities and lodging suitable for stars, it is also on the frontier and a gateway to much of the South Island. But, cultural and financial residue from the LOTR films is still readily apparent and especially to a writer who wears a “One Ring” jersey around town. Continue reading “LOTR still found in the fabric of Queenstown, Hobbit next”
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The New Zealand Herald has written this
nice piece on ‘The Hobbit’ actors Benedict Cumberbatch and Mikael Persbrandt:
They might be leading men in their respective countries but it’s not their famous faces which have got them heading to New Zealand to join the cast of The Hobbit.
English actor Benedict Cumberbatch – best known as the latest television incarnation of Sherlock Holmes – will be motion captured as dragon Smaug as well as delivering the voice of Necromancer (later known as Sauron in The Lord of the Rings trilogy). The other, Swedish star Mikael Persbrandt, is already in the South Island playing Beorn, a shapeshifting mountain man who is sometimes a bear. While The Lord of the Rings trilogy was a career launchpad for many actors, both Cumberbatch and Persbrandt come to The Hobbit with established profiles. Read More…
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Ian McKellen‘s new blog entry, titled “Moving On“, chronicles a portion of his travels along New Zealand’s North Island where location filming for The Hobbit is currently on. Excerpts follow:
Our first filming destination was Matamata, where eleven years ago Gandalf the Grey made his entrance into The Fellowship of the Ring, greeting Ian Holm’s Bilbo on the doorstep of Bag End.
All our trucks, trailers, generators, dining tent and loos were hidden behind and below the surrounding hillocks but it was nostalgic to clamber up the path that leads to Bag End where this time Martin Freeman’s Bilbo will be surprised by Gandalf.
We filmed there for less than a week, this time leaving everything behind, so future visitors do not have to guess at but actually see Hobbiton in its glory. They will even be able to get a snack at the Green Dragon.
Read more of Gandalf’s adventures by clicking the link provided above.
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With the pages falling off the calendar of time remaining in The Hobbit filming schedule, TheOneRing.net is heading to Queenstown (for starters) for more coverage.
Writer and photographer Larry D. Curtis (MrCere@TheOneRing.net) will be a one-man news production team for two weeks, starting November 30 when he touches down at the Queenstown airport. His journey will also take him to Wellington to mark the one year countdown before the world premiere of the first Hobbit film, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, in 2012 along with visits to friends of TORn (such as our own founder Tehanu) and can’t-miss public sites like the Weta Cave.
Curtis (known by the handle MrCere on the site) also plans to meet with as many fans as possible while in the area, including at un-official but hopefully frequent moot events, so if interested in attending or hosting, please contact him at the email above. The always all-volunteer and not-for-profit TheOneRing.net would also appreciate anybody who has great information or tips on inexpensive places to stay (no haystack ruled out!) or eat while in New Zealand. Continue reading “TORn headed to Queenstown, NZ for ‘Hobbit’ reporting”
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Today is an exciting day for fans of The Hobbit worldwide as Harper Voyager Books releases ‘The Hobbit‘ as downloadable Enhanced Ebook! As you’ve probably noticed, we’ve themed the site to celebrate! Exclusive to this Enhanced version of the eBook are new high-resolution colour images of all of Tolkien’s illustrations for the book, many of which are also included in their earlier black-and-white versions, which can be revealed by a simple swipe of the screen. A Foreword by Christopher Tolkien examines the writing of the book, complete with illustrations including manuscript pages and unused drawings. Finally, the Enhanced eBook includes some recently discovered audio recordings of J.R.R. Tolkien reading excerpts from The Hobbit, including the dwarves’ party song, the account of their capture by the three trolls, and Bilbo Baggins’s terrifying encounter with the hideous Gollum. You can download it now from a multitude of locations, all summarized neatly on the official Facebook page. [Facebook Tolkien Ebook Store] [iBookstore (iPad/iPhone)] [Kindle]
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Welcome to our collection of TORn’s hottest topics for the past week. If you’ve fallen behind on what’s happening on the Message Boards, here’s a great way to catch the highlights. Or if you’re new to TORn and want to enjoy some great conversations, just follow the links to some of our most popular discussions. Watch this space as every weekend we will spotlight the most popular buzz on TORn’s Message Boards. Everyone is welcome, so come on in and join in the fun!
Continue reading “TORn Message Boards Weekly Roundup – November 22, 2011”
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