A decade ago, Matamata was a sleepy country town in the middle of the North Island, well-placed for travellers in need of a comfort stop and a takeaway snack. Today, it is better known as Hobbiton and is one of the country’s star tourist destinations, attracting 1.9 million visitors over the last 10 years. It is poised for a fresh invasion starting this Christmas which seems certain to top that number over the next decade.
It all began in 1998 when movie director Peter Jackson took to the sky in a small plane in search sites to film his planned trilogy of JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.
His target was a piece of countryside untouched by concrete buildings, power poles and roads that he could transform into Hobbiton, the primitive village home of Tolkien’s small, hairy, Hobbit people.
A family farm outside Matamata, set about halfway between the provincial capital, Hamilton, and the tourist city of Rotorua, and complete with Tolkien’s so-called “party tree” and a lake, proved perfect. Continue reading “How a sleepy country town became Hobbiton”
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Tom Cardy of Fairfax NZ News writes about his experience going behind-the-scenes of the filming of the Hobbit. Warning: potential spoilers! Continue reading “Stuff goes behind the scenes on The Hobbit”
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SPOILER WARNING! Our French partner site Tolkiendrim.com has scored some amazing high resolution imagery of Bolg – the imposing and horrific monstrosity from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey! The high resolution imagery show great details including dried blood (as Tolkiendrim.com suggests, possibly signs of cannibalism??) and some artifacts from his dwarven foes. View this full article to see the three images. [Tolkiendrim.com]
Continue reading “Tolkiendrim.com Hi-Res Photo of Bolg! – SPOILERS”
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Thanks to Ataahua for sending in a link to this story from The Guardian: This time last year, New Zealand was under the spell of the Rugby World Cup, with host nation enthusiasm going a long way to realising the organisers’ vision of a “stadium of four million”. In 2012, the big event features hairy feet of a different sort, with the New Zealand-made film The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey opening with a world premiere in Wellington, the home town of director Sir Peter Jackson, in six weeks. Read more…
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LEGO® Fans worldwide are being treated to a series of early images of the upcoming ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey‘ LEGO® Playsets. (We are deliberately not including imagery on this post because we are pretty sure they will be asked to remove in hours!) There are a variety of sources for images, but the best come from LEGO Toy Story News’s Flickr Stream. Be warned, one set in particular reveals a previously unannounced ‘change’ to the story. We will describe the sets and a brief attempt to decipher each, but we’d love to hear your own conclusions and theories in our comments. There is also a video available of a very excited LEGO fan quickly going over all of the sets. A small heads up for the video – if you are looking for a clear description and accounting of each set – this isn’t for you. He does seem very excited about mushrooms though! [Flickr Stream] [Video]- MAJOR SPOILERS! (Thanks to Mr. Spielbrick for the heads up!)
Continue reading “Major Spoilers Revealed in new LEGO® Hobbit Sets!”
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Our friends over at Total Film.com have pieced together a fascinating, side-by-side comparison of ten scenes from trailers from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and ten scenes from the two Hobbit trailers that we’ve seen thus far. The similarities they found, in both big and small ways, provides a very fun read. Someone (or several someone’s) there really have a great eagle eye (pun intended). Follow the “Read more” link and enjoy! Read more…
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A decade ago, Matamata was a sleepy country town in the middle of the North Island, well-placed for travellers in need of a comfort stop and a takeaway snack. Today, it is better known as Hobbiton and is one of the country’s star tourist destinations, attracting 1.9 million visitors over the last 10 years. It is poised for a fresh invasion starting this Christmas which seems certain to top that number over the next decade. 
