Our story so far: Peter Jackson made three Middle-earth movies and people loved them. Now he is making two more and people already love them too. MrCere, Senior Staff, writer and photographer at TheOneRing.net (around since 1999) went to NZ to see what he could see. Landed in Queenstown, found lots of LOTR stuff, drove north to see the people of the ring, visited Hobbiton set and now is in Wellington, center of NZ’s cinematic empire.
WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND — I thought, and it makes me chuckle now, that when I landed in Wellington I would finally be based in one place long enough to really crank out some copy. Ha!
Instead, Wellington has been a whirlwind but that is a great thing, not a bad thing. I often contemplate cancelling one of the events here so I can spend hours writing and posting photos but I haven’t cancelled anything yet and each time I go to do something, I find that I am very glad to have been along.
Some of those events have tourism ties and then end up having direct ties to things here at TheOneRing, even when I think they will not. Other things, like spending the day with the kids at Weta, are directly tied in. None of them so far have been worth sacrificing and time is running out fast. But stories I have in some stage of ready:
* Hobbit set visit with images
* An exclusive with Richard Taylor Continue reading “Wellington is a whirlwind, smells like Hobbit”
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I stumbled on this short story on Weta and about the chainmaille process. It’s not news, but it is nerdily interesting.
We’ve been talking chainmaille with Emily. These days she’s the Make-Up and Hair Department co-ordinator, but we knew she was one of the pioneers in the chainmaille department and spent a long time putting an unfathomable amount of rings together for the costumes for The Lord of the Rings. Find out what it’s like to put together 5-10,000 rings. Per day. [READ MORE]
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Empire Magazine has gone Hobbit Happy in their latest issue. Celebrating the 10 year anniversary of the release of ‘Fellowship of the Ring’ in style! Check out these stories:
Hobbits Reunion
At the very heart of the Lord Of The Rings trilogy are the four hobbits played by Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan. Inseparable during the shoot and linked for life by their experiences there, they hadn’t seen each other all together for years until we reassembled them for a reunion shoot to mark the 10th anniversary of the release. So take a look, and read the accompanying interview to hear all about having lilies strewn at their feet, the toilets on set and whether hobbit feet are hereditary. We also have an exclusive collection of Aragorn’s personal photos from the set in Viggo Mortensen’s Middle-Earth.
Jackson’s Unseen Concept Art
Ever wondered how they settled on the design for the Balrog? Or Shelob? Or Sauron, or the Witch King of Angmar? Well, wonder no more: our trove of previously-unreleased concept art, as explained by Richard Taylor, Alan Lee and Peter Jackson himself, gives you new details on how the monsters of The Lord Of The Rings came to look the way they did. Throughout the Lord Of The Rings celebration, we also bring you untold stories from all the cast and crew. Yes, they still had a few untold stories after all these years!
Lord of the Rings: Oscar Memories
How does it feel to win all 11 of the 11 Academy Awards you’re nominated for? What do you tend to remember of Oscar night? And what did Steven Spielberg tell Peter Jackson on the way off-stage after presenting him with Best Director? The answers to all these questions and more are right here, as we bring you a complete oral history of that night-of-nights for New Zealand. They may just have won the Rugby World Cup on home turf, and sure, a few All Blacks are probably pleased about that, but we all know that it’s the Oscars victory that matters most. Right?
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Troika sends along some images from the FOTR Concerts taking place out on the west coast. Take a look at some of the behind the scenes goodies on display! If you are attending one of these concerts send us your report and photos to spymaster@theonering.net
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Middle Earth Has Never Sounded So Good.
The Lord of the Rings In Concert: The Fellowship of the Ring is the groundbreaking first installment of Peter Jackson’s Oscar-winning film trilogy. Featuring, Howard Shore’s complete Academy Award® and Grammy®–winning score performed live on-stage by more than 250 musicians with the film projected on an immense 60-foot screen. Entertainment Weekly calls it “High Class Geekery” and The San Francisco Examiner exclaims “It’s The Concert of the Decade.”
The Lord of the Rings in Concert will be hitting San Diego, California on October 13. In addition to the orchestra performance of the soundtrack live to the screening of the film, they will also have 22 original movie props and costumes on display. Since they will also have the San Diego Civic Youth Orchestra performing before the big concert, this is definitely going to be a Family Friendly event. See the link below for tickets and further details. http://valleyviewcasinocenter.com/Lord-of-the-Rings-In-Concert-October-13-7-30-pm
But the invasion begins earlier, this Saturday, to be exact. There will be a flashmob of Hobbits and other Middle-earth denizens near the Old Globe Theater tomorrow, October 8 at 12:30pm. See the Valley View Casino Center’s facebook page linked below for more details and a Youtube video showing the flashmob dance steps. More..
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Dozens of small-statured folk are ready to dance their way onto the Shire next month, but even Matamata accommodation providers are in the dark as to exactly when the big influx of little extras will hit the region.
Publicist for 3 Foot 7 Ceris Price said 90 people were selected late last year from the 1200-odd who applied to be Matamata-based hobbit extras in The Hobbit, but because people turned up “from all over” for the auditions, she did not know how many were from Waikato. But like everyone else involved in the making of Peter Jackson’s latest film, if there was hobbits grooming their toe-hairs in the Waikato, they were doing it with their lips firmly sealed. Ian Brodie, media and communications manager for Hobbiton Movie Set and Farm Tours, said confidentiality contracts meant anyone involved in The Hobbit in any capacity was bound to silence. More..
Related: Take a look at our exclusive collection of Hobbiton set photos, going all the way back to 1999! [TORN Scrapbook]
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