The Wellington producer-director Peter Jackson is the new owner of The Film Unit, which is the only one-stop post-production facility in New Zealand. Based in Lower Hutt, across the harbor from Wellington, it offers 16mm and 35mm laboratory and sound facilities, including a state-of-the-art Dolby mixing suite. Peter Jackson told the Press Association: “Would I have bought the Unit if it wasn’t for Lord of the Rings (which is to start shooting in New Zealand this year for New Line Cinema)? “I probably would have thought seriously about it, because if I wasn’t doing Lord of the Rings I would have been doing some other films, and I’d still want to have the facilities in New Zealand.” The first of the three Lord of the Rings features is due to start shooting in September.
Category: LotR Production
The world’s best animators focus on Weta A top American software developer calls working on The Lord Of The Rings “the plum job on the whole of the planet” for computer graphics gurus. “It’s the absolute talk of animation news groups on the Internet,” says Mark Sylvester of Alias leading provider of open solutions for film & video. “There’s a cult following around The Lord Of The Rings, around computer animation, ” he told Onfilm after visiting Peter Jackson’s Weta animation & graphics factory in Wellington. “I think people feel they have no chance of working on Star Wars – that’s the dream – but they have a chance of working at Weta on The Lord Of The Rings, and The Lord Of The Rings will make the facility internationally famous.” Sylvester says Weta is challenging Alias involved in the new Star Wars trilogy, to “make sure we can deliver the level of realism they’ll require” for The Lord Of The Rings. “We’ve had to show them, and they’ve had to be able to prove to themselves, that they can do what they want to do with the software we have available today. “Quality is very important to them. They want to do this right – they don’t want to be known for having mucked up an amazing book. “It’s a tall order but I walked away with a sense of confidence that the amount of work I’m going to put into this personally É is going to be worth the energy.” Sylvester reckons the environment that Weta is providing computer animators could only be match by four other places in the world. “Guys who run animation production companies in the United States are at Weta for The Lord Of The Rings,” he points out. “Animators aren’t driven by the money, although it is good money, as they are by an environment that is technically challenging, and has interesting projects to work on and people savvy to their tools. “Weta is gearing up infrastructure-wise and talent-wise to realize a great vision.” Sylvester says when he re-read The Lord Of The Rings, “I asked myself, ‘How the heck are they going to do these various pieces?’ “I have to say they have not shared that with us. “They feel that’s going to detract from the film; that what’s important is the film – not how the film was made. “They really want to keep the movie magic.”
Fine Line prez Mark Ordesky, who is supervising the production of Peter Jackson”s Lord of the Rings trilogy with New Line”s Mike DeLuca, took some time to talk up the project. While talking to columnists Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith, Ordesky explained that the film “will push the envelope of computer special effects to a new degree.” Ordesky also talked about the casting for the film and the commitment that will have to be made by the actors involved revealing, “With the exception of a few leads, the cast will be working a few weeks on, a few weeks off for what will be a long-term production.” Those long term plans mean the previously reported shooting schedule for the three films as back-to-back for a year”s time with “three times that long with pre- to post-production.” Ordesky also shoots down the rumors suggesting Sean Connery is involved. Ordesky reveals, “Actors who love the story have been phoning, wanting to be part of the film, but no one has been cast — we hope to start the process in May.” Still, there may be reason to doubt Ordesky”s word on casting with word from Warwick Davis (Willow) last weekend at the Star Wars Celebration that Timothy Spall has already been cast as Gimli.
This is not what you”d expect. Miramar. Solidly working class, rows of compact, pre-World War II bungalows and a smattering of state houses on broad, flat streets that give way to knots of disused factories. Soccer Ñ not rugby Ñ is the game of choice and on winter Saturdays a thick fringe of supporters jostle at the edges of Miramar Park Ñ home of the Miramar Rangers Ñ as planes, climbing from the airport, roar overhead. There is none of the raw sectarian divisions described in Denis Edwards” just-published 1950″s memoir Miramar Dog, just a kind of suburban monotony. Perhaps it is the anonymity of Miramar that suits Peter Jackson. Secrecy surrounding The Lord Of The Rings has reached paranoid levels. Few interviews are granted with Jackson and those that are almost exclusively conducted over the telephone. Those privileged enough to gain entry to Jackson”s Miramar-based special effects company Weta Ñ where the lion”s share of the work on models for The Lord Of The Rings is being done are required to sign a two-page, legally binding non-disclosure agreement. (Which makes our job here a challenge Ð E.) When North & South sought access to those parts of Weta”s inner sanctum not involved in The Lord Of The Rings Ñ including Jackson”s lavish 200-seat private cinema built in the style of early screen palaces permission was refused. Jackson, who has earned a reputation for being difficult (not according to artist John Howe, who described him as quiet, un-pushy, unobstructive, willing to listen, but certain of his decisions.-E.) said that there were some things the public did not need to know about. Instead, to interview Weta”s directors we were ushered to a bare, dimly lit boardroom devoid of any interest. Jackson himself would only be interviewed over the phone, ostensibly to “save time”, and when we protested the one-time photo engraver told us we were lucky to be granted an interview at all. Welcome to Hollywood, Miramar-style. Sequestered behind the tightly shut doors of Miramar”s shabby warehouses is Jackson”s multimillion-dollar film empire. In Para Street, hard up against the hills that divide Miramar from Seatoun, an old homestead that is the headquarters of Jackson”s small production company Wingnut Films can be glimpsed from the street. No sign marks its existence, just a blunt warning: Private Property, No Trespassing. Over the hill are the well-heeled seaside suburbs of Karaka Bay, and Seatoun, favoured residence of much of the film and television industry including Jackson. (So where did we get the idea he lived in Christchurch? Whoops. My money is on Seatoun.- E.) In Weka Street in the suburb”s north, Weta Ñ the crux of the industry spawned by his success Ñ and the Jackson-owned Camperdown Studios are housed in a 65,000 square foot former pharmaceuticals factory. In Stone Street, near the narrow cutting in the hill which shields the suburb from Wellington”s airport, the 1.7 hectare of the former Taubman’s paint factory awaits transformation. The sprawling jumble of empty buildings is the latest addition to Jackson”s portfolio of property in Miramar. “It’s a huge punt,” admits Jamie Selkirk, Jackson”s genial partner and director of Weta and Camperdown Studios. A freelance producer and editor who has worked with Jackson since the 1987 spoof Bad Taste, Selkirk is also a shrewd businessman. He says the $3 to $4 million he estimates has been invested in buildings in Miramar (including the work required to convert them into concrete-lined, sound-proof studios) is unprecedented in Wellington. “Auckland has got no real big studios, it’s got a whole lot of warehouses that Hercules and Xena use but we’re trying to create a purpose-built facility.” The Jackson camp are relying on other Wellington television producers and filmmakers to pick up the slack after filming on the last of The Lord Of The Rings is completed at the end of 2000. “We”re crossing our fingers really,” says Selkirk, “We”re hoping that by doing The Lord Of The Rings it will say to the world that we can make movies down here.” “Wellington, in my opinion, doesn”t have a magic formula about it which makes it the place that you have to make films, I just think it”s a great place to live,” Jackson chirrups down the phone from across town. “This perception that if you”re really serious about making it in the movies you’ve got to go and chase work, you’ve got to go to LA, cos that’s where it all happens Ñ if I”ve done anything it”s simply to say, “Surely you don”t have to do that, surely if I”ve got a good idea for a film and I want to make it then they”re going to be happy enough to come here and make it” and that”s proved to be the case. “You know there are advantages to being in the US,” he continues. “You certainly get access to money and actors of star status and crews that have worked on 50 or 60 movies, you have alot of access to gimmicks and toys that you don”t get here, but the Kiwi attitude to filmmaking is something I prefer. The film industry here is all about working with people you”ve worked with before and it”s really like a group of friends getting together for a few months and making a movie.” According to another local producer Ray Thompson, the depth of talent and “can do” attitude of actors, technicians and filmmakers here is reminiscent of Hollywood in the 1920s. While Jackson has been the lynchpin of Weta, the tenacity of his friends should not be underestimated. Weta was formed in 1993 with Selkirk, prosthetics specialist Richard Taylor, animator and computer technician George Port and the late Jim Booth, to buy a $100,000 computer used to create special effects for Heavenly Creatures. Weta creates puppet-like creatures and computer-generated special effects for films, as well as shows such as Xena and Hercules. In the lead-up to Lord Of The Rings, due to start filming in October, the company is employing 160 people. Weta”s success is rooted in its ability to overcome the tyranny of distance: technology has blurred the gulf between Miramar and Los Angeles.
Now, we aren’t talking Cindy Crawford here. Tehanu slipped me this juicy tidbit about an artist named John Howe, now he’s done some LOTR art before, if you don’t know him you probably know his work. Apparently Howe was at a Sci-Fi convention in NZ and let slip that he and the art team have built a 7-metre-high model of Barad-Dur out of plasticine for LOTR. This was later confirmed to Tehanu from sources that wish to remain nameless but are working with said art team. Now we here at LOTR News have not gotten any pics yet, but
Can you possibly imagine a 7 foot tall statue of this! For those that have no idea where Barad-Dur fit’s into LOTR this is what I could find Barad-dur: The greatest fortress-tower on Middle-earth during the Second and Third age of the Sun was Barad-dur in the evil land of Mordor. Called the Dark Tower by Men and Lugburz by Orcs, it was built after the first millennium of the Second Age by Sauron, with the power of the One Ring.
To say Okoroire, with its hot springs, motel, shop and golf course, is a long way from Hollywood is one of the bigger understatements you could make. But courtesy of the army, the tiny Waikato settlement is now a step closer to the silver screen. An undisclosed farm property is the site of the set for director Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings”. The film’s makers are increasingly coy about letting the public know where the development work is being carried out.
The hive of excavation is buried in a farm valley not visible from any road. The farm’s owner has been sworn to secrecy.Work has been going on for nearly a month, but Okoroire locals are looking forward to the actual filming, which will be a boon for the hospitality industry.