Welcome to the latest “Getting to know…” questions that need answering. Based on the old Getting to know you threads that I used to post on the message boards here on TORn, so those familiar with them will know that the questions can be a little crazy and the answers even crazier.
This month we’re asking questions of uber fan from Brisbane Australia, Peter Kenny.
Hi Peter and thank you for joining in 🙂
Kelvarhin: What piece of Tolkien ephemera began your collection?
Peter: My very first Tolkien Book was a single volume paperback edition of The Lord of the Rings given to me as a gift in 1976. I still have that original copy in my collection.
If you have a Tolkien/Middle-earth inspired poem you’d like to share, then send it to poetry@theonering.net. One poem per person may be submitted each month. Please make sure to proofread your work before sending it in. TheOneRing.net is not responsible for poems posting with spelling or grammatical errors.
New Zealand is expected to see a surge in tourism following the release of The Hobbit movie.
Travel websites have reported a significant growth this month in searches and bookings to the country following the launch of the JRR Tolkien-inspired film.
The flight search website Skyscanner reported a 102 per cent increase in worldwide flight searches to New Zealand this month compared to December 2011, including a 117 per cent rise in searches to Wellington, the country’s capital city.
The travel booking website Expedia had an 84 per cent increase in flight bookings to the country in December.
Bookings for New Zealand in 2012 went up by 30 per cent last month for hotel booking website Laterooms.com, with a 100 per cent rise in bookings for the small town of Matamata alone, where much of The Lord of the Rings trilogy and its prequel were filmed.
Many fans traveled to New Zealand from around the world in the days and weeks leading up to the Premiere, just to be there on that fateful day. One such person is Dr. Lynnette Porter, author of a new book “The Hobbit: The many lives of Bilbo, Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin” (review forthcoming) and previously a speaker at one of TORn’s Lord of the Rings related conventions. She has just posted an in-depth article on why so many Tolkien fans flock to New Zealand and just what made Premiere week so special. You can check out her article at Popmatters to read about ‘What happens when Humans go a-Hobbiting’.
And for those wondering, it is likely that TheOneRing.net will mount another tour of New Zealand, but whether that is in conjunction with a Premiere or not is still to be determined. Wellington would first need to secure one of the two remaining film’s World Premiere to justify the level of activities they hosted this time around. But then, the locations are always there, and if not a tour, a Cruise to Middle-earth is a very relaxing way to see such a delightful and beautiful country. Keep an eye out, we will post something if the omens look favorable.
“One does not simply walk into Mordor.” It’s one of the classic catchphrases from Lord of the Rings. But is it true?
To celebrate the release of The Hobbit this month, Kerry Shawcross and Chris Demarais, two members of Rooster Teeth Productions (the creators of the acclaimed machinima series Red vs Blue*, as well as Immersion, and Achievement Hunter), decided to find out for themselves. They’ve set themselves the task to complete in just six days the 120+ mile journey across New Zealand from the filming location of Hobbiton in Matamata to that of Mount Doom on Mount Ngauruhoe. Continue reading “Exclusive video: can one simply walk into Mordor?”
A cute little article about some of the people on the Red Carpet tour. You’ll see their faces and costumes on just about every pic of the party, the red carpet and general fan madness in Wellington. I’d like to give a big shout-out to all the people who have visited NZ for the premiere due to TORN and Red Carpet (amounts to the same thing, with most Red Carpet clients discovering the tours through TORN. Their costumes and enthusiasm added hugely to the atmosphere of the Premiere week in Wellington.
Weta’s Ben Hawker is a brilliant guy and he worked with the creative and fun folks at Air New Zealand to create the ideas that became perhaps the most popular airline safety video in the world, collecting 8 million hits since it was launched a week ago. TheOneRing was honored to play a part with Cliff “Quickbeam” Broadway and I (Larry “MrCere” Curtis) appearing to help represent fans from across the globe. Well, they also asked us to chime in on the behind-the-scenes video which features J.R.R. Tolkien’s grandsons Royd and Mike, the genuinely excellent and beautiful airline employees Kara, Mark and Will (plus others not in the video), the film’s director Josh, the soon-to-be superstar Dean O’Gorman, Peter Jackson and that Hawker guy. TORn may have its own version of a story and photos from that set before long but Air New Zealand has a great video to follow up last week’s starting off with a familiar face. Also fun, many of the crew making this video also worked on The Hobbit. Check out the short clip on the next page! Continue reading “A secret look inside Air NZ’s Middle-earth safety video”
Welcome to the latest “Getting to know…” questions that need answering. Based on the old Getting to know you threads that I used to post on the message boards here on TORn, so those familiar with them will know that the questions can be a little crazy and the answers even crazier.
