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…
Category: New Zealand
It’s almost party time in Wellington, as they gear up for the world premeir of The Hobbit: an Unexpected Journey on November 28. From the city of Wellington website: Wellington City Council will contribute $1.1 million to the premiere week activities and towards ensuring Wellington is again looking its best under the international spotlight. Celebrations and preparations for the World Premiere are already well underway, highlights include:
- A ‘countdown clock’ to be installed on the front of the Embassy Theatre. The clock will count down the minutes to the beginning of the premiere celebrations.
- Stunning artwork inspired by The Hobbit Trilogy to welcome visitors at Wellington International Airport and across the city.
- A Hobbit-inspired Artisan Festival in Waitangi Park showcasing the various craftspeople and talent involved in the making of The Hobbit Trilogy.
- Outdoor, free public screenings of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy leading up to the premiere night event.
Welcome to our latest “Getting to know” questions that need answering. This month we’re talking to the one and only Balrog Showgirl, Nicole Roberts.
Hi Nicole and a very big thank you for taking part and for being so patient with me.
This first question is from Rosie-with-the-ribbons who’s latest costume for RingCon has been inspired by your Balrog Showgirl costume.
R-w-t-r: Do you make your costumes yourself?
Nicole: Rosie – that is awesome! Yes, for the most part the costumes I’ve been running around in for the past several years have all been of my own making. I only started sewing back in 2004, after I moved to Los Angeles and started hanging out with even more LOTR people. The first costume I made was to wear to Comic Con that year – I was the Mumak Mahud (the guy with the black and white painted face who steers the oliphaunt in ROTK), so you could definitely say I’ve always leaned towards costumes that were a little off the beaten path! I’ve done some costumes that were direct recreations (“Barf” from “Spaceballs”is the most well-known one), but as I’ve gotten more into the sewing, I really like doing things that are more of an original design, like the Balrog Showgirl. As someone who is not of supermodel proportions (and seriously, those chicks look like scary walking lollipops anyway), I like to have the opportunity to design something that I think is more flattering to me, and I always like to learn how to do something new, like dyeing feathers for the showgirl headdress.
Jess Lee from The Sydney Morning Herald: If your flying Air New
Zealand from November you’ll be greeted by Hobbits, Wizards and elves in a Hobbit-themed safety video. Crew member’s were given a Middle-Earth make over to get into character for the video which is being released to coincide with the world Premier of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.
Air New Zealand is renowned for making quirky in-flight briefings with the likes of fitness guru Richard Simmons and the All Blacks rugby team in them. Carrying on a successful collaboration between Air New Zealand and film studios New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer during The Lord of the Rings trilogy. [Read More]
New Zealand Tourism is getting into full swing with this promotional video: “100% Middle-earth 100% Pure New Zealand.” by PureNewZealand ahead of the release of first Hobbit film “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey“. [NewZealand.com] UPDATE: We have confirmed that Ian Holm is the wonderful voice behind the beautiful images.
[Part 1 in a series from The Frodo Franchise Author Kristin Thompson]
Me and My Book
I’m a film historian by trade. I got my Ph.D. in film studies in 1977 and have written several textbooks and academic books on various topics in the field. In 2007, my book The Frodo Franchise: The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood, by Kristin Thompson, came out from the University of California press. As we all wait for the release of the first part of The Hobbit, I thought some of you might be interested in some of my experiences while researching the book. I had a lot of access to the filmmakers for interviews and was given facilities tours during the last part of the post-production on The Return of the King.
I first conceived the book in 2002, when it became obvious to me that Peter Jackson’s film (I call the three parts one film, as he does) was going to be very, very important historically for a wide variety of reasons. The technology (the techniques developed to animate Gollum, the selective digital color grading) would be revolutionary. The internet campaign was pioneering, as was the filmmaking team’s approach to cooperating with the video-game designers. It was a big franchise film—and a fantasy at that—and yet it won the respect of critics and Academy-Award voters as no such film ever had. (The Fellowship of the Ring had won “only” four Oscars, but I knew even then that The Return of the King would be awarded lots.) Somebody should write a book about it, I thought. But probably nobody would, not the way it should be done, with interviews with the people involved. Not while the film was still in production. I concluded that it was up to me. Was it possible, though, to get the kind of access I would need? I set out to find out.
In January of 2003, through a mutual friend, I was put in touch with producer Barrie Osborne. Fortunately, he was interested in having such a book written. Without him, my project would have been dead in the water. Continue reading “Researching THE FRODO FRANCHISE: Part 1, Off to Wellington without a Handkerchief”