Welcome, welcome to the fourth set report from the set of The Hobbit and the very first from a brand spankin’ new location! We started in Matamata (Hobbiton) and the plan was to work our way down the North Island of New Zealand, zig-zagging south until we hit Wellington again where the 450 strong main unit would board planes and ferries bound for the South Island and the bulk of location photography. Upon departing Hobbiton I made my way to a small town called Te Kuiti. This lovely little farm town is famous for being home to (Colin Meads), one of the most revered All Blacks of all time. The dude is so famous that my place was on Meads St. More..
Category: New Zealand
Sir Peter spoke in between scenes where Sir Ian McKellan (SIC) as Gandalf the Grey, Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins and dwarves arrive at the house of Beorn (Mikael Persbrandt).
Tuesday was their third and final day of shooting on a giant set, which took eight weeks to build and was based on more than eight months of design – all for one scene of about three minutes of screen time. More..
The Hobbit film crew – due in Marlborough next month – is flying under the radar during filming in the Tasman region. The crew has been filming on 80 hectares of privately-owned land at Canaan Downs, where the Luminate Festival is held, and on surrounding Department of Conservation land. David Hall, who lives on the Takaka Hill, said he had not seen or heard much other than helicopters and more vehicles on the road than usual. “It’s all sort of tucked away out of sight,” he said.
The crew has been filming, via helicopter, around the Pelorus River and Mt Owen. It was understood they were also filming near the coast in Golden Bay. Rex Bowden, a chef at The Wholemeal Cafe, said he recently served a table of four “hobbits”. He said they came in for lunch, but he did not know if they were cast or film crew members. “I didn’t recognise any of them, but one looked a bit `hobbity’,” he said. More..
Kiwi filmmaking is at an all-time high thanks to the “Lord of the Rings” director, who, 12 years ago, boosted the country’s Hollywood stock. Peter Jackson is walking down the familiar twisting lanes of the picture-perfect village of Hobbiton. Discussing the next day’s shoot with the cast and crew of The Hobbit, he gazes up at the setting sun and appears overcome by a strange sense of deja vu. “I did this on this street 12 years ago, and it’s exactly the same,” says Jackson. “I don’t feel the same, though.”
Jackson pauses to survey the village in Waikato that’s familiar to millions of fans of the director’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. Before Jackson and his crew transformed it into a little piece of Middle Earth, this was a simple New Zealand sheep farm. Now it’s become a J.R.R. Tolkien tourist mecca, and five days into location shooting for Jackson’s two Hobbit movies, it has been transformed again into a bustling film set. More..
From odt.co.nz: One of the stars of Sir Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit was spotted in Queenstown yesterday. The Otago Daily Times understands Orlando Bloom lunched at Amisfield, near Arrowtown, before being spotted at Reading Cinemas in Queenstown. Bloom is reprising his role as Legolas, an elf, in the two-part prequel to The Lord of the Rings. Filming will be done in several places in Otago, including the Wakatipu.
Miss Awen writes: I arrived in Glenorchy today and could not find any accommodation, because it’s all fully booked for the crew of the Hobbit. I also found out, that they are filming now at the other side of the lake, half an hour from Glenorchy. The stars stay in Queenstown and they are flown on set by helicopter.