From kristinthompson.net: Guillermo del Toro has agreed to help out a struggling team of filmmakers by participating in a fundraising event. The film is Roots, Rock and Harmony, to be directed by local director Bonnie Slater. The event will be billed as “An Evening with Guillermo del Toro,” though also onstage will be Jonathan King, director of the horror film Black Sheep (a fun, gory film in the early Peter Jackson mode) and the upcoming fantasy adventure Under the Mountain (due for a December 10 release in New Zealand). This Q&A event is scheduled for November 11 at the Paramount Theatre in Wellington. That’s a classic old movie theater on Courtney Place, the wide street familiar to many, since it ends at the Empire Theatre and was covered with a red carpet for the world premiere of The Return of the King. More..
Category: New Zealand
Mormegil: Clip from Australian travel show Getaway showing some of the work currently going on at the Hobbiton set. From the site: Back in 1998, sheep farmer Dean Alexander was enjoying a quiet day on his farm on New Zealand’s North Island when a visitor changed his and his family’s lives forever. Jules Lund travelled across the Tasman to see just why. It seems the makers of the film trilogy Lord of the Rings needed the perfect place to build the Hobbiton village. Peter Jackson, the award-winning New Zealand filmmaker, spotted Alexander Farm during an aerial location search. The Alexander family knew nothing about Lord of the Rings but they soon learnt. Their property has the three main elements the makers were searching for: a lake, a big tree and a field. More..
It’s great news that New Line and the Tolkien Estate have settled their lawsuit, but looking at the amount of work going on at the Hobbiton set in the past month, it seems as though the outcome was never in doubt. Here’s images from Holly, who saw this during her Red Carpet Tour through Hobbiton in August.
From Scoop Books: Philippa Boyens, MNZM, co-wrote the screenplay for the Lord of the Rings trilogy with Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, for which the trio won an Oscar in 2004. She also worked on the screenplay for King Kong and the adaptation of Alice Sebold’s novel The Lovely Bones, and is collaborating on The Hobbit. She talks to Ken Duncum about her scriptwriter’s dream run. Where: The Marae, Level 4, Te Papa, Cable Street, Wellington (please note that no food may be taken onto The Marae). The Writers on Mondays series is presented by the International Institute of Modern Letters and The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Each session is open to the public and free of charge.
The folks at SnagFilms, an online documentary distributor, contacted us recently. They wanted to let us know that “Beyond the Movie: Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring” and “Beyond the Movie: Lord of the Rings: Return of the King”, the National Geographic documentaries that explore the real life parallels between history and fantasy behind the epic tale, are embedded and are free to watch at snagfilms.com. These are currently available on DVD or as extras on the various LOTR DVD collectors editions. However now you can catch them online anytime at snagfilms.com. Take a look!
“Beyond the Movie: Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring”
“Beyond the Movie: Lord of the Rings: Return of the King”
Xoanon asks, how come ‘The Two Towers never’ never gets any love?
Wellington may play host to Hollywood stars as director Peter Jackson’s new film The Lovely Bones premieres in December. The red carpet has not been rolled out on Courtenay Place since King Kong launched in 2005. The Lovely Bones tells the story of a young murder victim who watches over her family and killer from heaven. Cast members include Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz and Susan Sarandon. More..