Tourism New Zealand seems super-keen to maximise the tourism opportunities that The Hobbit is offering. Chief executive Kevin Bowler says that new 100% Pure commercials, designed to sell New Zealand to the world, will be “hugely influenced by The Hobbit”.
A theme of the new marketing strategy will be “New Zealand: where fantasy meets reality”.
New advertisements will feature people enjoying what the country had to offer. Bowler says that previous images of rolling hills, lush bush and green pastures had given the impression New Zealand was beautiful, yet deserted, and visitors would struggle to find activities to occupy themselves.
The biggest question received about the TORn Hobbit Premiere tour has been whether or not people living down in New Zealand, or already traveling through the region, can attend the Red Carpet/TORn premiere party. The answer is yes, but the tickets are not on sale just yet. Everyone thought it best to wait until after the madness and mayhem of comic con was over before returning our minds to Middle-earth er, New Zealand. Once Red Carpet Tours has their Party ticket registration form live and online, we will post that link. For everyone else who isn’t a local resident or already traveling through the region, feel free to conside Red Carpet Tour’s full tour, or our little Middle-earth week long getaway. Follow the link for Tour Details.
We are now finally able to take deposits and start booking excited fans to join TheOneRing.net in New Zealand for what promises to be a party to remember. You will find all the details and proposed schedule for the tour here TORn Hobbit premiere tour. Please do take the time to read the schedule and all the terms before committing to the Non-Refundable Deposit of$300 per person. Once you’ve read through everything, asked all the questions you need to ask, you may fill out the Registration Form Space is limited, so this will have to be on a First Come, First Served basis. And if we are unable to accommodate you on the trip, you will be contacted and offered the choice of a refund or being put on the waitlist. You may email me at Garfeimao@TheOneRing.net or Cathy.U@Travelstoreusa.com
It’s so easy to become swept up in the drama of Frodo and the One Ring that we forget there was another side to this story. Millions of ordinary, every-day citizens of Modor had to deal with the mounting pressure of war at their doorstep. Faced with the seemingly insurmountable task of filling their ranks, the Department of Defense (in the form of Zeke Mahogany Comedy) put together a slick recruitment video to stir the hearts and minds of the average Orc and inspire some good, old-fashioned heroism. Posted on I09 on June 9th and brought to our attention by Spy John G., the video is part of the Zeke Mahogany Comedy troupe’s ongoing online sketch series on YouTube.
For LEGO developer, Traveller’s Tales, it’s all about the journey with their first venture into “LEGOfying” an Academy Award Best Picture winner. Executive Producer Nick Ricks shared at E3 that the team has been working closely with LEGO and WingNut Studios/New Line to recreate The Lord of the Rings experience as authentically as possible. Some in-game sequences are not completely made of LEGO with cinematic sequences added.
“There’s so much fantastically framed cinematography and brilliant camerawork. We can’t improve on that, so we just need to take it and put it into the game,” Ricks explained.
The usual LEGO voices for characters have also been replaced with theatrical ones such as Orlando Bloom for Legolas, and to streamline the journey, the game world has been created around Tolkien’s original maps where characters can move from Hobbiton to Mordor without jumping in and out of chapters.
Sideshow Collectibles via their Sideshow Experience page announced with a production peek, the Dark Lord Sauron Premium Format. This video shows us some great images of the detail this collectible will have as well as give us a great idea just how LARGE this piece will be. Hopefully, Sauron will be making the trek to Comic-Con 2012 where we can get a real look at how amazing this piece will be. Until we have more information make sure you check out the production peek video at least once or twice.
