Our story so far:Peter Jackson made three Middle-earth movies and people loved them. Now he is making two more and people already love them too. MrCere, Senior Staff, writer and photographer at TheOneRing.net (around since 1999) went to NZ to see what he could see. Landed in Queenstown, found lots of LOTR stuff, drove north to see the people of the ring, visited Hobbiton set and now is in Wellington, center of NZ’s cinematic empire.
WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND — I thought, and it makes me chuckle now, that when I landed in Wellington I would finally be based in one place long enough to really crank out some copy. Ha!
Instead, Wellington has been a whirlwind but that is a great thing, not a bad thing. I often contemplate cancelling one of the events here so I can spend hours writing and posting photos but I haven’t cancelled anything yet and each time I go to do something, I find that I am very glad to have been along.
Some of those events have tourism ties and then end up having direct ties to things here at TheOneRing, even when I think they will not. Other things, like spending the day with the kids at Weta, are directly tied in. None of them so far have been worth sacrificing and time is running out fast. But stories I have in some stage of ready:
* Hobbit set visit with images
* An exclusive with Richard Taylor Continue reading “Wellington is a whirlwind, smells like Hobbit”
The Los Angeles staff of TheOneRing.net are throwing a party and we want you all to come. Really, we do, so we’ve set up a way for you to buy your tickets in advance for a discount. Just fill out our convenient little Ticket Form and then show up at the party with a smile on your face. The advance discounted price is just $22 per person for a meal, 1 non-alcoholic beverage and tax. The price will be $25 per person at the door, if there is still availability, which is why advance purchase is your friend. If you have any questions, please contact me at Garfeimao@TheOneRing.net.
What: Not a FOTR viewing party, and sadly no Golfimbul, but there will be some fun and games, such as Trivia, and maybe a little reading of “Is this a Kissing Book”.
QUEENSTOWN, NEW ZEALAND — Queenstown has a powerful international flavor. Stop and listen on the streets and you are as likely to hear a language from Europe or Asia as English and even that comes in several flavors: Kiwi, Aussie, British with the occasional Yank thrown in.
It is a city of tourists that include backpackers and couples in retirement years soaking up all the world has to offer including the incredible scenery of the amazing Queenstown by Lake Wakatipu. This is great of course, but young travelers and those in the golden years aren’t the best demographics for movie collectibles.
So it might surprise some to find Hugh Clark and Sarah Dobson carving out a niche with high-end items made by the likes of Weta Workshop and Sideshow Collectibles at their Reel Collectibles shop. But there they are in the Queenstown Mall on Beach St., selling superhero items, Lord of the Rings stuff (a given in that part of the world) and Star Wars swag. Expect an avalanche of Hobbit stuff when the films hit the world a year from now. Continue reading “Reel Collectibles keeps fandom alive in Queenstown”
From digitalspy.ca: The final movie in the Harry Potter series has become the most pre-ordered film or TV product of all time on the UK arm of Amazon, beating the long-standing record of Mamma Mia!. Amazon said today that pre-orders for the DVD and Blu-ray release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 are more than double those achieved by Part 1. Continue reading “Boy Wizard Beats LOTR For Amazon Pre-Order Record”
