I have discovered another LOTR set near Wellington. It is located at Queen Elizabeth Park, next to McKay’s Crossing, which is just south of Paraparaumu on State Highway 1. (From memory, this will put in on a narrow strip of coastal land with an almost-sheer wall of hills behind – T.) I could see a few tents and ‘Jamb’signs, but I did not have time to have a good look, as I was just passing. I will see if I can find out more about this set for you.
Lots of action at Wingate too. Horses, Orc extras, Gondorian Knights, and possibly Men of Rohan were seen at the set. A very short actor in robes (A child or a very short adult) was wandering about. The green windbreak screen covering the fence is a nuisance, but there are several good viewpoints on the surrounding hills, and a lot can be seen. I am not sure what city is being portrayed at Wingate, and the ‘Jollywood’ building across the road from the set is curious.
Inside the Wingate set is a signpost with the word ‘Pollywood’. Obviously a reference to the polystyrene and wood construction of the set, and possibly a link to ‘Jollywood’. And I thought LOTR crews had no sense of humour 🙂
Many thanks to Robbit the Hobbit once again.
Posted in:
Share:
Ringer Spy Robert H sends in another great article from The Dominion.
Posted in:
Share:
An alert observer at the Wingate set wrote in:
“Now about this Jollywood business. What absolute rubbish! They have leased or bought the buildings across the road from the set. When the day’s filming is over, a couple of huge buses park on the road outside the “Jollywood” buildings. I suspect the extras go over there and gather after a day’s filming, before getting on the buses. I have noticed people leaving the set, not in costume, walking across the road and entering the “Jollywood” buildings. “
Another correspondent confirmed that indeed ‘Jollywood.com’ exists as a domain name, but:
“… the site was registered on Jan 7, 2000, by an individual with no apparent organisational affiliation– at least, none was listed in the WHOIS record, and the person who registered the domain doesn’t bother to use their own mail server. Probably this is just typo-squatting for hollywood.com.”
They appear to be based in California.
Meanwhile, this is what was seen actually being filmed in Wingate, which is, as you may recall, currently dressed up as a dark, gloomy citadel with balconies and stairways in abundance (or so our spies have said):
“There were these guys in black medieval looking armor doing a scene on and in the castle battlements. The scene consisted of the guys walking up and down stairs through what looks like a ruined castle. The guys in the black armor were carrying really tall spears… I saw a crowd of extras all dark haired wearing brown cloaks gathered in front of the ruined castle. A lot of the extras seemed to be carrying bows and spears of various descriptions. There were other guys walking around in green cloaks and I spotted a child-sized actor walking around in a hooded green cloak…I spotted two flash-looking actors in rather flash looking armor, lurking in the shadows in the castle archways.”
Thanks to all our newsgatherers.
Hmmm, that scene just described could be anything, really. Any guesses? Some people have said we could be seeing something in Osgiliath, like a bit of Faramir and Boromir’s story which is only reported in passing in the books. But the presence of a hobbit double (Pippin?) suggests that we could be seeing Minas Tirith after it’s suffered being burned and pounded by the siege engines of Mordor.
Posted in:
Share:
Little did we realize we can zoom in on these wonderful photos:
And who might this be?
Posted in:
Share:
Ringer Spy DD travels back in time to show us some great pics that will be in this Sunday’s issue of the New York Times!
Posted in:
Share:
Sam sent this in from Wellington, in reference to our news from the Wingate set:
“Two bits of news here. I was talking to one of the Wingate guards (nice guy, actually), and he told me that there was a company working hard to get LotR footage and sell it over the internet, and it was the one with the Jollywood sign, previously mentioned. That building was right opposite the set, and had dark windows and white vans and stuff. www.jollywood.com has recently been registered, don’t know if this is related…
Also, those rectangular pits no-one knows anything sbout? They’re probably, the guard says, for burning the set once they’re finished there. There are already broken polystyrene columns in one pit, that I could see. The guard wouldn’t give me any. 🙂 Apparantly, they tried to dump a whole lot at the nearby dump, but it was polystyrene, so they weren’t allowed to. But if anyone wants to check the dumps, it may be worth it!”
What the…? Are people going mad? Is somebody telling whoppers?(wouldn’t be the first time!) Is this Jollywood thing at all plausible? Well, keep your eyes open, Sam!
Posted in:
Share:
