Tag Archives: Lord of the Rings (The)

Peter Jackson and Paul Allen Dogfight over Warbirds

Peter Jackson and Paul Allen Dogfight over Warbirds

Filmmaker Peter Jackson, who has amassed more than 40 flyable World War I warbirds – the planet’s largest collection – and Microsoft Corp. billionaire Paul Allen are vying to build the world’s best fighter…

Fans Pack Australian Cinemas in Record Numbers

Fans Pack Australian Cinemas in Record Numbers

Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug recorded the second-highest Boxing Day opening in Australian history taking $AU5.465 million, with the only film topping that, his own. The first film in the trilogy,…

Why You Should Retire in New Zealand

Why You Should Retire in New Zealand

The benefits of retiring in New Zealand are extolled by Catey Hill of MarketWatch, as she explains why the country is a great place to retire for active baby boomers. The “dramatic natural landscape…

Peter Jackson a ‘Game Changer’ who ‘transformed’ Filmmaking

Peter Jackson a ‘Game Changer’ who ‘transformed’ Filmmaking

Kiwi director, Peter Jackson is a “game changer who transformed the practice of filmmaking”, according to contributors to the Harvard Business Review’s popular blog. Authors Vijay Govindarajan and Srikanth Srinivas say that Jackson and…

Return To Middle Earth

Return To Middle Earth

“In New Zealand, there is a peculiar clarity to the sunlight,” Lonely Plant traveller Alex Von Tunzelmann writes for the BBC. “Highlights blaze; shadows are cast very, very dark. The effect makes the grass…

Extraordinary Talent Sorely Missed

Extraordinary Talent Sorely Missed

Oscar-winning sound editor New Zealander Mike Hopkins, 53, who worked on the Lord of the Rings trilogy and other blockbusters, has died in a rafting accident on the Waiohine River in the Tararua Range….

Surprise Involvement

Surprise Involvement

When the premiere of West of Memphis was first announced for the Sundance Film Festival this year, the participation of Oscar-winning Lord of the Rings filmmaker Peter Jackson was something of a surprise, not…

Lord of the Rings was Perfect

Lord of the Rings was Perfect

“The Lord of the Rings was the work of a filmmaker perfectly in tune with his source material. Its too-muchness — the encyclopedic detail, the pseudoscholarly exposition, the soaring allegory, the punishing length —…

Boyens’ Cinematic Adventure

Boyens’ Cinematic Adventure

Asked one day in 1997 if, as a fan of J.R.R. Tolkien, she might have any interest in helping out friends and fellow New Zealanders Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh adapt The Lord of…

Real and Unreal Worlds

Real and Unreal Worlds

“As the Wellington premiere of The Hobbit approaches, New Zealand’s picturesque landscapes are set to take centre stage once again,” Charles Anderson begins in a story for the International Herald Tribune. “Ten years ago,…

Is This Place for Real?

Is This Place for Real?

“The hill is perfect – steep, shaggy and as green as a radioactive shamrock, like the matching hills around it,” The New York Times describes. “The sheep seem pretty idyllic themselves: polite little nibblers who only…

Jackson a Digital Mandarin

Jackson a Digital Mandarin

Director Peter Jackson, 50, features at No. 22 on Vanity Fair’s 2012 ‘The Powers that Be’ List, which names the “top 25 mandarins” in the digital world. “A decade removed from his $3 billion Lord…

Trailer: LOTR – Return of the King

Trailer: LOTR – Return of the King

Raising the Frame Rate

Raising the Frame Rate

“Peter Jackson raised the bar for fantasy popularity 11 years ago with the first of three Lord of the Rings films,” Brian Truitt reports for USA Today. “With his latest J.R.R Tolkien adaptation, he…

Trailer: LOTR – The Two Towers

Trailer: LOTR – The Two Towers

Wellington Hosts Hobbit

Wellington Hosts Hobbit

The world premiere of Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will take place at Wellington’s Embassy Theatre on 28 November two weeks ahead of the film’s release on 14 December. Based…

Short Sequence, Sharp Response

Short Sequence, Sharp Response

A 10-minute sequence from Peter Jackson’s forthcoming two-part Lord of the Rings prequel The Hobbit has been shown to conference goers at the annual CinemaCon in Las Vegas. The conference featured a presentation from…

Big Screen, Big Bucks

Big Screen, Big Bucks

The local screen industry contributed $3 billion in gross revenues to the New Zealand economy in 2011, an increase of 4 per cent over 2010, fueled by a boost in feature film production, according…

Sustainability Success Inspires

Sustainability Success Inspires

Along with its other exports, New Zealand has given us a template for sustainability success according to Huffington Post writer Craig Comstock. “New Zealand, apart from supplying the setting for The Lord of the Rings, is a…

Bret McKenzie Nominated for Oscar

Bret McKenzie Nominated for Oscar

Bret McKenzie speaks to Conan about his Oscar nomination and acting in Lord of the Rings.

Tolkien Tourism In Matamata

Tolkien Tourism In Matamata

The Lord of the Rings franchise is partially responsible for a tourism windfall in New Zealand with global visitor numbers up 40 per cent since 2000. At least five official LOTR-themed tour companies are in operation….

Jackson’s Effect

Jackson’s Effect

New Zealand filmmaking is at an all-time high thanks to Lord of the Rings’ director Peter Jackson who, 12 years ago, boosted the country’s Hollywood stock The Hollywood Reporter’s Pip Bulbeck writes. Jackson — who also appeared on…

Capital Hobbit Premiere

Capital Hobbit Premiere

Wellington will be the site of the world premiere for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in November 2012. “I think Warner Bros. in particular were blown away by Return…

D-Day Demons

D-Day Demons

New Zealand director Paul Campion’s debut feature film The Devil’s Rock is reviewed in the Guardian by Michael Hann. “ attempts to settle the type of question posed by bumptious schoolboys: which would be…

Empire Covers Middle Earth

Empire Covers Middle Earth

“In honour of Jackson’s long-awaited return to Middle-earth for two dragon-and-dwarf-laden prequels — as a “good luck charm” according to the director — Empire takes its symbolic and rightful place as the first…

Sans Guide in Wine Country

Sans Guide in Wine Country

“I’ve travelled to New Zealand about a dozen times from the US and one of my favourite areas is Marlborough, aka wine country (natch), which is found on the north part of…

Wizardry with Melody

Wizardry with Melody

“What Peter Jackson did for New Zealand tourism with the most expensive ad campaign ever — The Lord of the Rings — singer/songwriter Maisey Rika could possibly do for New Zealand music,” Honolulu Weekly…

Hobbit Tourism

Hobbit Tourism

With filming on The Hobbit confirmed to begin in March, New Zealand is preparing for another tourism boom. It is expected that Peter Jackson’s latest film creation will drive a renewed bout of Tolkien…

Queenstown Todo

Queenstown Todo

As the brochures boast: “Whether you crave adventure daily, or just like to have your pants scared off occasionally, you will find what you are looking for” in Queenstown. There’s a vibrant nightlife, with…

Different Sort of Luxury

Different Sort of Luxury

“Forget hot showers, nice meals and clean sheets, walking New Zealand’s spectacular Milford Track is a luxury in itself,” Eric Arnold writes in a travel piece for Forbes. “Most of the time spent walking…

Classic reimagining

Classic reimagining

“Reports that Cate Blanchett and Orlando Bloom will reprise their Lord of the Rings roles in The Hobbit suggest Jackson’s two-part production may be more epic than its source material,” the Guardian’s Ben…

Seeing some girls

Seeing some girls

Lord of the Rings stars Sean Astin, Dominic Monaghan, and Elijah Wood discuss their time spent in New Zealand working on the trilogy 11 years ago with Entertainment Weekly. Here they are, in a…

Wilderness gold

Wilderness gold

“Just like the safari camp and the ski chalet, the New Zealand lodge is a triumph of reinvention, the transformation of a utilitarian wilderness refuge into tourism gold,” writes The Sydney Morning Herald’s Max…

Calling All Hobbits

Calling All Hobbits

An advertisement in Wellington’s Dominion Post has called for diminutive actors to audition for the parts of Middle Earth hobbits in Peter Jackson’s prequel to the Oscar-winning Lord of the Rings trilogy. Roles for…

In the footsteps of Frodo

In the footsteps of Frodo

The inevitable spate of Rings-related travel articles continues, with major features in the Scotsman and New York Times. The Scotsman writer – who walked the Tongariro Crossing and Routeburn Track, and sailed Milford …

Good Morning USA From NZ

Good Morning USA From NZ

Wake up! To coincide with the ‘Amazing Race’ visiting New Zealand, roaming New Zealander ambassador of down under adventure, Phil Keoghan, will be staging ‘ Kiwi Week’ on the CBS Early Show….

Woolly takeover

Woolly takeover

Sheep have replaced hobbits at The Shire in Matamata. The rolling green pastures and hobbit houses that provided the backdrop for director Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy were originally going to be…

Following Frodo

Following Frodo

Fiordland’s Routeburn track may attract significantly fewer visitors to it than the Milford Sounds, but the “majestic, snowcapped peaks in every direction, along with waterfalls and hidden tarns” are well worth the hike says…

Judgement day

Judgement day

Wellington-born actor Karl Urban, 38, who played Dr Leonard “Bones” McCoy in last year’s Star Trek, will soon play the sci-fi law enforcer Judge Dredd. “Yes, there is a lot of truth to that…

Feast Your Eyes on This

Feast Your Eyes on This

“Rest, relaxation and rugby. What more could you want?” asks the Telegraph in an article written in the build up to the Rugby World Cup 211. When it comes to breathtaking beauty it is…

Latvian leanings

Latvian leanings

Nelson-based landscape photographer Craig Potton is holding an exhibition of his works at the Foreign Art Museum in Riga Castle, Latvia. The Riga exhibition takes a journey through New Zealand, beginning on the windswept…

Gandalf’s Return

Gandalf’s Return

The Hobbit, produced by Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, will begin filming in New Zealand in July with Sir Ian McKellen once again taking the role of Gandalf the Grey. The film, and its…

Memories of plasma

Memories of plasma

The Lovely Bones director Peter Jackson “should forswear sugar next time and reintroduce himself to plasma, brain matter, puke, shit and intestines; all the elements that gave his earlier, sicker, funnier films their kick”,…

Knighthood for Jackson

Knighthood for Jackson

Director Peter Jackson was among five New Zealanders to become knights or dames after a return to New Year’s honours. Former Prime Minister Helen Clark — who axed British honours while in office —…

Perfectly Picturesque

Perfectly Picturesque

New Zealand’s “countryside is stunning (no wonder The Lord of the Rings was filmed there); the people are charming — like happy Britons; and the food and drink can be memorable,” writes Oxford University…

No Bones About It

No Bones About It

Wellington-born actor Karl Urban, 36, is Dr Leonard “Bones” McCoy in director J.J Abrams’ Star Trek and for Urban, “the elephant in the room was to embody DeForest Kelley’s character without falling victim…

Trailer: LOTR – Fellowship of the Ring

Trailer: LOTR – Fellowship of the Ring

Tours in Make Believe

Tours in Make Believe

“When Florida native Michele Maro became captivated by The Lord of the Rings movies, she never imagined she would one day be walking around in the Shire, touring Hobbiton and peeking into hobbit holes,”…

Brain Dead Dolls

Brain Dead Dolls

Wellington’s Weta Workshop will create practical and creature effects for American director Kristoffer Aaron Morgan’s independent horror film, The Home. “The Home is going to be an amazing film that we are thrilled to…

The Wild Edge

The Wild Edge

New Zealand’s dramatic scenery is the backdrop for an 11-day “fall” fashion shoot in the latest issue of National Geographic Adventure, which takes the writer/photographer and his models from Auckland to Te Anau. “This…

The American Dream

The American Dream

New Zealand is an enticing destination for American property developers and investors because the populace speaks English, there are minimal restrictions on ownership and land is still relatively cheap. There are also no property…

Touting the Youth

Touting the Youth

New Zealand ‘the youngest country’, is the new focus of Tourism New Zealand’s international branding. Tourism chiefs have called in London PR agency Henry’s House as they revive the country’s popularity post-Lord of the…

Great spirit returns

Great spirit returns

New Zealand’s favourite wizard, Sir Ian McKellen will return to the country to reprise his role as Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings prequel, The Hobbit. McKellen had told Empire before he was…

Future of NZ film lies in Asia

Future of NZ film lies in Asia

NZ filmmakers are increasingly looking to Asia to fill the void left by the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Annual production financing in NZ soared from $146 to $402 million between 1998 and 2001,…

Jeweller Finds Wonderland in NZ

Jeweller Finds Wonderland in NZ

British jeweller Alice Hughes has created a range of bespoke pieces inspired by NZ plants and sea life. She established Alice in Wonderland Jewellery in 2004 after undertaking an apprenticeship in NZ, where she…

The Rings Effect Continues

The Rings Effect Continues

NZ features in a new weekly video series on international branding practices by British marketing guru Martin Lindstrom. In Altering the Brand of a Country: How Movies Hurt Columbia and Help New Zealand, Lindstrom…