Of Thorin Oakenshield and The Hobbit - a perspective from across the Tasman

NZ - home of The Hobbit & Lord of the Rings Movies

NZ, Middle-earth - home of The Hobbit and Lord of  the Rings movies. The series of photos on this blog is a statement about the lack of recognition of the hard work that was put in to the making of the movies by thousands of Kiwis by a case hardened, indifferent movie industry. These photos will continue to be posted for the duration of the Premiere week.

NZ - Middle-earth. 'Spiritual Home' of The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies

Hard at work making wigs in the costume department

Acknowledging the hard work by New Zealanders that went into the making The Hobbit movies. 

Aratiatia Rapids. North Island NZ. Spiritual home of The Hobbit & LOTR movies.

Aratiatia Rapids - Barrel ride location, The Hobbit

Over the next two weeks (including BOTFA Premiere week), I am posting a series of photos of NZ. I am doing this to make a subtle statement about what I consider to be the indifferent, and case-hardened attitudes, of those who work in the entertainment industry towards a region of the world they consider to be dispensible and irrelevant. 

New note on FB from John Callen. Dedicated Hobbit/LOTR fans flying in to Wellington from all parts of the world.

Also noted that the pre-arranged and much anticipated fan celebration party of 'Special Magnificence' to be held at The Roxy prior to the midnight screening of "The Battle of the Five Armies" on the 10th December was to have had William Kircher playing with his band, 'The California Dreamers'. It seems that a replacement band and new special guests have now had to be found. This is a consequence of the late announcement of the Los Angeles Premiere on the 9th December. A large number of Hobbit/LOTR fans have apparently booked to fly in to Wellington from all over the world in the hope of celebrating the final chapter in Middle-earth.

Pelorus River. NZ. Home of The Hobbit movies. Barrel ride scene

Currently I am posting a series of photos of NZ. I am doing this to make a subtle statement about what I consider to be the indifferent, and case-hardened attitudes, of those who work in the entertainment industry towards a region of the world they consider to be dispensible and irrelevant. 

"The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies" Film Ink Magazine

Peter Jackson gets Hollywood star.

From 3News NZ.

Function at The Roxy to coincide with BOTFA Premiere

 

Article in "Hobbit Screening in Capital - Stuff.co.NZ - Sir Richard Taylor, local cast and crew and fans to attend. Satellite feed to London Premiere.

Competition for tickets here.

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies 3D charity screening at The Embassy | Life Flight

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies 3D charity screening at The Embassy | Life Flight.

Guest: Peter Hambleton

The start of filming of #The Hobbit and the end. Highs and lows.

Since writing this post an event has been announced at The Roxy to coincide with the World Premiere (December 2nd NZ time). They will have an interactive live feed to London for the local cast, crew and the Wellington Wellymoot Group of fans along with Sir Richard Taylor. There is to be a Red carpet at 6.30am. Nevertheless, I will keep this post published.

I'm going to become boringly repetitive and I know the fans who spasmodically visit my other blog are very probably getting tired of my venting, so I have reblogged this post here.

NZ IS THE SPIRITUAL HOME OF THESE MOVIES.

It's now horribly official - no celebration of any kind for Wellington for the final chapter of the six movies, LOTR and The Hobbit. Many of us have been discussing and debriefing in private - there has been nothing mentioned anywhere on the Hobbit dedicated sites about what i, and many of my fellow fans consider to be a glaring omission. Three comments follow:

"As an extra and a Wellingtonian I'm extremely annoyed and mystified about the apparent disinterest in celebrating the release of the 6th and final Middle Earth film here on the home turf. " (From comments section last post with thanks to poster)

 

"There were thousands of Kiwi cast, crew, extras, Kiwi actors who spent years of their lives on the six movies, it's very sad, they wont get the opportunity to be part of a grand event ......" (A Wellingtonian)

 

"But all that goes through my head is IT'S THE LAST ONE. The last time Middle Earth will be seen, the last time the cast, crew AND fans will have together to celebrate the enormous achievement of NZ. 
We will all go into our futures, and this will be a memory. 
It's Aragorn's coronation! And then we will all head off, back to our lives.
Where's the tradition? And why doesn't anyone care?" (A Tolkien Fan)

 

.... and then there was one tiny sentence I picked up in Mr Cere's report: "UPDATE: 'The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies' is virtually finished, today is the last day"over at TheOneRing.net. His article is very interesting and I'm guilty of focussing on one part, but here it is: 

"Keeping in mind that New Zealand (where, if you haven’t heard, the films are made) is 16 hours ahead of Hollywood, the following quote comes to TheOneRing.net from the future, Friday morning:

“Today is the day!! The last reel goes out the door tonight.”

It will be a sad farewell, but even sadder for the workers who won't be given the opportunity to close the chapter in the country where the films originated.

I'd like to revisit the Powhiri which celebrated the beginning of filming back in 2011 and the speeches made at the time:

A lovely, dare a say slightly nervous, Richard Armitage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"I would like to give thanks on behalf of everyone here for this ceremony, this celebration, the blessing of the sound stage and for the welcome that you've offered to us. We're all deeply honoured to be here. And to everyone who has worked so long for this day to begin this extraordinary journey filming The Hobbit - I would like to wish them good luck, good health and good harmony"

Andy Serkis in mocap costume ready to film Gollum:

".. I am standing up here on behalf of the returning crew and cast who have gathered here to go on the journey. We're just very, very grateful for your incredible hospitality and to have the opportunity to share the passion for telling such an amazing, amazing, storyin such  an amazing country with such beautiful people"

Sir Peter Jackson

"Films are stressful and they're hard to make but ultimately what makes them fun is the people that you work with ... And the fact that we're going to be working with a lot of the old gang, a lot of friends, and obviously working with new friends, is really the point of being here, so I'm extremely thrilled"

There's a tradition of fellowship that was carried through from the LOTR movies. A viewing of the Appendices of Unexpected Journey and Desolation of Smaug as well as the vlogs allows a glimpse of the huge amount of work that went into making the movies - the list of names in the credits is massive. As one of the comments above stated, hundreds of New Zealanders were involved, many of whom worked on the LOTR movies. It is just a huge disappointment that for reasons best known to the people planning Premieres, Wellington was left off the list and has been denied even a small red carpet Premiere. So many of us are mystified as to the reason.

The final chapter of the movies will therefore end for NZ with nothing - there will be no closure, no last farewell, no thanks.