With the help of a group of Dwarves and New Zealand’s Prime Minister John Keys, the Green Dragon officially opened for business Thursday. Located on the Hobbiton Movie Set near small-town Matamata, New Zealand, visitors can now have some ale as part of their visiting to the fully immersive movie immersion.
Press from around the globe were on hand for a full day showcase of what the site has to offer as they dispersed from the World Premiere of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in Wellington, New Zealand the previous day.
Keys cut the chains on the door as the Alexander family, who owns the sheep farm the set is built on, welcomed him and the new addition to the set tour with the help of the actors who played dwarves in the latest Middle-earth film. Dean O’Gorman, Aiden Turner, Adam Brown, James Nesbit, John Callen, Stephen Hunter, Jed Brophy, Mark Hadlow, William Kircher, Peter Hambleton and Graham McTavish were all on hand for photos at the door and media interviews around the Hobbiton setting. Royd Tolkien was also in attendance along with key figures from the farm and New Zealand tourism.
Visitors were then treated to New Zealand’s finest wines, tasty snacks and cheeses and of course, ale. Several of the dwarves wore matching rings and revealed that just as the original Fellowship of actors in the LOTR movies all were tattooed together, this group, including lead Martin Freeman all share these specially crafted rings.
Hadlow summed it up, calling the rings a symbol of the actor’s brotherhood.
Please enjoy a few pictures from the event and from the Red Carpet the previous day.
Note: Correspondent Larry D. Curtis is in New Zealand but is having computer failures. Expect much more content in the days to come.
Discussion board member Ataahua comes through for us again with a cool online feature from the New Zealand Herald where you can see just how much The Hobbit actors have been transformed for their roles by makeup and prosthetics. Just drag the slider across each photo to see the actor transform into the character. Check it out and have fun! Read More…
If you missed them, here are 17 (count them!) fabulous character posters that provide yet another look at the principal characters. In addition to Bilbo, Gandalf and all the dwarves of the party, the posters include Galadriel and Gollum. Maybe that’s a hint of Galadriel’s importance in An Unexpected Journey. Or maybe it’s just indicative of Cate Blanchett’s star power. Continue reading “Seventeen Hobbit character posters you’ll absolutely love”
Weta’s Ben Hawker is a brilliant guy and he worked with the creative and fun folks at Air New Zealand to create the ideas that became perhaps the most popular airline safety video in the world, collecting 8 million hits since it was launched a week ago. TheOneRing was honored to play a part with Cliff “Quickbeam” Broadway and I (Larry “MrCere” Curtis) appearing to help represent fans from across the globe. Well, they also asked us to chime in on the behind-the-scenes video which features J.R.R. Tolkien’s grandsons Royd and Mike, the genuinely excellent and beautiful airline employees Kara, Mark and Will (plus others not in the video), the film’s director Josh, the soon-to-be superstar Dean O’Gorman, Peter Jackson and that Hawker guy. TORn may have its own version of a story and photos from that set before long but Air New Zealand has a great video to follow up last week’s starting off with a familiar face. Also fun, many of the crew making this video also worked on The Hobbit. Check out the short clip on the next page! Continue reading “A secret look inside Air NZ’s Middle-earth safety video”
Here’s a lovely new still taken from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey: The Movie Storybook with Fili, Kili and Bilbo peering over a decaying log at something, or someone, that’s out-of-frame. Spoiler warning as usual! Continue reading “New still from The Movie Storybook”
Well, this was indeed the “big secret” we kept quiet for such a long time. TheOneRing.net staffers Larry Curtis (MrCere) and your host Cliff Broadway (Quickbeam) have comedic appearances in the delightful Air New Zealand Safety Video that has taken the internet by storm in the past few days! With a whopping 7.5 million views since Oct. 31st, this video is filled to the brim with charming Hobbity goodness…. a sexy Dean O’Gorman (who plays Fili)…. Tolkien’s great-grandson…. and a Wizard in high tops! Join us on our live webcast today at 5:00pm PST to learn delightful details as the marketing efforts for THE HOBBIT continue apace. WE ALSO HAVE OUR LINE PARTIES GOING FULL TILT! Learn more by joining our Live Event page right here and be part of the chat: www.theonering.net/live or via Stickam at www.stickam.com/theoneringnet
With the help of a group of Dwarves and New Zealand’s Prime Minister John Keys, the Green Dragon officially opened for business Thursday. Located on the Hobbiton Movie Set near small-town Matamata, New Zealand, visitors can now have some ale as part of their visiting to the fully immersive movie immersion.
