Dan Hennah, Academy Award winner and nominee just last year, talked about Middle-earth movies and “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” with TheOneRing.net last week while he stood inside the re-creation of Beorn’s house! Hennah and his wife Chris run the Art Department of Peter Jackson’s Hobbit movies and from concept to shoot day, makes the items and sets happen. He is a pretty incredible guy, right up there with Peter Jackson and Richard Taylor as one of New Zealand’s most amazing individuals. Part of our series of video interviews to get you ready for the World Premiere of the newest Middle-earth film!
See also: An interview with Martin Freeman
And: An interview with Richard Armitage
Tourism New Zealand, 3 foot 7 productions, Warner Bros., and others bring you ‘The Book of New Zealand’ exhibit. This is an invitation only event being hosted out at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, CA. It combines set locations, images of real world New Zealand, and a little movie magic to bring to life much of what makes New Zealand the perfect location for all things ‘Middle-earth’. Here are a few images from the event and a video of the opening greeting, please enjoy.
Continue reading “Tourism New Zealand’s ‘The Book of New Zealand’ event in LA”
June 26th saw the presentation of the Saturn Awards in Burbank, California. These honours are awarded to movies and television shows by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films, and this year Dan Hennah was awarded Best Production Design in the Film Awards for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Many congratulations to him from everyone here at TORn!
You can read the full list of Saturn Awards here.
Fictional Frontiers, a radio show specializing in genre entertainment and located on the east coast of the U.S., was part of the media assembled at The One Expected Party and checks in with an entertaining look at the weekend’s art show and Oscar night’s biggest geek celebration. It showcases each of the Oscar nominees, a few interviews, selections from the art show and a good representation of the musical showcase from the evening. Checking in under five minutes, it’s an excellent capture of the event.
Last week, all fans of TheOneRing.net were focused on the approach of “The One Expected Party.” But there was another event involving some of the Oscar-nominated members of The Hobbit production team. On Saturday, February 23, the 
Egyptian Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard (just down the street from the Dolby Theatre) was the venue for “The Art of Production Design,” jointly sponsored by the Art Directors Guild, the Set Decorators Society of America, and the American Cinematheque.
The panel of guests was made up of the production designers for Lincoln, Anna Karenina, Life of Pi, and Les Misérables, as well as The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Dan Hennah was there as production designer (at the right in the photo), along with Ra Vincent (left) and Simon Bright (center), the set decorators.
With that much talent present, the time allotted to each film was all too short. Dan Hennah assured the audience that the designs for The Hobbit were not just a return to The Lord of the Rings. There were new challenges involved in what he called a “long and relentless journey.” A great deal of pre-production had taken place during the period when Guillermo del Toro was on board as director. Once Peter Jackson took over, everything was revisited. Continue reading “Oscar Nominees Talk Hobbit Set Design”
Dan Hennah talked Oscars with the Nelson Mail (part of the Stuff.co.nz network) after the awards ceremony and the One Expected Party where he rated the official ceremony as the best of the five he has attended. He visited the Governor’s Ball and along with his wife Chris (who managed the production team on set (and was kind to TheOneRing.net embedded reporter) attended our own celebratory events afterwards. Along with the Hennahs at the party were production nominees Ra Vincent and Simon Bright (both for set decoration) and the article mentions them as well. Nelson, in New Zealand, is where the Hennahs are from, making the Academy Award winners part of the native Kiwi population, along with Peter Jackson and Richard Taylor that sprung from New Zealand soil and stand among the best in the world at their craft.
The article starts, ” Dan Hennah may not have picked up another Oscar to add to the one in the dining room in his Orinoco home but he still had a great time at yesterday’s Oscar ceremony in Los Angeles.
The Hobbit, for which Hennah was nominated for production design, lost to Lincoln in that category. Hennah said Lincoln was “a beautiful movie and it was well executed. It got what it deserved”. ”
You can read the rest right here.
