Elijah Wood and Andy Serkis visit the WETA booth to say hello to Richard Taylor, Daniel Falconer and…
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Elijah Wood and Andy Serkis visit the WETA booth to say hello to Richard Taylor, Daniel Falconer and the crew.
The WETA team took the opportunity to show-off the full-size trolls they have on display. It’s the first time Frodo has seen the actual trolls. Andy Serkis was spotted with a Pocketses button from TheOneRing.net.
A couple more photos below the cut! Continue reading “Wood and Serkis troll the WETA booth”
Wellywood may be the home of The Hobbit, but Wellington’s cinemas are yet to make the technological shift so Kiwis can see it in all its double-frame glory.
The Dominion Post reports that, while most cinemas plan to install technology necessary to watch the film in 48-frames-per-second (fps), none of those the paper spoke to today had yet upgraded.
According to the paper, Miramar’s Roxy Cinema — refitted with the help of Oscar-winning big names Sir Peter Jackson, Sir Richard Taylor, and Jamie Selkirk — will have the tech in time for The Hobbit’s general release, but others such as Paramount Cinema in Courtenay Pl and Penthouse Cinema in Brooklyn have no plans to make the shift.
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The finalists have been announced for the Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year Awards 2012. Now into its third year, the awards recognise individuals, organisations and community groups for their outstanding contributions to the nation.
The shortlist for the main award, New Zealander of the Year, includes Dame Suzie Moncrieff, Sir Richard Taylor and Dr Sharad Paul.
Nominations were whittled down by panels of judges made up of such figures as Jim Bolger, Sir Ray Avery, Michael Basset, Teresa Gattung and Peri Drysdale. More..
Sohaib Awan from the radio show Fictional Frontiers also does a segment on SUVUDU that focuses on fantasy and science fiction books, movies and comics. He spoke with our own MrCere this week about his trip to New Zealand including Weta Workshop and Richard Taylor. They talk Hobbit of course, Hobbit trailer insights and a lot about travel possibilities for anybody. Listen to the segment right here.
Our story so far: Peter Jackson made three Middle-earth movies and people loved them. Now he is making two more and people already love them too. MrCere, Senior Staff, Writer and Photographer at TheOneRing.net (around since 1999) went to NZ to see what he could see. Landed in Queenstown, found lots of LOTR stuff, drove north to see the people of the ring, visited Hobbiton visited Wellington, center of NZ’s cinematic empire, and will soon leave NZ. However, much more content will follow.
I haven’t seen an insect weta before in my travels (until this trip, but not this story) but I have plenty of experience with the folks who run and work at the special effects shop who identify themselves as “wetas”. Several Comic-Cons, (including the 2011 edition in San Diego) lots of emails and various TORn functions have made the crew at Weta Workshop friendly acquaintances if not just plain old friends.
My time in Wellington would need to include a visit of some kind with the very busy people who are working on The Hobbit, but as I have often joked (even though it is at least partially true) Weta’s second best talent is making special effects for movies. What they are really best at is keeping secrets from TheOneRing.net. I had no illusions that anybody was going to tour me around the workshop (I asked anyway, just in case) during the height of The Hobbit production, but they were kind enough to invite me along to a group they were hosting from a cruise ship that included one of our own message board members. (Her identity is her own to reveal.) Continue reading “Weta Cave big part of movie tourism in Wellington”
Our story so far: Peter Jackson made three Middle-earth movies and people loved them. Now he is making two more and people already love them too. MrCere, Senior Staff, writer and photographer at TheOneRing.net (around since 1999) went to NZ to see what he could see. Landed in Queenstown, found lots of LOTR stuff, drove north to see the people of the ring, visited Hobbiton set and now is in Wellington, center of NZ’s cinematic empire.
WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND — I thought, and it makes me chuckle now, that when I landed in Wellington I would finally be based in one place long enough to really crank out some copy. Ha!
Instead, Wellington has been a whirlwind but that is a great thing, not a bad thing. I often contemplate cancelling one of the events here so I can spend hours writing and posting photos but I haven’t cancelled anything yet and each time I go to do something, I find that I am very glad to have been along.
Some of those events have tourism ties and then end up having direct ties to things here at TheOneRing, even when I think they will not. Other things, like spending the day with the kids at Weta, are directly tied in. None of them so far have been worth sacrificing and time is running out fast. But stories I have in some stage of ready:
* Hobbit set visit with images
* An exclusive with Richard Taylor Continue reading “Wellington is a whirlwind, smells like Hobbit”
