On Friday 6 June 2008 at 11am, Weta flings open the doors to the hotly anticipated Weta Cave in Miramar, Wellington. For the very first time, an area of WellingtonR17;s visual effects facility will be opened up to fans and visitors.
“We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to do this”, says Weta creative director and co-owner Richard Taylor. “Tania and I have had this dream for years and we are incredibly pleased that we’ve managed to realize it.” Continue reading “The Weta Cave Opens to Fans and Visitors”
Future “Hobbit” director Guillermo del Toro and former “Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson sat down with a world-wide internet audience and answered a lot more than the announced “20 questions” this weekend.
Hosted by Weta, there were a lot of minor details and significant confirmations and revelations about the gigantic production that will yield two “Hobbit” related movies, one in 2011 and the second in 2012.
Peter Jackson said,
“2009 will be dedicated to pre-production on both movies and 2010 will be the year we shoot both films back to back. Post productin follows one film at a time with The Hobbit being released Dec(ember) 2011, and F2 (film two) release(d) Dec(ember) 2012.”
Continue reading “Hobbit chat with Peter Jackson and G. del Toro peppered with big news (and little details about both films)”
Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro invite you to a live internet chat about The Hobbit on May 24 (May 25 in Australia/NZ). Peter and Guillermo would love to answer your questions and hear your comments about our new adventure into Middle-Earth. Please register now to make sure you don’t miss out on the Unexpected Party and get regular updates on the movies! Follow the registration link for instructions on submitting a question. Check out the rest of the story for chat times around the world and the text of PJ’s letter!
Continue reading “An Unexpected Party – Chat with PJ and GDT!”
Recently, TheOneRing.net featured an essay on the challenges and opportunities faced by Guillermo del Toro and WETA workshops in brining the Magnificent Smaug to movie screens in the upcoming Hobbit film. The fan-friendly director has long been open to fans and can be found posting at DelToroFilms.com”. Del Toro, or “GDT” as he is affectionately already known on the TORn message boards, responded to the thread, giving a healthy discussion an extra shot of energy. Continue reading “The Dragon Solution: GDT shares his thoughts”
Stories of dragons are as old as the written word and probably a lot older. To keep things inside the J.R.R. Tolkien realm, “Beowulf”, one of the oldest written stories of Europe features not only the monstrous Grendel but his serpentine Mother. Ancient biblical writings allude to the great serpent or dragon while global mythology has oversized lizard creatures popping up so consistently that some have suggested there must be some common shared memory or primitive survival instinct built into humanity to cause us to tell our tribal stories about such a monstrosity. Continue reading “The Dragon Problem: What challenges await GDT and WETA?”
Ringer Spy Elven was kind enough to transcribe the ‘To be Continued’ interview from last week where I discussed our exclusive chat with ‘Hobbit’ director Guillermo del Toro. Take a look! Continue reading “‘To be Continued’ Radio Interview Transcript”