Some facts about Lord of the Rings

- Lord of the Rings (LOTR) is one of the largest movie productions ever undertaken. The film trilogy has been almost entirely made in New Zealand, with both the location shooting as well as the post-production, including the special effects being completed here.

- LOTR has been recreated in three parts by New Zealand filmmaker, Peter Jackson. The movies are to be released, as follows:

- The Fellowship of the Ring (due for release in December 2001 – with premieres in London on 10 December and Wellington on 19 December)
- The Two Towers (November/December 2002)
- The Return of the King (November/December 2003).

- The production of LOTR has been headquartered in Wellington and a vast majority of the post-production work is now being undertaken in that city. The films have been shot all over the country from Te Anau, Queenstown and Twizel through to Takaka, Turangi, and Matamata – over forty regional locations throughout the country.

- LOTR – 3,000 people have been employed during the shoot and in post-production. In addition, close to 20,000 extras have participated through the course of the shoot.

- JRR Tolkien (1892-1973) was a major scholar of the English language, holding the position of Professor of Anglo-Saxon Old English twice at Oxford University. He also wrote a number of novels, including most famously The Hobbit (1937) and The Lord of the Rings (1954-1955). LOTR has sold in excess of 50 million copies and was voted by a number of groups as the number one book of the twentieth century.

- New Line Cinema is one of the largest independent producers, acquirers and distributors of movies in the world. It is a subsidiary of entertainment, media and technology conglomerate, AOL Time Warner.

- The New Line web page www.lordoftherings.net has received over 450 million hits. This is unprecedented.

- Three Foot Six Limited is Peter Jackson’s production company, contracted to New Line Cinema to produce the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. In addition, Peter Jackson has stakeholdings in a variety of production and post- production facilities, including: Weta Workshop, Weta Digital, Camperdown Studios, Stone Street Studios and The Film Unit. All of the companies have been involved in the production and postproduction of LOTR.

- LOTR offers New Zealand unparalleled opportunities to achieve an international profile through the release of the trilogy over the next three years. Opportunities exist to leverage the profile w1hich the trilogy will create for:

- Film location attraction and film infrastructure investment
- Promotion of New Zealand made film
- High technology innovation and promotion
- Tourism promotion
- Attracting New Zealand talent to return home
- Profiling of New Zealand globally, particularly talent, creativity and innovation profiling, through the media and through other appropriate means.

- The Film Commission is undertaking an economic impact analysis of the impact of the making of the film in New Zealand (will available December).

- New Zealand has a young, relatively vibrant and healthy film production industry consisting mainly of small businesses employing over 30,000 people directly or indirectly during 2,000 (mostly due to Lord of the Rings).

- In 2000 New Zealand film financing totalled $572 million (net $486 million being from foreign sources). This is up from a total of $86 million earned in foreign exchange in 1995.

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>