Posted on 12/02/2003 12:04:27 PM PST by John Farson
HE is the hobbit king of New Zealand, hailed throughout the land as the saviour of hope, goodness, truth and the national economy. Now director Peter Jackson can burrow into his own little hobbit-hole, snug inside a grassy hillside.
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But big Hollywood studios aren't known for their sentimentality and New Line Cinema wanted the set demolished as soon as shooting was completed.
The rotund and furry Jackson, who often describes himself as being like a hobbit, couldn't bear to let it go.
"I love the Bag End set, so I asked New Line: 'If I pay for all the storage costs, can I keep it?"' Jackson told The Australian in Wellington before the opening of the trilogy's third film, Return of the King.
Jackson's films will make an estimated $NZ5.3 billion ($4.6 billion) for the studio, but the hard-headed money men of New Line weren't letting the director have a freebie.
He paid for storage and now Jackson is having Bag End installed under a hillside on his property north of Wellington.
"I'll have it as a guesthouse. I love it, its so round," he says. "It's amazing how comforting roundness is in a building. Why aren't we making round buildings? Why all these square, flat walls?"
The story illustrates how through pure determination, Jackson dragged a reluctant Hollywood to New Zealand and insisted it do things his way - just as he forced New Line to hold last night's premiere in Wellington rather than Los Angeles.
The Rings have transformed Jackson from slightly eccentric splatter-movie director to New Zealand's greatest star.
At a state reception at parliament yesterday, politicians lined up with poets, business leaders and artists to be photographed with him, while the crowd nibbled Elf bread and Hobbit-recipe salmon from the parliamentary kitchens.
As Prime Minister Helen Clark lauded the tearful director for "making it possible for New Zealand to be a star", Jackson was gracious enough not to point out that Clark's Labour Party had not always been so supportive. Labour campaigned vigorously when in Opposition against a tax loophole exploited by New Line to save the production between $NZ300 million and $NZ400 million in tax.
The Rings might be Tolkien's story, but it is layered with Jackson's own personality. To bring the novels' evil she-spider Shelob to life, the director instructed the film's technicians to model her on the Wellington tunnel-web spiders which terrified him as a six-year-old playing under the house.
"I always wanted Shelob to be fast - that's what is scary about spiders - they scuttle and then freeze and sometimes they stand up on their hind legs and kick," he says, squirming his shoulders.
Having convinced a sceptical studio to give him $US300 million ($414 million) to make what he calls the "biggest film project of all time", Jackson proceeded to co-opt all of New Zealand to help realise his dream.
Nearly every able-bodied horse rider in the country was cast for the cavalry battles and a football crowd in Wellington was recorded shouting orc war-chants in unison while the director conducted like a maestro from the middle of the pitch.
Even the New Zealand army became involved. Jackson and the location spotters had spent weeks searching for a flat, grey desert-like landscape to use for the Gates of Mordor.
"We found the perfect spot but unfortunately it was in the middle of this army base - and it was their live bomb range. There was a massive amount of unexploded bombs just lying around, so they sent in bomb disposal experts and cleaned it up for us," he says. The soldiers also became film extras.
"In Return of the King, (hero) Aragorn is giving a stirring speech to the last few remnants of humanity that can stand up against the orcs. It's the New Zealand army who he's giving his stirring speech to," Jackson reveals. "In fact the orcs are also the New Zealand army, so I don't know quite what that says."
The campaign for Jackson to win the best director Oscar has already begun. He is "a visionary," says producer Barrie Osborne. "A genius," says actor Orlando Bloom, the elf archer Legolas.
"This man has done more for New Zealand than anyone since Captain Cook," offers John Rhys-Davies, who plays the dwarf warrior Gimli.
"Whatever idiot decided to get rid of knighthoods (in New Zealand) should have a serious rethink. The Socialist Order of the Splattered Possum (First Class) may cut it here in the antipodes, but when you walk into a studio in Los Angeles it's not going to work as well as Sir Peter Jackson."
I think we need to go for the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator!!!
Oh, and looky here! Bush just approved it!
 Ring Ping!! |
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How did THEY get the recipe!?
We're the ones that have been trying to figure it out!
It is a miracle that he has pulled all this off.
This whole project could have (and by all rights shoudl have) turned out far differently. Which is to say far worse.
I think it's a flattened beignet!
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