Tag Archives: The Hobbit

The Most Epic Safety Video Ever Made takes flight on Air NZ

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This epic video has been making its round on the internet. Dwarves, Orcs and Elves take flight once again as Air New Zealand unveils The Most Epic Safety Video Ever Made ahead of the December release of the final film in The Hobbit Trilogy, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, a production of New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures (MGM).

Starring in The Most Epic Safety Video Ever Made are members of the cast from all three films in the Trilogy – Elijah Wood (Frodo Baggins), Dean O’Gorman (Fili the Dwarf) and Sylvester McCoy (Radagast).  The video, which is directed by Kiwi filmmaker Taika Waititi (Boy, What We Do in the Shadows) also features cameos from The Hobbit Trilogy director Sir Peter Jackson, Weta Workshop co-founder Sir Richard Taylor and Waititi himself, who appears as a Wizard.

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The safety video was shot over six days across a number of New Zealand’s Middle-earth locations, including Hobbiton and Central Otago, both of which appear in The Hobbit Trilogy.  Behind the scenes creative talent from the films was also involved in the production of the video, including Weta Workshop, which supplied costumes and more than 150 make-up prosthetics, and Weta Digital, which created the visual effects.

 

Sir Peter Jackson says, “Air New Zealand has created yet another fantastic video to celebrate The Hobbitfilms.  This latest offering combines members of our cast and our locations with Air New Zealand’s unique personality.  I had a lot of fun on the set with Taika and the team and look forward to seeing the video on board.”

 

 

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

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Ahead of the release of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, We have a new, exclusive video of director Sir Peter Jackson and The Hobbit cast on how New Zealand was transformed into Middle-earth for the film.

The video is a guided tour of Middle-earth by the actors on location.

Air New Zealand, the official airline of Middle-earth, has been giving passengers The Hobbit experience as soon as they step onboard with its latest safety video , which stars Sir Peter Jackson, actor Dean O’Gorman, great grandson of J.R.R, Royd Tolkien and Gollum himself.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is released in cinemas in the UK on 13 December. For more Air New Zealand Hobbit assets see airnzhobbitmedia.com. Video courtesy of Air New Zealand.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey trailer

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It has been eight years since we saw the end of Frodo’s journey to destroy the one ring in Mordor and bringing Sauron’s reign in Middle-Earth to an close. Now Peter Jackson is back and this time, telling a story from a different Baggins; Bilbo Baggins (played by Martin Freeman).

This honestly came as a surprise, as I thought to believe they were still shooting and would be too busy to release a trailer not for another month! Maybe Peter Jackson decided to release his Christmas present to audiences around the world. If that’s the case, then I say “thank you, Mr. Jackson!”

It starts off Bilbo (played by Ian Holm, returning as old version of our protagonist), telling Frodo that he hasn’t exactly told the whole story. As traditional hobbit behavior, Bilbo has no interest in having adventures but unfortunately has no choice when Gandalf (Sir Ian McKellan once again back for the prequel) appears. Though he doesn’t come alone, he introduces the thirteen dwarves; (deep breath!) Fili, Kili, Oin, Gloin, Dwalin, Balin, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, Dori, Nori, Ori, and Thorin Oakenshield. You’ll notice that Balin was mentioned in The Fellowship of the Ring in the mines of Moria, whose dead carcass was on top of a tomb. Also Gloin was mentioned in the same film, he’s father of Gimli (played by John Ryhs-Davies).

Then the dwarves begin to sing a song and really sets the tone that Jackson knows best when bringing drama. We get glimpses of Gandalf traveling to various ruins, Bilbo first seeing the shards of Narsil (the sword Isildur used to defeat Sauron and Aragorn would eventually wield in The Return of the King) and Cate Blanchett returns as Galadriel. Then Howard Shore’s majestic score kicks in but the theme is entirely new and all the better for it! Finally we see Jackson continue his action chomps with a few fight sequences with the famous scene between the dwarves and trolls.

The ending is very fitting and makes links to The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Bilbo asking “can you promise I will come back?” and which Gandalf responds quite bluntly but honestly “no and if you do, you will not be the same!” Finally we see Andy Serkis as Gollum in the shadows, crawling sinisterly above our hero.

The movie is a complete reminder on how much The Lord of the Rings has played a huge part in our culture and the way the film industry have viewed on fantasy films (look at Harry Potter series and tell me it doesn’t have some LOTR influence)

Unfortunately, we all will have to wait till December 14th, 2012 to get our tickets back to the world of Tolkien.