Back in 2002, Peter Jackson peeved off New Line Cinema executives, publically forcing them to promise the world premiere of The Return of the King to Wellington New Zealand. Judging by the latest from The Hobbit Newsroom, it appears Jackson still knows how to get his way.
This just in – The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will premiere only a hop, skip and a jump away in Wellington, NZ Wednesday November 28th 2012. Quite amusing when you consider how reluctant New Line were for the tiny city to host back in the days of Lord of the Rings.
If you haven’t seen the footage of Jackson publically backing New Line into a corner, dust off your Return of the King special features DVD and check it out. However, if you can’t be bothered wading through the hours of behind the scenes goodness, here’s the abbreviated summary below:
During the launch of The Two Towers in New Zealand, Jackson addresses a screaming kiwi crowd, booming into the microphone how he has great news regarding the world premiere of the final LOTR movie. He shoves a cringing New Line rep to the mic prompting him with a lingering statement: “the premiere will be held in……?” Jackson gestures to the rep who has no choice but to give the crowd the answer they want: “Wellington New Zealand!” the rep positively moans.
Hilarious.
Looking at the cast and crew list, The Hobbit will be a nice trip down memory lane with the majority of Jackson’s LOTR creative team returning for one more stint in Middle Earth.
After much speculation and rumor over the past years, a confirmed list of the LOTR cast members reprising their roles has been released: Ian McKellen returns as Gandalf the Grey, Cate Blanchett will reprise Galadriel, Ian Holm will feature as the older Bilbo, Christopher Lee will take a crack at Saruman before he turned into an evil puppet, Hugo Weaving returns as Elrond, Elijah Wood will make an appearance as Frodo, Orlando Bloom gets a look in as Legolas and the legendary Andy Serkis will, of course, bring to life once more the pitiful Gollum.
The stack of newbies to join the cast is peppered with big names such as Billy Connolly, Stephen Fry, Evangaline Lilly (TV’s Lost) and even Flight of the Conchord‘s Bret McKenzie.
Should be an interesting one!
Stay tuned for more Hobbit news as it is released
