November 28, 2012 -- Updated 1803 GMT (0203 HKT)
The day has finally arrived. All
eyes are on New Zealand's capital, Wellington, as it prepares for the
world premiere of Peter Jackson's adaptation of "The Hobbit."
HIDE CAPTION
Welcome to the Middle of Middle Earth
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- New Zealand's capital to host the premiere of Peter Jackson's adaptation of "The Hobbit"
- Even Air New Zealand has gotten into the spirit, with a Hobbit-inspired "elf n safety" video
- Other Hollywood blockbusters filmed there include "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, "King Kong"
- Jackson has warned that the country will have to do more to attract future big productions
As the wind whipped
through New Zealand's capital city with customary spring ferocity, they
would have been praying for more lenient treatment than the average
Italian seismologist if their forecast for fine weather on the big day
turns out to be wrong.
Wellington is stunning on
a beautiful day, but only the brave plan outdoor events, and the red
carpet parade of Hobbit stars and crew through the city before the
premiere is both a genuine moment of national celebration and a chance
to impress the visitors.
International media are
here in droves, almost never seen in this far-flung place which, while
sometimes dubbed Middle Earth, is really at the end of the Earth.
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Arriving by air, they
will already have seen the rather amusing Air New Zealand safety
briefing video in which Orcs turn off bony iPads, and Hobbits push
luggage under the seat with their furry feet. They may have even flown
in on the Boeing-777 decked out in Hobbit livery.
At Wellington airport,
they'll have seen the staff wearing jokey "Elfin Safety" vests, and a
giant Gollum poised disconcertingly over the snack bars. What they won't
have seen as they landed at the hair-raising local aerodrome, set close
among suburban houses, is a sign saying "Wellywood."
Too many locals thought
that idea was just a bit too craven, notwithstanding the fact that
Jackson's stunning success has pumped millions of dollars and a great
lump of creative industries into an otherwise remote, government town.
A string of productions
including the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, "King Kong," "TinTin,"
"Avatar," and "The Lovely Bones" have built a globally credible film
facility in what used to be a quiet corner of town best known for its
garden center and some second-hand shops.
People down here are a
bit like J.R.R. Tolkien's dwarves, you see; fine when you get to know
them, but with noses easily put out of joint. When "Avatar" director
James Cameron bought a spread over the hill from Wellington, as many
complained about farmland sales to foreigners as thought it might be
good for the place.
Jackson himself is known
to entertain occasional despair at the small-mindedness of his
countryfolk. He remains loyal to the industry he's built here but he's
also had to be ruthless about it.
A campaign orchestrated
by Hollywood trade unions saw Warner Brothers threaten to take the
project to Scotland rather than agree to bind New Zealand actors and
crew into the kinds of contracts they're fleeing the United States to
avoid.
In the process, the New
Zealand Prime Minister, John Key, earned a reputation as a huge suck-up
to Warners, and political opponents wondered just how much principle was
for sale to get a movie made here.
Local media breathlessly pick apart reports on the issue from the
New York Times with all the parochial angst you'd expect from a place
unused to attracting attention.
Echoes of that bitter
campaign have re-emerged to spoil the film's global publicity. There
have been late-surfacing claims, hotly denied, of animal cruelty on set
and ham-fisted handling by local media seeking to tell more than the
fairy story.
The Hobbit has also been
used as a political weapon in local political sparring over the
country's economic direction. If it's really so pure, the critics fairly
ask, how come New Zealand's environmental halo has slipped so badly of
late?
Local media breathlessly
pick apart reports on the issue from the New York Times with all the
parochial angst you'd expect from a place unused to attracting attention
and desperate to be well-regarded.
Still, no one ever said a Tolkien plot was subtle.
Meanwhile, in a country
where manufacturers and farmers have expected neither tax breaks nor
protective tariffs for a generation, New Zealanders seem as placid as
Hobbiton burghers about nearly half a billion Kiwi dollars in tax breaks
that have secured every production since the Lord of the Rings.
Perhaps with his next
trilogy in mind, Jackson was this week warning there would need to be
more where that came from if New Zealand is to compete with the many
other countries that know blockbuster movies do more for national
self-belief than a million widgets ever will.
Still, the gods appear to be smiling on the enterprise.
How else to explain the
eruption on cue of the volcano that plays Mount Doom -- a central
landscape for Hobbit shenanigans -- mere days before the premiere? Given
the Hobbit-mania gripping the country, it's just a wonder that when
authorities closed the area to tourists, they didn't put signs saying:
"You Shall Not Pass."
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