Lord of the Rings returns
2003-11-26 12:47
Wellington - Lord of the Rings fever is about to hit cinemas around the world again with the release of The Return of the King, the third and final film in director Peter Jackson's blockbuster series based on the cult fantasy novels of British writer JRR Tolkien.
The excitement is already boiling in Jackson's home town, Wellington, the New Zealand capital, where The Return of the King will have its world premiere on December 1.
Far from the movie world's usual premiere venues of Hollywood, New York and London, Wellington was the main location and home base for the trilogy, which was shot in New Zealand between October 1999 and December 2000.
The first two films, The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, were premiered in traditional venues, but Jackson begged New Line Cinema, the United States producers of his trilogy, to hold the The Return of the King world premiere in the town where he grew up.
The premiere will be held in the Embassy Theatre, where the 42-year-old Jackson still remembers the first movie he saw as a boy, firing his enthusiasm to start making films in the backyard of his home and launching a life-long love affair with the cinema.
The neo-classical Embassy, built in 1924, has been gutted and refurbished to bring it up to the standard required for the world premiere of a three-hour-12-minute film that is regarded as a certain contender for best picture and best director Oscars next year.
But it now has only 758 seats, so another 1 250 first night guests will watch it on simultaneous screenings at a nearby modern cinema complex.
A total of 15 cast members, including stars Liv Tyler (elf princess Arwen), Sir Ian McKellen (Gandalf), Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn), Orlando Bloom (Legolas), and hobbits Elijah Wood (Frodo), Sean Austin (Sam), Dominic Monaghan (Merry) and Billy Boyd (Pippin), are expected to attend.
They are scheduled to parade through Wellington's entire city centre, from a send-off at Parliament to a 470-metre long red carpet laid along the city's main bar and restaurant centre, Courtenay Place, and leading up to the door of the Embassy.
Most streets in the centre will be closed and thousands are expected to turn out in the city that dubbed itself home of Middle Earth from the time The Lord of the Rings hit town four years ago.
An Air New Zealand jumbo jet - one of four that has been completely decorated with LOTR designs - will fly over the city at about 300 metres during the parade.
Five web cameras have been set up along the parade's route to beam the action to a worldwide internet audience on the website www.WellingtonNZ.com. - Sapa-DPA
- SAPA