Rachel Bone
Staff Writer
There’s no denying it. I’ve been there, I’ve done that, and when I lived there for a year I even bought the T shirt. Middle Earth is every bit real New Zealand. So much so that the makers of The Hobbit have produced a special short featurette for Tourism New Zealand, showing very much how the country itself has been the real breakout star of the films.
The six and a half minute video, available on newzealand.com, goes behind the scenes of some of The Hobbit’s key filming locations, offering insights from both production staff and actors about how hard it is to work in such a beautiful country. Just kidding: they all loved it. Martin Freeman sums it up best, speaking in the video: “Meanwhile, the backdrop is so beautiful people will think it’s CGI… It looks too perfect.”
The featurette forms part of Tourism New Zealand’s latest campaign to entice people to visit the country, understandably drawing on the success and popularity of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Judging by how much it’s making me want to drop everything and get the first plane back out to Hobbiton, I’d say it’s doing a good job.
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