We have a winner! Congratulations to Anna from Masterton!

Our competition for the best fan story attracted a good number of entries, and the Welly-moot committee spent most of the end of last week reading through them.

One story came out on top though; the prize was eventually won by Anna from Masterton, for her story about how she first met Jed Brophy and William Kircher a few years ago, at the Wellington Armageddon (now renamed to Comic-con NZ).


Anna, you can pick up your prize on the day; we'll be in touch via email with further details!

Also, another HUGE thank you to the Roxy Cinema, who donated this prizepack!

Anna, your prize includes a ticket to the event, as well as ALL of the following:

• LOTR postcard set (10)
• Hobbit postcard set (10)
• Middle-earth teatowel (Thorin’s Map)
• Middle-earth key-ring
• Red eye of Sauron pin/badge
• Hobbit Hole collectible
• Middle-earth Location Guidebook (hardcover – Ian Brodie)
• 2 x 1 litre bottles of Hobbiton Gingerbeer
• 1 x Box of Scorched Almonds
• 1 x Bar Whittakers Chocolate
• 1 x Pkt Popcorn
• 1 x Roxy Cap
• 1 x Roxy Notebook
• 1 x Roxy Pin

I hope you have enough space to display your new Middle-earth collection!


Also a big thank you to all the others who sent in stories - the standards were very high, and we enjoyed reading them all!

  - Jack

Wellington Rover Tours is providing a courtesy bus with driver, to and from the event!

Scott from Wellington Rover Tours (Wellington's biggest LOTR touring company, and oft sponsor of the Welly-moot) has kindly donated the use of a 20-seater bus (with driver Chewie), to take a limited number of people from Wellington central to the Roxy, and afterwards bring them back again.

If you don't have any way to get to the event and don't want to use public transport while you're in LOTR costume, then let me know at jack@welly-moot.com, so I can put you on the list.

Although this transport option is 100% FREE, there is a STRICTLY limited number of seats available, so please let me know AS SOON AS POSSIBLE! First in, first served. You snooze, you lose. Early bird gets the worm. Etc.


The bus will leave from the iSite at 12:01pm, lunchtime on Thursday the 24th, and will make its way to the Roxy. Since there's plenty of time before the movies begin, you may be able to convince Chewie to take you all to the very first LOTR filming location on top of Mount Victoria first... :)  I'll leave that open!

A full event itinerary will be posted in the next few days. It'll have a number of other surprises on it! VIP's you say? Muahahaha!

  - Jack

Shoutout to our Japanese followers!

As lots of you have already discovered, the tickets to the Ultra-Marathon are now on sale!  Check the Roxy's ticket office website,

A quick message from Alex to any Japanese LOTR fans who are interested in joining the movie marathon on the Welly-moot website: http://www.roxycinema.co.nz/page-event-3.php

Dear Japanese friends ー 日本のみなさんへ

今回のこのイベントー Movie Marathon にご興味がある方で、日本語で質問や問い合わせをされたいは方は、是非私Alex Ishikawaに直接メールして下さい。メールアドレスはalex@welly-moot.comです。できるだけお手伝いさせて頂きます。いつでも気楽にメールして下さいね！

(English translation)

Dear Japanese friends - to Japanese people - If you are interested in joining us for this event - Movie Marathon - and wish to talk or send any enquiries in Japanese, please contact me, Alex Ishikawa, directly. My email address is alex@welly-moot.com. I will try to help you as much as I can. Please feel free to contact me anytime!

Can I ask our Japanese friends to share this on your social media please, as much as you can?




And obviously this message applies to any other nationalities as well, but the communications will have to be in English I'm afraid. :)

The End Of All Things - The ultimate Middle-earth Marathon is ON!

So, it looks like we're all go, the event is live, and tickets have gone on sale!

We got ours - how about you?

Over the last few days, we've had confirmation that the Roxy Cinema is helping us celebrate the completion of Sir Peter Jackson's in style.

Together with Welly-moot they have arranged for all six of the EXTENDED versions of the movies to be shown in a single extremely long session, starting at 2:00pm on March 24th (Thursday before Easter), and ending around the same time the next day (Good Friday March 25th).

A few weeks ago, we asked people to "like" the facebook event page - now we're asking you to put your money where your mouths are, and go and buy the tickets.

Tickets are on sale online through the Roxy's own website at the follwiong address:

http://www.roxycinema.co.nz/page-event-3.php

...so go and get yourself a ticket to a history event. Tickets are $250, and costumes are compulsory encouraged! Welly-moot will be providing some cool spot-prizes for the best or funnest costumes!

There WILL be further announcements, so keep watching this space!

If anyone has any questions, send them to me or to the Roxy (through their link above).

And see you all there!

Welly-moot #5.1 Theme - Faramir & Eowyn (January 31st)

If it's not too late to mention it, happy new year, everyone! Get ready for another geeky nerdfest of Tolkien Trivia!


This month we will explore the relationship between Faramir and Eowyn. It's a curious one; they meet, get engaged, and marry despite (or perhaps due to) all the troubles around them.

Both had high hopes for the future, which was dashed on the rocks for both of them by Aragorn (although for different reasons).



So, dig out the books one more time, and make sure to watch the Extended Edition of the Return Of The King (their meeting in the Houses of Healing is fleshed out a lot there), and come and discuss your findings with us at the Embassy Cinema, at 2:00pm, on Sunday January 31st, the first Welly-moot meeting of 2016.


Also at the moot, there will be further announcements relating to our BIG event, The End Of All Things. It looks very much like we've got the green light on it - I heard on the grapevine today that tickets will be on sale via the Roxy Cinema in the next few days. Get ready with your credit cards!

Tickets will be strictly limited, and those who followed the instructions given earlier will be given first preferences to the tickets, so please DO send that email to events@welly-moot.com as soon as you can - I fully expect the tickets to go VERY quickly.

For more information, check out the facebook event page as well.


Meanwhile, see you on Sunday January 31st, for the bi-monthly moot!

  - Jack

Event: The End Of All Things

"For the Quest is achieved, and now all is over. I am glad you are here with me. Here at the end of all things"

- Frodo Baggins, March 25, T.A. 3019, Orodruin

Now that the last Hobbit movie has had its Extended Edition released, we've come to it - the final release of the final movie.

This is it.

The End Of All Things.

It all ends on March 25, 2016.

--

For the last few months, here at the Welly-moot we have been planning the longest celebration yet; a Once-in-a-Lifetime, Ultra-Mega-Super-Marathon. All six extended movies in all their glory, in the best place in the known world to see it; the Roxy in Miramar.

Only, we're not doing it over the course of six weeks; we'll be there for over 24 hours, in a single sitting.


We've been in talks with Roxy to organise this gargantuan event. Tentatively, the plan is this: We get together on Thursday March 24th, 2016 (the day before Good Friday). An Unexpected Journey will begin at 2:00pm, with the Return of The King finishing around the same time on Good Friday.

Tickets will be around the $250 mark. Not a bad deal, for 6 movie tickets, 3 Roxy-quality meals, snacks, and staff to look after us for that length of time. Also, the theatre will be themed out for us, Roxy-style. We all know they're up to the job!

There WILL a few more surprise announcements coming, as soon as we confirm them.

--

Here's the crunch - we need your commitment to turn up! At this stage we will be taking names and email addresses of people who can commit to this event. This is a first-come-first-served event, with STRICTLY LIMITED SEATING. The Roxy isn't huge, and food needs to be ordered WELL in advance.


If you can make it to this event, please do the following:

1. Send an email to "events@welly-moot.com", with a Subject of "The End Of All Things".
2. Tell us how many tickets you want.
3. Tell us a full name, and a working email address for EVERY TICKET REQUESTED
4. Expect further announcements soon.

Failure to follow the steps may result in confusion and extra work for us, and no tickets for you. Please make this easy for us.

Once we have the required numbers confirmed, we will be asking people to pay the tickets in full, most probably before Christmas.


We will try to keep things fair - if you've been around for the last few Hobbit years, you know we had lots of people interested in past events, so please book early!

Also, please SHARE this page around on your social media, or print it out and pin it to the notice board at the office. There's also a Facebook page set up, so please share that one around also.

  - The crew at Welly-moot

Welly-moot #4.6, Report - Galadriel's Gifts

The last Welly-moot of 2015, moot #4.6, was held on Sunday the 29th of November at the Embassy Theatre.

We started with an ‘OMG’ announcement for Welly-mooters. We will post it on this website shortly so keep eye on it. It's pretty awesome, but we have to get the details right before we can announce it properly. Expect something pretty exciting in the next week!



Today though, three new Welly-mooters joined us - Tara & Chad, and Jade. Apart from her many creative skills, Jade also works as a guide at Weta Cave, and turns out to be very knowledgable on all matters Tolkien. Tara and Chad are travelling fans, and are currently visiting (more than a) few Middle-earth locations around New Zealand. Once they were introduced, we continued with the roundtable introductions and some general updates as usual. Great news are Sinead’s new job at Weta Degital, and new documentary project related with Tolkien from Will & Erica - looking forward to offering our assistance when the time comes closer!



The moot's theme was "The gifts from Galadriel". We are sure you know all the gifts, but here is a friendly reminder for you just in case.

Before the parting, the Fellowship members were given Lembas, Elven cloaks, Elven brooches, Elven ropes, and boats.


At the parting, Galadriel presented specific gifts to each member of the Fellowship.

• Aragorn – Elfstone and a sheath for Anduril
• Boromir – his golden belt
• Merry & Pippin – Silver belts
• Legolas – Galadhrim bow with elven hair string, and plenty of arrows
• Sam – a box marked with a silver rune "G for Galadriel". Inside the box was some earth from Galadriel's orchard and a silver nut from a Mallorn tree.
• Gimli – Three strands of Galadriel’s hair
• Frodo - Phial of Galadriel

There followed some interesting discussions;

• Based on the history of the relationship between Elves and Dwarves, Galadriel’s offer to Gimli is unique and remarkable.
• Galadriel had the foresight and so she prepared very special gifts which would be useful on their journey later on.
• The gift from Galadriel who is high-elf, to Legolas who is low(er)-elf.
• How Boromir’s gold belt and Merry & Pippin’s silver belts were used on the story.

It was suggested that in the movie, perhaps Galadriel doesn't give Boromir any personal gifts because with her foresight, she knew that he was portrayed by Sean Bean (who always dies). A good theory!




One sad item of news - one of our longest Welly-moot members, Annabelle, is moving to Hamilton with her two Hobbits. We would like to thank Annabelle for all your contribution to our little group, we will miss you. We wish you the best in your new life and hope we will meet again soon. Remember, you're a member for life!

Our next meeting will be on Sunday 31st January 2016. Keep checking our website for an exciting announcement! Talk to you soon.

  - Alex

Stansborough Textiles reopens its doors!

Earlier this month, Welly-moot received an invite to the exclusive Grand Opening at Stansborough Textiles on Wednesday September 9th.

Stansborough, the company behind the Fellowship cloaks, has moved to their new venue in Petone, Lower Hutt. Unfortunately Jack was on a business trip in South Island, so one of the fellow Welly-mooters, Cinnamon, joined me (Alex) as representation of the Welly-moot. Cinnamon was a great companion and we met up with some very passionate people for arts and designs. It was a special night.

New gallery

Secret wardrobe

The tour of the hundred year old weaving machines – they are magnificent

Guess who we met! Alex with Daniel Reeve, Caligrapher, who created the maps, Bilbo’s book, and Thorin's contract in the Peter Jackson’s movies, Lord of the Rings and Hobbit.

The Grand Opening for the general public was today (September 13th), so go and check them out, or give them a call to arrange a tour!

  - Alex

Welly-moot #4.4 Mid-Year Christmas

On Sunday the 26th of July, the Welly-moot was held at the home of myself & Alex. I didn't mention this at the moot, but it was our 30th Tolkien get-together! Rather than a "proper" Tolkien-related theme, it was more of a purely social gathering this time, for existing members to get together and enjoy spending a very pleasant afternoon in each other's company.


Not much to report really; the food was excellent - thank you everyone for your contributions - and the conversation flowed well. A very special thank you to Cathy from Canada (not present at the moot, unfortunately) for providing the most excellent Maple flavoured coffee - I'd been saving it for a special occasion. :)


We all had an opportunity to meet with some of the regular members' less regular partners, which was really nice. I also had a chance to show off some of the more precious things in my collection, which seemed to be enjoyed by the group.


No real news to report this month. I'm still in talks with the relevant people about our special upcoming event (!), and I'm hoping to finally be able to go public on that soon. Keep watching this space!

One item - you may have noticed that the official Welly-moot pins, designed by our own member Annabel, are no longer available in Silver, just in the Bronze. If you don't have yours yet, order one soon! They look fantastic. To place an order, just click the "Add to Cart" button on the right hand side of the Welly-moot.com site.

For the people who had contacted me wanting to join this meeting but where not yet members - the next Welly-moot will be held as a normal meeting, with new members accepted again. Details are on our Calendar page.

I think the last meeting of this year, in November, will be a special one - it will mark the 5th anniversary of the existence of the group. Might have to have some prizedraws for that one!

Also: I'm taking suggestions for our September Welly-moot theme! Email/facebook message me!


  - Jack

Coming up: Mid-year Christmas moot July 26th

This July the 26th, the Welly-moot will be held at the home of Jack and Alex, as a mid-winter Christmas moot (welcome to the southern hemisphere!). As this is our home, we won't be taking on new members this meeting.

Please RSVP via email to let us know you're coming, and to get the street address. If you're not sure if you're an existing member, drop me a line also!

The event will be the same as previous years, and we're once again aiming for a "bring a plate" lunch, so please bring something yummy to share. Home-cooked will receive the best compliments (hint!)...


Details of the lunch:

• Arrive here at around 11:00am
• Lunch will be served around 12:30pm
• Finish when we're good-and-done

 
So, one more time - please send me an email to let me know you're coming. We cancelled last time due to lack of RSVP's.

My address is jack@welly-moot.com.


  - Jack & Alex

Gandalf! - Theme for Welly-moot #4.3, May 31st at the Embassy

Greetings, Welly-mooters. On May 31st, at 2:00pm, we will meet at the Embassy Cinema in Wellington. Spread the word, and get ready! Our topic for the next Welly-moot is:

GANDALF

Gandalf, © John Howe (*)

Who doesn't wish for a helpful wizard to call on now and then for advice on life's choices and help in dealing with trolls? Granted, Tolkien's wizard had a penchant for steering friends into uncomfortable and downright dangerous situations and sometimes leaving them to figure things out for themselves. He chose his companions well, though, knowing they were each up to whatever might come.

What are your favourite passages in Tolkien's writings that describe Gandalf's wisdom, humour, and personality? Have any of his words and deeds written of by the Professor influenced you in any way so that you did, in fact, have a wizard by your side? Is there still a place for the wandering wizard in our modern life? Bring your favourite quotes and scenes, art pieces and mementoes of Gandalf the Grey and the White.

“When evening in the Shire was grey
his footsteps on the Hill were heard;
before the dawn he went away
on journey long without a word.

From Wilderland to Western shore,
from northern waste to southern hill,
through dragon-lair and hidden door
and darkling woods he walked at will.

With Dwarf and Hobbit, Elves and Men,
with mortal and immortal folk,
with bird on bough and beast in den,
in their own secret tongues he spoke.

A deadly sword, a healing hand,
a back that bent beneath its load;
a trumpet-voice, a burning brand,
a weary pilgrim on the road.

A lord of wisdom throned he sat,
swift in anger, quick to laugh;
an old man in a battered hat
who leaned upon a thorny staff.

He stood upon the bridge alone
and Fire and Shadow both defied;
his staff was broken on the stone,
in Khazad-dûm his wisdom died.”

    - J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Ah, but that it did not, Frodo!

  -Kris

--
Also at the meeting, we will discuss a few other items - notably we will talk about the "One Last 'One Last Time' Time" event that was previously hinted at, as well as a few other Tolkien related projects in the works behind the scenes. We may not be in a position to reveal everything online afterwards, so if you want to be in-the-know, you'll have to attend the moot!

  - Jack


--

(*) The Gandalf illustration is © John Howe, and used with permission from the artist. If you haven't been to his website yet, it's time you did! John Howe was intimately involved in the shaping of Peter Jackson' s Middle-earth, and looking through his Galleries, it's easy to see how much of that was kept intact in the movies.

One Last "One Last Time" Time...? [Watch This Space!]

Exciting news! After some months of rumours, I can now confirm that Welly-moot is officially in talks to set up one last big Middle-earth event, here in Wellington! The event would take place in Miramar, at a well-known location, in the coming months.

I can't reveal much else right now, but can I suggest you all starts saving your pennies and patching your costumes one more time, since you won't want to miss this last-time-ever event.

Not only will this be a "last-time-ever" event, but if all goes well, Wellington will be the first in the world to host this.


Mysterious enough for you? :)



If you want to hear up-to-the-minute information on this as it comes to hand, get on our mailing list by sending an email to "mailinglist@welly-moot.com", with a subject of "Subscribe".

We're also on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+, so no need to miss out anywhere!


  - Jack

Welly-moot #4.2 was today - good fun meeting

This year's Tolkien Reading Day was celebrated on its usual date of March 25th, but we delayed it until our scheduled Moot day of March 29th, which was today. The Tolkien Society (UK) had announced that the theme for this year's day was to be "friendship".

The meeting began at the usual 2:00pm at the Embassy Cinema, and the regulars and a few new faces enjoyed a cup of coffee over the introductions, and joined in a recap of the excellent event last month of the opening of the Rivendell Archway at the Kaitoke Regional Park. Since most of the members present had actually attended the event, it took a little while to recount everyone's experiences. All in all, we agreed that the Archway had been opened in style.

[Picture] The fellowship returns from a quest. (c) 2015 Jack Machiela

The discussion began soon afterwards. A number of battered (and pristine!) copies of various Middle-earth books appeared on the table, and everyone read out their favourite sections. The friendships between Frodo and Sam, and between Gimli and Legolas were mentioned a number of times, as well as those between Gandalf and Frodo, and Bilbo and Frodo's special status as "Elf Friend". Also, the very equal-status friendship between Tom Bombadil and his wife Goldberry the River Daughter stood out to some.

All too soon, our time came to an end. I wanted to broach one other subject - this week saw the introduction of the last Hobbit movie in its theatrical edition, as well as the first Hobbit boxed sets on DVD and BluRay, so that leaves one final edition to go - the last Hobbit movie in its Extended form. We briefly speculated some of the scenes we may yet see in that - hoped for are Thorin's funeral scene properly, and we may yet see Thranduil receive his white bejewelled necklace.

However, we all agreed enthusiastically that we would like to see the last release marked with a special event - perhaps we can convince a cinema somewhere to release it with an Extended Ultra Marathon - all six movies, back-to-back, in a single sitting.

I will start talking to the appropriate people soon! [NB - if you're one of the appropriate people, drop me a line!]

Looking forward to the next meeting in a few months!

  - Jack

Rivendell Archway, official opening

I'm just compiling a final list of confirmed people who can turn up to the Rivendell Archway opening on March 7th - if you haven't received an email from me tonight, but were hoping/expecting to join us, please let me know as soon as possible - I need to get back to the council in the next few days with finalised numbers. My email address is jack@welly-moot.com.

If you want to join us but hadn't let anyone know, this is your chance to get in and have a bunch of fun on the day! If you don't have a costume, we can arrange one for you if necessary. Also get in touch with me, in that case.

  - Jack

Welly-moot Event - Hobbit Costume Trail

A small group of Welly-mooters had a great day today - we managed to start and complete the Wellington Hobbit Costume Trail. Originally we thought we could do it in a few hours, that proved to be more like 5 hours instead, mostly because we were pretty relaxed about life in general.

Daniel, Jack, Cinnamon, Sarah, Alex, and Alistair posing in front of a display at Te Papa.

The day started at 11:00am, in front of the Wellington Railway Station. From there we walked to the Rydges Hotel, for Thorin's costume.Rather than walking you through the whole day (should have joined us!), I'll let the photos tell the story.

Thorin at the Rydges Hotel

Gloin at the Ibis Hotel

Bilbo at the Kircaldie & Stains shopping complex

Bilbo's Mithril coat

Dwalin at the James Cook Hotel

Gandalf at the Intercontinental Hotel

Gandalf's staff, with some secret marks

Tauriel at the iSite Information Centre

Balin at the Westplaza Hotel

Legolas at Wharewaka Boathouse

Azog at Te Papa Museum

Elf Lieutenant at Te Papa Museum

Elf Soldier at Te Papa Museum

Radagast at the Museum Hotel

Radagast's got two mismatched shoes

Oin at the CQ Hotel

Oin's warm knitted gloves

Bombur at the Embassy Cinema

Bifur at the Embassy Cinema

Bofur at the Embassy Cinema

Bard at the Copthorne Oriental Hotel

Kili (& scale Kili) at the Airport

Fili at the Airport

Gandalf on an eagle at the Airport

Gollum at the Airport

Smaug at the Airport

Dori at the Roxy Cinema

Nori at the Roxy Cinema

Ori at the Roxy Cinema

Weapons on the wall at the Roxy Cinema

Dale Market Flags at the Roxy Cinema

Welly-moot activity - Hobbit Costume Trail this Saturday! Come join us!

In honour of the completion of Wellington's trip to Middle-earth in the last fifteen years or so, the City Council has got together with a number of hotels and other venues around town, and the studios, and have hidden a number of original costumes from the Hobbit movies.

Alex and I have decided we are going to find all the costumes hidden around the Wellington CBD this Saturday.

If anyone wants to join us, we will meet in front of the Wellington Railway Station on January 10th, at 10:50am, and we'll start walking towards the Embassy end of town, hitting all the costumes along the way. You don't need to RSVP, but we will leave at 11:00am sharp, so if you're not there and start late, drop me an email (I always have my smart phone with me), and I'll let you know where to run to.

My email address is "jack@welly-moot.com".


Get your free maps from the Wellington iSite, and a few other places as well, or download them from their website.


Hope to see a few of you there!

  - Jack & Alex

Dec 28 - Welly-moot 3.6, our annual Christmas-moot

The last Welly-moot of 2014 will be held on the last Sunday of 2013, December the 28th. It's fast becoming a tradition, but Alex & I (Jack) will once again be hosting the final moot of the year at our house. Since this is our private home, we will not be taking on new members for this meeting.

Just like the last few years, this will be a shared lunch, so please bring a plate (full of food, obviously). :)


So, if you're currently a member of Welly-moot, and want to come and join us for a friendly get-together, send me an email and I'll reply with the address. If you're not sure if you're a member, email me anyway. :)

My email address is "jack@welly-moot.com".

We're aiming for a "bring a plate" lunch, so please bring something yummy to share. Home-cooked will receive the best compliments (hint!)...


 Details of the lunch:

• Arrive here at around 11:00am
• Lunch will be served around 12:30pm
• Finish around 4:00pm

As for a theme - we're hoping that everyone has had a chance to see the last Hobbit movie, so that will be the topic of the day.

So be warned, there will be spoilers!


Please email me with your intentions!

Hobbit 3 Premiere Attendance

The Welly-moot was present at the Hobbit 3 Premiere event at The Roxy last week, and Dianne sent me a copy of a great group shot. Thought I'd share it here for the group!

(If you can't see the picture, click on the link to get out of facebook - the blog has the pics)

  - Jack

Talk: "Tolkien & The Spirituality Of The Hobbit"

Through our contacts at the Roxy Cinema, I've been alerting to a Tolkien event happening next week.

On December 18 at 7:30pm, local vicar Dr Tim McKenzie will be delivering a talk on "Tolkien & The Spirituality Of The Hobbit" at the clubhouse of the Seatoun Bowling Club (16 Dundas Street, Seatoun).

 All are welcome - and the talk itself is free. The bar will be open for refreshments.

 I plan to attend, and will be driving through town to get there - let me know if anyone needs a lift.

Welly-moot Event: Wellington Premiere of Hobbit 3 BOTFA at Roxy

On December the 2nd, early in the morning, the Roxy will be hosting a special event and advanced screening of Hobbit 3 BOTFA for a select audience. The exclusive event, is Invitation Only, and the Welly-moot has been given a number of invitations to distribute amongst its members.

Those regular attendees of our meetings who were able to attend the event, as well as a number of other deserving Tolkien fans, have now been contacted, and your tickets should now be making their way to your door. If you haven't heard anything from the movie's distributors (Roadshow Ltd) by now, please get in touch with me as soon as possible!

I've been sent a press-release from the good folks at Roadshow Ltd, so rather than me retyping their event, here's the complete text from their memo.

---

MIRAMAR CELEBRATES THE FINAL FILM IN THE HOBBIT TRILOGY

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tuesday, 25 November 2014 – Auckland, New Zealand

Gearing up for the release of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, The Roxy Cinema in Miramar, Wellington will play host to a special celebration on December 2 (NZT), with an advanced screening of the film to an audience of fans, local cast and crew from film production with Sir Richard Taylor in attendance.

The Miramar event is part of a global celebration of the final journey to Middle-earth and will be linked via interactive satellite with the film’s London World Premiere, which will stream live before guests and VIPs prior to watching the highly anticipated finale of The Hobbit Trilogy.

Marking the end of an era, this special premiere event brings together the Wellington film community to celebrate all the hard work and inspiration that has gone into bringing the world of Middle-earth to life for The Hobbit Trilogy and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy more than a decade ago.

“It’s truly fitting that the Wellington celebrations for the film will be held here in Miramar where it all began; as a phenomenal journey and era comes to an end,” said co-founder and co-director of WETA Workshop Sir Richard Taylor.   “The day marks a significant milestone in our career, and I am both excited and eager for what is next to come.”

Counting down to the New Zealand release of the film, New Zealanders can also enjoy a special 10-day projection presentation at The Roxy starting December 1.

The Hobbit Trilogy will be brought to life on the front of The Roxy building where a state-of-the art 10-15 minute projection show will play multiple times each night just after sunset.

“Ann and I are thrilled that our iconic, award winning cinema is playing host to such a significant and world-class event,” said Roxy co-owner Jamie Selkirk.

Showcasing the breathtaking special effects created by WETA Workshop and WETA Digital using sound and projection, the presentation follows the film’s characters and creatures on their adventures through the first two films leading up to the release of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.

Sir Richard Taylor also endorsed the projections. “I hope visitors to The Roxy are inspired, and enjoy their time in the heart of the film making capital, Wellington,” he added.

The incentive is supported by Weta Workshop, Weta Digital, Wellington City Council, Wellington Airport, Warner Bros. Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, New Line Cinema and The Roxy.

The film, a production of New Line Cinema and Metro Goldwyn-Meyer Pictures (MGM), is the third and final film in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit Trilogy and releases across New Zealand cinemas on December 11.

New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Present a Wingnut Films Production, “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.”  As with the first two films in the Trilogy, “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” and “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,” the final film is a production of New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures (MGM), with New Line managing production.   Warner Bros. Pictures is handling worldwide theatrical distribution, with select international territories as well as all international television distribution being handled by MGM. 

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