In the lead up to the Hollywood première of the second instalment of The Hobbit Trilogy – The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, film director Sir Peter Jackson made appearances for the press on the Book of New Zealand – a spectacular giant pop-up book at the Beverly Hilton Hotel telling the story of the real New Zealand landscapes featured in his latest film.
Rising 15 metres and roughly the size of two tennis courts side-by-side, the larger than life Book of New Zealand was divided into four sets featuring backdrops and props from the movie sets – Hidden Bay (Turoa, Ruapehu); Forest River (Pelorus, Marlborough); Lake-town (Lake Pukaki / Mt Cook); Beorn’s House (Paradise, Queenstown).
The highly detailed sets were filled with genuine props and original set construction from the film sets that had been transported in six shipping containers from New Zealand and reassembled in Los Angeles by the same team that designed and built them for the film. The Book of New Zealand was open for five days hosting a series of private events for cast, media and VIPs, and public visits for Los Angeles The Hobbit Trilogy fans.
Jackson explained the reality of the New Zealand landscapes that inspired his Middle-earth, the varying nature of the terrain and how each fits the fantasy of the film as he talks through the majestic alpine landscape surrounding Lake Pukaki, the deep waters of Pelorus in Marlborough, and the tranquil rural valley of Paradise near Queenstown.
Sitting on set in Paradise, with the magnificent backdrop of the now famous film location near Queenstown in New Zealand’s South Island, Sir Peter described in detail the reasons why these principal locations were chosen for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. “Tolkien is very vivid in the way he describes landscapes. In these books the landscape and the environment and even the weather, and the heather or the moss or the grass is described in quite loving detail so you come away with a strong sense of landscape having read the books. And, so for us, that was always an important factor in the movies,” said Jackson.
