I haven't heard much in the way of juicy rumours and gossip, but I did hear this one a couple of times this past week - apparently the Weta Cave is looking to close its doors for a few days towards the end of July or so, to change all their museum displays around.
Apparently the only display to stay in its place will be the ghost dog from The Frighteners - it's very fragile, and they don't want to move it ever again, by all accounts. The story goes that Weta Workshop Manager Tania Rodger (who is also, incidentally, Richard Taylor's wife) moved it in to the cave personally, and wouldn't let anyone else move it again - if it was going to get damaged, she'd rather she was to blame herself.
I'm hoping we're going to see more Hero stuff - main characters clothing perhaps. Also, I sincerely hope they're leaving both Gollum and Lurtz in place - they're just too awesome to put into storage! Actually, what would be REALLY nice would be Minas Tirith - the 5.5m tall miniature of the 7-tiered city! I last saw that at the travelling LOTR exhibition, back in 2006, I think? Unfortunately there isn't much change of that since the ceilings aren't 5.5m tall... :(
*sigh*... there's so much cool stuff yet to be seen - I heard Richard Taylor himself state at an Australian convention that there were about 45,000 props made for LOTR, and that in 2005 they still took up 249 fullsized shipping containers! It seems crazy to me that it's in containers when the world so desparately wants to see it all!
In the meantime though - the message to anyone out there who hasn't seen the Cave up close yet - come quickly before they change everything - and then come again AFTER they've changed everything!
- Jack M.
Looks like in this case I was just in time! And I finally saw THE FRIGHTENERS over the weekend -- it was quite fun, and fun to see that great, unnamed "American" city again!
ReplyDeleteHehe, yeah, you mean Christchurch and Wellington... I think they're in the Mid-West somewhere, aren't they? ;)
ReplyDeleteActually, next time you come back, remind me to show you where they filmed that one. I know a few of those locations too! (I wouldn't be much of a tourguide if I didn't!)
I can also show you the Braindead ones, and the Meet The Feebles places, and at some stage I should probably do a hunt for the Bad Taste locations - that would be awesome!
Maybe this summer??! (Hint, Ryan - come over by this summer, and I'll wait for you) :)
- Jack
That brings up an interesting question - at the moment I only run Lord Of The Rings tours, but would anyone be interested in coming on a Peter Jackson Movies tour? I might put that up as the next survey perhaps...
ReplyDeleteComments, anyone?
- Jack M.
I believe (but nothing more than that) that a lot of the props are gonna go into the Miramar cinema ONCE they have the time to focus upon on it - post Hobbit and Dambusters.
ReplyDeleteThoughts>
Jack-
ReplyDeleteThis is Parker, the webmaster at DelToroFilms.com. I think you're blog is great - can I link to it over at our site? Contact me through my site and let me know!
thanks
@Parker
ReplyDeleteSweet as! Check your email...
- Jack