Laketown located?

Update 16-Aug-2011 - Rumour retracted...
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Last night I heard an interesting rumour from one of my spies who is currently in the South Island. She's been spending the winter in the beautiful Waitaki Valley, somewhere inland between Oamaru and Timaru (which in turn are between Christchurch and Dunedin).


She's heard from a source that "a big movie" is being filmed somewhere between the towns of Duntroon (population 114) and Kurow (population 339), along the Waitaki River.

Coupled with reports (here, and here) of Luke Evans (playing Bard the Bowman) and Stephen Fry (playing Master of Laketown) coming into New Zealand for their scenes, is it possible that the next location to be filmed is Laketown?


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Note also its proximity to the town of Twizel, which was previously used for LOTR's Pelenor Fields battles.


My contact is hoping to get more details by next Monday. Of course, none of this is confirmed or official in any way, and in fact, it may not even be The Hobbit movies at all! That's certainly happened before (Rumour 3 on this previous report turned out to be non-Hobbit, for instance)...

We'll just have to wait and see. Hopefully another report next week!


  - Jack

Celebrity watch - Stephen Fry spotted in Wellington?

I've just heard from a friend that Stephen Fry may be in town at the moment. Stephen Fry has been rumoured to be up for a role (as a dwarf?) in The Hobbit, so it might make sense. I mean, he's 6'4.5", so he'd make a perfect dwarf, right? (Keeping in mind, Gimli was played by the giant John Rhys-Davies, who's 6'1")

However, there might be another possibility - I heard a different rumour from another contact yesterday that Peter Jackson's film Dambusters might have started filming in the Hutt Valley at a location previously set up for the now failed movie "Kingdom Come". Stephen Fry is supposed to be writing the script for Dambusters, so maybe he's just here for that.

Or then again, maybe he's here for both!

  - Jack M.