Peter Jackson: Hobbit was almost filmed in Britain

DanielLB

DanielLB

Immortal
So says The Telegraph.

A snippet:

The worst time for me [Peter Jackson] was when a huge box arrived in the office... this large cardboard box arrived and they had sent a location scout around England and Scotland to take photographs.
Click to expand...

To be honest ... I'm glad they didn't shoot it here. Nothing beats the New Zealand vistas, and we certainly don't have much pristine countryside anymore.
 
New Zealands mountains are undoubtedly better, but the Shire and much of the woodland scenery isn't that different. At least if it had been filmed in the UK we wouldn't have to put up with that damned tussock grass in so many shot.
 
The mountains arent as high as the ones in New Zealand which would have been a problem for the misty mountains but for pretty much everything else it would have been fine for, then just a journey down south for the shire.

I think Eastern Europe would have been a good alternative if NZ was no longer an option.
 
The Hobbit shot in Romania, Poland, Bulgaria, Czech Republic etc. :) , that would've been interesting. I can only imagine what thrust the film industry in those countries could've received. It would've been fair, NZ already had LOTR :) Perhaps The Silmarillion, one day.
 
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I'd not do them in NZ. We're deaing with a diffrent part of middle Earth, and a different time. Although, if there's any overlap, I'd film those scenes in NZ.
 
i think they should go to other places, get a unique feel for the movie.

NZ is gorgeous but there are loads of beautiful places in literally every country of the world, so im sure they would find brilliant alternatives.

If they had a near unlimited budget (kinda like the hobbit, lol) then you could just film certain parts of the film in one country then move on to another country for the next part of the film, james bond style.
 
But there simply isn't enough untouched, empty landscape left here, probably due to being smaller and having had populations living here for thousands of years. Also no location even in remotest Scotland isn't more than a few miles from a road, telephone line, village or some other modern structure. The film makers would have had to erase a lot of objects digitally.

And finally the UK has just had its worst weather in about 100 years so every shot would've looked bleak and sodden.
 
with nothing for miles around - i have done extensive walking/camping in Scotland and there is some real open expanses of nothing. Talking 10 mile walks to get to the start of the walk, lol.

Phone lines would be a doddle to remove, WETA think nothing of changing an entire sky for example. Also some parts of lotr were filmed not far from towns etc.

The best bet would be a global effort though moving from location to location - some of New Zealand is perfect but it doesnt mean other places couldnt do it.
 
They haven't done much location shooting for TH, and almost all of that could have been done in the UK no problem. Much of the Scottish Highlands, the Snowdonia part of Wales and the Lake District in England would have served very well indeed.

The only problem I can think of is Hobbiton, which sits perfectly in it's original location in NZ. The Hobbit holes had been up for ages so it would have been insane if they suddenly had to do a complete rebuild in the UK.
 
But there's so much more out there. They can film the Shire here, but for the epic shots, I think they would need to go elsewhere.

Plus, if it was filmed here, I would be in prison for harassment! They wouldn't r able to keep me off set.[evil]
 
would have been perfect. It has the rugged mountains of Scotland and Snowdonia, it has the green rolling hills of the Cotswolds and the Lake District, the moors and heaths of Northumbria, the Derbyshire Peak district, the scenery of Ireland and Wales is second to none. It would have also been the real Middle Earth where Tolkien imagined it being. The only problem would have been the rain, and it does kind of rain 24/7, thats why its so green.
[tongue] maybe next time.
 
I remember the who thing like it was yesterday. The films almost didn't get made or almost were made in England... Thanks to the the "Australian Bully Boy" as PJ called him...
 
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