Lord of the Rings preview steals festival limelight

By HELEN BARLOW and MONIQUE DEVEREUX

The cream of the international movie world may have been on show in Cannes at the weekend, but it was a New Zealand film-maker and his 25 minutes of footage that stole the limelight.

A small group of the entertainment media elite were treated to the world's first official sneak preview of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy at the annual French film festival, which rates even higher than the Oscars in movieland.

The Wellington director and the production company New Line Cinema brought most of the cast, numerous props and even a Hobbit house to Cannes to launch the elaborate promotion of the $600 million trilogy. The festivities ended with a lavish Back-to-Middle-Earth party at a chateau last night.

But it was the 25 minutes of footage that won the entertainment hacks over, with Ian Holm (Bilbo Baggins), Cate Blanchett (Elf queen Galadriel) and Sir Ian McKellen (good wizard Gandalf) the standouts.

The first section was a compilation of lyrical countryside scenes of Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood) and the Hobbit community, then came a 14-minute, warrior-style sequence of the journey through the mines of Moria.

There were also snippets from the second and third films.

Each part of the trilogy cost $200 million - cheap for such an elaborate fantasy film. The low cost was made possible by filming in New Zealand.

The Army was used for battle scenes, and Jackson explained that "since New Zealand is a small country, the Government was keen to help in whatever way."

"The Prime Minister actually came to visit us early on and she said, 'What can we do to help?' And we said, 'Have you got any spare soldiers?' and she immediately contacted the Minister of Defence who made a battalion of soldiers available.

"It was kind of fun with the soldiers - we got to train them in the use of swords and shields and spears, and with the defence cutbacks we have in New Zealand, it will be useful training for them."

The first film opens in the United States on December 19, with New Zealand, Australia, Europe and Latin America following over the next 10 days.

Herald Online feature: Lord of the Rings