Word: zealanders
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...Zealand Desk...
...film's vast scope ranges from the snowy, unspoiled peaks of Middle-earth (shot in various New Zealand locales) to the city of Isengard (a composite of models and computer-generated imagery), which is destroyed--spectacularly--by a brigade of towering, treelike creatures known as Ents. Meanwhile, the hobbit hero Frodo (Elijah Wood) continues his quest: he must destroy the magic Ring before the Dark Lord Sauron can use it to rule the world. Aragorn (played by Mortensen, who transforms himself before your eyes from brooding beefcake to full-blown movie star) embarks across the desolate plains of Middle-earth...
...cliff-hanger, which will be resolved in The Return of the King, the final installment, set for release next year. A rough cut of that movie has already been assembled and is in Jackson's vaults. Producer Barrie M. Osborne is trying to wrangle the cast back to New Zealand for more shooting next summer...
...began working together almost immediately. Their screenplay for the brilliantly creepy 1994 Heavenly Creatures, about a well-known New Zealand murder case, earned them an Oscar nomination and put them on Hollywood's radar. Universal soon enlisted Jackson to direct The Frighteners, a 1996 horror-comedy starring Michael J. Fox. It didn't scare up much business, but it did enable Jackson to add a computer division to Weta Workshop, the struggling special-effects company he had formed years earlier with Richard Taylor...
Jackson is also hoping his facilities will entice other Hollywood filmmakers to pour money into the New Zealand economy. Some of Tom Cruise's next movie, The Last Samurai, will be shot there. Jackson's empire is just a short drive down a winding mountain road from the house where he and Walsh live. They are a curious couple; she is as thin as he is round, and they amuse each other endlessly. Besides co-writing the screenplay, Walsh directed bits of the trilogy. "We have very similar tastes, and that leads to an enormous amount of trust," says Jackson...