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May 26, 2012

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Fantasy Comes Alive in New Zealand


When The Lord of the Rings trilogy became a cultural phenomenon, people no longer had to imagine J.R.R. Tolkien’s mystical, supernatural universe; Peter Jackson had found it in New Zealand. The country’s rich variety of landscapes, from the rolling pastures of the North Island to staggering mountains on the South Island, helped bring to life what was previously only a fiction.

New Zealand has 13 national parks and reserves protect about one third of its land. These provide many of the locations for some of the most captivating scenery in recent film history. LOTR’s Mount Doom was one of Tongariro National Park’s three imposing volcanoes, while The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe featured the majestic mountains of New Zealand’s south as well as some unusual natural rock formations.

Recent and future movies like The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, out May 16, and Guillermo del Toro’s The Hobbit, scheduled for a 2011 release, re-crafted the unreal beauty of their fictional worlds in New Zealand.

As if the physical splendor weren’t enough to draw moviemakers in from all over the world, the government of New Zealand offers many incentives to film there, including a grant of 15 percent of qualifying expenditures for large-budget screen productions of feature films, television movies (drama) and television drama series or miniseries. There is no income tax for these large-budget productions and the production costs are an estimated 20 percent cheaper than those of neighboring Australia. Plus, the American dollar is faring pretty well there, worth about 1.277 New Zealand dollars.

It’s not hard to see why moviemakers from all over the world have used New Zealand to bring some of our favorite dreams to the silver screen. Beyond the ones mentioned above, New Zealand provided the breathtaking scenery for these other famous films:

The Piano
The Lost World: Jurassic Park
Whale Rider
The Last Samurai
King Kong
Bridge to Terabithia
10,000 B.C.

For more information about filming in New Zealand, visit www.filmnz.com.


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COMMENTS | POST A COMMENT

Comment by haiming webhosting reviews on 5/16/08 at 9:46 pm

Great!Hope too see!

Comment by Peter Monroe on 9/10/08 at 2:39 pm

How to Work on films in New Zealand...hobbit?  So the Hobbit is green lit and most likely to be shot in New Zealand again. I already work in the film industry here in the states in the costume/wardrobe department. How would I go about finding a way to work on this picture?

Comment by Jason on 10/20/08 at 11:39 pm

New zealand is famous with its great natural beauty. It’s a great country and a very good location for shooting a film. I just got my flight and hotel in new zealand booked for next month for location inspection. Hope to enjoy the fresh air on my trekking overthere.

Comment by zara clothing on 12/21/08 at 2:34 pm

I would really like to goto new zealand! they have more zara clothing stores than here.

Comment by life on 3/21/09 at 9:21 am

Wow, that was heart provoking article presented by you sir
thanks for sharing
regards

Comment by shoebuy on 9/15/09 at 8:31 pm

really luv to go to New Zealand.

Comment by ashley madison on 9/15/09 at 8:32 pm

just heard New Zealand is more beautiful than OZ,wanna to go.

Comment by dating site review on 3/11/10 at 9:33 pm

woo,look really nice,thanks for share

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