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The Film Unit Ltd; commissioner
Overview
This ring is a souvenir from the Australasian premiere of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, held in Wellington on 19 December 2001. As the title of the trilogy suggests, rings are at the centre of The Lord of the Rings. The story follows Frodo Baggins as he attempts to destroy the One Ring, created by Sauron to rule the other rings of power.
Directed by Peter Jackson, the three Lord of the Rings movies (released between 2001 and 2003) had a profound effect on New Zealand’s film industry. The success of the films demonstrated that New Zealand could make movies on a very large scale, and, with the added incentive of tax breaks up to 20%, the number of international productions set in New Zealand has increased each year. In 2018, prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, the screen industry was worth NZ$3.2 billion.
The films also had a huge influence on the tourism industry; one tourism official called The Lord of the Rings ‘the best unpaid advertisement New Zealand has ever had’. In the decade after the trilogy was released international visits to Wellington rose by 87%, and even twenty years later sites associated with the films are popular with tourists. In 2019 Tourism New Zealand found that approximately one-third of international visitors will visit a Lord of the Rings film site when visiting New Zealand.
The world premiere of The Followship of the Ring was held in London on 10 December 2001, but the Australasian premiere in Wellington was, according to Jackson, the ‘real premiere’. Mayor Kerry Prendergast temporarily renamed Wellington ‘Middle Earth’, there was a huge street party in the central city, and a 200-metre red carpet was laid along the route to the Embassy Theatre.
The ring is a souvenir from the premiere and reads ‘Ring 0800 Film Unit’. The Film Unit Ltd became Park Road Post Production Limited (owned by WingNut films, Peter Jackson's production company). The ring comes in a pouch printed with the Film Unit Ltd logo and ‘Lord of the Rings Premiere Dec 2001’.
References:
- Baille, Russell, and Paula Oliver. n.d. ‘Jackson the star of Wellington Rings premiere’. New Zealand Herald.
- Barkham, Patrick. 2001. ‘Elves, orcs, hobbits and Kiwis’. The Guardian, 8 December.
- Gray, Tim. 2021. ‘Peter Jackson: New Zealand's Local Hero After “Lord of the Rings”’, Variety, 16 December.
- Jameson, Julietta. 2021. ‘Lord of the Rings film 20th anniversary: How one film changed New Zealand forever’. The Sydney Morning Herald, 10 December.
- Martin, Helen. 2014. 'Feature film'. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand.
- Meneguzzi, Justin. 2022. ‘How to explore Lord of the Rings filming locations in New Zealand’. National Geographic, 2 October.