Brad Moore At War

I come with fresh news from the department of understatement: Lord of the Rings is sort of a big deal in New Zealand. In fact, you know how Nebraska is only in most people’s minds because of football, farms, and Warren Buffet? Turns out that New Zealand is only in most people’s minds because of rugby, farms, and Peter Jackson. If the All Blacks are NZ’s Cornhuskers, then Wellywood is NZ’s Berkshire Hathaway.

Based on this, it may not come as much of a surprise to you that Wellington is TOTALLY decked out for the premier tomorrow afternoon. Every business owner in town has huge dollar signs in their eyes. Buildings are plastered with giant murals and sculptures from the movies. People from all over the world are flying down to the far bottom-right corner of civilization. Cameras clicking, gears turning, and movie stars randomly showing up and signing autographs all over town.

I gotta be honest: I love it. All of Courtenay Place is going to be completely PACKED with people tomorrow – red carpet running all the way to The Embassy Theatre at the far end. As for tonight, I’m going to head down to the waterfront right now and join about 1000 people watching Return of the King on this mild, 70 degree New Zealand evening… in front of a huge outdoor screen between the skate park and the Hobbit Market. (I love that this was an actual sentence that I just typed in real life.)