Lord of the Rings

I could (and still cannot) believe the astronomical impact that the Hobbit/Lord of the Rings trilogy has made on New Zealand. Virtually everywhere we went, Peter Jackson’s name was mentioned as having some sort of impact on the area. Every single city and almost every industry we visited had been touched by Peter Jackson. While Peter Jackson was “only” creating films, it became so much more than that — it became an empire. His films started out as groundbreaking work in the industry, setting precedents and new standards for creativity in films, and that was just the beginning.

In the process of creating these films, Peter touched the lives of many. One of my favorite stories was that of the housing market. Due to his films being so extensive and time consuming, a hotel room simply would not do. It was not cost effective nor large enough to accommodate his cast and crew. This did not deter Peter from selecting locations to shoot the films or house his employees. Instead, he walked barefoot to his neighbor’s houses, asking whether he might be able to rent their houses out to his cast and crew. The homeowners were mind blown, shocked at such a request. After a brief period of time and some thought, Peter was able to negotiate a handsome rental price for each house and send each member of the family to a destination of their choice. Some of these homeowners fell so in love with their respective vacation destinations that they decided to stay, with Peter in turn offering to buy up their homes for his usage. One of the areas where this is most prevalent is around Weta and Weta Digital Studios. Today, Peter Jackson owns around 40% of the homes around the studios. Because his studios also require an extensive amount of physical cables to supplement fast internet, he also gave this internet to every house in the area, making this whole neighborhood the region with the fastest internet in the entire Southern Hemisphere. It is still unbelievable to me how Peter Jackson’s films could have such a lasting impact on not only the film industry, but also every other industry that assisted in making these films recognizable across the world.

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