Weta Workshop Constructs World's Biggest Gollum

Sarah LeBoeuf

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Weta Workshop Constructs World's Biggest Gollum


A 43-foot long, 2,645-pound Gollum built to celebrate The Hobbit was constructed over a three-night period.

To celebrate the premiere of the first film in Peter Jackson's long-awaited The Hobbit trilogy, a giant statue of the iconic character Gollum has been created in New Zealand's Wellington Airport. While the actual construction took a lot longer than 30 seconds, this time-lapse video speeds up the process, showing how all the different parts came together to create a sculpture sure to fascinate and terrify travelers from around the world.

At 13 meters (nearly 43 feet) long and three meters (over 9.8 feet) high, the sculpture is suspended from the ceiling of the airport's main terminal. It was made by Weta Workshop, a "conceptual design and physical manufacturing facility servicing the world's entertainment and creative industries." According to the group's website [http://www.wetanz.com/], the world's biggest Gollum is made up of nine components that were painted onsite, and there are also three juicy sweet fish for him to snack on. It weighs about 1.2 tonnes, or just over 2,645 pounds.

The sculpture was put together over three nights and finally completed on October 25. Wellington Airport Chief Executive Steve Sanderson was very pleased with the final result, saying, "Everyone will be amazed as they enter the terminal and be able to walk under and around Gollum; it really does feel like you're in the stream with him."

Source: NZ Herald [http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/video.cfm?c_id=1503078&gal_cid=1503078&gallery_id=128708]

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Fappy

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I saw someone post a picture of this on Facebook earlier. It's pretty creepy in all honesty DX
 

Shadowsetzer

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".....It really does feel like you're in the stream with him."

O_O

Considering he murdered the last person who was in the stream with him, that's not a selling point for me. Too creepy for my taste, though kudos for putting it together.
 

Zombie_Moogle

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well, I hope there weren't enough crying children on flights in New Zealand before, cuz there's gonna be a lot more now
 

Skeleon

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The thing that surprised me the most about this is that the Hobbit will be a trilogy. I don't think I heard of that before. While I can absolutely see it requiring a two-parter, making a trilogy out of it when THE LORD OF THE RINGS was a trilogy, too, seems weird. If we put that in relation, wouldn't that mean that TLOTR should've had like 6 oder 7 parts or something? Maybe we could've had Bombadil, Glorfindel etc. after all!
 

Jamous

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It really feels like you're in the stream with him? I'll be honest, that's not the place I'd like to be, as awesome as this statue is.
 

Scarim Coral

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When I read the title, I assume it would be a giant puppet like this
I think it's for the best that it's just a statue as I dread to think what a giant puppet Gollum would be like!
 

Twilight_guy

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Nov 24, 2008
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O.O
That is the most terrifying thing that I've seen in... eugh, ugh... carry the two... last week was that... ugh... in a while! I would post something insightful and with merit after the joke but I'm terrified beyond the capacity for rational thought.
 

NinjaDeathSlap

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Feb 20, 2011
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Skeleon said:
The thing that surprised me the most about this is that the Hobbit will be a trilogy. I don't think I heard of that before. While I can absolutely see it requiring a two-parter, making a trilogy out of it when THE LORD OF THE RINGS was a trilogy, too, seems weird. If we put that in relation, wouldn't that mean that TLOTR should've had like 6 oder 7 parts or something? Maybe we could've had Bombadil, Glorfindel etc. after all!
Well, the reason he decided to take 3 movies to cover the events of The Hobbit is precisely because of all the stuff that had to be cut out of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, which disappointed a lot of people at the time. I've just been watching the extended cut of the trilogy in preparation for the Hobbit. Each film is roughly four hours long and that's still with a whole load missing from the books.
 

Guffe

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Alright so next I'll own an airport and make it all sorts of creepy peepy...
This is really cool!