The Return of the King, the third and final installment of the blockbuster movie series The Lord of the Rings, was shown to a select invited audience of international film critics and entertainment writers on Saturday — but they had to sign an agreement not to publish any reviews until after December 8.
The film was screened ahead of its world premiere in Wellington, hometown of director Peter Jackson, on Monday and will then be given gala openings in the United States and Europe during the following week.
Despite the review embargo, the American magazine Newsweek has written about the three-hour-and 12-minute film, dubbing it a ”sure contender” for best picture at next year’s Oscars.
Calling The Return of the King an epic, Newsweek said, ”It tells a passionate, elemental story. It takes the principal film-making currency of our times, special effects and makes them matter.”
Wellington, New Zealand’s compact capital of about 165 00 people, is packed with visitors from all over the world who have come to see the city which was the main location and base for Jackson’s trilogy and in hope of seeing the stars.
City officials are expecting a crowd of up to 100 000 on Monday afternoon to watch a parade featuring the 15 members of The Lord of the Rings cast here for the premiere move along a 2,5-kilometre route from an official reception at Parliament to the Embassy Theatre on the other side of town.
Stars who have flown in include Liv Tyler, Sir Ian McKellen, Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortensen, Billy Boyd and Orlando Bloom.
The 79-year-old neo-classical Embassy — where a young Peter Jackson saw his first movie and began his lifelong love affair with the cinema — will host 750 VIPs for the premiere.
Another 1 250 invited guests and celebrities will see the latest film simultaneously on 10 screens at a nearby modern cinema complex.
In a press release, Jackson said the seven years it took to make the Rings trilogy from its inception was like the fictional journey Frodo and his fellow hobbits make in the cult fantasy novel of British writer JRR Tolkien.
”There has not been much time for sleep, no time for a normal life, and there were days when we all wondered if we would make it to the end,” Jackson said.
”Two years of pre-production were followed by 274 days of principal production, which in turn have been followed by three years of post production.
”Each stage of the process of making these films has presented unique challenges; I remember asking myself, whenever things got particularly hard, would I rather be doing something other than making The Lord Of The Rings? And the answer was always no.”
Royd Tolkien (34) a great grandson of the Rings author, was quoted by Wellington’s Dominion Post newspaper on Saturday as praising Jackson’s work.
”I never believed that my great grandfather’s trilogy could ever be dramatised,” he said. ”The stories are so complex and magical, the technology just didn’t exist to translate his epic into a movie.”
Jackson and a number of the stars were scheduled to attend The Lord of the Rings symphony concert in Wellington on Saturday evening which will feature music from the film conducted by its Oscar-winning composer Howard Shore. – Sapa-DPA