Gollum goes fishing in Wellington Airport

Visitors arriving at New Zealand’s capital city of Wellington will find themselves plunged into Middle-earth reality as they are come face to face with a gigantic sculpture of Gollum catching fish in the airport’s main terminal.

Created by Weta Workshop, the installation is part of the city’s celebrations to mark the première of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey on 28 November.

Suspended from the terminal roof, the elongated 13-metre sculpture shows an emaciated but momentarily gleeful Gollum, submerged and reaching for his favourite meal of ‘juicy sweet fishes’.

Wellington will be known as ‘The Middle of Middle-earth’ for the duration of première week and Wellington airport has renamed their terminal welcoming arriving passengers with a Middle of Middle-earth sign.

Weta Workshop
Weta Workshop’s creative lead Richard Taylor and workshop supervisor Rob Gillies designed and facilitated the Gollum creation because they wanted to visitors to have an unforgettable experience as they arrived at the gateway to the Wellington region.

For The Lord of the Rings première in 2003, Weta Workshop created a six-metre-high model of Gollum peering over the top of the terminal building.

"We are thrilled to once again be creating something with Wellington Airport that will bring delight to the many visitors coming to our fabulous city," said Sir Richard Taylor.

Wellington Airport Chief Executive Steve Sanderson says the massive Gollum sculpture which is suspended over the food court in the main terminal will be the first and last impression for travellers.

"Everyone will be amazed when they enter the terminal. Visitors can walk under and around Gollum and the fish to explore the sculpture’s beauty and intricate detail; it really does feel like you’re in the stream with him," he said.

Model makers
Gollum was 3D modelled into the airport display space. It was then created as a partly digital, partly physical sculpture by a team of 18 Weta Workshop sculptors, model makers, painters and other specialists.

Milled and sculpted from huge blocks of polystyrene and coated in epoxy resin, Gollum weighs in at 1.2 tonnes and stretches more than 13 metres into the airport terminal.

The three fish were hand sculpted and styled on a fish sculpture from Richard Taylor’s own bathroom.

The piece had to be created as nine separate components to fit through the doors of Wellington Airport. Its structural armature is scaffolding pipe designed to bolt together and it was installed over three nights.

The Hobbit première
The sculpture is one of many city-wide happenings in the lead up to the première when the eyes of the world will be on Wellington in the middle of Middle-earth.

As well as the red carpet glamour, special events include a Hobbit-inspired artisan market, open-air film screenings and a countdown clock on the Embassy Theatre where the film première will take place.

Top broadcast outlets and other international media will be in New Zealand for the event and on the big night film director Sir Peter Jackson will be joined by cast members, Hollywood stars and executives for the VIP invitation-only world première.

Peter Jackson says he’s "absolutely thrilled" that The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will have its world première in ‘the Middle of Middle-earth’.

"Nowhere else in the world does a première quite like Wellington," Jackson said. "It's special showing any film to an audience for the first time, but even more so when it's in your home town."

More information

The Hobbit World première in Wellington