Mattius, just a minor thing which kind of irks me, Ian Holm has been knighted too. People always seem to overlook it in the cast lists, and I feel sorry for the guy sometimes.
And I think Viggo's a Yank, of Danish origin. Or somewhere Scandinavian?
I was going to mention that in my first post, that PJ included a lot of antipodean cast members, not to mention practically the entirety of the crew. He's made a significant impact on the economy, not only through tourism but also by enticing more film crews Down Under where the landscape is obviously amazing, and the costs far lesser than the US or UK.
And furthermore, Tolkien's England exists very scarcely these days. The census comes out today, showing we're in fact the most densely populated country in Europe, even moreso than the small ones of Benelux. The stereotype most English people have of their nation is pretty non-existent, that of the green rolling hills and so on. I suppose this can be compared to the illusion of the American dream. We talk about it, we refer to it but really it's more of a fantasy.
And the extremely unspoilt South Island is probably a lot closer to Tolkien's England than Spaghetti Junction, probably what the West Midlands are sadly now most famous for. So in fact we might even speculate that PJ was respecting Tolkien's vision by going there, and not having to search high and low in our land of housing estates and hypermarkets for sparse Middle Earthy locations.
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