New Update from Ian McKellen's Hobbit Blog

Sir Ian McKellen has posted a new entry on his occasional blog from The Hobbit as he writes about his experiences both on set and off. In his latest entry he writes about his experiences as he moved about New Zealand, filming in the rain (because "3D cameras couldn't register the rain), and some of his experiences along the way such as stopping at Stafford and returning to Bag's End. The complete delightful entry can be found here.

Our first filming destination was Matamata, where eleven years ago Gandalf the Grey made his entrance into The Fellowship of the Ring, greeting Ian Holm’s Bilbo on the doorstep of Bag End. The site has since been sign-posted as “Hobbiton”, where tourists in search of Middle-earth could ponder the paltry remnants of our filming, a couple of round green doors propped against the hillside. That meant that the village had to be re-built and the gardens re-plotted for The Hobbit.