LOTR and Hobbit Director Peter Jackson Receives a Hollywood Star
Just nine days before the U.S. release of the final movie in the Hobbit trilogy, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, director Peter Jackson realized a dream when he was presented his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
"It was 1974 and 40 years ago, I walked along the street and looked at these stars and never, ever in my wildest dreams thought I would ever find myself here today to receive a star," Jackson told a crowd of fans, film executives and key cast of the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films, reported Sky News.
Los Angeles city councilor Mitch O'Farrell officially welcomed the Oscar-winning filmmaker at the ceremony on Hollywood Boulevard.
"Welcome to Middle Earth. Otherwise known as Hollywood, California," said O'Farrell.
Lord of the Rings and Hobbit actors Elijah Wood (Frodo Baggins), Orlando Bloom (Legolas), Andy Serkis (Gollum), Richard Armitage, (Thorin Oakenshield), Lee Pace (Thranduil) and Evangeline Lilly (Tauriel) were on hand to help honor Jackson, writes The Business Recorder.
In a short speech before Jackson received his star, Serkis told the 53-year-old New Zealand-born director: "You really are one of the greatest filmmakers on the planet."
"You said you weren't sure exactly how we were going to achieve what we wanted to do, but it would be fun. The next thing I remember was being half way up a mountain in a green unitard in front of 200 very hard-arsed Kiwi crew, 6000 feet up, and Peter, you were laughing at me."
Jackson's star is located on the sidewalk outside the Dolby Theatre, the venue for the Academy Awards, and sits near those of A-listers Nicole Kidman and Steven Spielberg. This prime spot underlines the filmmaker's importance in the Hollywood film industry.
The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies, based on JRR Tolkien's fantasy books, have taken almost $US5 billion at the global box office. After scoring two Oscar nominations for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring in 2002, Jackson won the Oscar for best director and shared best adapted screenplay in 2004 for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
