The village itself was barely still standing other that the area where the actual Hobbit houses themselves were, but he trip was well worth it as many of the workers who were on the farm had good stories to tell and despite the appearance of disrepair you could still get a good sense of being in Hobbiton. Unfortunately the weather and roaming sheep had not been kind and things were deteriorating fast.
The good news this week is that the set builders are back on the farm and are re-building the village ready for work of Guillermo del Toro The hobbit which starts filming next year. This really is exciting news as hopefully the owner of the farm will have a better say on things being removed this time and next time I go to New Zealand I can visit a fully realised village which would be wonderful.
The Hobbit is being readied for a 2011 release so there is still a lot of time before we get to see this but as you can imagine as Tolkien film produced by Peter Jackson and directed by Guillermo del Toro is a tasty prospect.
For some great pictures check out theonering.net.
Robert has been a film buff since he first visited the old Palace Cinema in High Wycome when he was young.
After working for Ritz Video Film Hire, later Blockbuster Express, it cemented his interest in film and gave him the drive to go to university with the intention of working in the industy.
6 years of college/university studying film and Culture and he decided to take a different path, so he taught himself to develop websites.
8 years at Amazon, 3 years at eBay, a year at PayPal and 6 years running his own digital marketing agency and here we are writing and developing saltypopcorn.co.uk.