A 43-foot long, 2,645-pound Gollum built to celebrate The Hobbit was constructed over a three-night period.
To celebrate the premiere of the first film in Peter Jackson’s long-awaited The Hobbit trilogy, a giant statue of the iconic character Gollum has been created in New Zealand’s Wellington Airport. While the actual construction took a lot longer than 30 seconds, this time-lapse video speeds up the process, showing how all the different parts came together to create a sculpture sure to fascinate and terrify travelers from around the world.
At 13 meters (nearly 43 feet) long and three meters (over 9.8 feet) high, the sculpture is suspended from the ceiling of the airport’s main terminal. It was made by Weta Workshop, a “conceptual design and physical manufacturing facility servicing the world’s entertainment and creative industries.” According to the group’s website, the world’s biggest Gollum is made up of nine components that were painted onsite, and there are also three juicy sweet fish for him to snack on. It weighs about 1.2 tonnes, or just over 2,645 pounds.
The sculpture was put together over three nights and finally completed on October 25. Wellington Airport Chief Executive Steve Sanderson was very pleased with the final result, saying, “Everyone will be amazed as they enter the terminal and be able to walk under and around Gollum; it really does feel like you’re in the stream with him.”
Source: NZ Herald
