It won’t come as a surprise to many fans, but the New Zealand Herald has brought us confirmation that Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro intend to film the two upcoming Hobbit movies in New Zealand, where the original Lord of the Rings movies were shot.
Peter Jackson and Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro say they will rely on New Zealand scenery for the setting of two movies based on the JRR Tolkien book The Hobbit.
Jackson said they hoped to rebuild Hobbiton “bigger and even better than it was for Lord of the Rings” and with the Matamata landowners permission, use the same location.
“It is unlikely we will need any locations outside of New Zealand which has always been the perfect Middle Earth,” Jackson said. “There is nothing yet that Tolkien has described that we haven’t managed to find in this amazing little country and I expect the Hobbit to be no different.”