Peter Jackson has been hiding Bilbo’s Bag End in his basement. This is not a euphemism. The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit director decided to outfit his home with a snazzy Hobbit hole. (Also not a euphemism.) After filming The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Jackson asked New Line Cinema if he could take part of the set home. Set finisher Bino Smith helped Jackson install the Hobbit hole in his basement, and he talked about Jackson’s awesome house with Stuff:
“Bag End is underground. You have to go under tunnels to get to it. You got the house, then you go down to the wine cellar and you pull a bottle, and it opens up a door, then you step out a look down this corridor – about 35 metres, we had to create it, then you go down one part, then there’s a skeleton and some bodies, then you come out to a mock ‘torture chamber’, then you pull a book in a bookcase and the bookcase opens, and you walk into Bag End.”
BRB, booking a flight to New Zealand.
“It’s a playground. Steven Spielberg and George Lucas are over here all the time. Danny DeVito is one of his best mates. And it’s just for them. And they got the shelterbelt and everything.”
At first, I wasn’t sure what a shelter belt was. I hoped it was a euphemism, but it apparently just means a row of trees serving as a windbreak. Big whoop.
Meanwhile, we hear Benedict Cumberbatch is re-living his Hobbit experience by filling his basement with gold coins.
