Weta Workshop, designer of Lord of the Rings swords

For an exclusive look at Weta Workshop we take you inside the world famous film and TV effects studio to explore just what it takes to meet the demands of mass sword production. Best known for their work on 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy, Weta Workshop is a five time Academy Award winning company that created the swords in such films as Master & Commander, Kingdom of Heaven, Narnia and The Last Samurai. Combining excellence in form and beauty is a major part of Weta's focus. Come with us and explore the collaborative effort involved in this fascinating process.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• sword
• swordsmith
• forge
• Lord
• of
• the
• Rings
• Narnia
• Bladesmith
• documentary
• behind
• scenes
• Weta
• Workshop

[cqc75]

lord of the rings was a great film with some realy nice action backed up by a tremendous story line.

[RoyalArmouries]

why not visit the Royal Armouries Museum's summer exhibtion in Leeds? Arms and Armour from the Movies: The wonderful world of weta. It features over 200 objects of arms and armour from movies such as The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Chronicles of Narnia, Hellboy, King Kong and The Last Samurai. This is once in lifetime opportunity to see all of these original items on loan from Weta. See the museums website for details. Ends 16 November 2008.

[philJT95]

They are living my dream.

[TeamHeavySuck]

I used to have a friend at school who told everyone that his grandfather had made every single weapon and piece of armour in The Lord of the Rings by hand all by himself! lol That guy was so full of shit he probably ate himfelf!

[juniks123456789]

@cqc75 do you know that the sword was originaly design in philippines??but sad too say nobody knows that...

[juniks123456789]

ooops..why the did not see that the sword original design was made from the philippines>>>>>

[ErnilEnNaur]

@Flowerblood I actually think the first film did the first book justice. The extended edition of FOTR was the best thing I have ever seen. An epic sense of adventure, a fantastic world as believable as the real one and a fellowship, where any of us could find someone to connect with: Frodo for the young people, Sam for the shy people, Gandalf for the elderly people, Aragorn for the darker people, Gimli for the funny people and Legolas for little girls. And, oh the music! Howard Shore rocks.

[SebbeLundblad]

What happened to all those armors and weapons and shields and helmets after the movies?

[OMGOMGIWANT]

My dream is to work there and help design those swords it has been for a year now and I live in NZ.

I have made a axe with a pine handle and Rimu axe head, long sword made out of pine, bow, spear and some arrows all made out off wood except for the bow which is bamboo but I stopped making that soughta stuff about 4 months ago I might get back into it.

What do you guys think I was thinking of making a Hattori Hanzo Katana off Kill bill just a wooden replica though.

Or something off Predator.

[Flowerblood]

Fair enough then, I agree. Still, I maintain that to do the book any kind of justice on film is nigh on impossible. Jackson gave it a go, though, and came out with a pretty good film. Also, I'd like to retract my calling LOTR a trilogy, I know it isn't.

[ibookworm]

Actually, I don't think it's a matter of scope. I think they nailed the scope. But the films lacked integrity towards Tolkien's theme and characters.

[Flowerblood]

I agree to an extent but I don't think you could've expected them to do a half decent version of such an epic trilogy of novels. The scope of the whole saga is massive, it'd be impossible for them to do it justice. I think they just set out to make good films which, in my opinion, they did pretty well.