With the upcoming release of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (the latest of the J.R.R. Tolkien movies, all of which have been filmed in New Zealand), Air New Zealand has pulled out all the stops to market itself as ‘The Airline of Middle Earth.’

The Airline of Middle Earth

With a fully wrapped plane in the movies’ graphics, on board promotional items like hairy socks, sleeping masks and usb drives, a baggage carousel made to look like The Shire and a Hobbit-Inspired inflight safety video.

The Baggage Carousel:

The Socks:

The Sleeping Mask:

The USB Drive:

The Commemorative Pin:

The Safety vests worn by airport ground crew officials:

The Wrapped Plane:

In addition to all the above, Air New Zealand partnered with WETA Workshop on a brand new Hobbit-inspired Airplane Safety Video which actually has a cameo by Hobbit director and Oscar winner Sir Peter Jackson.

The film, titled An Unexpected Briefing in reference to a chapter from The Lord Of The Rings novel, shows an aircraft packed with hobbits, dwarves and orcs preparing to take flight.

Oscar winner Sir Peter makes a cameo appearance as a Gollum-inspired creature before disappearing after finding The One Ring on the floor and slipping it on:

Flight attendants are dressed as elves and wizards as they take their passengers through a list of safety instructions, all of which are inspired by the J.R.R. Tolkien novels.

Gollum is seen prowling the aisles as Tolkien’s great-grandsons Mike and Royd Tolkien argue in the front row, and actor Dean O’Gorman, who plays Fili the Dwarf in the movie, demonstrates safety equipment.

behind the scenes:

The movie The Hobbit: An Unexpected Adventure officially opened December 14th.

all images courtesy of Air New Zealand