A new in-flight safety video featuring characters from the Lord of the Rings trilogy has received over 2 million views on YouTube.
The four-minute film by Air New Zealand celebrates the upcoming premiere of the first in the “Hobbit” movie trilogy and has proved a hit with passengers who usually pay little attention to those snooze-inducing inflight safety videos.
The airline’s four-minute safety video featuring the character Gollum and film director Peter Jackson got more than 2 million hits on YouTube within a day of its posting. The carrier calls itself “the airline of Middle-earth” and cabin staff appear in the clip as film characters. Jackson himself appears in a cameo role.
The video was released ahead of Jackson’s next fantasy epic, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.
The hobbits themselves would be proud. After all, author J.R.R. Tolkien created the mythical creatures as risk-averse.
The cast also includes author J R R Tolkien's grandsons Mike and Royd Tolkien, as well as New Zealand actor Dean O'Gorman, who plays the dwarf Fili in the film.