QUEENSTOWN - A Lord Of The Rings film set has been washed away by floodwater near Queenstown.
About 400 crew and cast have been filming the $360 million film trilogy near Queenstown, Wanaka and Te Anau for the past 10 days and will be in the area until Christmas.
Producer Tim Sanders
said yesterday that filming was delayed in some locations because of flooding and bad weather.
Some locations could still be used in the next few weeks when they dried out, but others would not be ready until the film crew returned next year.
Mr Sanders said one set had been washed away.
"It wasn't a huge set, but we had some ruins for one of our scenes along the Kawarau River, built on a beach setting. The beach and the ruins and the whole area were suddenly five metres under water," he said.
"The great irony in all of this is that we had a set built in a studio in Queenstown for wet-weather purposes. We couldn't reach it because we were cut off in Te Anau."
- NZPA
