Paging Delta: Peter Jackson just came up with a way to get passengers to watch flight safety videos. Put hobbits in them.
Jackson is returning to Middle Earth this December with the release of "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," but before Bilbo, Gandalf and Gollum roar back into theaters, he is helping to make the friendly skies a lot more interesting. In the new video for Air New Zealand, "The Lord of the Rings" director has a cameo along with a pilot wearing a wizard's beard, an elvin flight attendant and a few rows of hobbits.
Air New Zealand previously filmed outlandish flight instruction videos with Richard Simmons and Ed O'Neill, but this takes it to an Oscar-worthy level. Jackson's effects companies Weta Workshop and Weta Digital shot the safety video and passengers are being offered a chance to enter sweepstakes to win a trip to the world premiere of "The Hobbit" in New Zealand.
