Wellington Airport's giant, Hobbit-themed eagles to be replaced
Wellington Airport's giant, Hobbit-themed eagles to be replaced
Wellington Airport's giant, Hobbit-themed eagles to be replaced
Wellington Airport is about to have its wings clipped.
Its two giant eagle sculptures - each of which weighs more than a tonne - are to be packed away, and what will replace them is being kept under wraps.
"It's not unusual to see airborne departures from Wellington Airport, but in this case, it will be emotional for us," Wellington Airport chief executive Matt Clarke said.
"They have been a huge success and travellers from around the world have loved admiring them. After 12 years it's the right time for them to fly the nest."
The sculptures, made by Wētā Workshop, were installed in 2013 as a tie-in with Peter Jackson's The Hobbit movie trilogy.
"We're working with Wētā Workshop on some exciting plans for a unique, locally themed replacement to take their place," Clarke said.
I kinda wonder if the airport has way too much money (but maybe this is more of a tax writeoff for wēta?)
My assumption is the original one done for a Hobbit promo was probably done at a big discount since it's basically advertising.
Not sure about this one. Tax writeoffs don't let you deduct any more than actual expenses, so you unlikely they gain financially from tax reasons. Might be the replacements are more overt about advertising for Wētā workshops, or are smaller. Or perhaps Wētā are struggling for work at the moment and have done a deal to keep staff busy.
I presume council spending is public or gets made public at some point?
The airport is not council funded and is only minority-owned by the council, so we won't find out any commercials that way
Oh, they couldn't claim on the labour involved in producing a gift? There goes my whole straw man...
To be fair, the advertising is unreal but I struggle to see how it might connect to work coming in. Increasing visitors to the Wētā cave tours is a different matter, I guess.
I still love they did it, but surely the fixture has a bunch of regular costs (the mounts and supporting infrastructure, etc). It does make the terminal more interesting, which is much appreciated. I still get hung up on the cost/benefit analysis