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Tall Tales and High Elfin Hopes
Post Reporter

About 700 tall people keen to be soldiers or elves in The Lord Of The Rings movie trilogy turned up to a casting call in Wellington yesterday and Saturday.

Auditions for the extras in the $360 million project, likely to be the last needed for filming in the Wellington area, were held at the National Dance and Drama Centre in Newtown.

The body types in demand for the casting call were people aged 16 or over, at least 1.8m (5ft 10in) tall with a slim build, or men aged 16 or over, at least 1.75m (5ft 9in) tall with a fit build.

Most cast and crew are back in Wellington this week after spending the past month filming in Tongariro National Park.

The first of three films directed by Peter Jackson and based on J R R Tolkien's classic is to be released in December next year. A two-minute trailer for the project broadcast on the Internet last month was viewed about 1.7 million times in the first 24 hours.

Producers have not ruled out further trailers being released on the Internet.