Early Rising Just the Ticket
Staff Reporter

It wasn't a hoard to match the Orc armies, but about 30 hardy souls queued at Hoyts Mid City at 7.15 this morning to buy tickets for the first public screening of The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring.

The showing takes place at 12.01am on December 20.

Most eager was Wellington High School student Reuben Brickell, 16, who was waiting on Manners St from 4.30am.

He'd worked as an Orc and an elf on the movie, and said what drove him to an early wake-up call was "the sensation of being the first to get a ticket".

In the final race for position in the queues, however, Kahu Tawhai of Lyall Bay was the first to emerge with tickets.

"It's been a movie I've been waiting to see for quite a while now," he said.

"I read all the books years ago."

The Fellowship Of The Ring enthusiasts threw up some coincidences. Waiting for tickets were two fans named Alex Lindsay - and they already knew each other after a wedding invitation had been misdirected in the past.

Second on the scene, shortly before 5am, was security guard Paul Hogan - namesake of the star Australian actor. "It was madness," he said, tongue in cheek. "There were two of us (in the queue) here. What do you expect?"