h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'd have to say that I'd be happiest in the Hobbit-Holes of Bilbo's hometown as depicted in Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. The whole place just looks so idyllic and peaceful that I'd move in without a seconds hesitation.

The pub that Sam and Frodo stagger out of looks like it'd have a decent atmosphere as well.

Hobbiton every time.

If you'd seen the state of that set now you might want to change your mind. Those hobbits really let the place go once the cameras went away

Seriously, the farmer who's land they built that set on approached Peter Jackson when the crew was through filming and kindly offered to let them leave the whole place as it was to save them time and money taking the sets down.

Not that he had any ulterior motives of course...

If they left the set as it was does that mean that they built a second set for the end of the third film? I don't want to spoil the film for anyone who hasn't already read the book, but it wouldn't be so nice and idyllic then. Or have they just used CGI and models that sort it out?

I think you can be sure that they tore the set down so that the owner of the land couldn't turn it into a tourist attraction.

As far as the fate of Hobbiton is concerned in the third film, they could have got all the shots they needed before torching it for the scenes where Suruman is driven out. The fact that Galadriel's mirror shows this to Frodo in the first film means that they must have torched soemthing to get that shot. But it could have been a duplicate set, I suppose.

I totally agree with you Nylarthotep, Hobbiton would be an ideal place to live. My reasons are pretty much the same: its a peaceful, carefree place, as well as a relatively safe one (not taking the forces of evil into account) to live and all the hobbits seem like jolly, nice little people .
BTW, I actually heard that they built two identical hobbiton sets, so they must have used one of them for the torching or something.

Weeellll, there were two versions of most sets because of the fact that they had to have one set scaled to the size of the actors playing the Hobbits and one for the Humans and the Elves. But that doesn't mean that there were not two Hobbiton sets built of each scale, or just two of the one that was going to go up in flames.

Right. I knew that