ACROSS THE GLOBE: Approximately 100,000 people are expected to hit the streets of Wellington, New Zealand on Wednesday in celebration of and in anticipation for the world premiere of director Peter Jackson’s long-awaited Middle Earth epic “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”.

Elijah Wood, Cate Blanchett, Barry Humphries and Hugo Weaving will walk the red carpet for what will surely be a star-studded opening of the first installment in a three-part prequel to Jackson’s blockbuster “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy.

The New Zealand capital is a site to see…The streets are adorned with giant sculptures of the movie’s key characters such as Gandalf the wizard sitting atop the Embassy cinema and a bug-eyed Gollum greeting visitors at the airport.

Entire facades of office buildings are covered with Images of British actor Martin Freeman playing the central role of Bilbo Baggins. His face is also plastered on everything from coins and stamps to the side of an Air New Zealand plane.

“This is proper, epic film making… I don’t know any actors, apart from those who worked on ‘The Lord of the Rings’, who’ve made a film that’s this big or taken this long,” Freeman said. “I certainly don’t think I’ll ever do another film that’s like, or as long, as this again.”

The movie is also credited with a blossoming of tourist activity in New Zealand and turning its film industry from a virtual one specializing in art-house productions into a powerhouse worth $2.6 billion a year to the economy.