The following is an image taken secretly from the Lord of the Rings site while filming takes place.
It appears to show a Wizard, possibly Saruman, the White, coming to a rather nasty end - however Scoop thinks it could
also be also of Gandalf in a dream sequence, and site the sent out the photos, http://www.theonering.net, agrees!
This would make the man in the shot actor Sir Ian McKellen. The INL website stuff speculates the filming takes place at
“...first death of Gandalf after battling a creature called the Balrog on the bridge of Khazad-Dum.”
The blue screen in the background is used to superimpose digital special effects over, which are added by computer
artists later. The crew were apparently moving the wheel in an anti-clockwise direction while filming.
Filming began for the Peter Jackson extravaganza, on Mt Victoria in Wellington last October. It has also taken place in
other Wellington areas, the Dry Creek Quarry on Haywards Hill, the former Fort Dorset site in Seatoun, and Harcourt Park
in Upper Hutt, as well as in locations in the South Island