Ian Brodie MNZM
Ian Brodie is a household name in New Zealand and is the countries biggest selling non-fiction author.
The 52-year-old Matamata man is recognised as the ‘Lord of the Rings’ guru. Author of three runaway best selling books, which are guides to the locations used in the New Zealand made trilogy, his fame has spread internationally.
In a New Zealand publishing record more than 320,000 guidebooks have sold and received the prestigious Platinum Award from Booksellers NZ. A coffee table version was released in August 2004 and has received the Silver Award.
Ian Brodie was born in Auckland and once his schooling was complete at Otahuhu College, he entered the travel industry working in a travel agency. He discovered a flair for the work and soon transferred from Auckland to Christchurch to manage an agency.
He later joined Air New Zealand where he eventually became Electronics Distribution System Co-ordinator for the South West Pacific.
His passion for aeroplanes was matched by his passion for photography and as a hobby he began taking air to air photographs.
This led him to a meeting with one of New Zealand’s renowned aviators, Sir Tim Wallis and a subsequent job in Wanaka promoting Sir Tim’s warbirds collection.
It was the start of a long association and in 1992 Ian Brodie spearheaded the establishment of the well known New Zealand Fighter Pilot’s Museum at the Wanaka Airport.
Brodie is also a key player in the internationally renowned Warbirds over Wanaka Airshow that began in 1988 and is held every two years. His intimate knowledge of the aircraft has seen him take on the role of commentator at the show as well as at similar events in the USA and U.K. Every New Zealand winter sees him in England as a regular commentator at Kemble and Biggin Hill.
In 1997 he spent time in Seattle as a consultant for Microsoft during the development of their Combat Flight Simulator software.
He has nine aviation books to his credit, including the history of the Hurricane and still regularly writes articles and contributes photographs to aviation magazines worldwide.
Ian Brodie’s obsession with aircraft is only matched by his obsession for the J.R.R.Tolkien trilogy and film. At the age of 14 he read ‘The Lord of the Rings’ for the first time. Today he has lost count of how many times he has read the series.
He was the logical person to write the locations guidebooks and quickly saw an opportunity once the first movie in the series was announced. His ‘Lord of the Rings’ role grew rapidly and he was the Air New Zealand ‘Lord of the Rings’ ambassador for two years.
Brodie researched, co-produced and helped present the Television NZ Documentary “The Real Middle-earth” which aired in February 2004. He has also appeared with Phil Keoghan as a co-presenter of a Discovery Channel documentary on New Zealand. He appears regularly on television and recently hosted the Warbirds Over Wanaka 2008 DVD and documentary.
A highlight for him in 2004 was the issue of commemorative New Zealand stamps featuring his personal location images.
In the 2005 Queens Birthday Honours he became a Member of the NZ Order of Merit for services to tourism.
Released in November 2005 was Cameras in Narnia, aimed at the teenage and adult market on the basics of how a film is made, centred on the Walden Media / Disney adaptation of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. Since release this book has sold over 850,000 copies worldwide and was issued with the Extended DVD of the film in the USA. In New Zealand, it received the prestigious Storylines Children’s Literature Award for 2006 and was a finalist in the NZ Post Book Awards and LIANZA Awards.
In 2006 he released “A Journey Through New Zealand Film”. The book showcases many of New Zealand’s films and their locations along with comments from national and international directors and actors, such as Tom Cruise, Kate Winslet, Peter Jackson and Roger Donaldson.
He has just completed his next book entitled “Ian Brodie’s New Zealand”. It was published in November 2008 and is a photographic journey through his favourite parts of the country. He is now working on further books.
He escort’s media from all over the world on tours of film locations and in 2003 appeared on behalf of Tourism New Zealand as guest speaker at a prestigious international tourism conference in Germany. He is recognised as a world expert on film tourism. In 2005 & 2008 he lectured onboard the Crystal Serenity cruise liner and in 2006 was guest lecturer on film tourism in Pattaya at the PATA Conference. He was keynote speaker at the 2009 I-Site Conference and presented a paper on Film Tourism at the 2009 ITOC Conference.
An accomplished professional photographer winning international awards, his images have appeared worldwide in aviation and tourist publications, posters, billboards and book covers. He has written numerous articles for travel magazines world-wide, accompanied with his own images.
In Septemner 2009, after 17 years in Wanaka, he moved to take up the position of Mdia and Communications Manager with Hobbiton Movie Set & Farm Tours. Once again his passion is his job - working at Hobbiton!
Ian Brodie has made a significant contribution to New Zealand’s profile internationally. But his feet remain firmly on the ground in the rural North Island town of Matamata with his wife Dianne of 28 years and and daughter Sally-Anne (18).
For more information visit: www.ianbrodie.net