The Middle Earth from J.RR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings has marvelous architectural structures and places. The Shire, Rivendell, mines of Moria, Mordor, and Erebor under the Lonely mountain, all were depicted beautifully by the animators and graphic designers from the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit Trilogy.
Many buildings and storied places from fantasy novels have been incorporated into hotels and amusement parks. Harry Potter’s Hogwarts castle and Cinderella’s palace from Disney are only a few examples of how the world we all adored in the novels and movies can be brought to life for our enjoyment. This has prompted a startup that aims to build the fabled Minas Tirith or the “City of Kings” from Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in London at a whopping 2.9 billion dollar cost!
The project is currently tabled on Indiegogo crowd funding platform, and it hasn’t seen any promising activity at all. The project was deliberated and conceived by an enthusiastic group of engineers and architects who love all things Tolkien especially the colossal and detailed depiction of the white Minas Tirith. Jonathon Wilson heads the team and despite the unenthusiastic response at Indiegogo, he still wants to pursue the project. He wants to develop a fully functioning city based on the architecture of Minas Tirith. He not only sees it as an amusement park or a hotel, but he also envisages it as a beautiful tourist city in southern part of England where people can even go for work. Two sites have already been finalized for the construction, and I hope that the project sees daylight.
The total budget required for this city is estimated to be close to 1.85 billion pounds which is simply too much to get from a crowdfunding campaign. Out of these, 1.4 billion pounds are just meant for the material costs of the project since mithril and Blackstone from Lord of the Rings don’t come cheap. Much of the leftover money would be used for decoration and reliving the grand architecture from the magnificent city.
As an incentive for backers, the team promises their name on any monument for a 15-pound pledge. An additional 500 pounds pledge would see you occupy a big hotel room for one night. Yes, one night in the city of kings. Well, honestly I can’t afford that much.
Permanent residency is also sought by the developers with a luxury four bedroom Penthouse available for almost 1.7 million pounds. These inflated prices have kept people largely away from these developments as have other uncertainties. As of today, the total crowdfunded amount is close to a mere 176 dollars of the campaign. So. unless they find some unearthed mines of Mithril soon, their project may never be successful as a while. They might have to scale it down a bit to just an amusement park or a themed hotel and castle. That amount of money isn’t easy to raise!
